Bards, Fairies, Historymen and Meat Raffle go through to the Cup semis;

Opsimaths, Albert, Pigs and Prodigals play for the Plate;

Charabancs earn the setting duties for next week

The Prodigals managed to squander their 13 point handicap advantage and lose by quite a margin to the mighty Bards at the Albert Club.  Tony sums up:

At the Albert Club it was very much a family affair.  Anne-Marie was working late and so her sister was QM.  Kate was MVP for the Prodigals and her mum as a spectator kept Dad in his place.  The atmosphere in the snooker room was convivial in the extreme and the handicap of 13 points, which we were sure we could never overcome, was displaced by half time.  This was probably the last time this season that Bards will be at full strength and next week we have drawn the Historymen, who else!  An enjoyable quiz with plenty of opportunities to talk oneself out of the right answer.

At the Turnpike the Charabancs never really got going and were comfortably outpaced by the Historymen for whom Ann played yet another blinder.  Ivor chips in:

An excellent result against the Charas in the pleasant surroundings of the Turnpike (the White Swan now a distant but vivid memory - a bit like primary school sago pudding and Chinese burns).  Tonight I spent so much time on the running stats chivvying the team to get to 31 points (and avoid question setting duties next week) that almost lost sight that we were winning from the outset and thus the score was irrelevant (though alas possibly not for the Charas).  A good audience tonight with Roddy assessing his quiz moderation and Mike and Brian and the Opsimath’s European fan base (Jitka).

The Smoke Fairies conquered the handicap disadvantage and then ran up a 10 point lead in defeating TMTCH.  Hangman Graham reports....

Have to say that lack of match practice may have cost The Hangers their defeat at the hands of the Smoke Fairies...but the scores on the doors dictate how good they were to win by 10 points despite a nine point start to us...well what can you say?....looking forward to the end of season bash then.

and Kieran's verdict:

Thoroughly enjoyable evening in the company of The Men in an almost deserted Griffin (I think everyone was queuing for petrol down the road).  Dave's having a blinder just now isn't he?

This week the paper was set by Ethel Rodin.  A good, strong, traditional quiz paper with no fancy themes or trickery.  Mike Heald would have loved it!  Kieran's view from the Griffin:

Not a paper to fill your boots with easy points, nor indeed to inspire much affection but still fair enough.  We wondered which Rodinista has connections with Perth since it kept turning up in the answers but we waited in vain for the St Johnstone question.  We also thought that the near juxtaposition of bum-boats and Drake's Passage could have been better exploited, at least for those of us whose mind is permanently stuck in the Lower Fourth (or year 8 as it is now known).

Onwards to The Albert to discover what new cocktails Evelyn can tell us about, or The Meat Raffle with maybe a valedictory appearance from the peerless Tristan.

On what is likely to be a low scoring paper is there any chance that The Prodigals, 13 points to the good, could upset the all-conquering Bards?

The verdict of the Historymen (via Ivor):

Quiz itself was well received by us (winning sides usually find little to gripe about!) and from a statto viewpoint well balanced and the right level of difficulty (and easier than the previous Ethel offerings).

My QoW were the News Quiz style conundrums of the hawk with the change of heart and the person with the checkout of T10 and D16.  Curio of the week was how an emperor of the world’s biggest land mass ends up with the name Oceanic Leader.

Finally Rachael comments from the Meat Raffle/Albert frontline:

The quiz was well balanced with good, straightforward yet challenging, questions.  But oh, we did miss the variety of themed, bingo, 'pick your own subject' or blockbuster rounds and there were too many bird and flower questions with not enough pop culture questions.  However we did like the questions about the American dad and the historical figure whose name meant 'Lord of the Ocean'.

This week I'm going for Round 8 Question 8:

Which film ends with the line: "Hang on a minute lads, I've got a great idea."?