WITHQUIZ

The Withington Pub Quiz League

QUIZBIZ

28th November 2012

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Wins for The Bards, The Charas, The Fairies, The Opsimaths and Ethel

Results & Match Reports

The Bards of Didsbury beat The Prodigals.  Tony's verdict:

"It was another convivial encounter with the Prodigals down at the Cricket Club. Our sportsmanship was severely tested with Round 1 Question 5.  Mark, a member of Prospect but certainly not a referee showed the question a red card.  We thought it unfair and opted for a spare.  Pity, with a little more thought it could have made a brilliant question."

The Electric Pigs lost to Ethel Rodin - but more than that I cannot say.

I Blame Smoke Fairies beat The Men They Couldn't Hang.  Like all of us Kieran enjoys an evening with the Hangmen....

"A splendid evening in the company of The Men.  Pretty much my ideal Wednesday - and with victories at the DW and The Swamp (for those Fairies that get off on that sort of thing) the Fairies collective is smiling into the backside of the week.  Onwards to The Historymen next Wednesday.  We're rather enjoying this season so far!"

The Charabancs of Fire beat The Historymen.  First Ivor:

"Our combined score was rather feeble (especially compared with the tremendous scores reported elsewhere).  It was a case of everyone sitting in the wrong seat but it did add to the tension as the scores were always close."

then Damian:

"After a narrow defeat at the hands of 3 inspired Hangmen last week, the Charas redeemed themselves, scoring a narrow victory over their perennially tough opponents, the Historymen.  The lead changed hands constantly in the first half, finally settling into level pegging in the 6th and 7th rounds.  In the final round, the Charas managed to edge ahead through a combination of knowledge, guesswork and Historyman Peter's propensity for coming up with the right answer just after his team had already submitted an incorrect one!"

The Opsimaths overcame the Compulsory Meat Raffle in the end, but it was a mighty close affair.  The evening was suffused with bonhomie as it always is with Rachael and her colleagues.  After the quizzing had ended we settled down to chew the cud and compare the University Challenge selection process today as against the way things were in the 1920s when Howell was getting interested in such matters.  By the way, vows of secrecy prevented us finding out how Manchester University fare in the next round of this year's UC or, indeed whether Rachael makes it all the way to that final black chair moment.

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week the setters were Albert.  At the Albert Club we really enjoyed this paper.  It was pacy with succinct answers and covered a goodly range of sectors from the knowledge spectrum.  The themes were straightforward and helped as they should.  My own favourite round was the 'Johns' one which hit exactly the right degree of 'tip-of-the-tongueness'.  Like Mark we thought Prospect was a civil service union but didn't moan about the given answer.  Whatever happened to the days when unions were called things like PRATS (Professional Referees and Touchjudges Society) rather than poncy things like Prospect?

Damian reports on the reaction to the paper from The Turnpike:

"The consensus of both teams was that tonight's quiz was the best of Albert's recent offerings.  It struck just the right balance between ease and complexity with a nice assortment of subject matter to please pretty well everybody.  Although there were a few unanswerables, there wasn't much we couldn't have a decent guess at.  Good job Albert!

In place of a QotW, I think there was a general view that Round 7, the 'First Johns' theme round , should be voted as RotW."

...as does Ivor:

"Both teams agreed the questions were rather good - indeed 'the best Albert quiz for a while'.  The 'John' round was very well received, though there was an irony when QM John asked Chara John a John question to which he didn't know the answer.  Chara John, Tim and I couldn't muster a 2 all night.  How could I have totally forgotten the late John Pullman, a shining example of experience over callow youth in the Pot Black era, potting the red balls that would glow like rubies on our early colour television set?"

Kieran liked it too...

"A quiz to make the much missed Mike Heale smile from above.  All over within 75 minutes and, much to Bob's liking, an admirable brevity in the question text.  Mike may have quibbled over the fact that there were only 5 unanswerables against 21 twos and an aggregate of 79, but we were more than happy with another convincing win."

The Question of the Week

This week the majority vote for Round 4 Question 5:

Which British magazine stopped publishing in 1984 after 104 years?

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

Chatterbox

An independent TV company called Maverick TV are developing a new quiz show and are holding trial runs at Media City.  Through the website they have asked if up to 7 people from the Withington Quiz League fancy a trip to deepest Salford on Thursday December 13th to join in between 3.30pm and 8pm.  Just for a change I think I'll poll along.  Anyone fancy joining me?  If so let me know within the next few days and I'll get back to Maverick TV to confirm.

....and finally I've received an email from a would be WithQuizzer, Greg Spiller.  He's keen to play in our league so if any of the teams want to give Greg a whirl please contact him at:

greg@spillerg.freeserve.co.uk

Father Megson

 A Postcard from Mablethorpe

A Chairde,

Not much in the Withquiz post bag this week except for another threat to prosecute Roddy if he's not got that fcekin bike out of the White Swan by the end of the month and this postcard to Dusty from Father Megson.  Hard to say where it was posted as it doesn't have a postmark, not surprising since he didn't put a stamp on it, preferring the cheaper Catholic option of writing "St Anthony guide" on the top right hand corner.  Anyway, apparently he's in Mablethorpe which Martin tells me looks a lot like Ladybarn except it's got an amusement arcade and some pubs that haven't been demolished yet.

Dear Dusty,

Hope  your epistemological uncertainties are not giving you gyp.  I'm staying in Mablethorpe for a few days on the advice of Dr Tim who says I should try and get in touch with my feral side.  The sleet is very bracing and the digs are very comfy.  Laundry is not included but the landlady said she'll press my underpants for a small consideration lol.  My bed has got sheets and  a quilt on it so I stay there most of the day and then when it gets dark enough I go out, have a few pints and a kebab and then usually run feral for a few hours in a welter of fevered and feckless depravity.  It's feckin brill.  Mortal sins used to get  a bad press back in the seminary but they're not so bad once you get to know them.  I would recommend them all except maybe swearing at policemen which can be quite painful.   And ladies of the night are fine and dandy as well, not half as bad as they are painted.  One of them offered me a blowlamp for a tenner but I told her I had a primus stove back at the digs.  I have to say that committing sins is a whole bunch more fun than forgiving them.  Hope you are well and not doing anything that I wouldn't do and if you are let me know and I'll try it too lol.

Your loving curate,

Meggers

PS:  Can you put my bins out asap please and can you hire somebody to write quiz reports for the website?  Lord Bath, the Chief Procurer of  the Sink Estates, is doing his nut and threatening to cut off my stipend if I don't get my finger out and start producing more copy.  See if you can find some eejit willing to do it for nothing.