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29th January 2014

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Opsimaths & INBTO keep going whilst The History Men prove themselves this season's tie specialists

Results & Match Reports

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....

"A quiz from The Men that really suited us and didn't do The Raffle any favours - they're not likely to know too much about the Wightman Cup are they?  It went along at a cracking pace, so much so that I was home in time for Match of the Day, just about the perfect way to round off the evening.  Like City we rather improved our goal difference and we had one of those moments, or rather succession of moments, where we scored 9 consecutive twos.  All this and cheap beer too!"

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week the paper was compiled by The Men They Couldn't Hang.

As you can probably gather from the match reports TMTCH's paper promised much and delivered much.  In fact - if it's possible - more than much.  The average aggregate at 78.0 was the highest of the season to date, the questions though occasionally a bit lengthy delivered interesting information and teasing clues all the way (never dismiss any of the text from Dave's questions as mere 'grace notes' inserted for embellishment; there's pretty well always a clue to the answer lurking in that seemingly extraneous information).

My only disappointment was that in our match at the Albert Club the teams only picked up on one of the four themes in the 'Hidden Themes' rounds.  As QM the themes seemed eminently gettable to me and, once gained, pretty important in unravelling some of the relevant round's later answers.  The Children's TV theme might have been easier for those with grandchildren but having said that the characters involved did feature in the lyrics of a Christmas Number One hit a few years back - and we all know how Christmas Number Ones are firmly in the General (rather Specialist) Knowledge camp.

Let's pick up from our correspondents...

Ivor:

"Excellent quiz from TMTCH just as we have come to expect.  Only six unanswered questions and a combined score of 70 with everyone getting at least one 2 (though no one more than two 2s) testifies to a well crafted paper.  Will Dave ever run out of quirky themes and quirky questions (though with sufficient cunning pointers and additional info to enable some lateral thinking to arrive at a reasoned stab?).

QotW- the Truman campaign song; but a special mention to the Lofty question as an example of a beautifully constructed teaser (though it was one of the unanswereds)."

Damian:

"This was one of the highest scoring quizzes of the season, and as far as we were concerned, a particularly good effort in a long line of good efforts from Hangman Dave.  Dave bravely sat in the corner at our match, symbolically under the spot on the wall where the dartboard used to be, ready to fend off any darts or barbs that may wend their way towards him.  Happily, no-one thought it necessary to send him any!  Although only we worked out the theme only once, there was something for everyone in the various subjects on offer as indicated by the fact that very few of the questions failed to obtain an answer.  Well done, Dave and co!"

Kieran:

"Question of the week?  Undoubtedly the genius moment when the Men realised that 'Orla board' would fit their theme perfectly.  There's some fiendish setting skill and mischief in the slightly warped mind that came up with that one."

The Question of the Week

I was QMing at the Albert Club this week, under the watchful gaze of both Jitka and this week's setter-in-chief, Dave Barras.  Reading the paper was sheer delight.  From Round 1 onwards I was choosing my own favourite QotW and then updating my decision when an even better choice came along in the next round.  In the end, like the Prodigals and Albert, I opted for Round 4 Question 4 - where the pronunciation of the words in the question could just give that vital hint to help the teams unscramble what seemed a fairly unpromising set of random words.  A perfect example, in my book, of the artistry that is becoming fairly commonplace in our league:

In France they use the word 'ouistiti' which translates into English as 'marmoset'; in Bulgaria it is the word 'zele' which translates as 'cabbage'; in Korea it is 'Kimchi', a traditional vegetarian dish, whilst in India it is 'paneer'.  What word do we use in English?

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

Chatterbox

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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The final word from me this week is about yet another TV Quiz Show for which we've all been invited to apply.  I only mention it for its bizarreness.  It's to be called Tuesday's Child and involves tests of both mental agility and physical dexterity (you'll be thinking Krypton Factor right now).  The final twist however, is that each contestant is to be hypnotised before the competition.  Er...no thanks!!