Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 10/11/10

The Prodigals go equal on points with SPW; The Bards win the battle of the chasing pack and Compulsory Meat Raffle the battle of the newcomers

Results & Match Reports

Albert just got the better of TMTCH in a close fought match at the Fletcher Moss where the lead changed hands several times in the course of the evening. Mary reports:

"A good evening played at a cracking pace. TMTCH, playing with a team of 3, were in the lead until round 6, when Albert just managed to sneak ahead."

Opsimaths went behind and stayed behind against the Prodigals in the Albert Club derby match with the 24 hours delayed start time. Indeed the delay almost turned into an abandonment when Anne-Marie went looking for the questions at the Red early on Thursday evening only to find they had been lost. Hasty phone calls between Anne-Marie, Clive, myself and Kieran resulted in the electronic version arriving in my office at home 10 minutes later. My wife then printed the questions to chunnerings of "bloody stupid quiz league - what do you mean right click?" and folded them into an envelope with me outside on the landing trying not to look. By 8.30pm at the Albert Club a sealed envelope was presented to Ivor who very kindly performed the QM duties as if there had been no panic at all. Technology, wonderful isn't it?

Compulsory Meat Raffle beat Calluna Pussycats in the newcomers' derby in deepest Withington

The Bards, despite being one short of a Gorsedd, just held their own against the visiting sculptresses that we know and love as Ethel Rodin

Charabancs lost at home to the Historymen

Quiz Paper Verdict

(Wednesday's comments)

This week's paper was set by SPW. I am unable to make any sensible comment myself until late tomorrow (no change there I hear you say) since the Prodigals v Opsimaths match does not take place until Thursday evening (the little matter of another local derby taking precedence). At present our envelope is being guarded by Prodigal Anne-Marie (see Chatterbox below) who has vowed to keep it sealed and safe away from any boiling kettles. All I can do in the mean time is report the words of others.

Rachael from the mysteriously named Compulsory Meat Raffle says both teams thoroughly enjoyed the wide variety of questions. Ivor has promised to report in later but I would guess that the Historymen are pretty chuffed with a paper that helped them to a famous victory at the Stadium of Murk.

(Thursday's comments)

It would appear that the description of Anne-Marie guarding the question paper overnight was a little premature. However the wait was well worth it and a very jolly contest unfurled at the Albert Club across a windy Thursday evening courtesy of SPW's paper. General appreciation from both teams for a fine paper.....but there were one or two holes to pick.....

The balance on occasions left something to be desired with Porifera (the hardest question of Round 1) paired with Esox (by some way the easiest question of the round) being just one example. Research shows that the team going second fared better in all the matches. The Opsimaths that I talked to felt the subject matter leaned a bit too heavily towards footie and X-Factor with nothing at all on the Scottish Munros (where were you David Delahunty when I needed you most?). But the real crisis came in the final round when question 4 sought a date for the introduction to the UK of universal suffrage. The Opsimaths happened to have leading psephologist and former curator of the People's History Museum, Nick Mansfield, on the squad for the evening. Nick went various shades of red ending with something akin to deep purple as he lectured us a for a full 10 minutes on the fact that Northern Ireland had not enjoyed universal suffrage until 1969 whilst even on the mainland local elections had been the exclusive province of householders until much later than the date given in the answer. One can only assume that democracy is not a core discipline for SPW. The Opsimaths might have lost the match but by God we stood up for the rights of man!

Finally Ivor passes comment on the paper from the Stadium of Murk match on Wednesday evening:

"The Historymen went second and were never behind. Strangely we got more of the 'unanswerables' but we seemed to harvest a much higher proportion of 2s. Opinion from our side was that there was rather too much contemporary culture (X-Factor if that’s not an oxymoron) and association football. Fortunately Tim who loathes such subjects is 8000 miles away. However we knew we were on a potential winner when Roisin was bowled a cricket teaser as the third question of the night. We were quite quick getting the themes, even the lately departed one. Not that it was much help because it's extraordinarily difficult to remember who has shuffled off this mortal coil from one day to the next (Ed: Not the sort of thing I expect to hear from a doctor, Ivor). QotW: The pacemaker connection. Would the question have been easier if it had read 'What was inserted into Elton John etc'?"

The Question of the Week

This week the Prodigals and the Historymen both vote for Round 5 Question 6:

What happened to Elton John in 1999, Dick Cheney in 2001 and Alex Ferguson in 2004?

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

Chatterbox

As many of you know Anne-Marie (of the Prodigals) is a staunch member of the Didsbury (Chapter of the?) WI. Their chosen charity for 2011 is 'Friends of The Christie' - and to kick off the fund-raising year they have organised (surprise, surprise!) a quiz. It will be at the Didsbury Cricket Club on Sunday 14^th November (8 for 8.30). There's a small entry fee of £2 per player and plenty of prizes as well as a raffle. Teams of 4 or 5 are welcome. Let's all go and show Didsbury the awesome scale of the combined brainpower of WithQuiz!!!

And finally try and see Mastermind this Friday on BBC2. Nick Mills from the Opsimaths is answering questions on Ramasses II.