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The Bards earn
bragging rights over the Fairies despite their reign as Champions coming to a close;
Ethel just
scramble into Europe on goal difference after a tie with the Charas;
TMTCH also tie
to leapfrog the Pigs who finish in the 'Omega position'
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Results & Match Reports |
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 I Blame Smoke Fairies lost at home to
The Bards
in the match that, oh so nearly, could have been the title decider.
According to Hangman, Dave, the credit for the fact that it wasn't
goes to TMTCH for nicking an unexpected tie off the Bards just
before Christmas.
Tony reports....
"It was a hard and unrelenting struggle
tonight. The Fairies contested every round strongly and were
leading for much of the game. Steve was on superb form and we
eventually triumphed in the last couple rounds. The atmosphere
at the Griffin was friendly in the extreme although Eric was -
as usual - more than fair to our opponents. We thought Heineken
refreshed the parts other questions don't reach but he allowed
Kieran to get away with the awful lager 'reaching parts other
beers don't'. We parted on the best of terms with the Fairies
discussing when we might meet again, and agreeing that the
European Final shall be played at the Cricket Club."
...and Kieran...
"Good end to a happy season for us. The game
was close for most of the evening but the Bards' superior
knowledge of the Greek alphabet ('I could have been a judge but
I didn't have the Greek' - hang on that's not right), and a
strike out for us in the last round, proved decisive.
Tony & co. passed the title over with great grace and it
generally had the feeling of 'after the Lord Mayor's show'.
Once again, many congratulations to the Bards on their season as
champions.
We're very pleased with our season and I suspect there will
be quite a few battles between whatever we're gong to be called
and the Bards in the years (and even the weeks) to come."
Ethel Rodin tied with The Charabancs of Fire in a
thrilling match that just allowed Ethel to hang on to fourth place
and therefore a place in next season's WIST
Cup.
Damian reports in from the Cricket Club...
 "Our very last league match of the season
went true to form as we led in every round up until Round
6 when our usual 2013 jinx kicked in and we fell behind - and remained
behind for most of the next 2 rounds. This time, however, the quiz gods
took pity on us as we entered the final
straight and we managed to salvage a tie in a truly
nail-biting finish! The lateness of the hour precluded us from
buying each other a round but we left in the confident hope
that, if we behave ourselves and somehow avoid upsetting the
Great Quiz Setter In The Sky any further....who knows...we might
even go one further next time and grab a win!!
Tonight's quiz
was in the very congenial surroundings of the Cricket Club bar
and in the very congenial company of our former fellow-Swanners,
Ethel Rodin. To mark the occasion, Chara John eschewed his
usual tonic water and joined us in a pint or two of the local
brew! Themes of various kinds were the order of the day
from the Prodigals. We especially liked the Elements and
Connections rounds. However, Yours Truly and his follicly
challenged captain found the hairdressers/hair stylists themed
round just a tad too girly for our tastes. For that round,
we were almost entirely dependent on the input of the only girly
quizzer in the room tonight...Roisin. Apparently, she's
the only one of us who's actually been known to spend more than
a tenner whenever she visits her local barber!"
 The Opsimaths tied with
The Men They Couldn't Hang
in a ding-dong tussle at the Club. Hangman Graham was on superb
form reeling off all relevant horsy facts in the Connections
round, including the names of the trainers, and mopping up a few
of the pop questions that left the rest of us askance. How
come the Men have only just avoided bottom place?
The Electric Pigs lost to The History Men as Ivor reflects...
"An exciting and close game tonight at the Fletcher Moss
with the Pigs ahead until a swing n Round 6 allowed us to keep up our
pressure for a place in Europe (that is if Ethel fail against the Charas).
Ed: But as we now know Ethel sneaked a point from a tie and so just
finished ahead of the History Men on superior points difference.
A good rest to recharge our batteries before the Val
Draper Cup and Plate competitions. The Cup is in good condition on my mantlepiece and (like the FA cup appearing in the 3rd round) we shall bring
it along to the 2nd round (we have a bye in the first round) at either the Fletcher
Moss (if the Pigs beat Gin'll Fix It) or the Old House At Home (if they
don't)."
