Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 16/03/11

Opsimaths nudge closer to the 'sitting out' SPW; Meat Raffle keep climbing

Results & Match Reports

Ethel Rodin found themselves unable to sculpt a victory losing to a particularly high-scoring set of Bards at the White Swan

Electric Pigs got back into their stride after a rocky few weeks by beating the Historymen down at the Fletcher Moss

Calluna Pussycats, yet again, oh so nearly notched up their first win just losing at home to the Charabancs of Fire. Damian reports:

"This was an another exciting, close-fought match for the Charas - kind of the norm for us these days. There was never more than a couple of points between the two teams until the final round which could have gone either way."

Compulsory Meat Raffle beat the Prodigals in a match that started in the Victoria (to the accompaniment of Chelsea) and then moved to the Turnpike when the football ended and the pub PA system started to give out the evening's Victoria quiz. Good value for the Prodigals who got a mid-quiz exercise break as well as a good student thrashing!!

TMTCH (down to just 3 with Jilly acting as QM) lost to the Opsimaths at the Parrswood

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week's paper was set by Albert. Some quite conflicting feedback about this one. James at Stadio del Noce thought it very lop-sided with the balance all in favour of the team that went second. He cited the 'phobia' pair as a case in point with brontophobia well known and astraphobia not so familiar. Andrew on the other hand, from the Fletcher Moss, felt it "tough but with very fair pairs". General opinion was that there was plenty of good material on display. Damian commented that the themes in the two themed rounds were fairly easy to discern but, hey ho, we've had some pretty tricky themes this year (first 8 words of Blowing in the Wind jumbled up comes to mind) so perhaps we'd earned an easy ride by now.

QotW nominations for the 'station with platform 0' question and the one that speculated over the fate of a girl called Blanche. I so liked the one about how profound I can be as well.

The Question of the Week

This week the Opsimaths plump for Round 7 Question 3:

What word links the title of a TV drama by Lynda La Plante, a novel by James Elroy and a film scripted by Raymond Chandler?

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

Chatterbox

After the match at the Parrswood, Dave (TMTCH) and myself set to discussing this year's cup competitions.

Dave suggested, and I agreed, that a handicap system would be in order this year. So, each team would carry into each match, right through to the finals, a starting position reflected by the difference between their average score for, and average score against, in the end of season league table. So, for instance, if SPW had been playing the Pussycats this week in the first round of the Val Draper Cup the score going into Round 1 Question 1 would have been 25-0 in favour of the Pussycats (I'm beginning to enjoy this) since, on average, SPW have won their games this season so far by 9 points and the Pussycats have lost theirs by 16 points.

The actual draw for the Cup would be 'out of the hat' in the time- (and Gary Donely- ) honoured fashion with 4 teams drawn against 4 teams in Week 1, and 4 teams getting a bye into week 2. For the Plate I suggest we take the 4 highest scoring losers in Weeks 1 and 2 and put them straight into a Plate semi final in Week 3. Hope all this makes sense. Unless I receive violent objections then I'll set about organising things this way.

Watch the website Fixtures page for developments!!