Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 16/04/14

Charas & Prodigals win through to the Val Draper final; Ethel & the Pigs meet in the Plate final

Results & Match Reports

Val Draper Cup Semi-finals - The Results

Albert lost to The Prodigals in an enjoyable evening at the Fletcher Moss. According to Mark it was a friendly atmosphere and a high scoring match with very gettable themes - what more could you wish for at the end of a winter's quizzing?

The Opsimaths lost to The Charabancs of Fire in a cracking game at the Albert Club.

Not only did this mark the eclipse of the season's league champions by the coach-load from the Turnpike but it was also the occasion of Damian's first ever full house of twos. Damian has been turning out for the Charabancs (a.k.a. 2 FCEKs, FCEK, Brains of Oak, Moss Dross, Swan Vestals and The White Swan) since shortly after the Romans invaded Britain and established the first Pub Quiz league in Magnum Mamucium at the Blancus Cygnus in Dominaehorreum (as it was then known), so it was ever so pleasing to be present at his first clean sweep. Sadly Agricola couldn't make it but a few dissident Celts were on the fringes to witness the achievement.

In truth the paper was so accessible that it was hard for the home team to claw back their handicap disadvantage. Only one question in the whole evening remained unanswered and there were precious few 'steals'. No matter it was a fitting result for a team that IMHO never deserved to be adjudged 8 points worse at the outset. Good luck to the Charas in the Val Draper final in a fortnight!

A flushed Damian reports in from his computer:

"What can I say? Gawd bless the handicap system! If it weren't for that, where would the Charas be? Not in a position to defend our Val Draper Cup title, that's for sure. Now if only the higher ranked teams from the previous season could be handicapped for the next season, who knows, we might actually end up in the top half of the league for a change! Of course, we would then have to suffer the same handicap burden our opponents had to endure tonight. Isn't life on the quiz circuit a fascinating merry-go-round?"

Plate Semi-finals - The Results

Ethel Rodin beat Compulsory Meat Raffle at the reborn Swan. According to James it was a great evening with plenty of points on offer - especially if you were well over 30 years old and could recall such ancient matters as whom Edward Heath appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer!

Electric Pigs built on their handicap advantage over The Bards to power home by 7 points and earn themselves a place in the Plate final against Ethel Rodin in a fortnight's time.

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week the paper was compiled by I've Never Been to One.

Spot on for an evening's quizzing late in the season's calendar! The average aggregate was, at 85.5, by quite some way the highest of the season so far. There were plenty of themes but most were very gettable (the exception being the Refs theme which at the Club foxed the Charas but not the Opsimaths). The real challenge for the evening was judging whether to go for a two, or play safe and confer. As stated above, only one question went unanswered in at least two of the matches.

One other thing to praise......tiebreaker questions are usually necessary evils holding no real interest for the competitors. They are only fractionally better than a toss of the coin in serving the purpose of separating tied teams. The tiebreaker in this paper, however, was magnificent with everyone chipping in and Gerry getting within 276 of a perfect answer.

So, universal approbation - which is more than I suspect two of the setters could offer their team at the Etihad.

Damian's comments echo the general feeling....

"Tonight's questions from INBTO just played nicely to our strengths. They usually do. Although not normally a big fan of hidden themed rounds, and initially crestfallen to discover that every single round would be of that nature, I have to admit that, for once, they aided us in finding the answers to the questions we struggled with. The questions were exactly the usual solid general knowledge fare we have come to expect from INBTO. Nothing too fancy or obscure. Just stuff that most of us can be expected to have a reasonable stab at and you can't say much fairer than that. An excellent quiz in the company of excellent opponents, ably QMed by our team-mate Jane, and in the presence of our lucky mascot Jitka. It was a thoroughly enjoyable night (though I say so myself)."

There were two nominations for the Question of the Week: Round 2 Question 5 about the US Democrat Presidential candidate in 1952 and 1956. I can just about remember growing up to hero-worship him as a noble loser and an embodiment of all that was good about the democratic process (compared to the blatant hypocrisy of the Communist system in the East). The other QotW nomination (also about the US democratic process) is the one chosen and shown below.

The Question of the Week

This week the vote goes to Round 3 Question 6:

In American history only four people have served in all four elected federal offices - namely Representative, Senator, Vice President and President. Two are John Tyler and Richard Nixon. The other two share the same surname. Who are they?

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

Chatterbox

We now take a short Easter break and come back together again on Wednesday April 30th when we play the Val Draper and Plate Cup Finals. Based on various chats late on Wednesday evening it seems that both these matches will be played at the Albert Club.

As in previous years the paper for the finals will be a joint effort from 'Knocked Out United' - that is the 7 teams not involved in either of the finals (The History Men, I've Never Been to One, The Men They Couldn't Hang, Albert, The Opsimaths, Compulsory Meat Raffle and The Bards). Ivor from the History Men has kindly offered to edit the final paper so if you are one of the 'Knocked Out United' teams please submit a full round of 8 questions and an additional pair of questions (the pair to go towards the 8th round) to Ivor by email by Wednesday 23rd April. We'll ask the finalists to vote for which they believe to be the best round of the final paper and the team that compiled it will win a prize at the end of season evening on May 14th.

Finally I've heard that INBTO and Chunky have rearranged their WIST final for May 21st. The A-Trophy final will go ahead as planned on May 7th but the WIST final will be two weeks later after the End of Season evening at the Albert Club. As a result the paper used on May 7th will not be published on the website until May 22nd - and Kieran and chums have promised not to talk to any members of the Albert or Prodigals teams for a whole fortnight!

I'm off to Cornwall for Easter week so......Dha weles skon!