Results & Match Reports

CUP SEMI FINAL

• Fifth Finger beat the Electric Pigs in a nailbitingly close game at the Griffin.  The Fingers now go through to the Cup Final in 3 weeks' time whilst the Pigs descend to the Plate next week to take their revenge on one of the minnows

• Brains of Oak stormed through to join the Fingers in the final notching up a 50 point tally over the luckless Albert (and Gerry, please note that your reward for getting to the final is to set the paper next week)

PLATE ROUND 2

• St Caths edged past the History Men in a tense match at St Catherine's Club to keep their Plate hopes alive

• Ethel Rodin are on cracking form at present - they also achieved the elusive 50 point scoreline over a 3-man Snoopy

What this means for the next round of cup/plate matches is shown on the fixtures page.

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week's setters were the Opsimaths.  Down at the Griffin both teams were happy with the paper although, on reflection, I think the Pigs got slightly harder questions going second in the first half.  There are some errors to own up to though.  Tony 'Snoopy' points out (Round 3 Q4) that Perry Mason was a lawyer not a detective (and he should know!!), and that Jerusalem has 2 8-line verses,  and not 4 4-line ones as Round 2 Q5 & 6 implied.  Apologies for these (the Jerusalem pair were set by me I'm afraid).  I must say in mitigation that I did enjoy watching the Fingers and the Pigs struggling to sing the whole song through to themselves as I QMed.  Also great pleasure was had by all watching Kieran lay an egg trying to remember that Withington once had a Red Lion, a Golden Lion and a Pavi Lion (Round 5 Q2).  Thankfully for all in his vicinity he eventually succeeded without recourse to conference!

The average aggregate score this week was 79.8 - a respectably high tally.  Actual aggregates around the games varied from 74 (St Caths/History Men) to 86 (Fingers/Pigs).

The Question of the Week

Based on the feedback from at least 2 of the matches the 'Question of the Week' accolade should go to Round 4 Q3:

Where would you find: Hell, Julius Caesar, Birmingham, Billy and Archimedes?

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

Chatterbox

Thursdays et al

Over the past few weeks, as we approach our summer break, Opsimaths' post match chit chats have involved some exchange of views on how we run things (as well as the usual 'What shall we call ourselves next year?'  argument).  I suspect other teams have had similar chats.

I think it a good idea if 15/30 minutes at the start of the end of season do at the Albert Club on June 9th are devoted to representatives of each team discussing matters of mutual interest (including the Wednesday/Thursday topic dealt with in the feedback remarks below). 

The 2 big Opsimath proposals for change are: a) to start the season earlier (say mid September) and thus finish earlier (say early May) and b) to revert to more conventional Cup/Plate competitions which last no more than 4 weeks and allow the teams knocked out in the first round of the Cup a chance to dominate the Plate competition without being swamped by the big guns who get knocked out of the Cup in later rounds.  In other words the Plate should be (as far as is possible) exclusively for the lesser teams.

Below is the feedback received so far this season in the Wednesday evening/Thursday evening issue:

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.

Feedback 3:

Mary O'Brien (Albert) favours keeping to Wednesday - at least until we've had a chance to debate the issue again at this season's gala night.

Feedback 4:

Ethel Rodin are finding Wednesdays at the Red Lion almost impossible to negotiate, what with wide- screens and football at every turn.  They would favour moving to Thursdays.

Feedback 5:

On balance the Fingers wish to stick with Wednesdays.

Fr Megson

A Millwall fan writes.............. or should I say scrawls

Fr. Megson's rejuvenated altar boys and girls breezed past the despairing and inebriated lunges of a tiring Fulham FC select IV last night.

Good questions and overall an enjoyably sporting contest keenly invigilated by Colinski.  Although, to be honest, he only ever looked up from his Guardian crossword when he heard the rumble of an oncoming London Tube station question or when Fr. Megson tried taking a sneaky swig of his beloved Snecklifter.  Fr. M. seems vaguely to recall being called a filthy Snecklifter during his Seminary days but the reasons that lay behind this jocular nickname are now secreted deep in the labarinthine archives of Maynooth police station.

So now all Fr. Megson has to do is to keep his squad moderately sober and pure in spirit until the Cup Final.  No easy task although Ivan Denisovich is virtually certain to return pure as the driven slush and spiritually shriven - or should that be shrivelled - from his walking expedition when he aims to become the first man to walk from Robin Hood's Bay right across to Siberia without spilling his Snecklifter or shouting obscenities at his faithful husky, Boris.

2004 will surely go down in history as the year when an absolutely mediocre team made it to both the FA Cup Final and to the Withquiz Cup Final.  You can rest assured, though, that neither Fr. M. nor that other cheeky altar boy, Wise by name if not by nature, will be taking their superannuated opposition lightly.

"I know people will accuse me of being an overcautious namby-pamby", said the bespectacled supremo, "but I will be treating Finger V as a proper quiz team.  I didn't get where I am today by not doing my homework.  I have already started watching videos of them in action.  My favourite one so far is the one of Barry on the Club 18-30 romp in Ibiza in 1982.  Amazing.  I haven't seen anyone in that position since Devon Loch keeled over in the 1956 Cup Final."

Incidentally Mike if you happen to get knocked out of the Plate - and I know that's unlikely - could the Opsimaths set again for the final.  If you are stuck for ideas might I suggest 64 themed questions on Irish counties beginning with the letter F.  Just an idea.

Fr. Megson.