It's Fingerlickin' time at last!!

Results & Match Reports

• After the Brains came close last week, Ethel Rodin, in the result of the night, nay season, walloped Fifth Finger - a famous victory indeed - there's hope for us all (further comments from Fr M below)

• A 3-man X-Pats went down heavily at home to St Caths

• Snoopy's Friends were judged non compos mentis against the mercurial oldsters of Opsimaths

• Albert Park went down at home to the History Men

• Electric Pigs kept their run of good form going - just - when they beat the Brains of Oak in a cliffhanger (further comments from Fr M below)

Quiz Paper Verdict

Stumped set this week.  They served up their usual offbeat mixture with: some very well crafted mugshots of pairs  of famous faces melded together on (I suspect) Copland's computer; a crossword round that almost (but not quite) kept a cricket theme running throughout;  some explicitly themed rounds on geography, music, indoor pursuits, and sports; and an implicitly themed round on weights and measures.   Reaction to the paper seems to have been pretty favourable round the grounds.  And let's face it if Stumped have managed to find a formula to defeat the Fingers they must have something special.

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 while on this subject a note and a request from John Tolan (Ethel R):

"Recent chat about the format of a 'perfect paper' reminds me that many years ago the Gerbils (Liz Barber and I, to be precise) set a paper which consisted entirely of a huge general knowledge crossword.  While not claiming perfection for that paper, I would be curious to know if anyone remembers it and what their reaction was at the time....and would also be very pleased if anyone kept a copy, since my original workings have been mislaid."

The average aggregate score this week was 68.6.  Actual aggregates varied from 64 (Park/History Men) to 75 (Pigs/Brains).

The Question of the Week

The 'Question of the Week' award goes to a picture this week (Round 3 Q7):

Of which retiring sort is this a picture?

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

Chatterbox

Thursdays?

You may recall that we had a vote at the end of last season on changing from Wednesday to Thursday evenings as our regular match day.  It was a close run thing but Wednesdays just won the vote.  Chatting to the teams at the Oak this week there was a feeling that the groundswell for Thursdays has increased and that we need to have another vote.  I don't see us changing in mid league season but how about changing to Thursdays as an experiment for the cup matches (especially if there is local interest in the later stages of the European Champions Cup)?  Can we use the website as a sounding board for this issue?  I'll publish any feedback I get.

Feedback 1:

St Caths and X-Pats discussed this issue after their recent match and were firmly in favour of sticking to Wednesdays.

Feedback 2:

Copland has come back saying that Stumped also vote strongly against switching to Thursdays.

Blast from the past

Some of you may recall John Holden of blessed Amboss memory.  Well he's spotted the website and has written in:

"Dear WPQL,

I played for Amboss until about 1995/6, and loved every minute.  After that, evening work meant that I could only play on Thursdays, so I've been playing for the Chunky in the Stockport league since then.

I am hopeless with faces and names, but looking at your picture gallery, I am amazed to see so many familiar people, particularly our main rivals the Braggarts, each of whom I recognise, eight years on.

I can add two comments about the near-brawl with them :-

One was that an RNLI film show was blasting out in the same room as the quiz, so we were shouting our heads off even before Tom gave us all an even better reason for doing so.

 

The other was that Tom heroically declared war on BOTH teams, Braggarts for reasons best left alone, and Amboss for perceived disloyalty.

Playing with Tom was a rollercoaster ride, but fabulously entertaining at the time, and even more so in hindsight.

I thought that lurid night would be lost in the mists of time, so it was nice to discover your (long-overdue) website, and then find that you had hit on the very thing that made our 'reputation'.

Best wishes

John Holden"

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.

Football Oddities

Here's one for the anoraks....

Who came next in the sequence Don, Johnny, Ronnie, Ron, Ronnie, Ron, Johnny, Ron, Ron and to what is this referring?

Answers in a few weeks time.

Fr Megson

Of Reeks and Pigs

A Chairde,

Father Megson is just back from the Northern Reeks (he cycled up to Ultima Thule and caught the north bound cattle ferry from there which he reckons is an even more luxurious way of travelling than Ryanair).  He is pleased to report that no pertinent portion of his anatomy was despoiled by gangs of either green or orange persuasion.  Indeed, judging by some of the pubs and clubs he heard confession in whilst in Enniskillen, he reckons that pink might be the new black over there this season.

His aged mother alas was not so lenient with him as she sporadically belaboured him about the head and torso with her cruelly gnarled walking-stick for being the "useless black-frocked priest of the family".  Thanks a bunch, Mum, I only ever took the Seminary Shilling because I thought that was all an Irish mother wanted from her painfully acquired son but now it turns out that she would have preferred me to have been a plumber so that I could fix for free and gratis that tap in the scullery that drips worse than Jackson Pollock on a bad night.

Us Reekish boys can't win, can we?  Especially when our team nearly beats Finger V in our absence.  Just imagine how I felt when I got a message from the Royal Oak saying:

"Missing you like hell we are.  Can you stay over there for another few seasons? Tidy your room or something but just leave us alone.  Love from all the team.

P.S. Can you telegraph us some money 'cause it's your round and Roisin says she'll have two pints and a creme-de-menthe chaser this time 'cause she's drinking to forget.  Don't ask what 'cause she's forgotten

P.P.S. Don't feel guilty just 'cause you happen to be rubbish."

Rejuvenated by these kindly sentiments, Fr. M. stuffed some Yorkie bars into his duffel bag and sat himself alluringly down in the local greasy spoon with that knowing "Ah that's Bisto" look in his limpid eyes.  It worked and soon he was being whisked across the Reeks in the cab of a massive trucker called Gus who had a pernicious taste for loud string vests and even louder Daniel O'Donnell tapes.  Despite a lengthy snarl-up at the West Didsbury Job Centre where Gus, with his delicious sense of irony, ran over 5000 graduates and an unemployed sheepdog who were queuing up to join MI5, Fr.Megson made it to the pub just in time to lead his team into battle against some very pinky and perky Pigs.  His beloved Brains did quite well eventually finishing in second place which is not bad is it?  They were a bit spooked by those photos though.  Wouldn't you wonder how such ugly people ever became famous (the half-men, half-trogs in the photos I mean, not the Pigs who aren't all that famous).

Father Megson never knew that Fr. Hennessey was a clandestine Pig.  Funny how you think you know somebody and you don't even notice that they've got trotters.  Maybe he took Jermain Defoe's advice and joined a team that can win things and ply him with swill-buckets of filthy lucre.  Or maybe not.

Breaking news: We interrupt this sermon to bring you shocking news about the sad demise of Finger V's 100% record.  I've always said that that Ethel Austin is a fierce dangerous woman.  Heed my words, Fr. Wenger.  Steer well clear of her charms.  Your Jesuitical sang-froid will be no defence against her femme-fatality.

Slan,

Fr. S.M.