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 The History Men rocked the Red beating Traveller's Call
convincingly. Two reports have reached me from the
victor's camp; first Ivor:
"An excellent night. We played
Travellers' Call almost two years ago in the first round of
the 'European Cup' and won by a whisker. Tonight was
similarly very close until the last two rounds. Once again
our opponents were very gracious in defeat (something which
has not often happened to them in the last year or two,
since they became the new Chunky of Stockport!)."
then David:
"Another famous night in Europe at the Red
Lion! Just like a night of all-in-cosmetic
surgery it was nip 'n' tuck all the way.
The first round in the Stockport-style had
the History Men going into an early lead, with Traveller's
Call coming back and overtaking them by the end of the round
to lead 21-20. In the
next round the History Men prevailed 8-4 thanks to their
knowledge of obscure visual hallucinations and Bruce
Willis's children. The first round of the second half
in WithQuiz-style went 7-4 to Traveller's Call - so all
square again! In the last 2 rounds the History Men
managed to bang in a few two's and the odd sneaky steal to
win. The 50-39 win was rather flattering as it only opened
up right at the end.
A good night all round with neither team having any
members hauled up before their respective governing bodies,
so 'Europe' continues on a harmonious note! What's
more Pete stayed awake and
alert as QM all night, although he did mishear one answer
of 'Bourbon Whiskey' as 'Urban Whiskey'. Whether this was
because of his familiarity with ghettos or with the Vatican
I'm not sure."
Opsimaths
met their WIST nemesis once more as Chunky mopped up at
the Albert Club. Brian's view on the affair...
"Best team on the evening was undoubtedly
QM Roddy, who coped admirably with all the various question
formats, and Jitka, who did the timing. Second best
team, but only marginally, were Chunky. Despite being behind
after the first half of Stockport-style questions (29-24),
they demolished us in the second half. Third best team
were probably the bar staff, and Opsimaths may have scraped
fourth. That’s assuming you don’t count Sweden on the telly.
Can’t comment on the Stockport-style
questions, but the WithQuiz questions were a disaster for
Opsimaths, who lost 28-15 on these mostly easy rounds.
If there had been 8 rounds, the aggregate score would might
have been about 86, making it the highest scoring match of
the season! Over the evening
Opsimaths scored five 2’s and five 1’s while Chunky scored
12 2’s, three 1’s and a steal. So there were 17 2’s out of
32 questions! Six questions went unanswered, four for
Opsimaths and two for Chunky.
And finally....one
of the reasons we did so well on the Stockport part of the
quiz was our knowledge of really obscure things, but we are
all still wondering how Howell knew that purple was voted
the most popular colour for women’s lingerie in 2011.
He claims it is based on his observation of bra straps on
young things wandering around his office. He may
indeed be that observant, but somehow it is difficult to get
J. Edgar Hoover and Richard Wagner out of one’s mind"
and from the winner's corner Chunky's
correspondent writes in....
"We thought the paper
not too easy and not too hard. The setter got the format
and the spirit right and in our game it made for an exciting
contest. We really enjoyed the game. The Albert Club
is a super venue, and the QM and his assistant did a fine
job. There wasn't one controversial answer and we felt that
our experience of the Stockport cup handicap system helped
us when we were five points behind and it was looking dark.
Three or four educated guesses (including a magnificent
'Armed To The Teeth' from Rod) turned the tide. We
knew we had to go for two pointers and we were braver than
usual in that respect."
Alexandra found their WIST way blocked for yet another year by I Blame Smoke Fairies. Kieran's summing up
of a great evening...
"Fourth time we've played the Alexandra
and fourth time we've repaid their excellent hospitality by
beating them. They are a very friendly team, terrific hosts
and the Alexandra is a superb proper pub.
Unfortunately a bit too far out of the way
to be a venue in the Withington league but just a 10 minute
walk for Martin and me. We definitely got the rub of
the green going first in the Stockport format with two of
ours unanswered as against six for our hosts.
Now after
six straight, convincing wins are we still a team in
crisis?"
 Mike/Roberto from the
Alex gives his side of things:
"As has become
traditional The Alex were once again knocked out of the WIST
Champions Cup by our 'Euronemesis', the Smoke Fairies.
Despite regular Wednesday night whuppings at their hands
it's still a pleasure to lock intellectual horns with the
Fairies; they are always gracious in victory and last night
was another enjoyable evening in their company. A storming
first round (in which they correctly answered 13 of their 15
questions) saw the Fairies almost out of sight by half time,
although a shared ignorance of underwear, old people
'tripping', and donkey health and safety meant we were able
to draw the written round. In the second half we actually
managed to win a round, but the Fairies cruised home with
plenty in the tank. When asked to explain yet another
failure in Europe the Alexandra manager said 'This is
quizzing. Is normal. The Smoky Pharaohs are a fantastic
team and played a fantastic game. We must improve in this
moment. Only this.'"
Printers lost at home to The Bards of Didsbury.
Unfortunately I haven't received the actual scores but I do have
a report from Tony:
"We won and led from start to finish. I
forgot to keep a running tally of the score. As ever
we did better on the Stockport format than the Withquiz one.
I do remember we were 11 points ahead going into the last
round and needed only one point to stitch up the win.
We batted first and got a steal on the very first question
of the last round after which we seemed to pile on a few
more points to round it off.
Our hosts were very welcoming and
provided superb refreshments and a spare quiz to round off
the evening. The object of quizzing is to win as well
as show off all one knows about what happened in the 40s and
50s. So we obliged and did not feel quite as
triumphant as others, just very happy after a good night in
Cheadle."
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