Withington Pub Quiz League

Next week's finals will be (Val Draper Cup) Prodigals v Albert

& (WithQuiz Plate) History Men v Bards

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(Pigs, Charas, Opsimaths and CKC must submit questions to me by Sunday evening so that I can compile the 'Knocked Out United' paper - see ... and also below for details)

Val Draper Cup - Semi Finals

Albert beat Electric Pigs

Charabancs lost to Prodigals

Plate - Semi Finals

Bards beat CKC

Opsimaths lost to History Men

Final WithQuiz League Table

Val Draper Cup - Semi Finals

Albert beat Electric Pigs

Albert's strong season continues as they reach the Val Draper final

Ashton lets on as to how MOBO has lifted Albert's gypsy curse

The Albert team have now had a top two finish in the league for the first time in 28 years and last night we reached our first Val Draper cup final since 2008. What has skipper MOBO done to break such seemingly unyielding droughts? When Barry Fry was in charge of Birmingham City, he attempted to lift the 100-year-old gypsy's curse on the club by urinating on all four corner flags at St Andrews, so it's probably best we don't dwell on it.

Pole position

(R2/Q3)

Only Mike and Eveline survive from that last showpiece appearance and they will no doubt be ransacking their attics for long unused cup final suits. It is to be hoped that the more callow youngsters of the team (myself, Ian and soon-to-be-retired Jeremy) are not overawed by the showpiece event next week. Play the game, not the occasion.

In the main, last night's quiz seemed to suit us more than the Pigs. Had the entire paper been on cars owned by James' Dad we might have been struggling though; with two non-drivers in the team we felt we were overachieving to get even the one measly point we mustered.

Unorthodox

(R1/Sp)

Charabancs lost to Prodigals

A comfortable route through to the Val Draper final for our league champions

Damian's tells how the Prods Madoff with the evening's spoils

'We came in with a roar and left with a whimper' probably sums up our performance this season. No matter that we came in tonight with a hefty handicap favouring us, we still got clobbered well and truly by the league champions. The paper we faced tonight saw to that! '12 steals to the Prods versus just 3 for us' sums up the kind of night both teams had! We won the toss and started off well but, after Round 1, it went rapidly downhill. We won just 2 rounds (Round One and Six), the rest.....enough said!

Biggest Beacon

(R1/Q2)

In a packed and raucous Griffin full of City fans anxiously waiting for as many goals as possible to be kicked past hapless little Burnley, and having to make do with just one, QM Jane did her best to make herself heard amidst the general din - and succeeded admirably. Needless to say, what we heard, with the obvious exception of the two rounds we won, we just did not enjoy at all. The connections round with 4 clues per question took an inordinate amount of time and was gruelling for both teams - but far more so for us. We hoped that would be the worst of it, but then along came a bingo round full of car registration numbers which related to cars apparently driven by James' late father. Given that two of us on the team do not drive and hence our knowledge of car makes and models is virtually nil, this was a round of pure hell for us. Even our car expert Bill struggled to come up with correct answers (although he did come good in the spares). I'm sure the car enthusiasts out there enjoyed it but, for me, it was a strong candidate for worst round of the season! For next season, Chara Gerry has promised to set a round on serial numbers of vacuum cleaners his dad never used (mostly because his mum got there before him).

Wood's Dinnergent

(R7/Q6)

Elsewhere I have to hold up my hands and confess that my ageing brain just can't recall names and faces of yesteryear like it used to. In the round of match, the one where someone's profession matched their surname, I used to know the name of the ponzi crook guy very well but, try as I might, I just couldn't bring it to mind. On the other hand I could remember the surname of Nixon's defeated opponent in the 1974 presidential election but misremembered his first name. The 1966 film A Man For All Seasons is one of my all-time favourites but I just could not remember which actress played his daughter. To paraphrase the late Kurt Vonnegut "and so it went".

Best of luck to the Prods next week as they look to hoover up all the titles on offer yet again!

Muck & Magic

(R8/Q2)

Gerry just didn't enjoy things

Oscar Wilde famously described the Niagara Falls as being "the second biggest disappointment of my honeymoon". Had Oscar been in attendance at tonight's quiz I feel certain that he would have been given cause to reflect and perhaps relegate the Niagara Falls to third position.

Not really a bad night all in all as rarely have I slept so soundly as through the registration plate round. And thankfully I took the precaution of tipping the barmaid to wake both teams up before the last bus went. On reflection though, I feel I may have been happier staying at home and having an early night curled up in the scratcher with a leather-bound Trollope.

Something to be Polished off

(R6/Q3)

Plate - Semi Finals

Bards beat CKC

The Bards' handicap advantage of 3 points sees them home - by 3 points

Kieran on a recruitment drive discovers he's 25% Cornish

The return of the Thin(ner) White Duke was not triumphal.

When I wrote, last week, that the cup is never what you might call fun, I hadn't intended to lay down a challenge for Ethel. Nonetheless they rose to the occasion and produced an evening that was only marginally less agonising than the goings on at Turf Moor.

