Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 06/10/10

A big welcome to our 2 new teams - neither won their debut matches but, by all accounts, both fitted into WithQuiz pretty comfortably

Results & Match Reports

Opsimaths started their campaign with an Albert Club derby victory over newcomers, Calluna Pussycats

Electric Pigs beat the Bards with what Andrew described as "a superb team performance, with Gerry Hennessy quick to spot all the themes"

The Prodigals slipped up at home against Albert

Charabancs took advantage of their familiarity with the ancient White Swan upholstery to register a win over newcomers, Compulsory Meat Raffle. On the spot as ever Damian reports in:

"This was a game of two halves with the Charas establishing a solid lead in the first half only for newcomers Comp Meat Rafflers to come storming back in the first round of the second half. Thereafter it was evenly matched with the solid lead we had established at the end of the first half carrying us over the finishing line by a margin of 8 points.

Our opponents, the curiously named Compulsory Meat Raffle, seemed to enjoy the strange upholstery and ancient decor of the White Swan judging by the merriment that wafted over from their camp. The Charas, however, continue to be intrigued by the fact that the Swan is still standing. I guess it's nice to know some things never change!"

SPW started with an emphatic win over the visiting Historymen. Ivor comments:

"It’s as if we have never been away - and once again a strong performance from the defending champions sees our hopes of a quick burst from the starting stalls quashed. There was a sense of déjà vu as, just like the corresponding match with SPW with TMTCH questions last season, we stayed in touch 14 -17 up to half time and then ran out of steam. Not that we were notably terrible - it’s just that when Martin and Kieran both get 5 2s any team will struggle not to finish second."

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week's season-opening paper was set by The Men They Couldn't Hang.

After the first round at the Albert Club the Calluna Pussycats were clearly wondering what on earth they'd let themselves in for with an aggregate of 3 points scored between the 2 teams. Their only comfort was that league veterans, the Opsimaths, had hardly fared any better than themselves. Things picked up from there, however, with some excellently executed theme rounds and by Round 8 it was the Pussycats who had grasped the Oliver! theme with the Opsimaths left bemused. All in all a well researched and well presented example of the setter's art if a tad on the tough side.

SPW sort of agreed though Kieran was clear that The Men had produced better efforts in the past. He was full of praise for the first 3 themed rounds though he labelled the Oliver! round "desperate" (Kieran doesn't do understatement).

...and the Historymen's verdict:

"Quite a hard quiz and the very first question of the season (unanswerable of course by us or SPW) sent out the message this is a quiz for big boys (no 'what is the capital of the kingdom of Denmark' in our league!). Having said this we did enjoy the challenges we have come to expect from TMTCH - but there was great disappointment: no caricatures on the envelopes this time!"

The Question of the Week

Mary from the Albert gets the casting vote this week. She liked Round 5 Question 5:

What disease is named after the Greek for coal on account of one of the symptoms being blackened skin lesions?

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

Chatterbox

I must say I agree with what many of you had told me, namely that the colour scheme of the site over the past couple of years was a bit hard to take. It sort of screamed at you. I do hope you find this new, more demure livery easier on the eye. I'm afraid the accumulated webana from previous seasons is still resplendent in the colours of the past (vivid purple, black and yellow for the past 2 years - dirty greeny yellow and mauve before that). To go back and change all those hundreds of pages is more than I can face. Do let me know what you think of the new colour scheme - and indeed any other website thoughts as our web presence now enters its eleventh year!!

As mentioned in the last QuizBiz the task of getting the fixtures sorted out this year has been somewhat challenging. We have endeavoured to make sure: teams don't play each other twice with the same setters, teams sharing a home venue don't both play at home on the same evenings, new teams get asked to set later rather than earlier in the season, and then we've aimed to get a fairly even distribution of home and away fixtures per team. On the last count we slipped up with the Pigs (who had 9 weeks before their first home match). We put this right, but it seems the Bards are not much better off with only 2 home games this side of Christmas. Apologies for that. We'll have to try harder next year.