Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 20/03/13

Many congratulations to the Fairies - after a couple of years away they're back on top - but it wasn't easy with the Bards chasing to the end

Ethel fall at (almost) the last leaving the Opsimaths clear in third spot

Ethel and the History Men are still battling for fourth spot

Results & Match Reports

The History Men beat The Charabancs of Fire. Ivor gives us the lowdown:

"The Charas bad run continues despite an impressive 6 twos from Gerry, returning to the fray after his exotic holiday in.… Scotland (scoff not, in both of the Ulster traditions actually crossing water counts as exotic). However John, Damian, Roisin and Gerry are confident that a successful Cup run is imminent (and scoff not, who can forget the Electric Pigs seemingly endless wins and runners-up in Cup campaigns of the Noughties despite performing like journeymen in the league)."

..as does Damian:

"That we Charas lost yet again is no surprise. 2013 has not been kind to us and the Historymen are amongst our most formidable opponents. Someone somewhere must have really screwed up with the New Year resolutions this time around. Personally I blame the beer. Having played for so many years at the White Swan, the Charas are just not used to drinking proper beer at quizzes. Our ageing brains just cannot take it. For heavens sake, are there no shifty landlords still around to water down the beer for us so we can get back in with a chance? If not, we may all have to stick with the tonic water like Chara John."

The Bards beat Albert at the Cricket Club - but all to no avail with the Fairies beating TMTCH over at the Parrswood.

The Electric Pigs fell behind in the early rounds and subsequently could never get back on terms with The Opsimaths at the Fletcher Moss. The evening was brightened up by a rare visit from former Opsimath, Colinski (indeed some say it was Colin's advanced years that first inspired the team name). Colin lives in Llangollen and these days only ventures out of the Principality when he is refereeing squash tournaments.

The Prodigals beat Ethel Rodin to settle the third/fourth league place battle in favour of their fellow Albert Clubbers, the Opsimaths - though the battle for fourth place between Ethel and the History Men is still very much alive with the final place in 'Europe' up for grabs.

The Men They Couldn't Hang failed to oblige their Bardic friends by losing to I Blame Smoke Fairies. Not surprisingly Kieran is OTTed out:

"To borrow from the great Steve Winwood: 'We're back in the high life again'. Apologies to serial title decider opponents The Men, but we had no bubbly to mark the occasion. Despite this we had a thoroughly enjoyable evening in The Parrs Wood which, in contrast to The Albert Club, has by far the worst background music in the league.

So we'll dance till the morning sun, and we'll let the good times come in, and we won't stop till we're done.

Safe to say we're pretty blissed out Fairies tonight - see our logo!"

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week the paper was compiled by Compulsory Meat Raffle. We had to wait until Round 7 before the temptation got just too much for the setters and a splurge of 1980s Indy rock music burst forth. The previous 6 rounds were generally about knowledge rather than specifically about personal obsessions. The result? A great paper with an average aggregate of 75.4 (compared to CMR's paper earlier in the season which scored 58.2). The themes were nicely worked with my own favourite being the round of tea-related answers - with least favourite being the Bernard Cornwell Sharpe novels theme. A tad too obscure for me. At the Fletcher Moss Gary lodged his usual objection to rounds with explicit themes ("just 8 questions on the same subject which breaks the rule about variety"). Personally though I was more then happy with the picture round on languages - an area of knowledge that rarely gets a look in. All in all a cracking quiz paper. Well done and thanks to CMR.

Anne-Marie comments: "Lovely quiz from CMR."

Kieran gives the Fairies collective view:

"A Raffle paper of two halves. An aggregate 48 points in the first half but only 30 in the second. It had the most unbalanced pair in the history of the league - the Chelyabinsk/Detroit pair. It also had a great question of the week.... any question that puts the phrases 'Sarah Palin' and 'serial cretin' in the same sentence will always get the nod from the almost former Fairies."

..whilst Ivor comes in from the Red with this:

"Thoroughly enjoyable game tonight and despite some skewed rounds everything balanced out well in the end. Six unanswered questions per side and 3 steals each with slightly more 2s to us (14-11 playing first).

The combined score of 77 was rather higher than was the case in the CMR Christmas quiz though not surprisingly the music questions were a challenge. We would probably have scored as many on Hindi bands as Indie bands. Surprisingly Peter got a 2 on an indie pop question for the first time ever.... but only because the Pixies had featured in the debate for the previous question (the benefits of supping Coke rather than beer). As always there was plenty of amusement along the way with blurts (Alan Shepherd and Thomas Keneally) and inspired guesses (Parker Brothers and Martin van Buren). Anne didn't really have a chance to identify Pushtu after she'd mistaken Afghanistan for Switzerland. Fortunately on this occasion discretion led to a conferral."

...and Damian with this:

"Tonight's quiz was a thoroughly jolly affair courtesy of the Meat Rafflers. Plenty of variety and lots of themes both revealed and hidden. There was even a startlingly original innovation! Which of us could ever have dreamed of a picture round on languages? Highlight of our evening was surely Historyman Peter scoring a 2 on his Indie pop round question. Truly remarkable given that Peter had never even heard of Indie Pop or the name of the group he was asked to identify. Maybe The Pixies was something he always comes up with whenever he doesn't know the answer to a question (Ed: Although Ivor above knows better!)."

The Question of the Week

This week I'm casting the vote and it goes to the tea-flavoured Round 4 Question 2:

Which author was recruited into MI6 by his own sister, being posted to Sierra Leone during the Second World War? His best known work is a piece of confectionery.

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