Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 07/10/15

The form book rules as Ethel, DD, Bards, Albert and the Pigs notch up victories

Results & Match Reports

The Bards beat Compulsory Mantis Shrimp at the Cricket Club. A late night power cut in East Didsbury delayed Tony getting the scores and his comments to me. Fortunately we bumped into each other in the Lapwing Lane Arcade's Fusion Deli on Thursday morning and I got a full in-person match report. It seems the Shrimps had lost a few of their members (unlike the awesome picture shown in last week's QuizBiz) and generously Bards Sarah and Dom switched sides to help Rachael and Adam, and even up the contest.

The Prodigals lost to Ethel Rodin at the Albert Club - as James reports....

"Overall, an enjoyable evening with the Prodigals. Top marks to Brian and Jitka for setting the paper and then QMing for us tonight."

The Men They Couldn't Hang got into their stride this week after last week's low score - but still couldn't get near a confident Dunkin' Dönitz - as Kieran tells us....

"The refurbed, expanded and generally tarted-up-at-great-expense Parrs Wood proved sadly quiz unfriendly since it now has customers who - whisper it - talk and therefore make a noise!

With a wry nod to the optimistic ('utterly barking' might be a better description) business plan of John Willie building a 'Chelsea Flower Show' standard beer garden, with very upmarket decking, on the corner of Parrs Wood Road and School Lane, we joined battle with The Hangers.

Barry has started the season like Sergio - no, like Sanchez , no, like Jamie Vardy - with 11 twos from sixteen questions, insulting the Japanese at every opportunity. It's great to have our man in the Barbour jacket, or 'sci-fi cockney red' as we affectionately know him, back on top form.

On to the Bards next week in The Griffin which will be overheated in every conceivable way. But no decking!"

Albert beat The History Men at the Fletcher Moss. Losing skipper Ivor sums up....

"Only one point either way until the onomatopoeia round when Albert got ahead and could not be caught. In a high scoring game there were only two unanswered questions and Albert's Ashton got 7 twos."

The Charabancs of Fire lost their opening game of the season to The Electric Pigs at the Turnpike. I was able to observe proceedings from the QM chair. It was always fairly close but once the Pigs nosed ahead in Round 1 the Charas were never quite able to haul back the gap. Perhaps the secret to the Pigs' success was their new Academy player, Thomas (David's lad) who filled the important fourth chair with plenty of confidence and quite a few points. And if the Charas are ever short of a player the Turnpike's barmaid looked as if she knew most of the answers and would have been keen to take part.

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week the questions were set by The Opsimaths.

This was a very high-scoring paper with an average aggregate of 86.6. This made for a fairly rapid quiz evening with very few long 'confers'. At the Turnpike proceedings were over well before 10.30pm. This was much appreciated and meant both teams could relax and enjoy their post-quiz pints without feeling any 'closing-time' pressure. Gerry did wonder, however, if rating papers by the level of the aggregate score hadn't got a bit out of hand and was in danger of overwhelming the art of producing the really interesting question.

Elsewhere the feedback was pretty positive....

James educates us from the shadows of the Albert Club....

"Great quiz tonight - not a single dud question, and very few went unanswered.

Well balanced for difficulty too (though that always seems a bit easier to say when your team has won). The theme rounds were all the more frustrating for the fact that we mentioned, but then discounted, the correct themes early on. I had Mike Oldfield with Piltdown Man but then lost the thread.

As regards the 'dying on the commode' round, I set a themed round with Commodus / Privy Council /John / WC Fields... etc a few years ago, so the lavatorial context did fleetingly cross my mind - but alas none of the other toilet victims' demises were quite so famous as the 'King' answer which had been saved for the spares.

Certainly Roddy grabbed the answer of the week with the '1479 Roman building' one which has to be our QotW nomination.

Oh, and I now learn that, according to the sound engineer Simon Heyworth, the Piltdown Man section of Tubular Bells resulted from Virgin Records' owner Richard Branson pressuring Oldfield to add vocals to at least one section to make it more marketable as a single. Oldfield stormed out of the meeting saying 'You want lyrics? I'll give you lyrics!', proceeded to get smashed on half a bottle of whiskey and screamed his brains out for ten minutes in the studio."

Mike provides the verdict from the Fletcher Moss contest....

"An exciting evening at the Moss. It is hard to complain about a paper which gives the teams so many opportunities to score. The team going first had the better of the questions but this advantage did not manifest itself until the later rounds. Up to that point the lead had changed hands several times but neither led by more than a couple of points. Our favourite question was the one in Round 6 about the Roman building - even though neither side knew the answer.

The quiz started promptly at 8.30 and finished at 10.15. This shows the value of concise questions. The main beef was the theme of the Betjeman round was so obscure that it was virtually impossible to identify. But, all in all a good paper with plenty of interesting questions."

....and Ivor from the same Fletcher Moss match....

"Excellent questions though the themes largely eluded us. The only time we sussed one out (the wicket-keepers) it still led us to the wrong answer (Stuart Lee rather than Michael McIntyre) but perhaps that is the flip side of a theme...it can mislead as well as help even if the theme is cracked. The poetry connection round would have been difficult even with a hint, or with the lines as a crib sheet. Interesting aside of the evening....apparently Tim’s father attended the same primary school as Evelyn Waugh."

....and Tony from the Cricket Club....

"A great paper with plenty of points to be hoovered up and not a Bingo round in sight! We all loved the question about the smallest parish in Britain named after the Irish bishop and saint. Some of the themes were a bit impenetrable but it didn't really matter as we galloped through the questions getting most of the answers en route."

....and Kieran from the Parrs Wood....

"The quiz had moments good and bad. The 'died in the bathroom dinner party guest list' is the stuff of dreams, though I think Marat might be a bit overshadowed. With Evelyn Waugh and Jim Morrison present I wouldn't fancy anyone else's chances of getting a share of the alcohol on offer all evening.

The Tubular Bells round on the the other hand was dull (like the work itself) and headed towards barrel-scraping by the end. Wicket keepers were fine for those of us who are cricket aficionados, that's all four Donuts in case you didn't know, but the 'vague link' about the Betjeman poem was err....... vague."

The Question of the Week

This week most of you voted for Round 6 Question 2:

The first one was established in 1479, and is now located at Via XX Settembre 80/a, 00187 Rome, Italy. There are more than 120 worldwide. What are they?

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