Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 25/05/11

SPW hoist the Val Draper Cup - the Prodigals storm through to win the Plate

Results & Match Reports

There was a wonderful atmosphere at the Club last night as over a dozen spectators joined the four finalist teams, and QMs Eric and Tony, for this year's Finals evening. Unlike the previous rounds the handicap system didn't seem to play a significant role as both winning teams romped home by a fair margin.

Once the matches were over everyone got together in the back lounge to consider which of the rounds was the best, and guess the identity of the setters for each. On the first point there was little contention as Round 1 pretty much got everyone's vote. Much harder was identifying which team set which round. Most of the initial guesses proved inaccurate. So, despite this site's occasional tendency to stereotype teams' setting styles, here was proof that the unpredictability of what sort of paper lies in store each Wednesday is still a major strength of the way we do our quizzing.

Val Draper Cup Final:

Charabancs (Roisin, Gerry, John & Damian) quickly lost the handicap advantage and then went steadily behind to a resurgent SPW (Kieran, Barry, David & Martin)

Plate Final:

Prodigals (Anne-Marie, Dave, Cheryl & Mark) were on stonking form taking the handicap advantage as a starting point to overwhelm the Opsimaths (Brian, Nick, Howell & myself)

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week's paper was set by Knocked Out United with the Bards (in particular Tony) acting as grand chief editors.

The prize for best round went by universal acclaim to Round 1 set by The Men They Couldn't Hang. Well done to them for winning this accolade for the second year running.

The whole paper could certainly be summed up by the word 'eclectic'. As ever themes rubbed shoulders with pairs, and the downright boring (naming tax rates) with the fascinating (the connection between Origen, Sima Qian, Mohammad Khan and Boston Corbett). One slight gripe was that the balance seemed off beam. The team going second by and large got the easy lobs when they came. As it turned out both matches were won by very clear margins so it would be hard to say this effected the outcomes. In all a great celebration of the unique WithQuiz style.

The Question of the Week

This week the vote goes to Round 7 Question 5 submitted by Compulsory Meat Raffle:

What did the early Christian theologian Origen, the Chinese historian Sima Qian, the founder of the Persian Qajar dynasty Mohammad Khan Qajar, and Boston Corbett who shot John Wilkes Booth, all have in common?

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

Chatterbox

Next Wednesday sees the WIST Cup Final at the Albert Club when SPW take on Chunky of the Stockport League to see who is the mightiest of them all this side of the City centre.

.....and finally (my God it's been a long season - we must start earlier next season), we have the traditional End of Season Presentation Evening at the Albert Club on Wednesday June 8th with one of the usual Club 'big screen pictures and music' 6 round team quizzes. Visitors/partners/etc. will be very welcome (I seem to remember that a marauding party from the Stockport Quiz League won the evening's quiz a few seasons ago).