Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 23/02/11

SPW win at the top; the Opsimaths leap from fourth to second place as the Pigs lose the Fletcher Moss derby

Results & Match Reports

Albert upset the form book by edging ahead of the Electric Pigs in the Fletcher Moss derby - and it was all down to Eveline who snatched victory with 2 points on the very last question of the evening.

Ethel Rodin started off well, getting most of their ads spot on in Round 1, only to fade away ever so gracefully over the next 7 rounds leaving the Opsimaths 9 points ahead at the close.

Historymen scored well enough but couldn't keep on terms with SPW who took a 5 point victory away from the Roy Grainger room at the Red (though as Kieran points out the room is misnamed as Roy always held court in the long vanished vault adjacent to Marriott Street). Ivor's summing up on behalf of the Historymen:

"Last week’s 'Anne Theory' blown out of the water tonight!! Nevertheless a 5 point defeat against SPW is an honourable outcome - and when Martin gets 7 consecutive 2s you know it's going to be an uphill struggle to stay in touch. We remain psychologically undamaged and look forward to our Champions’ League Semi against SPW in a few weeks."

TMTCH lost another tight match - this time to the visiting Charabancs. Damian sums up:

"As the score suggests, this was a humdinger of a match that went right down to the wire. The Charas can't recall the last time they enjoyed a comfortable lead all the way. I'd like to say that we've grown dimmer but the truth is our opponents have grown stronger. As a result our quiz nights have become all the more exciting."

Calluna Pussycats are getting ever so close to their first victory as they finished just 2 points behind Compulsory Meat Raffle at the Albert Club.

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week's paper was set by The Bards. At the Stadium of Murk Ethel and the Opsimaths enjoyed a friendly match overseen by QM for the evening, James. Pretty good content and a cleverly misleading theme in Round 2. Only real negatives were a couple of questions where the answer given did seem debatable. Like SPW and The Historymen we were miffed that Minstrels rather than Treets were given as the "Chocolate that melts in your mouth" - and surely Woden equates to Jupiter rather than Mercury (Round 7 - Question 4).

Kieran comments:

"Very decent paper from the Bards with plenty of twos and only a few unanswered - though we feared the worst when the first answer of the night was agreed on all sides to be 100% wrong. That slogan was used for Treets not the arriviste Minstrels. However things picked up and no one had any serious complaints by the end. We went for the twenty seven stars on the flag as question of the week and of course got it totally wrong as we debated between Tuvalu and Kiribati. After we'd failed completely it was pointed out that the ersatz Roy Grainger bar of the Red has a cigarette card style display of flags of the world on the wall. Bit too small for our failing eyes though."

...and Ivor from the same contest:

"The quiz itself was quite unlike the Bards' traditional efforts. We wondered if Tony had set any of the questions at all since almost all of them were 'single line' (some only 7 words long), rather than the elegantly constructed multi-claused (and often impossible) posers we've come to expect from HHJ Hammond.

There was some controversy over a couple of the answers......Us oldies are sure Treats (or was it Treets) had the selling slogan 'sweets that melt in your mouth and not your hand' rather than the johnny-come-lately Minstrels. And for political parties in the House does Sylvia Herman count as an Independent or an Independent Unionist?"

According to Damian the Charas and TMTCH had similar favourable feelings towards the Bards' offering though they could have done with being given the identity off the 10 political parties in the answer to Round 3 Question 8 to end some of the post-question debate.

Pussycat Graham from the 'almost but not quite Callunas' passes judgement from the Albert Club:

"We thought it was a really good quiz this week. Excellent mix of questions, and, even though we played one short, we raced into a six-one first round lead (age thing there I think - I mean who from the Raffle could remember a Qualcast Concorde...could they even remember the plane?). Then reality kicked in and we knew we were destined for the inevitable silver medal. Anna did a sterling job as QM and any disputes were settled with a firm hand. She didn't even let her hair down for the L'Oreal question (because she's worth it). Somebody has to keep Mick under control. Congrats to the Bards for a very fair quiz, and thank god we're away next week after being at home for an eternity and having to find five willing volunteers each week. It's quite difficult for us newcomers you know.

Regards, Captain Calluna

PS: That 29-27 scoreline, it's almost like watching a Chelsea/Everton penalty shootout. According to Mick, I'm Ashley Cole"

And finally Rachael reports in from the same Albert Club match saying that despite an interesting paper there were one or two points in the evening when, either the phrasing of the question or the content of the answer, led to some dispute.

The Question of the Week

This week Mary O'Brien and the victorious Albert team vote for Round 7 Question 8:

In 2001 the Monster Raving Looney Party proposed free tuition for any student called.....what?

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

Chatterbox

Following the request (published here last week) for volunteers for a new Channel 4 quiz show to be made by Scottish TV, Kieran and I thought we might get an all-stars WithQuiz team together. Alas, on further enquiry, we were told that contestants had to be individuals (not teams) who were prepared to travel round the country possibly sleeping communally as they took on local challenges. So much for an all-expenses paid trip to Edinburgh!! Needless to say our interest waned rather rapidly.