Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 02/04/08

The mighty have devoured each other with the Pigs, Girls and Opsimaths getting the slightly bigger meals - delightfully this means that History Men, Charabancs and Ethel have setting duties for the rest of the Cup and Plate competitions

The Results

Mention the word "Cup" and the Pigs come alive - this time bettering the Charabancs of Fire by a massive 16 points at the Albert Club

Ethel Rodin fought a nailbitingly close game against the Opsimaths eventually losing out on the pictures of islands, lakes and African countries

History Men fought the Napier Girls to a standstill but then lost on the tiebreak (well remembered to The Men TCH for including a tiebreak) - David Delahunty writes:

"An epic cup battle at the Red tonight. The Girls were without Kieran and Barry so had three Delahuntys in their line-up (including Alex making his debut). After six rounds we were nine points ahead and dreaming of Wembley. Then came a bewildering (to us but not to the Men) mix of islands, African countries, lakes and states. The lead was whittled down to three. A very tense final round and thanks to Clare Grogan it ended 38-38. How would we explain to Kieran that we had managed to pluck defeat from the jaws of victory? He'd make us climb Ben Nevis (all 1344 metres of it) as a punishment. This knowledge was to prove decisively useful in the tie-break."

The Paper

The Men They Couldn't Hang set this week. Yet again The Men have produced a popular offering. Challenging themes with a high standard of 'Head to Heads'. David D from the Girls:

"A very enjoyable quiz. Our favourite question was the Harold Wilson one if only because it referred to him as a socialist!"

At the White Swan my favourite round was the one dedicated to patriotic ditties. The massed choirs of Ethel sang their way through most of the toe-curlingly awful lyrics to a creditable 5 points. The Opsimaths also scored 5 but made less noise in getting there.

If I was to quibble with anything then it would be over Round 2 (based on British warships that played a part in sinking the Bismarck and the Graf Spee). Names of warships seems too broad a theme (after all there have been thousands of them) but to ask for those involved in 2 specific WWII incidents seems too obscure a theme. And if you got the hang of things with Ajax and Exeter (involved in sinking the Graf Spee) after the first 2 questions, was it reasonable to expect the teams to leap on to the idea of those that sank the Bismarck?

Quibbles aside it has to be another bout of congratulations to The Men TCH for tuning into our wavelength so quickly and providing 3 cracking papers this season.

The Question of the Week

The vote this week is provided by the Electric Pigs and goes to Chaucer-themed Round 6 Question 7:

Which broadcaster provided the non-singing voice for Tex Tucker in Four Feather Falls and is currently Chairman of the International Quizzing Association?

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