Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 03/10/12

Off we go with the Pigs soaring to the heights first time round

Results & Match Reports

Charabancs got the better of the Meat Raffle in the first Turnpike derby of the season....

....whilst Ethel Rodin lost to the Bards in the first Cricket Club derby

History Men and the Opsimaths were nip and tuck until the Premier League managers intervened in Round 5 and left the home team trailing by too great a margin. Great QMing from Rupert, by the way, with the occasional bit of extra knowledge thrown in to embellish the Fairy magic dust.

Prodigals enjoyed a happy first outing at the Albert Club beating Albert by 6 clear points. Anne-Marie reports:

"Despite the noise and the many years since she did o-level maths Cheryl plucked the answer 1.732 for the cosine/ sine/ tangent question out of midair - much to the shock of our QM, Stella, who, when asking the question confidently predicted that no-one would be able to answer it."

Electric Pigs entertained TMTCH to a round of losing pints as they romped home by 13 points.

Quiz Paper Verdict

For this first week of the league season the setting honours went to The Smoke Fairies.

Good reaction in the main. "Our sort of quiz - no disputes" according to Andrew from the Fletcher Moss. "What a fab quiz - we always enjoy Smoke Fairies papers" from Anne-Marie at the Albert Club. A bit more qualified from James at the Cricket Club:

"Do we not consider Doris Lessing to be British? Born in Iran to British parents... brought up in Southern Rhodesia, lived in London for 70 years... won 2 years after Pinter..... If we can criticise, we would say that the 1936 Nobel Prize winner would have been a perfect question for about the 6th question of a round, but as an opener it was perhaps a little harsh."

At the Red we had mixed feelings with incredulity stretched to the limits with the round whose theme seemed to rely on some bits of the answers being vaguely related to some words that appear in some items that appear in a sequence of some geological ages. As themes go not too hot - but I have to say the questions in that round were fine which sort of made up for the thematic contortions. Ivor delivered his usual update on the evening's stats at the end....11 unanswered apparently, with the Men getting the rough end of a 7-4 split. Ivor earned both the Jonah and the MVP awards, the latter of which he shared with a disappointed Opsimath City fan.

The Question of the Week

The Electric Pigs have chosen Round 1 Question 4 this week:

Which 1961 novel features a music teacher called Gordon Lowther, an art teacher called Teddy Lloyd and schoolgirls, Sandy Stranger and Rose Stanley?

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

Chatterbox

Earlier this week I received the following email which I thought would interest you:

Hi Withington Quiz league,

My name is Jack Milroy, I come from South west Scotland (a bit far away to join your quizzes in person!) but enjoy reading them on your website.

I was wondering, the questions on your website seem a good couple of steps up from your average pub quiz which Joe Bloggs might attend, and wondered how would you compare the standard of your own quiz with other major pub quiz leagues across the UK, and do you play against any teams from other leagues?

Also, given the area you cover and the difficulty of the questions I am guessing you must have a few guys in your ranks who have competed in TV quiz shows, like Mastermind or Eggheads and done quite well - was wondering if that was the case? Maybe you even people who have been to the British Quiz Championship!

This might give me an idea what sort of level other people are at in comparison with myself. Unfortunately my area is bereft of any meaningful quiz league!

I fully enjoy reading your quizzes on the site, keep up the good work!

Many thanks in advance for your help

Mr J Milroy

Stranraer

Dumfries & Galloway

In my reply I referred to Dave Rainford's recent promotion to the ranks of the Egghead's panel. I hope you've now all clocked this. Most teatimes at 6pm on BBC2 there's Dave on display. So far as I've seen to date he's more than held his own - and somewhat more modestly than his predecessor (CJ). Dave tells me that the standard practice fare for the Eggheads is a WithQuiz paper off the website. God knows what they'll make of this week's Round 7.