St Caths go clear top after beating the Historymen while the Braggarts and the Brains fight out a nailbiting tie

Results & Match Reports

At the top of the table the Braggarts and the Brains edged to a nailbiting tie at the Royal Oak (see below for report), whilst St Caths returned to form - after back to back defeats - to record a resounding victory over the Historymen.  This means that St Caths move back into first place one point ahead of the Braggarts (though they have played one game more).  The Historymen lie in 3rd place a further point behind, and Snoopy's (who sat out last night) are just 2 points back in 4th slot.  With just 5 weeks to go in the league, this augurs well for a more exciting finale to the season than we have seen for some years.

The headlines, however, wouldn't be complete without recording a famous victory for TUFKAC against Dr O'Neil in the battle of the basement at the Sun in September - although it all rested on the last question.

Other results this week:

• Despite a collective Hydes' bladdering at the Albert Club the Pigs notched up a comfortable win over the Albert Park

• At the Fletcher Moss the Albert moved on up the table by defeating SWMCC

Quiz Paper Verdict

The paper this week was set by the Opsimaths.    I observed from the grandstand at the Oak where the Brains and the Braggarts slugged it out.  The scores seemed fairly high and there were no great quibbles so I think we got the questions roughly right (don't you agree Roz?).  Highlight of the evening for the spectators was seeing the expression on Roisin's face when she thought she was being asked 'How do you smell diarrhoea?' (Round 5 Question 1).  Just one question later Kieran looked daggers when he got the spelling of idiosyncrasy wrong. 

The Question of the Week

The question of the week was nominated by big Brain, Damian One, (Round 5 Question 6):

What name (first and surname) is shared by an Australian Test fast bowler and a famous American murderer?

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

Fr Megson

A kinda hush all over the Reeks

Once more our correspondent, Paddy O'Counter, writes from deep inside the Chorlton bunker:

A Chara,

There's a kinda hush all over The Reeks tonight, tonight.

From my Radio Eireann bunker I can hear silence broken only by the gentle soughing of the wind through the crab-apple trees and a squealing clamour of U.S. rookies as they seek to duck parboiled Spud missiles apologetically launched by the beleaguered Branch Manager of the local Tie-Rack.  All this in stark contrast to the seething cauldron that was The Loyal B'Oak tavern midweek when U.N. troops stood helplessly by, powerless to prevent a bloodcurdling draw between Fr. Megson's homespun Sunni Druids and Fr. Wenger's Jesuitical Braggarts.  Quarts were neither given nor asked for and in the end neither pints difference nor WPC Elizabeth Slinger could separate the teams.

In a dour and overly metaphysical game tempers and nostrils frequently flared and the usually phlegmatic Michael O' Braggart was questioned by police (he elected eventually to confer with his solicitor) when he appeared during a mutually disastrous final round to make use of the home team's willow-patterned spitoon, an incident that sparked off an ugly pitch invasion by an itinerant sloth of Babycham-crazed quiz-setters one of whom was lucky to avoid being sent home for an early night with Mrs Bath.

Fr. Megson remained tight-curled at the post match interview and Fr. Wenger also refused to be drawn or photographed.  "Malheureusement I was standing behind a static defence in Valencia at the time so I have missed the spitoon.  I will say though that the QM failed to protect us from the home team's cruel and unusual use of irony which cut deeply into the beautifully complexioned skin of my pauvres garcons.  Je crois aussi que beaucoup de questions importantes were answered ce soir by my team especially the one about London cottagers living mostly in Fulham.  This I have not known in the past before.  I must phone Sven now and we will go scouting for new talent.   Au Revoir."

Filed by our Loiters Agency in the Reeks.  Monitored by a store detective in Tie-Rack.

Kate Adie is unwell (a touch of direo' eeea, I believe).

P.S. Reeks Riddle of the Week result:

The lucky winner was Colinski, a trainee Christian Brother from Manchester in Sassana (near Liverpool) who asks:

Who would rule you if you lived in an Idiosyncracy?

and the answer is (look away now if you've got it taped to watch after the kids have cried themselves to sleep):

George Bush