Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 16/03/16

The Bards slip in the home straight against CMS making next week's Albert v Bards contest a likely title decider; elsewhere wins for The Prodigals, The Pigs, Ethel and The History Men

Results & Match Reports

Dunkin' Dönitz lost to Ethel Rodin at the Griffin. Overwhelmed by mellifluous sounds James reports....

"The Dunkers were a man down. I suspect it would have been a different story otherwise.

There was an interesting array of options on offer at the Griffin, with three different football matches, and in my experience uniquely, Shostakovich's Festival Overture and then bluesman Albert Collins playing through the music system."

The Electric Pigs beat The Charabancs of Fire at the Fletcher Moss.

The History Men beat The Men They Couldn't Hang at the Red. Ivor (using the dreaded 'C' word) sends this....

"A most (there is no other appropriate word) convivial evening at a quiet Red Lion with TMTCH. TMTCH had more twos and fewer unanswereds than us but lost because they leaked 12 steals to our 3. Dave and Steve, however, got 6 and 4 twos respectively."

Compulsory Mantis Shrimp beat the league leaders, The Bards of Didsbury, in a result that stirs the league table pot up very nicely for next weeks Bards/Albert tussle. I've said before that CMS are the league's 'jokers in the pack' capable of scaling great heights and then plumbing the depths the following week. Well it was a 'heights week' this time and what's more the Shrimps notched up the evening's top score of 41. A delighted Rachael writes in....

"After an extremely close match at The Turnpike where there was never more than one or two points separating us and the Bards at the end of each round, we eventually pulled ahead in the final round to win by two points. The Bards were great company as usual."

....whilst Tony has this to say....

"The Shrimps have recruited a couple more players who are more than useful. The game last night was even throughout with the teams neck and neck most of the evening. The quiz was tricky but nonetheless interesting. It did surprise me to see, however, the number of unanswered questions given our aggregate score. There were 8 unanswered questions, 7 of which fell to the team going second. I suspect that statistic may have skewed a few results."

The Opsimaths were well beaten by the The Prodigals in the Albert Club 'Orkney Dark' derby (for the uninitiated 'Orkney Dark' is the bottle of beer for which the 2 Albert Club teams have competed since the late 1990s). As ever Dave and Anne-Marie were in good form but the form of the two Prodigals newcomers, Michael and Jimmy, was exceptional. With these as regular players the Prodigals will be a team to watch next season (not to mention in the forthcoming Val Draper Cup competition). Michael is from Ireland via last season's winning University Challenge team (Cambridge's Gonville & Caius College) and has just arrived in Manchester to continue his academic work and write a book. Apart from quizzing he's a keen cricketer who's earned a blue with Cambridge University (and therefore merits a place in First Class cricket records alongside another Irishman, Samuel Beckett) - he's already signed on at Didsbury Cricket Club. Jimmy is a former work colleague of Anne-Marie's who has been sampling WithQuiz question papers every Thursday for a few years and (according to Anne-Marie) doing as well as, if not better than, many of WithQuiz's finest. Now he's taken the plunge and moved his fascination with our quiz fare to live participation on a Wednesday evening.

While we're on about Ireland and UC, it's worth mentioning that (Happy Valley aside) the most praised TV programme this week has been the new Obama series (Inside Obama's White House on BBC2) the first part of which aired on Tuesday evening. The Assistant Producer of this masterpiece is none other than Paddy Duffy, former Opsimath, who worked with our own Clare producing (of course) University Challenge. Well done Paddy!

And a final plug for another ex-Opsimath.....Google 'Richard Seed Sprititual Landmarks' and you'll find some of the most stunning images of Britain's religious sites. Over a number of years Richard has been compiling a portfolio of beautiful and haunting photographs which he has now published online with suitably thought-provoking text. The site is still under construction but there's plenty there already to gaze at in awe.

Back to the match.....The Prodigals took an early lead and never conceded it, though the Opsimaths did threaten to close the gap late on. Anne-Marie agreed that her team had had the 'rub of the green' with the questions which didn't always seem fairly paired - plus, unluckily for the Opsimaths, their archaeology expert, Hilary, was in the QM chair so couldn't help with Round 3 which homed in on her specialist subject. But in the end we had no quibbles - the Prodigals deserved their victory.

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week the questions were set by Albert.

Albert managed to pull off a clever trick this week - they produced a popular paper that floored their nearest league rivals, The Bards. Next week's showdown at the Moss between our leading two teams (both with almost identical points differences) will surely determine the fate of the league title.

The scores on the paper varied from a lowly aggregate of 65 in the Pigs/Charabancs and Opsimaths/Prodigals matches to 79 in the CMS/Bards match. Overall feedback was pretty good with just a hint of griping about some unfortunate question pairing.

At the Club we liked what we heard (by and large). The main controversy for us revolved around the need, or otherwise, for first names to be given with surnames if points are to be gained for answers with names in them. So, 'Edwards' or 'Robert Edwards' in Round 6? Howell argued strongly that unless the paper specifies that the first name is required then 'Edwards' should be OK. In the end the Prodigals as well as his colleagues agreed with him - but it would help all if question setters could indicate their requirements in each answer given on the paper. On the website where I am clear that a first name is not essential to earn the points I place it in parentheses and unboldened. Often, where the first name is required the wording 'full name required' is placed after the question. Perhaps setters could consistently do likewise.

As to our QotW we liked the one about Oxford/Cambridge colleges named after the same person, and the one about the Russian city that changes its name for 6 days each year, but Anne-Marie had the final say with Ken's anagrammatical deficiencies at the start of Round 4.

Other comments?

From James at the Griffin....

"Good quiz - 4-5 for the unanswereds. There were a few dodgy pairs - particularly in the first round. We did well out of that and never lost the slender lead. Some good questions though. We were all thrown by trying to find a Jewish George Best - and the Black Top day question did perhaps need an extra hint."

From Ivor at the Red....

"An enjoyable quiz from the Albert with more than a few tip of the tongue teasers (Gertrude Bell and Chris Christie eluding us) and a few salvaged from inspired deep diving into the cerebral cortex (the first space walk and James I).

Wrong answers of the night:

1) Mexican mortification of the flesh: 'It must be something to do with cacti' (Dave)
2) Anagrams: 'Romansch and Horseman - I thought there was an e in there somewhere' (David)
3) Anagrams: 'Penis and Snipe - Isn’t sniping snatching an e-bay auction at the last minute?' (Steve)"

Rachael at The Turnpike....

"The quiz was conducted at a brisk pace and we found much to enjoy in it. The anagrams round provided a great deal of entertainment and we found the whole paper to be interesting and full of variety."

The Question of the Week

This week Anne-Marie really liked Round 4 Question 1 (two answers clued each of which is an anagram of the other):

What Barbie's boyfriend, Ken, lacked & the act of taking something from someone illegally.

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

Chatterbox

Since we're nearing the end of the league competition I'll organise the draw for the Val Draper Cup at next week's Opsimaths/Charabanc match and then publish it on the website later that evening (including announcing who'll be setting the paper for the first cup matches on April 13th).

I'm planning to organise this season's Cup competitions in the same way as we've done over the past few years (handicaps, etc.). If anyone has thoughts as to how we might improve the arrangements please let me know. Perhaps the best way to register these would be to post any suggestions on the message board.