Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 12/12/07

The Girls go into the Christmas break 4 points clear of the History Men after a tricky and fairly low-scoring quiz

The Results

Albert just got pipped at the post by the Charabancs of Fire - really good to see Albert back in the frame after a couple of weeks when they were forced to scratch their games

Albert Park lost by 5 points to the History Men

Napier Girls had a comfortable home victory against newcomers, The Men They Couldn't Hang

Opsimaths edged it in a close match at the Club against Ethel Rodin

Snoopy's Friends lost by a fair way to the X-Pats

The Paper

Electric Pigs set this week. Judging by the feedback and the scores, most teams found this paper pretty hard. The range of the questions was impressive but the depth of the knowledge sought was demanding (hence the lowish scores). There seemed to me to be rather a lot of the 'either know it or not' type of question with little chance of working something out from the ancillary information. At the Club Howell counted (I think) 18 unanswered questions i.e. over 25% of those. That is pretty high.

However there are always 2 sides to every coin. As I had just finished writing the above a ping on my nocturnal computer indicated that Damian's results email had come through from the Charabancs/Albert match. I quote:

"It is our contention that this was the most enjoyable quiz of the season so far with the choice of questions and the topics theme proving a real winner - despite some initial misgivings. Bravo to the Piggies for a most exciting evening.

We would like to nominate this quiz for 'Quiz of the pre-Christmas Season' award!"

Well you pays yer money.....

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(added on Thursday following an email from Gerry)

It appears that there was a lot more to last night's paper than met the eye - and the casual website commentator at the end of a tense evening. I can now see why Damian made the comments he did in his email quoted above.

Down at the Stadium of Murk the Charabancs and Albert were party to an experiment in quizzing the like of which WithQuiz has not seen since the Bingo quiz technique was introduced some years back. The eagle-eyed may have noticed that the Pigs' paper was made up of 32 quite distinct pairs - even in the themed rounds. It is also relevant to note that Electric Pig Andrew was quite anxious to act as QM at one of the games. Now let Gerry Collins (aka Fr Megson) take up the tale:

"Like everyone else we were treated to the Piggies' quizset. The questions were of the high standard that we have come to expect of the Pigs. What made our game against The Albert a bit different was that we had Piggy Andrew as QM. He suggested at the beginning that we could play a 'normal' game or we could be revolutionary and play a different way - we could choose topics to answer. As captains, Mike O'Brien and myself agreed to give the new format a go. Here's how it went:

The Charabancs went first. We chose a 'topic' from a list of 32 supplied by Andrew. As first player to go, I chose 'historical capitals' and was asked a question on this subject. Because I had chosen this topic my opposite number (Mike) had to answer on the same topic (in other words he was given the paired question). Then our second player chose and the paired question went to their number 2, and so on, right through to half time. At the turnover the choice of topics fell to the team going first in the second half.

So, same questions but it felt like a different experience. The feedback at the end was extremely positive from both sides. We had a really exciting tussle and only a single point separated the teams. We'd probably have had a good game anyway but I do feel the new format added to the enjoyment.

Like all innovations it was far from perfect. Chief flaw is probably that the team going first has the advantage of picking all their favourite topics in the first half and the second team is left with the crud. This wasn't really a problem last night - the overall excellence of the questions meant there was very little crud. As you know yourself, Mike from your experience in setting the Albert Club monthly quizzes, all new ideas need a bit of tinkering and refinement - but I could really go for something like this on an occasional basis. Well done Andrew, and all at the Piggery.

Some great candidates for Question of the Week. I really liked the footballing ones; difficult but possible to work out more or less by logic. But for me by far the best question was the one about the Old Bailey. It was perfectly phrased to make it seem really difficult (I'd never heard of any of these artists?/performers?) but then something clicked and I realised that I was dealing with criminals, and the mental fog gradually lifted as the forbidding grandeur of the building loomed into view........... God, it was better than sex! Might even be Question of the Season. 　

Gerry"

I have now obtained a copy of the sheet (see below) that Andrew was using to advertise the topics to the 2 teams. The topics are shown against the position they occupied in the paper but provided both teams agreed to play the 'topic choice' style of game they could be used as dictated by the players. As the topics were chosen and used they were crossed off the list just as we cross out the numbers on a sheet in a Bingo Quiz.

Q1/2

Q3/4

Q5/6

Q7/8

R1

American companies

Greek mythology

Politicians

Buildings

R2

Food

Business

Children’s poetry

Historical capitals

R3

20th century literature

Tube stations

Film

Pop music

R4

Sport: football

TV comedy

Bible

Food supplements

R5

Science: human body

Engineering

Business

Board games

R6

Children’s literature

Geography

Sport: football

Film

R7

16^th century history

Pop groups’ names

African geography

Theatre

R8

Film

Food: confectionery

Shakespeare

Geography

Interesting to note that the format was robust enough to allow a couple of themed rounds to be included with no damage to the flow of things.

Now tell us what you think (use the Message Board). Should this experiment be repeated? It would be great to get a comment from one of the Albert team.

The Question of the Week

General consensus was for Round 8 Question 3:

In the UK light brown was replaced in 1988 - as was blue in 2005. To what does this refer?

Click here to see the answers to this and the rest of the week's questions and answers.

Chatterbox

Change of Venue

Please note that Albert Park have opted to play their home games from now on at the Gateway Hotel at Parrs Wood

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WIST Champions Cup

Next Wednesday the 2007/8 league fixtures take a rest whilst the top 4 WithQuiz teams from last year's league table slug it out with the top 4 from our neighbouring Stockport league. This is a knockout competition with semis being played at Easter and the final at the end of season.

This year we have agreed that the quiz format will be 'à la Stockport' but that (for at least next Wednesday's matches) a WithQuiz team will set the paper. So for the past week or so the star setters from Albert Park have been swotting up on the Stockport format as they have kindly volunteered to construct the paper for us. If you want details of the Stockport paper format go to http://uk.geocities.com/mjwcb@btinternet.com/guidelines.htm.

As is the tradition on such occasions 4th placed will play 1st placed, and 2nd placed play 3rd placed - with the higher placed teams enjoying home advantage. This means:

Chunky playing at home to the Opsimaths at the Pineapple Inn under the viaduct in the heart of Stockport (just follow your nose from the Griffin until you see a bloody great big bridge above your head) (http://uk.geocities.com/mjwcb@btinternet.com/teams/chunky.htm)
Alexandra playing at home to the History Men at the Alexandra Hotel, Northgate Road off Edgeley Road (not too far from Stockport County's ground) (http://uk.geocities.com/mjwcb@btinternet.com/teams/alex.htm)
the Charabancs entertaining the Traveller's Call team to the dubious delights of the the White Swan (have they ever seen people from as far away as Stockport in darkest Ladybarn before?)
the Girls playing hostess to the team from the Tiviot at the Griffin

So next Wednesday the honour of our league is at stake. Non-participants do please try and get to one or other of these matches to support the Withquiz teams. Wouldn't it be good if we can get, say 3 of our 4 teams into the semis?

Oh, and teams please note that the WithQuiz teams are responsible IN ALL CASES for picking up the question paper. The papers will be behind the bar in the Red Lion in the usual fashion.