Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 04/03/15

Bards beat Ethel in a 100 point aggregate match - TMTCH chalk up their first 2015 victory

Results & Match Reports

The Bards of Didsbury returned to their winning ways at home against title rivals, Ethel Rodin, with a ten point victory (though James from the Ethel team commented that it felt much closer than that). The match turned into a veritable points-fest with an aggregate score of 100 points (is this a record, archivists?). Tony sums up.....

"It was a high scoring game at the Cricket Club. Most notable was Steve's straight 8 twos, with at least two others scoring 7 twos. It looks like this year's final positions are indeed going to be decided by who suffers least from PMT!"

The Prodigals tied with The Charabancs of Fire in a desperately close encounter at the Albert Club. Damian reports.....

"The Charas' first draw of the season and, despite the absence of any ladybirds, a truly lovely way to end a lovely evening in the company of one of our most convivial hosts!

This was a well-balanced and even draw all the way through. At no point was there more than a point between the teams - we finished dead even at half time and dead even at the finish. The high scores attested to the overall good quality and answerability of most of the quiz questions!

Lesson of the week: Mike Bath (who showed up late on having been at the Etihad for most of the evening) finally learned the correct way to pronounce Roisin's name after only knowing her for about 25 years! The key is in knowing which syllable gets preference. Despite his desire to place the emphasis on the second syllable and say the poetically satisfying 'RoSHEEN' it should be the altogether more prosaic 'ROWsheen'."

The History Men caused the evening's biggest upset beating Dunkin' Dönitz by a comfortable margin at the Red Lion. It seems, however, that the call of the Etihad had come to plague the lads from the Griffin yet again with Martin and Barry toiling on their own as a two-man team. Ivor sends this report.....

"Just as in our previous meeting at the Griffin we had a full team with the Dunkers down to two players. Tonight it was Martin and Barry rather than Kieran and Martin. Astute readers will recall that despite our numerical advantage we were steam-rollered by the opposition then, and for a time it looked as if history might repeat itself. The first half ended all square at 22 each and it was only after the break that we moved ahead. Barry started with a run of 5 twos and it was with an uncharacteristic blurt of 'JG Ballard' rather than 'CS Lewis' that his attempt at a maximum came to an end. He was not the only blurter tonight - Peter’s 'Karpov' instead of 'Deep Blue' might be forgivable as 'Karpov' is a feasible answer, but Anne’s 'crop rotation' in a round of punctuation marks perhaps less so. Tim was in excellent form displaying his range of knowledge from obscure bus manufacturers to Hallé conductors, only failing on even more obscure Egyptian poets by a single initial."

Compulsory Meat Raffle lost to The Men They Couldn't Hang at the Turnpike to record their first, very welcome, victory of 2015. Graham, in joyous mood, sums up.....

"Believe it or not, The Hangers beat The Raffle, in a very entertaining evening at the Turnpike, overseen by question paper setters, Jitka and Brian. Sprinting into a first half lead the Hangers thought they were safe, but you can never rely on the students to slip away just willy nilly, and sure enough they came back to threaten Il Capitano Dave - but, for once, we hung on for a well deserved victory."

Albert kept their title challenge on track by beating The Electric Pigs in a crowded Fletcher Moss. Mike O'B reports.....

"We can't complain about the result. It appears to have been better to go first. The best thing about this quiz was that both teams were able to play at a fast tempo - always an advantage when the Fletcher Moss is beginning to fill up."

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week the paper was set by The Opsimaths.

High scores all round - indeed dramatically high scores all round. The average aggregate of 86.6 was almost 6 points higher than the previous record this season. In one of the matches only one unanswered question was recorded all evening and at the Cricket Club the table-topping clash between the Bards and Ethel harvested a massive 100 point aggregate score. So the setters' objective of making things a little less tough was fully realised. I say 'setters' but in truth this was a 'Brian Chef d'Oeuvre' with the other Opsimaths just providing a slight tilt on the tiller at the team rehearsal last Thursday. For me at the rehearsal, the best bit was hearing how it was that Brian was 'only two degrees of separation away' from some of the answers. We did contemplate adding this detail to the relevant answers but reading this extra text out after each question would have added a lot of time to the length of the matches - and might have seemed a bit self-indulgent. For the record, Dreamer drummer, Bernie Dwyer, was a long time member at the Albert Club (his memorial bench is the last one on the left before you turn to mount the steps to the front door - and former Opsimath Colin and myself were invited to lunch at King's College Cambridge a few years back to help the Reverend John Graham, crossword legend, celebrate his 90th birthday (see picture).

How did this paper strike the rest of you?

From Ivor.....

"Excellent quiz - only five unanswereds - and a very high overall 'enjoyment' factor (I have yet to devise a reliable measure for enjoyment but that will be my summer close season task). The two Dunkers actually spotted the Two Little Boys connection, and the running theme of smallness was well delivered. It is very easy to over-garnish a dish but this was just the right amount of whimsy to titillate the quizzers’ palate."

From Tony.....

"The 'Two Initials' round rather telegraphed the OJ Simpson answer but everyone was impressed that Brian should have met people who had met the Marquis de Sade and H l Menken."

From Damian.....

"The quiz itself was generally well-balanced and fun for both teams. I thought the hidden themes were often more of a distraction than an aid to answering but then again, my opinion of the value of hidden themes and themes in general is already well-known. The bingo rounds were predictably well received by us (the originators of this style of question round) but the Prods loved them as well. Some of the questions in the name and initials round were, I thought, a tad on the hard side. Father Meggers and I both seized on Kavafy in the poetry question but couldn't for the life of us come up with his initials. Could anybody? But these are only minor quibbles in a generally well received and enjoyable quiz."

From Mike O'B.....

"The themed rounds were relatively straightforward apart from the Rolf Harris one in which we got a reasonable score without coming near to working out the theme. Favourite question was the Batman punctuation."

From James.....

"AE Houseman? WB Yeats? There were several poets that fitted the bill - but not FD Popadopolis or whoever he was. The only unanswered of the night!But that was the exception as the other questions in this round were much more straightforward."

From Graham.....

"Question of the week? For us it was the one about Anne Summers - but maybe that was just the vibration I was feeling from Neil."

.....and finally from Anne-Marie (in a swipe at comments from others in recent weeks).....

"Loved the Bingo rounds."

The Question of the Week

This week The Men They Couldn't Hang team votes for Round 5 Question 4:

This British retailer has over 140 high street stores in the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and Spain. Its founder named the company after his secretary who was born Annice Goodwin, but took her stepfather’s surname. What is the name of the company?

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

Chatterbox

During the week I have received a worrying communication from 'A Concerned Turf Accountant'....

"Mike, have you checked the Withquiz coffers recently? I think we all need to be told how one of our 'amateur' teams can afford to bankroll a club the size of Liverpool FC. The team in question makes much of its partisan adherence to one or the other of the rival footballing factions found within the City of Manchester - and indeed Grimsby. Could all this be a smoke screen, a red herring, if you will, to mask the team's financial support for one of their most bitter rivals? A concerned turf accountant."

This was the accompanying picture....