It was squeaky bum time at the Club as The Opsimaths just managed to overhaul The Charabancs of Fire in the final round, having been trailing for most of the second half.  The start at the Club was delayed while the art class in the back room cleared up their still life pictures and the 'decidedly not still life' at White Hart Lane, that is Manchester City, blared away on the TV in the main lounge.  The Albert Club is positively humming at present.  Gone are the days when the quiz teams rolled up at 8.30 to be greeted by a couple of inebriated members, Sid Siddons wondering if "either of the teams were short" and a Steward who thought that all quizzers were bonkers.  The City blare continued, reaching a crescendo on only five occasions this time (we've come to expect a tennis set score of six against anything from North London these days), whilst the quiz unfolded in the back room spectated by Dave, the setter, who seemed quietly pleased at the result of his handiwork.

Unlucky Damian gives this view from the defeated camp:

"The Charabancs' 2014 unbeaten run came to a shuddering halt as we just lost out to the Opsimaths in a nail-biting, down-to-the-wire contest at the Albert Club. The Opsis led narrowly for most of the first half, then the Charas grabbed the lead and ran with it in the second half up until the very last round.  At no stage were there more than 2 or 3 points between us.  Although our first loss of the year, we felt this was one of our 'better losses'.  It even moved Father M, who seemed to be in a particularly sentimental frame of mind, to comment that at long last he had moulded us into the team he had always dreamed of producing.  Given that it has only taken him the best part of 25 years to achieve this, there is hope for perennially struggling quiz teams everywhere!"

The History Men tied with Albert.  This is now the History Men's second tied match in a fairly tieless league season.  By all accounts it was a thrilling evening at the Red as Ivor reports:

"We were 8 points ahead after three rounds but the teams were tied at the end of round 5 and astonishingly the scores were level after rounds 6, 7 and 8 as well, so a draw did seem to be the only appropriate result.  Round 8 was rather nerve-racking, but us conferring and dragging up Barry John, and the Albert thinking long and hard to get the Truman campaign song, set up the climactic head-to-head pair battle between Evelyn and me.  It is the fate of we 'Seat 4 people' to have this situation a couple of times a season where you end up either the hero or the zero (sometimes literally the latter) - but tonight Evelyn and I had to content ourselves with a team point each leaving honours shared."

Ethel Rodin beat The Prodigals at the 'Ladybarn Hilton'.  Anne-Marie sums up:

"Great performance from Ethel and a brilliant quiz from TMTCH.  Only 7 unanswered questions.  Great fun and a very clever question for our nomination as QotW: Round 4 Q4."

The Electric Pigs beat The Bards of Didsbury at the Fletcher Moss as Andrew reports:

"A very tight quiz throughout with only 5 unanswered questions.  For us the Question of the Week was Round 6  Question 5 - the Northamptonshire racing track from the kitchen."

Compulsory Meat Raffle clattered at home to I've Never Been to One.  Kieran observes....

Great news for the website!  Many of you will have heard of the 'Ballon de Noir', Ladybarn's prestigious annual award to the hack who has penned the most insightful article about South Manchester's premiere suburb.  Well this year your own WithQuiz site is in the running.

This week I received an email from Phil Cowtan, Ladybarn's Assistant Club Secretary thanking us for such an appreciative write up of his Club and its facilities the week that Ethel Rodin returned.  His only slight concern was that we were using an out-of-date photo of the frontage of the Swan (showing the contractor's vehicles during the restoration work apparently).  He attached a much more elegant picture which I have now adopted on the site and show below.

I believe the Committee Phil belongs to are even willing to let bygones be bygones and welcome back Fr M and his acolytes if they wish to use the plush facilities on offer.  Apparently Shaun's hitman has finally got tired of waiting around and disappeared.

Oh, and this week the Prodigals were the visitors to the Swan.  Our roving WC reporter (nice round that Dave!), Anne-Marie, snapped the unbelievably elegant female loos - as you can see below.

This picture arrived on my phone towards the end of the Opsimaths v Charas match at the Club.  Fr Megson glancing over my shoulder was heard to say: "Oh yes, much better than the old bogs - but isn't that a bit on the high side?   We're not all as tall as you, Mike.".

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A few hours before this week's fixtures your WithQuiz Eggheads team auditioned in a central Manchester Hotel (the Arora on Princess Street) to get an invite to take on the mighty ones in Glasgow some time in late February/early March.  Dave Rainford was there to put us at ease and show us the ropes (and take gibes from me about the relative league positions of United and City, of course).  Our team consisted of Rachael, Greg, Damian, Gerry and Howell with me as travelling 6th man.  I'll let you know if we get the invite (we should hear next week).

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