Our man surviving on a diet of milk and red peppers was in Manchester for reasons other than the quiz, which was just as well since, even with the discount afforded by a senior citizens railcard, the 500 mile round trip would have seemed like an extreme act of penance - like travelling the Camino on your knees - if our encounter with the Bards was the only purpose.

Royal Danes

(R3/Q7)

All credit to our victorious hosts who were as companionable as ever but once again we were the only team who got done over by the handicap; that's three cup games on the bounce now including last year's final against the Pigs. Without the handicap the match would have been a draw but in the post match free for all on the spares Tony answered all three tie breakers pretty much on the nose so the Bards would have won out anyway.

Barry lived up to his 'our man in the Barbour jacket' tag - which is where the whole business started - knowing his Drongos and his Flowerdews. True to his peaceful disposition he refrained from throwing darts in Tony's eyes - High Court judges and South Manchester landlords tend to frown on that sort of behaviour. It was great to see the Lowestoft Norwich Ben Duckett again and hopefully there will be other guest appearances next season.

Another trophyless season and I won't make any allusions to Mikel Arteta - oh damn I just have. We'll have another go next season. I think we've got enough to build on and should Mr Madgwick of the triumphant Manchester University Challenge team be reading this, I'm around 25% Cornish - just saying.... (does that change your mind about your love of all things Kernow, Mike?)

As for tonight well our performance and the whole experience can't be blamed on the side-effects of the cocaine but I wish we'd had a stash to hand.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

(R5/Q2)

Opsimaths lost to History Men

A storming final round sees the History Men through to the Plate final

Ivor looks forward to earning a bit of tinware next week

Although our Cup run was dashed by our defeat last week our small league can offer further excitement with the world’s largest repechage, the Plate. Well, not quite a repechage as we cannot be fished out of the pool to compete with the big boys (and girls or others) in future Cup games, but at least it is another chance for silverware. Silverware is also a slight misnomer as previous winners of the Plate will know there is even less silver there than in royal commemorative medals advertised in the pages of Sunday supplements. But we do enjoy the pursuit for some validation of our quizzing efforts.

Tonight we were up against our old friends, the Opsimaths, but we had to overcome a seven point deficit at the start. We did not have Anne which always puts us on the back foot but the Opsis did not have Howell which evened things up. Anne’s replacement Ray is a civil engineer but there were no questions on his special interest, bridges. Even the vague reference to Brunel turned out to relate to broad gauge railways. Howell’s replacement Hilary also had no questions on her special subject (regular readers will know Hilary did Mastermind in Magnus Magnusson’s day on 'The History of Wiltshire from 4000 BC') but she seemed well informed on the working life of gong farmers.

Princess Anne-mobile

(R4/COV208K)

QM tonight was Michael from the setters. He is a bridge player of some note but the back room of the Albert Club must have seemed far removed from the hush enveloping serious card play. The front room was a mixture of City fans (maybe there might have been some Burnley ones too) and what was described by Young David as the biggest collection of cyclists he had seen since the Tour de France peloton. Michael was an excellent QM, generous with repeats and thinking time and unfazed that some of his questions had been edited down. He even brought in chocolate brownies.

With a 7-point deficit, had the questions been very hard, we could have ended up like Sheffield Wednesday. But we whittled the handicap away and were one point ahead after five rounds. Then we lost ground and at the end of Round 7 the Opsimaths were a point ahead. But then we won the last round 8-1 to secure our place in the final. There were (Opsimaths first) 14 unanswereds (6-8), 11 twos (4-7) and 12 steals (3-9).

19th POTUS

(R2/Q1)

Mike tells of a dedicated Opsi who even wears his answer

Something of a racket at the Club this week but fortunately Michael from Ethel's team provided some expert QM-ing and navigated us through to the (very late) finish.

The Opsimaths started with a 7-point advantage and it looked to me as if this might just have been enough to see us home. The History Men whittled away but then kerplunk! Round 8 was lost 8-1 and with it the chance to gain the Plate for a second year running. Full marks to Ivor, Vanessa, David and Ray who fully deserved their win and provided plenty of sportsmanship along the way when there was some doubt over a few of our answers.

Woman for All Seasons

(R7/Q8)

As for us, Hilary turned out to know all about medieval shit-shovelling and Paul was wearing on his chest the badge of the answer to the question about the last team to win a 'two-point per victory' Division One title. My best moment came when I dredged up the memory of Brian Lara breaking test records at the St John's Ground in Antigua with its very short boundaries.

Thus concludes the 2025/25 Opsimaths campaign. But we're still standing and after a restful summer - just like Arnie - we'll be back!

This week's Quiz paper set by...

... Ethel Rodin

Average Aggregate score 66.0

First of all many thanks to Ethel for an extremely thoughtful and well-crafted paper prepared at pretty short notice. Plenty of new twists on old formats and a moving tribute from James to his late father and his cars down the years. It often seems a shame to me that such artifice can be buried in an environment where ambient noise and the pressure of the clock is a constant distraction.

