This week the paper was compiled by The Bards of Didsbury.

This was a pretty tough paper with a very low average aggregate of 54.4 - indeed the lowest of the season so far just 'underpassing' the Bard's pre-Christmas effort which notched up 56.0.  Having said this the paper certainly wasn't lacking in interest or variety (e.g. the Rev. Cowherd gem).  The main problem that everyone commented on, however, were the inaccuracies.  Sometimes errors are mere slips that can be brushed aside and do not disrupt the flow of the quiz contest too much - indeed there are errors of this sort most weeks.  It's just a fact of life.  But the errors in this paper were fundamental to the questions in which they occurred and caused much difficulty for the players involving many extra minutes trying to conjure up answers that were then marked wrong even though subsequent investigation proved them to be every bit as right as the answers given in the paper.

At the Griffin the questions which caused most anguish were the ones about Europe's biggest non-capital city and its country with the second most land borders - and the one that gave the wrong birth date for Pete Townsend.

Kieran, as ever, has a forthright opinion....

"The 69 year old Pete Townshend (b. 19 May 1945) will be surprised and not a little annoyed to discover that he is in fact 75 or even 76.  No need to worry about legal action though, Bards, I doubt that he'll want to be seeing the inside of a courtroom any time soon.

Thirty seconds of googling produced two websites apparently (there's one of those words again) claiming  to be expert in European geography.  One went for Austria as having 8 borders with other European countries and one went for France with the same number (count them - they both have 8).  Pulling up a map did indeed confirm that Serbia can also claim 8, so three possible correct answers so far.  No site mentioned Russia which both teams at the Griffin were convinced has at least 11 and possibly 12 or even 13.

Similar results when looking for the largest non-capital city.  Indeed one website very firmly went for Hamburg, while another equally as firmly went for Barcelona.  Strong claims also for St. Petersburg.  You see where this is going.  These questions don't seem to have a definitive answer, at least not one to satisfy seasoned quizzers.

Then there's the matter of Rounds 1 and 3.  The Opsimaths won round 1 6-0 and we returned the favour exactly in round 3.  So no complaints about balance except that it would have gone down rather better if the impossible questions were divided equally between the teams in each round rather than engineering a stuffing for one team and then the other.  I don't think that's how paired rounds should be set - no team wants to have scored zero in any single round - it's not a lot of fun."

Damian's take from The Turnpike....

"We found the Bard's paper amongst the toughest of the season.  The low scoring along with 'nil point' rounds provided ample evidence of this fact.  On the other hand, we enjoyed the fact that the themes were fairly straightforward to work out even though it didn't always assist us in finding the answer.  The pairing was often a bit uneven - 'Who was called the thinking man's crumpet' up against 'What is a wisent?' for instance.  But many of the questions did a good job in probing our memories of recent political and social scandals.  On the whole, the paper may have been a bit top heavy on political and film trivia.

Answer of the week?  Probably Ivor's enthusiastic suggestion that Charles Darwin's formal occupation on board the Beagle was being Captain Fitzroy's 'gentlemen friend'!  Really Ivor!"

Whilst Ivor's views from the same Turnpike contest....

Contentious questions: Surely Hastings Banda was a doctor?  He was an old boy of my alma mater (I think we might have given him an honorary degree as well before the dictatorship) and a GP in the north (though I suppose he might have been a dentist in the same way Mad Frankie Fraser was a dentist).

Next week it is the cup - not the European Cup for us but the Europa Cup equivalent.  Quite fancy our chances so long as there are no impossible New York streets, wisents or meat eschewing (as opposed to chewing) Cowherds."

From the Prodigals/TMTCH contest at the Albert Club Anne-Marie sums it up as "a very tough quiz" whilst from the same match Dave typically focuses on just one aspect: "After waiting 7 years for a North Eastern question, along come two in consecutive weeks!"

From the Fletcher Moss Mike O'Brien's view...

"The aggregate score suggests that for us this was a tough quiz.  I'm afraid our knowledge of Soviet era oil pipelines isn't up to quiz league standard!  There were some interesting questions and we did enjoy the Football club theme round.  Meat Raffle claimed that the answer about the European country with the second most borders could also be France and we accepted this."

And finally James from Ethel's match at the White Swan....

"Like Hastings Banda pulling teeth - except that, as both teams said, he was in fact a doctor, and thus it was even more painful!  This was not either teams' favourite quiz of the season by a comfortable margin.  20 unanswered of which the Pigs got 11 including the Banda one, and the duff Pete Townshend question, so they can justifiably feel a little hard done by.  BTW (as later googling proved) Hastings Banda was practising as a doctor, not a dentist, in the year that Pete Townshend was actually born (i.e. 1945 and not 1939)!"

...and a P.S. from Mike O'Brien received later on Thursday....

This week the vote goes to the fascinating nugget of information revealed by Round 6 Question 8:

The Reverend William Cowherd, who ministered in Salford in the early 19^th century, was a major figure in the development of which movement?

WIST

Next week we play the semi finals of the WIST and A-Trophy Cup competitions.  The quiz papers to be collected by the Bards, The Prodigals and The History Men will be in the Red Lion as per usual.  I am told by Mike Wagstaffe that he will sort out the copy of the paper required for the all-Stockport match between The Alexandra and Chunky.  Greg Spiller of Ethel Rodin (who also plays for a team in the Stockport League on Thursdays) has compiled the paper this time.

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