Top of the table wins so St Caths still out in front

Results & Match Reports

At the top of the table all 3 teams won.  Out in front St Caths beat a 3-friended Snoopy's in the St Catherine's Club derby to stay top by 2 points.  Meanwhile the Braggarts (inspired, no doubt, by Kieran's teamtalk on the merits of letting him know in good time if they were not turning up for a match) overwhelmed Albert Park at the Albert Club and the Historymen beat Dr O'Neil in the Red Lion derby match.

Other results this week:

• Opsimaths returned to form beating TUFKAC comfortably at The Sun in September

• Brains of Oak won a seesaw game at the Oak against the Albert

Quiz Paper Verdict

The paper this week was set by the Electric Pigs.  I think Gerry Hennessy's comments (see below) sum it up nicely.   In our match the scientist in the average TUFKAC team member wanted an explanation as to why, for instance, Bruce Forsyth had been arbitrarily linked with Edward Kennedy, or whether Devon Malcolm had ever had any previous relationship with Drew Barrymore (Michael maybe, but not Drew surely).  And indeed, what was more significant about the Open Championship in 1981 than, say, last year at the Open, or, as Dave at St Caths more bluntly put it, "who gives a stuff who won the Open in 1974?"

These ponderings apart the paper covered a fair swathe of knowledge and formats of question.  From 'spot the motorway' to 'name consecutive dictionary words' to 'name a year in the life of'.  Being brought up in the age of Monty Python my immediate response to being asked for a year in the life of Michael Faraday (for example) is to reply "got up early on January 1st, went downstairs, made myself a light breakfast, invented electricity and then retired to bed for a mid morning nap".  I think my team mates are getting a bit tired of this by now but at least they know to expect it and can brace themselves when they hear this type of question coming up.

The Question of the Week

I have nominated 2 candidates - Round 2 Question 7:

Who said of himself: “Few thought he was even a starter, there were many who thought themselves smarter, but he ended PM, CH and OM, an earl and a knight of the garter”?

 and Round 4 Question 6:

 Which ship was formerly known as the USS Phoenix, survived Pearl Harbour but was torpedoed 40 years later and sank with the loss of 323 lives?

For the answers and full details of all the week's questions click here.

Chatterbox

Some news of Gerry Hennessy from Pig Andrew Simcock.  Andrew writes:

"I visited Gerry Hennessy in Christies last night to go through the quiz with him having dropped copies off at the Red Lion. His comment on the quiz? "Good, well-levelled, fair, but difficult (for everyone). Say hello to everyone I know and tell them 'Gerry will return!'."

Fr Megson

Bothy-bath & Gypsy-creams

A Chara,

We were sitting in our communal bothy-bath last night eating gipsy-creams, smoking the odd haddock or two and generally relaxing after our hard fought Quiz victory against the sabre-toothed rabbits of the Albert when who should walk in but Father Keegan.  He's our new curate but rumour has it that he won't be staying long 'cos he hates our Parish priest, Fr. Ferguson (miserable auld git) who teases him something rotten and throws wellies at him.  Anyway, Fr. Keegan said he was out exorcising his demons on the Reeks and he decided to call in for a chat and a cup of Pimms Number One (almost our national drink now and originally introduced to our shores by survivors of the Swiss Armada in 1588 - that would make a good quiz question !).

Fr. Keegan has retained a boyish passion for German football and sausages and he was looking gingerly teutonic in his spanking new F.C. Hertha kit (also available on CD).  He's also a terrible man for the philosophical banter.  He says that when he gets depressed (frequently) he tends towards a Nietzschean Weltanschauung whereas when he gets ecstatic (less and less these days) he likes to get his rocks off on the combined works of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Hall (he's got their fanzine pickies all over the vestry).  He also veers dangerously towards the Berkeleian view that if you are not visible then you don't exist.  I didn't like to say "BOLLOX" in front of a priest so I agreed that this theory might be fine and dandy betimes but was it not refuted by the fact that Alf Inge Haaland is still on the Manchester City payroll and nobody's seen hide nor hair of him since he slipped in to Keano's saloon bar and bistro for a quiet glass of stout and a sun-dried potato "many moons ago" as Tonto would say if he lived on the Reeks.

Fr. Keegan got a bit defensive then - and he's not usually a defensive man - and fulminated that a prophet was never understood in his own Reek.  He would have to go off and found a new Reek - a Reek that would last "fur ein Tausend Jahre".  He then said he would have to go home to get a map of Poland. " Fair play to you", I said "but mind the door on your way out.  It's a bit unhinged as well."

Slan from Ballyboke.