Results & Match Reports

• Fifth Finger, inevitably, defeated the Pigs at the Griffin and kept their 100% record intact

• Opsimaths took the points off Albert Park in the Albert Club local derby - this time though through a walkover, since the Park were unable to raise a team

• History Men also gained the points off Stumped through a walkover

• Albert maintained their recent stonking form notching up the highest score of the evening against St Caths

• Ethel Rodin, also enjoying a good run of form, overcame the Brains

Quiz Paper Verdict

Snoopy's Friends set this week.  Scores were on the low side (especially for teams that were short on criminal, botanical, airport and cookery knowledge).  Rather than go for themed rounds (explicitly or, as of late, implicitly) the Friends had settled for 8 themes that wove their way in and out of each round (Tony assures me that they were evenly spread so that each contestant got one question from each theme).  One of the themes was the occurrence of the colour orange in either question or answer.  I guess this balances out the bias towards all things green that the Brains usually exercise.  Sadly (as you can see from the results above) there were 2 walkovers.  Maybe this had something to do with the fact that there was City-type footie on the box.  For once the Blues seemed to have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat rather than their usual trick.  We had Ceefax on in the Club and could hardly credit the scores that were rattling up in the second half at White Hart Lane.

Across the matches the average aggregate score this week was 61.3.  Actual aggregates varied from 69 (Albert/St Caths) to 52 (Finger/Pigs).

For more debate and comment on question paper styles go to the perfect quiz paper' page.  Do email me if you have some thoughts of your own on this subject that you would like to add to the page.

And, as ever, the final word on this week's paper is given by Fr M below.

The Question of the Week

Kieran nominated the Alan Turing question (Round 3 Q3) as QOTW but my preference was for the fascinating piece of trivia in Round 8 Q5:

Who was the first King of England to speak English?

(to see the answer to this and all the other questions click here.)

Chatterbox

Refurbishment at the Red

A warning for the coming weeks:  we believe the Red Lion will be closed for refurbishment during the last week in March and the first week in April.  The Historymen and Ethel Rodin will need to make some alternative arrangements and we will have to fix an alternative pick-up point for the questions.  The Fletcher Moss has been suggested as a pick-up point.  Anyhow, Gary D is on the case and will advise all concerned shortly.

Approaches from the Beeb

Such is the popularity of our site that researchers from the BBC are calling.  I received a message recently inviting anyone interested to apply to appear on the next series of Mastermind (go on Martin have a bash).  This was the message:

"I am looking for contestants for Mastermind 2004 - if anyone is interested could they please contact me on 0161 244 3528 or mutale.nkonde@bbc.co.uk"

....and did you, like me, get an email from a certain Jayme Saffer at the Beeb?  In case not this was the content:

I hope you don't mind your email addresses being picked up like this off the 'Team & Contacts' page from this website.

Fr Megson

Not The Only Fruitcake

A Chairde,

Fr. Megson had a fax this morning from some priests belonging to the Loyalist 'Red Hand of The Northern Reeks' faction (motto: 'Keep the Northern Reeks tidy and British') .  In it they said how much they enjoyed last night's quiz and how it more than made up for not finding any useful Weapons of Mass Destruction in Ethel's handbag when she went to the toilet.

"We hadn't been expecting to enjoy our visit to the Southern Reeks", it went on.  "We always thought youse lot down there were nothing but big girls' blouses who spent all yer time drinking, telling ghost stories, listening to Daniel O'Donnell tapes, going to confession and supporting Man. Utd.  Well, we weren't far wrong and yer fancy so-called European money is crap as well.  We'll stick to our tried and tested half-crowns if youse don't mind.  But fair's fair and I must say it was a pleasant surprise to fly into Myles Na Gopaleen International airport and be met by hordes of saucy Orange gangsters running amok and chanting 'we've got an Occam's razor and we know how to use it' (while taking care not to presume that it exists unless it becomes absolutely necessary).

"Bloody brilliant craic.  It was just like being at home in Portadown on a wet Saturday night only without the red,white and blue bunting on the Town Hall."

Fr. Megson was more circumspect.

"The quiz was OK", he opined, "but it lacked a little how you say, Je ne sais rien.  You know how when you go to the park with your auntie and you are having fun on the see-saw and then a man with a council uniform and a spanner comes over and says, 'Get off the see-saw sonny, we have to tighten a screw or it won't balance properly and then you might fall off and die and go to purgatory and that would really rain on your Sunday parade, wouldn't it?'  Well the quiz last night was a bit like that.  They forgot to pay the man to put the screw in that makes it balance and we got thrown off early and we couldn't get back on but luckily it was only our pride that got hurt although my left knee is still a bit stiff.  To be fair though, Ethel's brain was definitely heavier than ours last night so maybe that's the reason we fell off.

"I think there was a decent quiz in there somewhere but it seemed strangely reluctant to come out and show it's true colours (which were orange and orange).  I know just how it felt - I was a bit frightened to come out and show my true colours with all those Orange gangs cooking their foreign sauces all over the place.  So I spent the final se7en rounds hiding behind Roisin, thinking up new sins for the quiz and reading Damian's copy of 'The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time' which is a brilliant book about an autistic boy who would make a really good quiz-setter and it just goes to prove that even respected book critics don't always get it wrong.

"And Damian wasn't reading books last night or helping us to lose the quiz because he went to watch two football matches.  A team called Tottenham won the first match 3 - 0 and a team called Manchester City won the second match 4 - 0 which means they win the prize which this week is THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME to Manchester to play another match.  Which, when you think about it, is not a very exotic prize for a team that already lives in Manchester.  But they seemed happy enough in the shower afterwards.  I suppose it beats a trip to the Job Centre in Portadown.

"And Damian says he met one of my old altar boys after the match.  A lad by the name of Jermain Defoe.  He sends his regards to all of you and hopes that Gerry H. is still his number one fan (but I doubt it).  Jermain now plays for Tottenham but he told Damian he is now reconsidering his future.  'I feel I have been a loyal servant to Tottenham Hotspur for the past 24 hours and during that time I have always given my all for the club.  But I think now may be the time to consider moving to a bigger club who can win things and pay me even more money for talking a load of bollix'."
 

And Fr. Megson would like a slice of that action as well.