Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 26/10/11

Bards power on at the top - the Smoke Fairies visit the Cricket Club next Wednesday to determine pre-Christmas WithQuiz bragging rights

Results & Match Reports

Electric Pigs beat Ethel Rodin by a good margin in a noisy Fletcher Moss that was celebrating the fact that Ken and his team have just won the CAMRA Pub of the Month award.

TMTCH lost to the table-topping Bards from the Cricket Club. Hangman Graham writes in:

"An enthralling battle of wits at the Parrs Wood ended in a win for the Bards. We're all looking forward to Tony's naked Orwellian double page spread in this weekend's Sunday Times, a bargain from anybody's local corner shop for yer two quid or so" (Ed: An interview with retired Judge Tony Hammond is due to appear in this weekend's Sunday Times. If you want to know what Tony really thinks about the Smoke Fairies don't forget to buy it!)

In an attempt to disturb the relatively quiet Red Lion TV football watchers, the Historymen and the Opsimaths staged a boisterous contest invigilated by Peter and Jitka (who must be the most aggressive QM team ever fielded). Eventually the TV watchers started exiting the Red saying they would go and finish their evening in the relative calm of the Turnpike where they wouldn't be disturbed by noisy quizzers (little did they know that WithQuiz have also taken over The Turnpike these days). Oh...and after a familiar Historymen implosion just after half time the Opsimaths ran up a comfortable victory.

Charabancs beat Compulsory Meat Raffle. Gerry reports:

"No hooliganism in the local derby at the Turnpike tonight as the older generation just managed to get the better of the younger generation in a good natured tussle. Thanks to CMR for providing a last minute QM."

Prodigals lost at home to Albert in a game "of much joviality" according to correspondent Mary 'Dusty' O'Brien.

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week's paper was set by I Blame Smoke Fairies.

With a healthy average aggregate score of 66.6 the Red Lion contestants felt this was a good 'straight down the middle' WithQuiz paper. Stato Ivor reported that there were 10 unanswerables which broke 5-5 between the teams so no complaints from us about imbalance. There was praise for the themes and the way they were executed with most being reasonably evident after two or three answers had 'gone in the hole'. A slight quibble that 'Revoutionary' only included the theme word whereas all the other answers in that round had the theme word as a separate word. Spookily, with Opsimath Nick and myself off to Liverpool tomorrow to audition for that Cleverdicks programme which is to be hosted by Ann Widdecombe, we were chatting before the quiz started about the famous "Something of the night about him" quote.

From the Turnpike Gerry comments:

"It was left to Fr Megson to sum up the quizset in a word. Predictably the word he chose ended in 'ocks'. Yep, the technical term he used to describe the quiz was 'Goldilocks' - not too hard, not too easy, just right. Perfect in fact. What a shame Kieran's lot don't do porridge (they just look like they've all done porridge) or we'd all be queuing up for breakfast in the Griffin every morning. Damian, our regular correspondent, is in Bruges at the moment. Hopefully he will be more impressed than Ray, the slightly Philistine anti-hero of the excellent film In Bruges: "Listen, if I'd grown up on a farm and was retarded, Bruges might impress me, but I didn't so it doesn't".

Graham's feedback from the Parrs Wood:

"Knowing an album released in 1971 by the Bee Gees was of no help whatsoever to the 'Trafalgar' answer even though we'd worked out the theme. I'll wager even Spotify hasn't got hold of that part of the back catalogue (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOwW4PRoc0A if you want to listen to it),. We're all looking forward to the end of season bash when Bards' Sarah promises to give a full rendition of Fog On the Tyne. I'm going to check out how Gazza managed the line about "sleazy snack bars & sickly sausage rolls" on YouTube right now (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1urq4Vb0XM if you want to see for yourselves).

The exception to the general feeling of approbation comes from Ethel's James. Ethel felt the balance of the questions was way out with the team going first at a major disadvantage. Given the noisy setting at the Moss it seems Ethel's team had all but given up the ghost by the end of Round 3.

The Question of the Week

After a fair bit of mulling at the Red Lion Waterloo Sunset ran a close second to Round 3 Question 6:

The Romans often added volcanic ash to their concrete. What important property did this bestow upon it?

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