Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 27/05/15

Albert triumphed in the evening's quiz as another season was successfully put to bed

James (from Ethel Rodin) set an excellent quiz to get us all off on our summer quiz sabbatical when we gathered at the Albert Club for the traditional end of season presentation evening.

The winners on the night were Albert who led most of the way, sailing home to a big greasy grin from the Paddle of Rebuke (which Mike had brought along just in case...), and some alcoholic prizes.

At the half way point in the evening, John (from the Charas) delivered his sunny verdict on the season's goings on.....

he echoed everyone's delight that the hunt for the League trophy has been more competitive than ever this season with 5 teams vying for the title, all in with a realistic prospect of victory right up the penultimate round of matches,

he praised the generally high standard of question-setting which, he felt, underlined the wisdom of our policy for setting our own papers and not buying in material from outside as many leagues do ("thought not bought" was his catchphrase for this),

he encouraged us all to continue the search for new formats and styles to swell the already burgeoning list we use - even if occasionally a new format falls flat,

he did just offer a hint of criticism for the growing tendency to include too many lengthy questions in which the bulk of the question text is unnecessary in the search for the answer,

he emphasised how well WithQuiz are doing in the popular annual WIST competitions with our mates from the Stockport League (the WIST Champions Cup has been held by WithQuiz teams for 3 years running and the A-Trophy has been won by WithQuiz teams in both of the seasons in which it has been contested),

and most of all he urged us all to continue to foster humour and whimsy in our papers - such as the recent question about merkins which provided his moment of the season in the Charas/Prodigals match when Anne-Marie provided a graphic description for the non-cognoscenti and Damian (for he is one of these) pretty much fell off his stool.

John then invited us to cheer the various trophy winners (see here to get the full list) as the season's gongs were dished out.

As the old League Shield has had to be replaced by a bigger model able to carry the necessary number of inscriptions, the original Shield was awarded in perpetuity to the Dunkin' Dönitz team in recognition of their incredible run of 12 straight League wins between 1999 and 2010. The Val Draper Cup has also had to be replaced for similar reasons so the old Cup was awarded to the Charabancs to mark their run of 3 consecutive Cup victories between 2013 and this year.

As in previous years the 'Question of the Season' was voted for during the evening from amongst the 30 Questions of the Week nominated on the website during the season. The results were as follows:

Team

Question

Answer

1

Compulsory Meat Raffle

What country's most northerly point is the furthest south?

Uruguay

2

The Men They Couldn't Hang

According to TV comedy scriptwriter Jimmy Perry's memoirs, published in 2002, what did his father say to him at the age of 16 when he said he wanted to become an actor or a comedian?

"You stupid boy!"

3

Electric Pigs

Which graffito, which purported to contain quotes from 2 philosophers and a singer (and has been transferred to many a public convenience since), was coined by Kurt Vonnegut in his 1982 novel Deadeye Dick?

"To be is to do" (from Socrates)

"To do is to be" (from Sartre)

"Do be do be do" (from Sinatra)

....so Compulsory Meat Raffle (Rachael, David and Liz) duly collected the wine for their season's setting triumph - and, by the way, let it be known that they are henceforth to be known as Compulsory Mantis Shrimp.

In the mean time if you want to see a few photos to prove to those at home that they really were at the Albert Club click here.

...and just for fun here's a slightly different version of a local map....