Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 14/12/11

(Sorry I've been a bit late getting all your comments up on the site; Friday 9pm has been the first chance to get near my computer at home since 6am Thursday morning)

The Smoke Fairies take the opportunity to creep a little closer to the top of the tree for Christmas

Results & Match Reports

Electric Pigs lost at the Moss to the Prodigals where Anne-Marie reports that the Prodigals were bolstered by the return of David Rainford Apparently he played a blinder and was the difference between the 2 teams.

Charabancs continued their mini run of success by beating Albert - as Damian reports.....

"Yes, once again the Charas managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Father M's dire warnings of eternal damnation and, even worse, threats to bar us from the annual Christmas orgy at his presbytery had the desired effect. Despite the fact that the Albert were a man short after one of their number was apparently forced to enter a retirement home (at least I think that's what Mary said) they managed to stay ahead in every single round bar the last two. Even the late addition to their team of our number one sub Jane, who treacherously offered them her services couldn't quite enable them to hold on to their lead."

Smoke Fairies edged home against the Compulsory Meat Raffle. Kieran sums up:

"A close contest right to the end, finally resolved in our favour through Barry's new all consuming interest in the history of ancient Rome (thanks Radio 4, not sure that station is on the Raffle's radar as yet!). Our visitors had to retire to Withington sharpish at the conclusion so we were unable to buy them the traditional victor's round. Instead they brought us mince pies. Very generous of them and all we could do was throw their festive spirit back in their faces by winning - sorry guys."

Opsimaths beat TMTCH in a jolly festive encounter at the Albert Club during which we learned that a) Les Wiggins (father of TMTCH's Graham) was a celebrated sound editor who worked on A Bridge Too Far and b) Ted Barras (father of TMTCH's Dave) was a champion Meccano designer.

Historymen lost to the mercurial Ethel Rodin. Ivor reflects on Ethel Rodin, the match and the season in general:

"Mercurial Ethel Rodin? Indeed. Last week Ethel put up a feeble performance losing to a depleted Smoke Fairy side with a very low score. This week the same side give us a trouncing with the highest of all the match scores - I suspect they would have beaten any of us last night.

It was a funny old game though. After two rounds we were 7 points ahead and feeling very confident. Two rounds later we were 3 points behind and then 9 points behind two rounds after that. Rounds 3 to 6 generated 7 points for us and 23 to Ethel. It’s not that we were terrible (well just a bit) but tonight Ethel were very good.

It has been a funny old season so far and the league table confirms that teams are more evenly matched than ever before. There have been so many 'shock' results that it is no longer shocking. The credit for this must go to the great variety of papers we have had that explore and test all human knowledge and more, each with varying degrees of emphasis and subtle nuances. How much better to set our own questions than buy them in from a professional setting firm (as some leagues do). (Ed: And so say all of us!!)

Tonight’s offering from the Bards certainly tested us! Being somewhat depleted in numbers (young David in Spain - Xmas holidays starting earlier every year) we had Tony in the QM chair ably supported by Eric which also meant a quick fire quiz from the Southport league as post game fun. However by that time we were so busy licking our wounds and accusing each other of being cretins we entirely neglected to compensate Tony for his efforts in the usual liquid manner."

From the same match Roddy offers this:

"As to the quiz last night we found it okay and were somewhat surprised to find that our match produced the highest aggregate and the highest team score. It goes some way to confirm my conjecture that Ethel's criterion for what constitutes a good quiz differs somewhat from that of the rest of the league."

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week's paper was set by The Bards. "Hard from the Bards" was the general verdict from the Albert Club - tinged with a certain amount of joy for the unexpected promotion of that habitual by-the-way island, Tobago, to the status of full nationhood. And whilst we're on about duff answers, Dave is sure that the Vulcan is an AVRO creation not a Vickers plane (see the Message Board for the truth about this). There were plenty of unanswerables reported from around the grounds - for example, 21 from the Charas/Albert match and 20 from the Smoke Fairies/Meat Raffle affair. I'll report some more comments later today/tomorrow.

(Friday evening's additional feedback)......

From the Red Roddy and Ivor were a little kinder than my earlier comments allow:

(Ivor) "Quiz itself was a curate’s egg and fairly hard. We quite liked the penalty missers and the literary rounds - though I was glad that by the time the seat 4 questions arrived we had got to proper non-Dickensian 19^th century novels."

(Roddy) "There were 14 unanswered questions falling 7-7 between the teams. The only questions which aroused universal criticism were those regarding animals/species that live at the highest altitude or for the longest. But I imagine that was the case everywhere."

Kieran, though, did not like it:

"Oh dear! Oh dear! If Bamber and Magnus had compiled a checklist of errors to commit when setting a quiz paper then the Bards would have checked quite a few. A number of the questions were badly phrased (surely any bird lives at a higher altitude than any yak).

Some of the pairs were unbalanced (for example, an Oscar winner - in incidentally a brilliant film - and the country of his birth). A non existent country (show me Tobago's U.N. seat please) and a couple of nonentity daytime TV voiceover stars from shows that even the students don't watch, with names that no one would have a hope of getting. Over half our points came from the two rounds on penalty miscreants and DJs. But we do have to give credit to the brilliant trap that we all tumbled into headlong by assuming that Mayo must have been the Irish county. How could we forget Emperor Rosko?"

Anne-Marie brings up the rear with...

"Hard but fair. Even pairs and good themes (note to self – next time the Bards set a quiz must swot up on old aircraft and WW2 history)."

The Question of the Week

Andrew, on behalf of the Pigs and the Prodigals, opts for Round 5 Question 5:

Which author complained bitterly to media organisations about the less than flattering portrayal of her army officer husband in the film A Bridge Too Far?

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

Chatterbox

Some news from Roddy on the fate of the White Swan - and where Ethel are to be found on home match Wednesdays from now on:

"It may not be widely known that the White Swan is not to be pulled down as first thought but will be refurbished and become the new venue for the Ladybarn social club, which currently resides in Beverley Road around the corner. It is the Beverley Road building which will be demolished and the site developed for housing. It's unlikely that Ethel Rodin will return as a) it will be too posh and b) on past experience, the club will not have any real beer. At least until the end of this season we will be sharing the Didsbury Cricket club with the Bards."

Somehow I just have the feeling that the above news might provoke the waspish pen of Fr M.