Compulsory Meat Raffle beat Albert in a low-scoring match at
the Turnpike. |
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Quiz Paper Verdict |
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 This week the paper was compiled by
The Prodigals.
Yet another excellent paper to bring the league season to a close.
Anne-Marie (who I saw earlier in the week) was afraid they might have made it
too tough, but it seemed fine to me. A little harder than average,
perhaps, but by no means impenetrable. Like so many other papers this
season it's chief virtues were the diversity of its format and the interest
generated by its content. Somehow you can just sense when a lot of hard
work and thought has gone into a paper and this one ticked those boxes. At
the Club we loved it. Finally, full marks for the overwhelming humility of
Round 8 which listed some of Dave's mistakes on Eggheads. A great
idea which takes nothing away from our collective pride in having one of our
number in amongst the TV quizzing elite.
What did the History Men make of
it? Ivor answers that one....
"Excellently constructed
quiz from the Prodigals. Obviously a lot of thought must have been put
in to produce questions where, even if you didn't get the answer, you kicked
yourself for not having a proper stab at it. For example we passed on the
DH Lawrence wife question because, although we knew Frieda as the forename,
von Richthofen seemed too obvious as the surname. Strange as it may seem
Tim and I were discussing Shakespeare plays before the quiz (I'm off with
family to see Hamlet in Stratford tomorrow) and Tim said 'If you get a
quotation question it's usually Hamlet' - so why did he say 'Henry the
Fifth' for the 'hoist by his own petard' question?
Round of the week was the Elements round (it was novel and, even if you
knew the answer to the question, you could still fail translating it into
the correct symbol). The Connections round was also well received. Good
questions in the rounds with hair and Booker prize winners themes, but we
never got the themes. Indeed the title to the Booker winners round was
too misleading to help."
 ...whilst
from the same match the Pigs' view was summed up by Andrew...
"Excellent quiz with some great innovations....we particularly liked the
chemical symbols round."
At the
Griffin the Fairies' view - courtesy of Kieran - was....
"Interesting paper from the Prodigals. The lamb dhansak and death eaters questions in the 'It's all Greek' round were very
clever - though having to choose between George V and Edward VIII, and
Neptune and Uranus broke the cardinal 'if they get it wrong we'll get it
right because it's the other one' rule."
....and finally Rachael chips in from the CMR/Albert match with
a slightly less enthusiastic summing up....
"I think we all found the quiz quite challenging
with a few questions that went unanswered and left us none the wiser when
the answer was revealed. However, it was a varied paper with some
genuinely challenging and fascinating questions. We particularly liked
the fourth plinth question even though we didn't get it! The Greek
alphabet round was very kind to us as, until then, the scores were too close
for comfort."
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The Question
of the Week |
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 This week
my vote goes to Round 3 Question 8:
This advertising slogan was conceived in 1994 by creative team Liz Whiston
and Dave Shelton and is still used today. The line totally bombed in
research which said it wasn’t “advertising enough”. The slogan has entered
the English vernacular and has even been used in Parliament. David
Cameron has used it at least twice, most recently in his summing up of the
state of the coalition government at its halfway point speech, in January
2013. What is the slogan?
For the answer to this and all the week's questions click
here.
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Chatterbox |
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We break for a fortnight now and return to the
fray to fight out the Round One Cup matches on Wednesday April 10th when we'll
be joined by our new team, Gin'll Fix It.
Now the final league table is in place I've
calculated the handicaps for the first round cup matches. This year I've
taken the overall league average 'Score For' (34.3 points) and given each team a
handicap based on the difference between their average 'Score For' and 34.3 -
rounded to the nearest whole point. So, for example, the Bards average
'Score For' is 41.9 resulting in a handicap of 8 points (they'll start their cup
matches on minus 8 points). On the other hand TMTCH have an average 'Score
For' of 28.8 so they'll start their matches on plus 6 points. The
exception will be any Gin'll Fix it matches where both teams will start on zero
points.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just for a bit of amusement I've decided to
republish items from QuizBiz from 10 years back. Here's the article that
appeared on March 26th 2003:
"At the top of the table
St Caths
edged past the
Brains
after a pretty even (and low-scoring) first half. This result
leaves St Caths at the top one point ahead of the Braggarts, though
the Braggarts have a game in hand.
