Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 16/02/11

SPW power on whilst the Opsimaths creep nearer to the Bards;

With the Charas and Historymen losing a gap opens up between the top 4 and the rest

Results & Match Reports

The Judgeless Bards fought a knife-edge tussle against the Opsimaths at the Cricket Club just losing out in the last round. Will Tony get his place in the team back next week they're all asking?

Albert caught SPW in 'bounce back mode' and suffered a bit of a mauling.

TMTCH played and won a thrilling match against Compulsory Meat Raffle at the Parrswood just getting their noses in front on the final pair. As TMTCH Dave puts it in his usual succinct manner: "In the penultimate visit to the giant tombola TMTCH pulled out the winning ticket in the compulsory meat raffle. Spam all round!"

Ethel Rodin won the Stadium of Murk derby against the Charabancs - though only just. Damian reports on a tense night down at the Nou Dump:

"In the second derby of the season down in the murky recesses of Ladybarn, Ethel managed to gain revenge for their earlier defeat and did it all the more impressively by being a man down. However none of this was as impressive as Roz gamely pointing out to the bar staff that the glass of water she had just received would probably not pass any Health & Safety Inspector's examination. Or, for that matter, Geoff having the temerity to correct Sean when he got his Bernabeus mixed up with his Nou Camps. When Sean stuck his head round the door and gave Geoff a gesture that would have made a docker blush, we all assumed his goose was well and truly cooked. Miraculously Geoff left the pub intact."

Historymen lost out to the Prodigals in prodigious form as they notched up an impressive 46 points. Losing Ivor comments:

"A comprehensive victory by the Prodigals tonight at the Turnpike. A good time was had by all with our new QM, Robin, giving a sterling performance. We were in the main bar tonight as there was a quiz night in the lounge (one question we heard was “What is the national flower of Wales?” - though I am not sure, given our abject performance tonight, that we would even have got that right). The reason we lost badly (apart from not knowing enough answers) was that the Prodigals had not just one but two players called Anne (and tonight we had none). My scientific analysis of lady players in our league suggests this it is of great advantage to have players called Anne as they score an average of 10.5 points per game compared to 8.5 if they are called something else." (Ed: Where does he get these stats?)

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week's paper was set by The Electric Pigs.

Well, quite a contrast with last week. If last week's paper was lengthy and packed with 'by the way' stuff, this week was a rat-a-tat affair with most of us done and dusted by 10pm. Not a lot learned but some good exercise in familiar territory. At the Cricket Club the Bards pretty much concurred with this Opsimathic view of the evening. They did add one important piece of feedback to the setters regarding the 'choose your own subject' Rounds 4 and 5. Going second (as the Bards did) in Round 4 put them at some disadvantage. By the time they had to choose their subjects in Round 5 all the good 'uns had gone and there were only 4 left from which to choose. This unfairness needs to be avoided in future if possible.

Kieran chips in from Fortress Griffin:

"Perfectly decent quiz from the Pigs (we seem to like their papers) with 27 twos in all - including seven to Martin and six to the Albert's Mike. Only seven unanswered which broke 4-3 against our visitors so no great complaints there. Best of all the whole thing was over by 10.00pm. Mike Heale would have broken out his smile..... no really he would. And Bob, our ever genial QM, left behind his splendid socialist Vietnam cap which we're now holding hostage until he comes up with a lot of Dongs (let's not go there)."

...and Ivor from the Turnpike:

"The quiz itself we enjoyed but if we can carp (and all our league members love a carp, unless it is part of an obscure connection round), we felt that the team going first in the first three rounds got the harder pairs. Indeed in the last 5 rounds we ended up a point ahead. We do appreciate how hard it is to balance things (having had a tricky job ourselves 2 weeks ago) and the break of unanswerables of 4-4, and only 8 in total, does make this a spot-on quiz."

...finally Damian from deepest Ladybarn:

"The Piggies' questions were a return to the traditional quiz format, with bog standard general knowledge questions, after the esoteric efforts of previous weeks. The pairings left a tad to be desired at times but all in all it was good, clean fun and an enjoyable evening was had by all (apart from Sean, the barman)."

The Question of the Week

This week the vote goes to Round 8 Question 7:

Which Italian film director was the husband of screen goddess Sophia Loren until his death in 2007?

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

Chatterbox

As I've said before the website gets a lot of incoming traffic from TV quiz shows trying to recruit contestants. The latest (which actually sounds a bit more interesting than the usual stuff) comes from Lindsay Conn (contact details: 01413303695 - lindsay.conn@stv.tv):

"Dear Withington Pub Quiz League,

I work for Scottish Television and we are currently casting for a pub quiz show with a difference as a pilot for Channel 4. We're after really enthusiastic pub quizzers and I wondered if you'd be able to spread the word around for anyone interested to get in touch with me? I can attach an application form if you email me back. Many thanks, Lindsay."

Over to you.