Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 22/10/14

Ethel go top as they continue their cracking start to the season

Results & Match Reports

Ethel Rodin beat Compulsory Meat Raffle at the Ladybarn Club to maintain their 100% record and go top. James' pithy summing up: "Painfully slow start with the scores level on 14-14 at half time - but then Ethel ran away with it during round 7."

Dunkin' Dönitz beat The History Men at the Griffin to restore a semblance of normality to their faltering campaign. A relived Kieran reports...
"Bit of a slog tonight with not many easy points on offer and a dearth of 'Wow' or 'I never knew that' moments. Whatever our perception of the shortcomings of the paper it seemed to suit us well so I really shouldn't complain. And to be fair the History Men had by far the worst of the paper losing the toss, going second first and receiving 13 of the 19 unanswered questions.
We're just happy to get a win again and are now hoping to start climbing the table."
Ivor's take on the same contest....
"We usually lose at the Griffin no matter what incarnation the home team are masquerading under (more reinventions than Dr Who methinks) - and tonight was no exception. However you can understand our annoyance at not winning when there were only 2 of them (admittedly it was Martin and Kieran) to our 4 man (well, 3 man and 1 woman) team.
Losing the toss (as well as the game) we were put in to bat second and got the lion’s share of the unanswereds (13 to 6). To add insult to injury 5/6 of the Dunkers unanswerables fell to seat 2 where Martin usually sits but tonight seat 2 was one of the two 'conferred question' seats. Martin sat in seat 3 and got his customary 4 twos."

The Charabancs lost to The Opsimaths in a good-natured affair at The Turnpike overseen by myself (as QM) and Jitka. As with the DD/History Men match there were 19 unanswerables (too high to make for a smooth flowing evening) but with us the split was even (10-9) so this factor didn't upset the balance of fairness. The compensating factor for the paper's toughness was a barrel-load of belly laughs to rock the listed Turnpike panelling in an otherwise sepulchral saloon bar.
Howell emailed these thoughts from his phone....
"In a low scoring contest unsurprisingly, perhaps, the favourite question was one of the spares ... Twelvetrees - it's the way you tell 'em!
Nevertheless we had a fine evening in the company of the Charas - who for the first time in living memory failed to get an Irish question right. This was somewhat surprising given Father Megson's frequent appearances before the Irish beak - though perhaps the low-level nature of his crimes kept him away from the King's Inns' finest!"

The Prodigals beat The Electric Pigs in the back lounge of the Albert Club.

Albert beat TMTCH at The Fletcher Moss as Mike reports....
"Both teams struggled against the wall of noise from a packed Albert. Our progress in Round 3 would have been better if my son Stephen hadn't convinced us that the theme was cheese. Oh how we laughed when the theme was revealed! The Burt Kwouk question in the 'Answer/Question linked' round was much appreciated even though we failed to see the link. After all everyone likes Burt Kwok. Definitely the Question of the Week."
...and Graham sees it from the Hangmen's corner.....
"Trapper John, Trapper John. Long will that name stick in my head. Hotlips Hoolahan, Major Frank Burns, Radar.....all the characters from M*A*S*H buzzing around but could I find it? No! Would it have mattered? Possibly, for my pride. The Hangers were thrashed by Albert in the very, very noisy Fletcher Moss. 'Brake disk' Steve relayed most of the questions in the 2nd half helping Mary who struggled to be heard above the raucous din of people out enjoying themselves rather than undergoing the punishing schedule that The Bards had set us. However, it was always an entertaining evening. Onwards and upwards for the Hangers as we face The Prodigals next week (at least that's what Dave told us)."

Quiz Paper Verdict

The paper this week was set by The Bards.

The Average Aggregate score across all 5 matches was 56.0, the lowest of the season yet - with the tally of 19 unanswered questions in at least 2 of the contests. So it was a tough paper and quite hard work for QMs and teams alike. Redemption came in the range of subject matter which gave for quite a few laughs and subsidiary discussions.

At The Turnpike (as at the Fletcher Moss it seems) some went down the 'Cheese' route in Round 3. At the end of the round when all was revealed Roisin justified her mistake by pointing out that...."Celebrity was just a slice of brie wrapped in celery" at which point Howell backed her up indicating that 'Hammond' was a pretty good sound-a-like for a phrase that often precedes the word 'Cheese'". Later the biggest mass chortle of the night came in Round 6 when it was suggested that Madame Ciccone's book may have been of the pop-up variety. Oh, and how come the Austrian Crown Prince managed to slaughter approximately one animal every 15 minutes throughout his life (making a few assumptions about the length of his shooting career and the average length of the hunting day)?

Biggest single complaint came early on over the 'Red Card' question at the end of Round 1. Later research confirmed that hapless Richard Dunne is indeed joint Premier League Red Card champion with 8 sendings off (alongside Duncan Ferguson and Patrick Viera) but that he WAS NOT sent off last Sunday. His crime on Sunday in the QPR v Liverpool match was to score an own goal to bring his peerless Premier League Own Goal tally to 10 (or 12 depending on which website you believe). Poor old Richard! At least he has never eaten one of his opponents.

James' comments from Ethel's match.....

"Some good questions but also some stinkers - although they were equally spread between the two teams. QotW was the one about the hunting Crown Prince whilst - non-question was the one about nomophobia. The Sopranos theme went over both teams' heads (in retrospect we thought that there should have been a 'Tony' in that round given that the Bards were setting)."

Finally from the Griffin Ivor was not impressed..."With a combined score of 56 this was a hard quiz with few redeeming features."

The Question of the Week

This week the vote goes to the Round 6 Spare question:

What is Rugby Union's Billy Twelvetrees' nickname?

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