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TMTCH and The Historymen play out the first tie of
the season - at the top SPW and The Pigs both win
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Results & Match Reports |
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Charabancs just
failed to stop the high-flying Pigs at the Swan.
Damian reports:
"Graced by the presence of a couple of Meat Rafflers, the Charas
attempted to blow away post-Christmas cobwebs by going for the
kill. Well, so much for plans! In a closely fought
contest, we were pipped at the post. To be fair, the
Piggies were ahead in 5 of the 8 rounds and so really deserved
the victory!"
The Historymen
managed to notch up the first tie of the season playing at home
(well, almost) against TMTCH (who have never previously
taken any points off The Historymen). Ivor writes in:
"A real nail-biter game and
there was never much between the sides. TMTCH have never
beaten us, but with two questions to go they were 3 ahead and it
took a steal and a 2 to level the game. TMTCH kindly
treated us to drinks - we were not too proud to accept
them! The match was re-located to the Turnpike which, as
on previous occasions, was an excellent alternative to the Red
Lion with its 1990s priced ales and roaring gas fire."
Opsimaths
ground out an attritional victory over Ethel Rodin in their
match at the Club. The first question was unleashed at
about 8.40 and the last shortly after 11.10.
SPW (the
Manchester United of our league - they seem to nick a result
even when they're out of sorts) just pipped Albert in a match
relocated to the Fletcher Moss. Kieran sums up:
"Getting a bit fed up with these narrow squeaks. We've won
our last three league games by a combined total of three points and
the Albert have now lost five matches this season with a total
deficit of 16. They must be getting pretty fed up with tight
finishes too. Having been ahead for most of the contest we crashed
spectacularly in rounds 6 and 7 and were four points behind going
into the final round. We didn't draw level until question 62
(thank god for Martin's long held admiration for Clare Grogan on the
way) - and then two gratefully taken singles saw us home. Huge
credit to David for knowing Frank Sidebottom's real name and being
able to dredge up Count Arthur Strong from his Radio 4 memory bank."
The Bards got
off to a commanding start to the new year with victory over the
Calluna
Pussycats at the Cricket Club. |
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Quiz Paper Verdict |
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This week's paper was set by
Compulsory Meat Raffle - their first offering in our league.
Ivor comments from the Turnpike:
"Three cheers to the CMR on
their maiden quiz setting effort. Some of their questions
were a little on the erudite side (e.g. GBS non-fiction and
champagne drug soundalikes) and it was a moderately difficult
quiz - but there were lots of interesting questions. The themes
were even more ingenious than TMTCH themes (and that’s saying
something) though I must admit I hadn't a clue about any of them
(I have only half heard of Half Man Half Biscuit, not played any
computer games since the ping-pong game of 1980, have no
interest in defunct Association Football teams and failed to
recognise the Sherlock Holmes stories even though I probably
read them long before Tom and Tristan’s parents started
courting)."
.....and Kieran:
"Very decent first paper from the Meat Raffle. Lots of
interesting questions (if some of them were a bit too lengthy).
Any paper that starts with a Half Man Half Biscuit theme is
going to find favour with SPW!! A couple of slightly
misjudged pairs maybe but nothing to really gripe about so well
done all round. Though, we did get the point for Queen
Maude, I might argue that, even if Queensland is named after
Queen Victoria, it no longer constitutes land area!!"
.....and finally Damian:
"The inaugural Meat Rafflers paper was certainly a toughie.
We now understand all too well the kind of ordeal those
unfortunate wretches on University Challenge have to endure
each week. Both teams proved unable to spot the themes
apart from the video games round. Despite this it
didn't stop us attempting to answer most of the questions.
By the end of the evening I felt a bit like Alan Davies on
QI - unable to answer much but learning a lot of
about all sorts of things. In short, a tad on the
tough side but a good first effort from the squad's new
addition."
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The Question
of the Week |
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This week the Opsimaths vote
for Round 1 Question 8:
The Welsh mountain Twmpa, situated near the English border just
south of Hay-on-Wye, is better known by what bawdy nickname?
For the answer to this and all the week's questions click
here.
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Chatterbox |
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Just before Christmas I
started off a thread on the message board about time limits. Many
of you chipped in with the usual mixture of seriousness and frivolity.
I think the consensus was against any draconian imposition of limits by
the QM when a question is first asked - but Howell made a really good
point in saying that a passed-over question should be dealt with fairly
rapidly. Certainly this evening's paper would have progressed a
good deal more quickly at the Albert Club if passed-over questions had
been time limited. No criticism of Ethel here - the Opsimaths were
equally as guilty. Perhaps we could encourage QMs to introduce
more of a 'hurry up' approach in these circumstances?
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A strange message came
to me earlier this week through the 'Contact Us' page of this site.
It was from a Lucy Woodd. It read:
"Could you tell me
which fictional character has a purple, green and orange jumbo jet?"
Any suggestions? Should I get excited?
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....and a late postscript. In putting this week's questions onto
the website Word was forced into making some guesses at misspellings.
Desperate Housewives came up as 'Desperate Housewares'. Now
that would have been a tale!! |
