Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 21/01/09

The top 3 all win whilst the History Men continue their revival at the expense of Snoopy's

The Results

History Men continued their recovery with a convincing home win over Snoopy's Friends - Ivor writes:

"Snoopy’s fail to do the double over a resurgent History Men who win by a 16 point margin for the second consecutive week. We are setting next week but then we face SPW who beat us by a mere 5 points in the first half of the season. Kieran, be afraid….be very afraid (actually that sounds like whistling in the dark but in this season stranger things have happened)."

TMTCH still yearn for their first victory of the season - they succumbed this week to X-Pats

Opsimaths enjoyed a great evening with the Getaways down at the Albert Club - after a pretty close contest the home team pulled clear over the final 3 rounds

Albert lost out at home to an SPW on the rebound after their Barry-less defeat at the hands of the Opsimaths last Wednesday

Ethel Rodin fought an excellent derby match at the Stadium of Murk against Charabancs of Fire losing out in the end primarily because of the Charabancs superior knowledge of the 1970s pop scene (and the paucity of opera questions)

The Paper

This week the paper was set by the Electric Pigs. "Pretty good stuff" was the Albert Club verdict. A cracking start to the paper with a well constructed theme round followed by pairs in Round 2 - only one question unanswered (the Salford prison that opened in 2000).

The Picture Round was right up some streets (e.g. Opsimath Nick's) but I can imagine it left some feeling a bit excluded. Perhaps a whole round on album covers was a little OTT.

In Round 4 Question 7 there was controversy over the hills. I maintain that there are 4 English mountains over 3,000 feet (Scafell Pike, Scafell, Helvellyn and Skiddaw - nothing outside the Lake District gets above 3,000). Referring to Wikipedia I find much confusion over what counts as a mountain and what a mere top.

All this is minor bellyaching, however, when set against the universal mirth enjoyed at the unwitting hands of Dion Dublin. The male section of the Getaways were perplexed as to the identity of the 'capital' Coventry striker (Round 5 Question 2) but it seemed that Cheryl had heard that a certain Coventry footballer was renowned for having the largest member in the Premiership - and as far as she knew he was called Dublin. Well it went downhill from there. Orchitis, plums, Hancock - and then when we thought things were settling down a little, Jitka pulled a picture of a banana out of her envelope and thrust it at Cheryl. So thank you Pigs - an excellent evening.

Ivor writes in from the History Men's match:

"The paper was very well received (especially by us!) and a future PhD thesis writer analysing quizzes of the 21st century would spot the Gerry Hennessey influences in the cadences and balances of some of the questions (Ed: Round 4 Question 1 being the giveaway as to Gerry's involvement). We certainly welcomed the science questions presumably from the engineer/scientist half of the Electric Pigs. Unfortunately this did not suit Snoopy’s who have lost their medic/scientists and are now wholly legal/arts. Very few unanswerable questions tonight and not many 'constipaters' either, which meant the quiz ended early enough for Tony’s rapid-fire quiz from the Southport League - and plenty of time for drinking and chatting. A perfect way to while away the dark nights.

Our QotW, however, is one of the unanswerables. It is the one based on the fact that Nelson had statue commemorations in Montreal and Hereford before London.

I am happy to report that young David did not know that orchitis is inflammation of the testes. This is still commonly seen, and is usually due to mumps in an unvaccinated adult. Victims tell me it is no fun to have a testicle (albeit temporarily) the size of a Hereford bull (Ed: I presume Ivor means the testes of a bull not the whole bull)."

Kieran chips in from the Fletcher Moss:

"Pretty good all round - plenty of twos and not much messing around. Particularly liked the clever final pair - Tungsten / Osmium - the elements of light bulbs - very nicely matched."

....and from the Stadium of Murk Damian's rounds off the evening's review:

"Another excellent quiz courtesy of the Electric Pigs. There was an excellent variety of questions and only one unanswered question the whole evening.

Our nomination for QotW went to Round 4, Question 4 - the Cleopatra's Needle question - mainly because there was a clue to the answer in the question (box of pins etc.). It had us guessing all kinds of possibilities. We had great fun speculating over the identity of the 12 best-looking women in 1878 England. The consensus was that HM Queen Victoria would probably not be one of them! No doubt she would not have been amused!!"

The Question of the Week

This week the History Men vote for Round 4 Question 3:

What did Montreal and Hereford get in 1809 that London got 32 years later?

For the answer to this and all the week's questions click here.

Fr Megson

Fr M's Little Digital

Fr M acquired a nifty little digital for Christmas and has despatched a picture this week in place of his usual homily.....

Opsimath veteran Mike Bath (94) is seen here wowing the congregation with his new Randy Newman tribute band which had top billing at last Sunday's Requiem Mass in memory of SWP's unbeaten run in Withquiz (107) which passed away earlier in the week.

The mass was co-celebrated by Fr Megson and a member of the local constabulary to whom he had become handcuffed the previous evening after an unseemly fracas in Vespers club for gentleman priests.