Good news!! We've got
not one, but two new teams joining us this season:
-
Calluna Pussycats
will be familiar to a number of you who have taken part in
the regular monthly Albert Club quizzes. They have
been competitors every month since these quizzzes started 4
years ago. Now they have taken the plunge and joined
the regular Wednesday-nighters. They will play their
home games at the Albert Club and are captained by Graham
Wiggins.
-
Compulsory Meat Raffle
may also be familiar since they include some faces who have
appeared on various TV quiz shows. In particular their
captain Rachael Neiman was on the Manchester University
University Challenge team in the last series and is
appearing in this year's Mastermind competition (as
is the Opsimaths' Nick Mills). Compulsory Meat Raffle
will play their home matches upstairs in the Fuel cafe on
Wilmslow Road in the heart of Withington Village.
Because we have 2 new teams
the league season will need to stretch a further 4 weeks so I
think it'll be crucial to ensure this season's Val Draper Cup
and Plate competitions are short and sweet. Each week
there will be 5 league matches occupying 10 of the teams plus a
'sit out' team and a setting team - except for the last weeks of
the two halves of the season when all 12 teams will be playing
and Dummy (a guest inquisitor) will set the paper.
The Men They Couldn't Hang
(in the shape of Dave Barras) have kindly offered to be the
setting team for the first Wednesday which is in a week's time
on October 6th.
To get the new teams into the
swing of things I have sent them both a set of general
guidelines:
-
Each Wednesday the
away team in any game is responsible for picking up the
question paper. They are available from the bar of the
Red Lion (by the front door where the ceiling is
ridiculously low) from 8pm on a Wednesday at the latest
(they are often there by 7.30pm if not earlier). They
are in envelopes marked with the title of the match
concerned. Just ask for the “quiz envelope for Team a v
Team b”.
-
Each Wednesday the
setting team is responsible for leaving the envelopes
containing the question papers behind the bar at the Red
Lion no later than 8pm.
-
The Home team is
responsible for providing a question person to read out
the questions and act as overall Umpire.
-
Matches start at
around 8.30pm. If you’re going to be late then let the
opposition know (contact details are on the website) –
and in the unlikely event that you’re going to scratch
from a game then let the opposition know a few days
ahead if possible.
-
The 2 team captains
toss up before the match to determine which team goes
first. The winner of the toss has the option to choose
whether to go first or second. At half time (after
round 4 is complete) the order is reversed so that the
team that took the first question in each round in the
first half takes the second question in each round in
the second half.
-
There are 8 rounds of
8 questions and 4 players per side. Team members take
it in turn to get asked a question (Person 1, Team 1;
Person 1 Team 2; Person 2 Team 1, Person 2 Team 2;
Person 3 Team 1, Person 3 Team 2 and so on). A team
member gets 2 points for a correct answer on their own.
If they attempt to answer on their own and get it wrong
it is offered to the other team (collectively) for a
bonus point. However if the original team member
doesn’t know the answer then they may choose to confer
with their own team mates and get one point for a
correct answer. If the team don’t know – or get it
wrong – then it is offered to the other team for a bonus
of one point. Team members are allowed to indicate
non-verbally to their colleague who is being asked the
question, whether or not they know the answer to aid the
decision as to whether to confer or go for it
unconferred.
-
If a team has only
managed to field 3 players then the question destined
for the fourth player is taken as a conferred question
with no opportunity for a 2 point answer
-
Each paper has a few
spare questions provided which the Question person may
use in extremis as substitutes for any questions/answers
they deem to be ‘dodgy’ (I emphasise that use of spares
is very rare)
-
At the end of the
match the winning team buys a pint (or whatever) for
each member of the losing team
-
The captain of the
winning team must text or email me (07885-526002
/ mikebath@pfsl.org.uk) as soon as possible
after the match with the result including the points
scored by each team. Most teams also include a few
details about the contest for inclusion in the website
Quizbiz page
-
The setting team must
email the question paper to me as soon as possible after
the matches have started on Wednesday evening
-
Wednesday’s results
are usually on the website by breakfast on Thursday and
the question paper on the site by lunch on Thursday
If you can think of any other
'starters for 10' then let me know and I'll pass them on via the
website.
The WIST
Cup competition takes place, as is now the tradition, between
the top 4 teams from last season's Stockport and WithQuiz league
tables. This time the combatants are SPW, the Opsimaths,
the Historymen and the Charabancs from WithQuiz and Chunky,
Tiviot, Traveller's Call and Heaton Mersey RUFC from Stockport -
and it's Stockport's turn to set all the WIST Cup papers this
year.
The league
fixtures are now up on the Fixtures page (thanks again to some
wizardry from Roddy) and the contact details for the new teams
are on the Team Details page. Hopefully I've transcribed Roddy's efforts correctly this year (I usually make some mistake
somewhere along the line). Roddy has avoided teams that
share the same venue playing at home on the same evening (though
in the case of the Albert Club there are 3 home teams so a few
evenings with 2 matches at the Club are inevitable). We've
also stuck to the principle that teams should have different
setters when they play a return match in the second half of the
season. Observing this has meant that for any one team the
spread of home and away fixtures are not necessarily evenly
balanced (you may have a lot of home games early in the season
followed by a preponderance of away games in the second half or
vice versa). We've also ensured that the 2 new teams don't
have to set until the season is well underway and they have a
feel for the sort of question papers we like.
I'm sure
the addition of 2 new teams will add extra spice to our winter
dish after a number of years with no significant change in
personnel.
Looking
forward to meeting up with you all over the coming
weeks......MIKE
