Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 05/05/10

Yet again the bookies get it right with SPW coasting home to the League and Cup double,

and the History Men mopping up the Plate

Results & Match Reports

This week we played the Cup finals......

In the Val Draper Final on Tuesday evening SPW trotted home comfortably against the Prodigals in an evening of great mirth and bonhomie - a really good example of how pleasurable an evening quizzing with mates can be. And when the question about Enfield Southgate and that Portillo moment came up it turned out that at least 5 of us had been at Mark Bassett's that happy dawn in 1997 watching the sun come up as Portillo and the Tories went down. It seems we might have been together again for the sunset.

.....whilst in the Plate Final the following day History Men scored an emphatic victory in a low-scoring match against the Electric Pigs. There were Celebrations all round as the History Men mopped up on Round 2 and, for that matter in pretty well every other Round.

Quiz Paper Verdict

There was I minding my own business watching some Spanish second division footie match on the ubiquitous Griffin TV system when this strange man sidled up to me. He looked sort of scruffy in an educated way, if you know what I mean. A professor maybe down on his luck. Perhaps a frustrated artist of some sort. "Want a sweetie, mate?". OMG, this is what my dear departed mother warned me about all those years ago. "Celebrations, know what I mean?". Well I'm rather partial to chocolate as it happens and there were others around me in the bar so I felt relatively safe. He thrust a plastic bag into my hands and after some muttered words about not being confused by all the galaxies on offer he was off into the night. Only later did I realise that the Albert (via Mike O'Brien) were making an official delivery of the part of their round that even Fr Megson couldn't conjure up from his clerical PC.

This week the paper was set by the 'Knocked Out United' (with a little help from the Charabancs).

Gerry Collins' original idea that a hybrid paper compiled from the offerings of various teams would be a welcome addition to our annual liturgy, was fully justified. There was no padding just the cream of the crop from a number of expert setters. At the Griffin on Tuesday evening the TMTCH's 'knotty' round just edged it (though pretty well every round came under serious consideration) for the honour of being named 'Round of the Final' - and even the round that didn't get a total thumbs up contained the runaway favourite for QotW.

In amongst this stupendous goulash of a quiz was the very first attempt at Swingo (OED: "Random choice of anything by means of sweet selection"). This delicious invention came courtesy of the Albert (see above for a description of its delivery). To be quite honest not all the contestants at the Griffin fell for this vote-pleasing approach. Martin (who had already eaten his own question and was busy chewing a steal he'd answered) declaimed the whole concept as a cheap stunt to garner advantage in the 'Best Round of the Evening' competition.

On Wednesday at the Red Lion the same quiz prequel was acted out with the appearance of Mike O'Brien dispensing plastic bags of chocolates. Compared to the Griffin on Tuesday things seemed a lot tougher with many fewer twos and more furrowed brows. Nevertheless, even the Pigs seemed to have a better evening than the boys in Blue.

By the end of Wednesday evening we had a result for the 'Round of the Finals'. I asked each of the 4 finalists to allocate 6 points across the 6 rounds in contention. The tally was as follows:

Charabancs (money themed pop lyrics) - 0 points though Lloyd Powell who was spectating at the Red as relaxation prior to helping his daughter Lucy get every single voter to the polling stations, did say that he had been waiting all his adult life for a pop lyrics round of such superlative quality
Bards (unpaired) - 1 point
Ethel (first and last series) - 2 points
Albert (shameless chocolate bribery Swingo) - 5 points
Opsimaths (runners up) - 6 points
TMTCH (woodn't you know it) - 10 points and the runaway winners

Well done TMTCH! Your prize awaits you in a fortnight at the Albert Club.

The Question of the Week

This week SPW vote for Round 1 Question 8:

Who started off selling newspapers, became the First Lord of the Admiralty in the 1870s, and was immortalised in Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore?

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

Chatterbox

Next Wednesday the WIST Champions Final takes place at the Griffin when SPW play host to Stockport's Alexandra. Can WithQuiz wrest this trophy from Stockport for the first time in history? Do try and get along to cheer the WithQuiz cause.

..and in a fortnight the Grand End of Season Presentation evening at the Albert Club.