Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 04/05/11

Handicap system provides some interesting results in the first round of the Cup

Results & Match Reports

Historymen needed no handicap advantage to beat the Bards who were probably still recovering from their epic victory last week. Ivor writes:

"Our first victory over the Bards this season despite the handicap of having no handicap advantage at all. The game was scheduled for the Red Lion but in anticipation of Man Utd fans we decided to relocate to the Cricket Club only to find it was fully booked and so we traipsed back to the Turnpike before discovering that the Red Lion was actually quite empty, so the match kicked off there after all. Of course the main concern tonight was to win in order to avoid having to set next week (fortunately we did not have to employ our second strategy, namely that if we were losing to ensure we lost extremely badly to avoid being highest scoring losers)."

TMTCH beat the Electric Pigs at the Parrswood. Dave comments:

"TMTCH made a mockery of the handicap system romping home to a clear victory - ably assisted by drawing all three easy 'Matthews' in the raffle."

Prodigals lost to the Opsimaths in the Albert Club's testosterone-filled Table Tennis room (a TT match had just completed leaving an unmistakeable tang in the air). It was a thoroughly good-natured affair with loads of laughter - most of which seemed to come from Cheryl who was QMing. I think it took about 3 minutes for her to ask the QotW shown below so convulsed was she. The handicap seemed to level things up pretty well until the final two rounds when the Opsimaths galloped clear.

Calluna Pussycats lost to Ethel Rodin in a close encounter, again proving the handicap system we've adopted made good sense. Indeed the Pussycats lost 'so well' that they have earned the right to be next week's setters and now stand a very good chance of being one of the Plate semi finalists the following week.

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week's paper was set by Compulsory Meat Raffle. Ivor's verdict:

"Hard quiz - 23 unanswerables. It is always good to be reminded that no matter how well informed you think you are there are always gaps in your knowledge that a discerning quiz can penetrate. In this case rappers, cathedrals, early modern European monarchs, Gothic horror juvenilia and much, much more."

In the Opsimaths/Prodigals match we found it tough going but redeemed by the pure fun and laughter it generated. The theme for Round 2 was so obscure and inexactly applied that I would advise any casual paper browser to ignore the fact that there is a theme and just deal with each question cold. Indeed I think the collective brains of Bletchley Park could have examined the answers to this round for most of World War 2 and still not come up with a theme (not least because the theme hadn't emerged by then). Come to think of it it's a jolly good thing that the Meat Raffle weren't in charge of Hitler's war machine or we might all be still under the jackboot. The picture round worked well though the two US State outlines were possibly the most unfair pairing of the season so far. Best of all though, I think, were the coupled Bingo-style Rounds 7 and 8 with the menu of topics from which to chose. A great way to finish an evening's quizzing. As for QotW the talking Manx animal called Gef just chose itself ("Gef, Gef" I can still hear its plaintive cry).

The Question of the Week

Bizarrely this week the vote goes to Round 7/8 Question 13 (Cryptozoology):

This talking animal appeared in a farmhouse in the Isle of man in the 1930s and said his name was Gef. To what species did he belong?

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

Chatterbox

As always when we try something new there are loose ends. The loose end with the handicap system was deciding whether 'Highest Scoring Losers' should be determined by comparing the scores before or after the handicap had been applied. I decided on balance that the right thing to do was to determine them after the handicap had been taken into account. You will notice that the scores shown against each Cup fixture on the fixtures page include the handicaps (though the Average Aggregate Score shown at the top of the list of the week's Cup fixtures is calculated on 'before handicap' scores in order to provide a true comparison to Average Aggregate Scores on other weeks). The Highest Scoring Losers in the first round of matches, therefore, were the Pussycats who will now be next week's setters. The setters for the week after next (May 18th) will probably be the lowest scoring losers from the first two rounds but I'll clarify this next Wednesday/Thursday on the site. And for the Finals on May 25th we'll use the Knocked Out United system we've used for the past few years whereby the 8 teams not involved in the Finals each submit a round. More details on this anon.