Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 26/02/14

Yet another tie for the History Men; the Opsimaths win the Club derby

Results & Match Reports

Ethel Rodin beat The Men They Couldn't Hang at the new, improved, washes whiter, White Swan. Good loser Graham tells us:

"Well, as has become customary this season, The Hangers lost to the Ethels at the Ladybarn Social Club (in my opinion not the easiest place to get to on public transport)."

The Electric Pigs beat Compulsory Meat Raffle at the Fletcher Moss. Andrew reports:

"Very convivial evening where the Pigs were on the ropes until the questions about 70s TV programmes kicked in."

Far from perishing through changing fashions (Round 6 Question 1) Tie Rack is alive and kicking in the hands of The History Men who visited their peculiar form of torture on I've Never Been to One at the Griffin. Ivor tells the story from the History Men's point of view:

"Our fourth tied game of the league season. Once again we went into the last round ahead but just could not hold on. However there was never much between the teams and a draw did seem to be the honourable result. It is not often anyone comes back from the Griffin with anything other than a free drink."

Kieran reports from the opposite corner at the Griffin:

"A quiz in which we didn't lead until after the first question of round 2 and then not again until the third question of the final round. At the end, star of the evening, Ivor, duly nailed Dorothy Gale (that doesn't sound right somehow) for a two and the tie."

The Charabancs of Fire lost out to the third-placed Bards at the Turnpike. Damian shares his thoughts...

"The Charas lost a close match with the Bards where there was never more than a handful of points between us. That said, we never actually took the lead. The closest we came was in Round 7 when there was only one point separating us, but our esteemed opponents soon opened up a gap again in the final round to canter home five points clear. It was a high-scoring affair and there were, as far as I can remember, no unanswered questions.

Highlights of the evening included Bard Tony educating us on the legal ramifications of co-habiting in the jungles of Africa without the benefit of clergy - just as, say, Tarzan did with Jane. Tony wasn't so clear however on the legal ramifications of co-habiting with someone like Cheetah!"

and Tony chips in on behalf of the Bards:

"We thought this was one of Albert's better efforts. It was fairly nip and tuck all night. We seemed to lose our way at the beginning of each round only to find we had our noses ahead by the end of the round. And so the evening went on until in the last round when we sprinted to the finish line."

The Opsimaths beat The Prodigals in a very cheerful match at the Albert Club. At the close the venerable Orkney Dark Trophy used since time immemorial (i.e. when Brian was the Opsimaths' youth policy) was taken from its pedestal, dusted down and inscribed with winners' name. The only clue to the actual age of the trophy is a 'Best before' sticker on the side of the bottle with slots for the makers to tick. The last available slot is labelled '1995'.

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week the paper was compiled by Albert.

At the Club the verdict was another very well crafted paper. The balance of the questions seemed carefully considered and, on the only occasion I can recall anyone saying "Your half of the pair was a shoo-in compared to mine", the next pair reversed the imbalance. The match report correspondents above all seem to echo the fact that they were involved in close run games - and, of course, the tie specialists from the Red managed to forge yet another honours-even result. We felt the range of subjects was prodigious and were able to nominate quite a few candidates for Question of the Week. All in all, then, a big thumbs up from the Opsimaths and Prodigals.

What did others think? Ivor from the Griffin:

"The Historymen quite liked tonight’s quiz though with only six 2s per side, it was paper dominated by informed (and sometimes highly speculative) discussion ending with a steady 1, or an occasional steal.

I quite liked the Ken Barlow literary girlfriends pair, but the overall QotW (and possibly of the season) will be reported by Kieran, along with a comment about the most unequal pairing in a winter Olympics since... well Vanessa Mae and any other competitor in the giant slalom."

Kieran's view was somewhat different!

"After a couple of weeks of excellent Charas papers this one was definitely not to our taste. It was largely devoid of subjects that interested us and liberally scattered with unanswerables (14 of them) and unbalanced pairs. The winter Olympic pair at the start of Round 7 was poor. The male Brit hadn't "achieved" anything; he'd got out of bed and turned up at the appointed time. I do that every morning even at my age, but I doubt that you could get a quiz question out of it.

Nevertheless, buried in all this, was the gobsmacking gem about Dick Emery's gag-writer. As a counterbalance to my comments above, that must surely be the best quiz question ever asked! I don't remember any long portentous silences in the Dick Emery show and I do hope that this isn't another 'Einstein rocking an axe' moment. If not then it's a magical nugget in amongst the - er - well choose your own description.

The spares were excellent and far better than most of the questions in the quiz proper."

Damian's views swing back to the positive...

"The general consensus was that tonight's quiz was entertaining and thought-provoking with good, well worked out themes and an impressive array of subject matter in virtually every round. Although there were one or two quibbles on the balancing of some of the pairs, which seems pretty much an occupational hazard these days, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Well done to the Albert.

Tonight's suggestion for QotW came courtesy of Father M. He took quite a fancy to the Spare question about the only non-silent film nominated for Best Picture that did not include any female speaking part! However, as he is required to be celibate by the calling of his sacred office, we rather got the feeling he was in one of his periodically embittered, misogynistic moods!"

Graham's view on the paper was dominated by the one howler....

"....but my hackles were raised by the 'Old Bamboo' question. As my father is the man who made 'Chitty Chitty' literally 'Bang Bang' in the film, I can categorically assure you that Me Ol' Bamboo is from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and not Mary Poppins. James trying to argue that he'd shown his children Mary Poppins many times and Dick van Dyke had swept a broom up a "Chimminey" was no excuse for the wrong answer. Well back to the Posh Posh Travelling Life for me."

Andrew reports from the Pigs v CMR match in similar vein:

"A wrong answer! Chitty Chitty Bang Bang not Mary P. CMR's Liz should know. It's her favourite film. Question of the week? Round 2 Question 7 linking the derelict pub, the Metrolink station and Harry Potter's Professor of Herbology. And, in our Dave and Gaz's opinion, the theme in Round 4 was excellently executed. It had us twisting and turning down thematic dead ends until we finally tumbled to the real theme on Question 5."

..and also pointing out the Disney faux pas Tony chips in:

"Only one quibble. The Old Bamboo was a song from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, as we correctly answered. I am glad we won anyway and didn't tie or lose by a single point."

The Question of the Week

This week a number of you opt for Round 5 Question 8:

Which British Nobel prize winner used to write for the Dick Emery Show?

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