Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 28/04/10

League top and bottom teams - SPW and The Prodigals - will contest the Val Draper final; the

Plate will be between the Pigs and the History Men

Results & Match Reports

This week we played the Val Draper Cup and the Plate Semi Finals......

Prodigals sailed to victory against TMTCH in a most cheerful encounter at the Albert Club. This has been a good third season in WithQuiz for The Hangmen and it was sad that they couldn't cap their improvement with a Cup Final slot. Dave's laconic summary had them, like last week, looking down the barrel of a gun but this time it blew them away!!

Albert got caught by the non-stop machine that is SPW who once more chalked up a scoreline of 50 points - and that on a paper that was by general consent pretty tough.

Bards of Didsbury lost by a small margin in a low-scoring affair against the Electric Pigs. Yet again the Pigs reach a Cup Final after a fairly mediocre league season.

History Men just edged it over Ethel Rodin. Ivor writes:

"A real nip and tuck game at the Red Lion and we just hung on to reach our first final since 2004 (albeit in the Plate). Not that the Plate is to be sniffed at. In 2004 we lost to Ethel. However we did win the Plate back in 2003 when it was a piece of crockery retrieved from the Albert Club kitchen. At least this time we're competing for a silver trophy!!"

....and James leaving his microphone switched on as he trudged home from the Red:

"Ethel end the season with a series of close run ties... Close, but not close enough. On the way home, I wondered whether the 4 teams knocked out tonight might in future compete for a vase and a spoon, just to achieve something?"

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week the paper was set by the Charabancs.

Kieran's verdict:

"First half dragged a bit we felt, and not up to the Charas usual standards. The actresses round seemed a bit off - though it made more sense once we knew the theme.

In the second half however, we really liked the bingo with initials - we've scored well on this format before and did so again tonight."

...and James:

"Roddy will probably disagree (in fact, I am certain of this) but in general we felt that tonight's questions were firm but fair. It was low scoring, but balanced, and kept the scores close all the way through (in fact I don't think there was more than a 3 point gap either way at any point). Where one team had more unanswered, they also got 'the rub of the twos' to coin a phrase.

I think Roddy's issue is that his knowledge base was given little opportunity tonight; indeed it seems Ethel have a collective inferiority complex when it comes to quizzes set by the Charabancs.

A final thought before the website goes into hibernation for the summer; I enjoyed the picture poser set earlier in the year; how's about a weekly poser set by random people over the summer?"

.....finally from Ivor:

"A good turnout from the Charabancs to see how we fared with their paper with Damian in the QM seat. Although it was a fairly tough test it was well appreciated. The most embarrassing question was the first four words of the Hippocratic oath and despite three doctors at the game none of us knew it. The Oath is, however, of its time because it also includes condemnation of practitioners who do abortions and those who charge money from fellow medics who are patients.

My QotW was Ian Paisley’s campaign to save Ulster from Sodomy. This fell to Ethel and I waited like a coiled spring whilst they oscillated from slavery to subjection to sin. This made up for the other question where I was a coiled spring waiting for them to fail on KATHR only for a last second "Kilburn" from John which caused an explosion of High Road from Lloyd.

As always there were inspired guesses (or perhaps amazing dredges from the depths of the cerebral cortex) of which James’s “Claude Beret” and even more unbelievably Tim’s “Horse’s urine” were great examples."

The Question of the Week

This week the Pigs and the Bards go for Bingo Question 5:

(ISBA) What are the first four words of the classical Hippocratic Oath?

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

Chatterbox

And so next week the Finals. The Charabancs are acting as editor for the question paper which - as last year - will be constructed from questions submitted by each of the 6 teams not competing in the finals. So Opsimaths, TMTCH, Albert, Ethel Rodin, and Bards please send to Gerry Collins by Friday:

One full round of questions (anything you like – themed, paired, etc) and
4 random questions to be put into a 2-round bingo format

Because of the crucial City game next Wednesday the Val Draper Final will be held on Tuesday at the Griffin whilst the Plate Final will be on Wednesday at the Red Lion (at least that's my understanding as the website 'goes to press').

The following Wednesday (May 12th) will see the WIST Champions Final between SPW and the Alexandra at the Griffin - then the week after the End of Season evening at the Albert Club.