Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 11/02/15

The Opsimaths win to reach their first ever WIST final where they will meet Stockport's Alexandra;

The Prodigals win to set up an all-WithQuiz A-Trophy final against this evening's victorious History Men

Results & Match Reports

WIST Cup Semi finals

Alexandra gained a walkover victory against Chunky who were unable to field a team. Thursday rather than Wednesday is the usual Stockport quiz match evening so it can be a problem for Stockport teams getting players to switch their weekly outings in mid season for just one week. Nevertheless reaching the WIST final is a fine prize for the Alex who've graced this competition from the start and only once before (in 2010) got to the ultimate stage.

The Opsimaths ran up a 14 point lead in Round One against a depleted Bards attack and, try as they may, the visitors couldn't claw back this deficit. Steve was unable to make it to the Club for this match, and what with Jim's friend, Pete Townsend, having aged dramatically over the past fortnight and declared himself unavailable, it was left to Tony, Sarah and Jim to face the Opsimathic big guns. To be fair honours were pretty even after the one-sided Round One in what turned out to be another highly friendly evening. Brian QMed, Jitka kept everyone honest and there was plenty of chat about politics, M6 Service Stations and ball-licking. And so to next week when (surprise, surprise) the Bards once again visit the back lounge of the Albert Club to play the Opsimaths - this time in a table-topping league clash. What a great season this is turning out to be!

A-Trophy Semi Finals

The Printers lost by the slimmest of margins to The Prodigals. The two teams were level at full time and so the result had to be determined by the Tiebreaker question (thanks, Greg, for remembering to put one into the paper). The Printers' normal home venue in Cheadle was unavailable so the match was switched to the Albert Club's Snooker Room. As ever the atmosphere was super-affable with Printers and Prodigals staying on after the contest to chat over their pints about shoes and ships and sealing wax, not to mention Dave's tales from Eggheads and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The Prodigals won the inaugural A-Trophy competition last year and they will be tough competition in the final this year for the History Men, in what has turned out to be an all-WithQuiz final.

The Electric Pigs found The History Men on stonking form at the Fletcher Moss, losing by over 20 points. The History Men's score of 57 points was by some way the highest of the evening and earned them a place in the final at the end of April against The Prodigals. Ivor reports on the evening's events....
"Our games are usually neck and neck but not tonight. The all-conferred rounds certainly suited us because, for once, there was at least one person on our team who could rustle up the answer when the others were floundering. I have often considered the Stockport format to be especially hard on setters (particularly if there are 6 on a team as is the case in Stockport's league contests). They have to find questions (and more importantly matched questions) of sufficient difficulty to challenge the whole team. Tonight 5 of the 30 Round One questions foxed everyone, along with 3 of the written round questions. To me that seemed to be about the right level of difficulty."

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week the paper was set by Greg Spiller on behalf of the Stockport League.

For a change let's not start with the Opsimaths' verdict but go to Ivor....

"Everyone enjoyed the quiz questions tonight. If that was a solo effort by Greg then he has earned an A+ from us. Variety, interesting questions, novel formats and teasing confounders all got plaudits.

Needless to say the wrong answers and deliberations raised a few laughs. Who gets mail mixed up in New York? Niger and Nigeria, Austria and Australia, Guyana and Guinea, Congo and Democratic Congo, or (perish the thought) North Korea and South Korea? But, no, it is Slovakia and Slovenia. Which country is named after a woman? Not India, Georgia or Jordan? The 3000m Steeplechase mix-up? Was it 3000 yards or did they miss out the water jumps? No someone didn't count the laps. We plumped for Foinavon rather than Arkle (and Anne, Duchess of Westminster did own him as well at about the right time). My suggestion that the vampire spider only attacked post-pubertal females intermittently was condemned as tasteless, though my answer about the risks of acquiring liver fluke from contaminated golf ball-licking did prove I hadn't wasted five years of my life in the Athens of the North."

There were similar 'thumbs up' comments from the other two matches at the Albert Club.

In the Opsimaths/Bards match our hearts sank when Brian read out the rubrics for the 'mini theme' Round 5 but it turned out to be good fun and none too tough - although the general consensus was that the first question of this round would have been better placed at the end once everyone had got the hang of what was going on. Perhaps the main concern, however, was the balance of difficulty in Round One where the team going first seemed to have a built in advantage. The Bards won the toss, put the Opsimaths in first and subsequently did feel that they might have shot themselves in the foot with this choice. James who was spectating gave an independent assessment of this and similarly felt that the balance favoured those answering first.

I loved the question about the old film Genevieve which evoked many happy childhood memories. I was sure it was harmonica player, Tommy Reilly, that was responsible for this film's music but just couldn't conjure up his name so, in despair, plumped for the only other harmonica player I knew, Larry Adler. Sure enough Larry Adler was the right answer! Tommy Reilly was the one who played the theme for the Navy Lark on the radio - remember it? As to my favourite round, it had to be Round 3 ('Emordnilap'). Excellent!

The Question of the Week

This week the Opsimaths vote goes to Round 5 Question 7:

What theme connects: Pan troglodytes; the fictional character associated with half a guinea; the city in which the TV series Cheers is set?

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