The
Braggarts
got back to winning form this week with a comfortable victory
against the mercurial
Opsimaths
down at the Griffin.
A more dramatic result took place in Chorlton with
SWMCC
trouncing the
Historymen
in the battle of the newcomers. With a 'sit out' week still to come
this seriously dents the Historymen's chances of the league title.
The form team of the moment,
Snoopy's,
won away at the Red against the
Pigs.
Snoopy's have a game in hand on St Caths and the Historymen and
could yet provide the strongest challenge to the Braggarts in the
run in. Significantly they play the Braggarts in their final game
of the season - this could be one for the fainthearted to avoid.
In the other result of the week
Albert Park
won a close match against
TUFKAC
at the Albert Club.
The paper this week was set by the
Albert.
General reaction was an interesting but pretty difficult first half
with much easier questions in the second half. Overall the
aggregate scores were around the 70 mark which is a good indicator
of a reasonable paper. Most comment seemed to surround the pair of
questions about George Dubya's coalition (Round 3 Questions 5 & 6).
Much mirth at the Griffin as we pondered whether enrolling
governments had a box to tick on their Coalition application forms
stating whether they wanted to avoid publicity in the event of a
victory - or, indeed, whether they had to indicate if they wished to
be circulated about similar campaigns which they may wish to
consider as and when they became available. Dave at St Caths
commented "If 15 of the members of George
Dubya's coalition are anonymous, how do we know they are in it?".
My question of the week - for those of you who can
remember Muffin the Mule - is Round 8 Question 4:
Who had a daily help called Mrs Scrubbit?
For the answer and full details of all the week's
questions click
here.
And finally some cheering news....
Picking up the paper at the Red who should I bump
into but Gerry Hennessy back in circulation and able to down a pint
of Guinness. He was in good spirits and sends his regards. Let's
hope we see him at the end of season do at the Albert Club (if not
earlier)."
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 Father
Megson
Can't
Believe It! |
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A
Chairde,
They will be humming in the Reeks tonight. Aye, and they might
also be fracking. That most lovely of obsolete coins, the silver
Irish threepenny bit with the startled hare on it, rallied briefly on
the Macgillycuddy Stock Exchange as Fr Megson's ravished foursome, for
so long the butt of music hall jokes, confounded the scribes and chalked
up a draw against the mighty Ethel Rodin in a fibrillating finale to the
league season. A draw that, however unlikely as it may seem, means
that it is now mathematically impossible for them to be lumbered with
the Withquiz wooden spoon for the first time in their history.
In an emotional post match interview,
Roisin, fighting back tears and hordes of prepubescent groupies, fuelled
by lager and the desire to grab the toggles off her duffel coat, summed
up the raw emotion of this memorable evening in the hallowed portals of
the Didsbury Cricket Club:
"Absolutely
unbelievable. Seems like a dream. Even in our wildest
dreams we never imagined that this would really happen. It still
hasn't sunk in and I don't suppose it will until presentation night.
I'm too scared to go to sleep now in case I wake up and find that
it has all been a dream. That's seven fcekin' weeks now
without a wink of sleep since our last point. It's a fcekin'
nightmare. I wouldn't have it any other way though. It's incredible,
absolutely unfcekin' believable. I still haven't got my head around
it. They said we'd never draw anything with kids on the team. But we
refused to panic. We knew the boy Damian would come good in
the end. We always knew that he was a volatile player.
Just like David Beckham that time he said in a riveting interview
that he was definitely a volatile player because he could play on
the left or on the right or even down the middle. Well, Damo
is even more volatile. When was the last time David Beckham scored
sitting at a table with his arms folded? Marvellous. It's like a
dream come true. We are all literally over the moon.
Next stop Jupiter! I feel like I'm floating on air. It feels a bit
like sleep deprivation only without the hood and the barking dogs.
Is it your round yet? Don't get me another pint, I'm too
tired to drink pints, just get me 3 halves....yes Pils please.......
lots of sleeping pils..........."
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