Rogers' inside out French masterpiece

(R3/Q3 part 1)

And so it was at the Albert Club this week. Michael was an excellent QM and steered us skilfully through the rounds but even so it was 10pm before we got to the break and nearer to 11.30 than to 11 when we finally finished. Round One was in effect 16 questions and then Round 3 needed up to 32 answers. Round One was my favourite of the evening with its clever 'Beatles songs' red herrings at the start. Round 7 was the right level of difficulty but would have benefited had all the answers contained English cities rather than the odd American city creeping in (e.g. Eugene - which threw me completely as I hadn't heard of this Oregon city).

So a long evening and some fairly low aggregate scores but plenty to relish on the way.

... some views from setter James ...

I forced the pace at The Sun in September, knowing that there was a risk it could become a slog! I think there were 8 unanswered across the whole quiz, one of which was Tiger Woods. I had already heavily edited down the Only Connect round which had been twice as verbose!

The round called 'Call my Chough' was very much an acknowledgement of the need for a very short set of questions to balance things up. It is actually really hard to find a set of words that are in the sweet spot between really obvious and totally obscure, but in the game I QM'd, all 8 were answered, although mostly conferred. When I had run version 1.0 of this round past the rest of our team they scored just 3, so we swapped out questions on the words: tulwar, xebec, hamerkop and xoloitzcuintli. I think we got that round about right in the end!

Greg & Aud's Roman Holiday

(R1/Q4)

... and what did Damian make of it ....

The combined score of 65 is some way below the season's average and indicates a fairly tough paper - at least as far as we were concerned - but heyho!

... and Kieran's views ....

I can't be too critical of Ethel because they had less than a week to compile the paper and it's too late to be hateful. Ethel's task was a bit like the Leader of the Opposition having to reply to the budget on the hoof with no time to prepare and I suspect that any or all of the Rodinistas would make a far better fist of that than the Badenuff ever has.

One gripe that I think is legitimate is to say that an entire round on 'my dad's cars of the last forty odd years' knocks the Woody Allen round of a few weeks' back out of the park - and I don't care if James' father did drive like a demon. A round like that is way too narrow, exclusionary, beyond tellingly boring and instantly forgettable.

Ronald Wycherly

(R3/Q3 part 4)

... and finally Ivor's summing up ....

We enjoyed the quiz though the first half was long and hard (only one two scored in the first half). They were very interesting questions but the theme formats do not make for speedy answers. However actually getting an answer in these circumstances was all the more satisfying since you had the time to work it out. Round 1 was a great idea (two questions leading to a full name with an overarching theme). After Q1 we thought it would be Beatle tracks and were waiting for Penny Lane, or Hey Jude, or Lady Madonna (that might be a round in years to come) but the Welsh mountain put paid to that. Young David (for a South Wales lad) does seem to be quite good at Welsh. The 'Connections round' worked well and Vanessa really got our fight back going with the 'Green round'. Both teams struggled with the 'Cars round' despite setter James’s efforts to include a cryptic hint in the questions.

The second half was a lot quicker (or it seemed quicker) and we finished by last orders. The Opsimaths were very good at words possibly last seen or heard in Call My Bluff but we got a few extras in the Cities round. Then the 'Nominative Determinism round' was the real swing round. Who would have known there are so many possible examples? I suppose it can also work in reverse too; Mike England as manager of Wales did sound like a slap in the face for Plaid, and would a Dr Kilpatrick cause concern to the Irish diaspora?

Rocket down the years

(R2/Q6)

Question of the Week

This week I've chosen a question that got Opsimath Paul all excited. We often get football questions related to the last team to win the old First Division but I can't recall this interesting 'last one' question to come up previously. So the award goes to Round 2 Question 7 ...

The current 'three points for a win' system was introduced to the EFL by Jimmy Hill in 1981 to discourage dull, defensive football and encourage more risk taking. Which was the last team to win the league under the old, 'two points for a win' system? They may have reason to feel aggrieved by the change, as they have not won the top flight since.

For the answer to this and all the week's other questions click here.

Last of the two-pointer Champs

(R2/Q7)

... and also

Next week we will stage the finals of our two cup competitions and the finalists will slug it out on a paper composed of questions submitted by 4 of the 5 teams NOT involved - namely The Charas, The Opsimaths, The Pigs and and CKC (Ethel have already done their bit with this week's paper).

So each of these 4 teams please let me have by Sunday evening two rounds of questions (any format you like).

As usual we will ask the 4 finalists to nominate their favourite round and the team submitting that will win a prize at the End of Season evening.

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Just a quick shout out for Manchester University University Challenge team who triumphed emphatically over Edinburgh in Monday's University Challenge final (if you're watching Kai Madgwick there's a place for you in The Opsimaths' line up for next season - we absolutely love Cornishmen!) ...

... and also a shout out for Richard and his mates who engineered the production of the whole University Challenge 2025/26 season of programmes so expertly.