Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 07/03/12

Results go with the formbook - the 4 for next year's WIST Champion's Cup are the Bards, the Smoke Fairies, the Opsimaths and the Historymen - the Charas miss out on points difference

Results & Match Reports

Electric Pigs lost to the Smoke Fairies but, according to Andrew there were plenty of laughs along the way. Kieran puts yet another titleless season to bed for the Fairies with these wistful sentiments:

Very good end to the setting league season from The Historypeople. We signed off with a resounding win with our Stakhanovite QM Bob becoming an honorary Pig for the evening. Bob did well for our opponents but we had enough in hand to secure the runners up spot - again! Mike, now that the Opsimaths have finished outside the top two (and when did that last happen?) will you have to pre-qualify for next season's WIST by playing off against some lower achievers from Droylsden or Flixton perhaps? (Ed: Have you heard of hubris, Kieran?)
Question of the week was undoubtedly the computer TWAIN business, which Barry got word perfect. Who would have thought geeks had such a sense of humour? (No I don't mean Barry is a geek - then again......)
Outrageous prediction of the week was David foreseeing that the Gothic question in the pick your subject round would contain some reference to The Sisters Of Mercy. Martin duly nailed the two points but claimed he would have got there without David's inspiration anyway.
Confused scratching of heads moment was discovering that the Jesuits (presumably all of them that were extant in the 16th century) were in the frame for the Bard's oeuvre.
Speaking of the Bards, once again congratulations to them. Still hoping that Tony & co's profligacy might see them deducted 10 points before their victory is ratified. I saw his Honour buying Jameson's in Tesco's on Saturday evening and talking of bringing champagne to the Cricket Club this evening. Somehow I think his pockets might just be deep enough to stand the odd bottle of Bolly.
Bards, many congratulations. A thoroughly deserved title and you set a standard that we simply couldn't match. Mike and the Opsimaths, this is how it feels to see your title wrenched away from you by a better team. And to everyone else, to misquote Eunice Kennedy's soon to be former son-in-law: "We'll be back!"

Compulsory Meat Raffle, featuring one of Manchester University's winning University Challenge semi final team (Mike McKenna) were steamrollered by an Opsimaths team anxious to end their year as reigning league champions with a resounding victory and their first 50+ score of the season.

Bards came from behind to edge past the The Men They Couldn't Hang in a relatively low-scoring match at the Cricket Club. Tony reports from the Gasholder end:

We had a great evening with the Hangmen. They are always the best of opponents. Steve has a lurgy and so had to boycott the occasion. The Hangmen had the better of us for the first five rounds and it looked like the best we could hope for was a draw. Happily we kept our nerve and I remembered the Duke of Albuquerque not to mention the Earl of Oxford's flatulence and we were able to draw level by round 6 and then edge a close win. We refused to buy the gallant losers a pint or three but instead forced them (and Ivor and James who came along later) to join us in an end of season glass of champagne.

....and from the same match Graham sums up for the Hangmen:

The Hangers were once again undone by questions of the 'Pick Your Own' variety. The damage could have been done far earlier, however, as we persuaded ourselves that the answer to the Baudelaire/Charlie & the Chocolate Factory question was 'Veruca', thinking we were letting ourselves into a chiropody-themed round. One for next season maybe? All in all a great time had by all, and we can't wait to see the snaps Eric. (Ed: see below, Graham)

Ethel Rodin lost their final home match to the Albert who consequently leapfrog them up the table to finish in 6th place. Mary writes in:

We played in the main bar tonight as the Bards were also playing at the Cricket Club. Proceedings were in the very capable hands of guest QM, Ivor. We thought it was a pretty well balanced quiz with a good mix of question subjects - although Eveline, with her usual aversion to making decisions demanded that Michael made the choices for her in Rounds 7 and 8. Ashton had a very good night with 5 2s - again falling victim to having to choose his own fate in rounds 7 and 8. We just don't like making decisions!

Prodigals just lost out to the Charabancs of Fire in a close contest at the Albert Club. Damian's verdict:

A wonderful, nail-biting conclusion to the season for the Charas with yet another down-to-the-wire win against one of our favourite opponents, the Prodigals. For the entire first half, the Prods were ahead by one or two points. In the second half, roles were reversed but there was never more than a couple of points in it either way!

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week the paper was set by The Historymen. At the Turnpike, watched over by Historyman David, we absolutely loved it. I think the Opsimaths made all the right selections in Rounds 6,7 and 8 but nevertheless found pretty well everything to their taste. Thankfully all the pop questions were from an era predating the birth of any of their opponents and even the royal fart question fell our way. This was a rousing end to the league season. Well done Historymen!!

And quiz connoisseur Damian gushes in:

The Historymen's questions were a nice, bouncy, assortment of anything you might fancy that proceeded at a fairly brisk pace leaving us all time for a final pint or two before the bar shut. A thoroughly enjoyable quiz and a great finale to this year's league season. Well done Historymen, well done us, well done our opponents, well done everybody!

The Question of the Week

This week the vote goes to Round 6 Question 10:

In computing what does the acronym TWAIN stand for?

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

Chatterbox

This week sees the publication of the final version of the league table and so now we can calculate the handicap points to be used for each of the Cup and Plate matches to come. A reminder for those who've forgotten - we agreed to use the same handicap system as we used last year, that is the score before the first question is asked in each game is equivalent to the difference between the two teams' 'Average Score For' in the final league table (rounded to the nearest whole point). I have already entered these starting scores onto the fixtures page wherever the teams for the tie are already known.

Did anyone see the fantastic Tristan Burke and colleagues representing Manchester University on University Challenge on Monday? They won their semi-final battle against Worcester College, Oxford by a country mile (240-65, I think). Awesome. I'd like to think that last year's WithQuiz experience with the Compulsory Meat Raffle squad honed Tristan's quizzing skills. Maybe a little. Good luck to them in the final which will be screened on Monday March 19th at 8pm on BBC2.

Meanwhile Eric's been at it again shooting the visitors. Here's last week's Bardic victims: Geoff, John, Roddy and Robin collectively known as ETHEL RODIN.

....along with QM, Historyman, stato and general good egg Ivor...