Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 09/11/11

(Since I'm back at work again for a short while just the results and table will be updated on Wednesday night. The match reports and quiz paper will be uploaded on Thursday evening)

The 100% Bards keep on going with a convincing home victory over the Prodigals

Results & Match Reports

Smoke Fairies beat Historymen in a pretty close run affair. Kieran reports "a most enjoyable evening" at the Griffin and as for the Historymen's point of view (courtesy of clinging-on-by-his-fingernails Captain Ivor):

"A real nip and tuck game and only one point behind going into the Blockbuster rounds, but IBSF rallied to secure victory. At least we gave them a bit of a scare being 3 points ahead at half time."

Ethel Rodin beat Compulsory Meat Raffle in another close game. James reports in:

"All credit to a three-legged CMR tonight. We would have been hard pushed against a four-legged meat beast, and had their conferred question each round been different it could have been even closer than it was. Incredible knowledge on lyrics, films, Arthurian legend and Maltese history meant that it was a close run thing throughout."

Electric Pigs beat TMTCH whose chipper Captain Dave reports cryptically:

"We came for their truffles but they gave us a good snouting."

Opsimaths beat Albert in the highest aggregate scoring game of the evening (81 points). Albert are excellent company these days whether they win or lose. Both Eveline and Mary were in fine form mercilessly mocking the male half of their team. An excellent evening all round.

Bards beat Prodigals at the Cricket Club with (if I read Tony's message correctly) a subtext of Daughter Hammond v Daddy Hammond (since Katie is playing the occasional game for the Prodigals). It seems that on the 'pick a subject' rounds Katie was able to anticipate Tony's choices and grab them first.

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week's paper was set by The Charabancs of Fire. The average aggregate score of 71.0 was the first such score over 70 this season.

At the Albert Club we loved it. The diverse styles of the rounds and the number of 'well I never' questions meant that we had plenty of candidates for Question of the Week. My own favourite moment was going for the TAGTOTAG question and singing the answer spot on.

Never one for half measures Kieran was equally enthusiastic:

"The best paper of the season so far by miles providing plenty of head scratchers and tip of the tongue moments. Le tout Charas were in attendance at the former fortress Griffin and were rightly complimented by the assembled contestants. A great relief, after some evenings this season, to take part in a contest where points were on offer, and a great relief for Smoke Fairies to score something like par. Smoke Fairies are always going to love a quiz with questions that mock mental illness and an entire round on ciggies.
High, wide and not very handsome answer of the week was Ivor's contention that Celtic could have been founded by a Brother WILLIAM! I fear for the protestant education system. Mind you he did get six twos."

Whilst from the same venue Ivor comments:

"By general agreement the quiz was interesting and fair - we could hardly say otherwise with the whole team of Charabancs there. Good to see a return of the Blockbuster and Pick Your Own types of round - though inevitably I always have the knack of picking the wrong one."

On behalf of Ethel James chips in:

"Well constructed, well balanced. Putting woodbine as the first answer of the second themed round might be regarded as less than subtle (it might have referred to Canadian racecourses I suppose...). Nice one Charas. As Roddy points out, it's the first time we've won one of yours for about half a decade!"

Only one slight negative and that was from the Pigs at the Moss. "Opinions divided" says Andrew, with one Pig labelling the quiz as "standard fare".

The Question of the Week

This week a number of you plump for Rounds 3/4 Question 7:

What was the fate of the USS Phoenix which escaped being sunk at Pearl Harbour?

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

Chatterbox

White Swan R.I.P.

For those that don't already know, we heard late last week that the White Swan was being sold off by Robinson's brewery to a property development company. After many years of being the home venue for quiz teams, jazz bands, and a motley crew of locals the heart of Ladybarn will be ripped out. I suppose it's just possible that the Gents may be preserved for the purposes of medical research but other than that years of history will doubtless turn into rubble. Talking of which Ethel Rodin have undertaken to let us know their new home venue as soon as they've decided. By the way, you know when a football club goes into administration they get penalised by the Football League authorities (for instance docked 10 points) - well surely losing your home venue to the bulldozers is the quizzing equivalent. How many points do you think we should deduct from Ethel's tally?

How on earth did the Opsimaths do it last year? The answer is of course relentless all year round training. As evidence of this here is a photo of Howell on his team-sponsored research trip to Amsterdam which of course paid handsome dividends in last week's quiz.