Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 06/04/16

The Bards cap a magnificent season with a close victory in a high-scoring game at the Griffin - many congratulations to (as Mike O'Brien gracefully put it a fortnight ago) our very worthy League Champions!

Elsewhere victories for The Opsimaths to nick second place, for the Shrimps who qualify for 'Europe' for the first time, for The Prodigals, and for The History Men who nevertheless miss out on 'European' qualification

Results & Match Reports

The Charabancs of Fire lost to Compulsory Mantis Shrimp in the 'cheap ale' derby at The Turnpike. This caps off a disappointing season for the Charas who have been traditionally one of our league front-runners, whilst underlining the inexorable rise of the Shrimps. In the 'Seven Ages of Man' it seems 'the lover sighing like furnace' is overtaking 'the justice, in fair round belly with good capon lined' ......though results elsewhere may contradict this assessment! However if memory serves me isn't the Val Draper Cup the time when The Charas' season usually takes off?

Rachael writes in from the lovers' camp....

"We all had a very pleasant final match of the season playing against the lovely Charabancs. We took a very slim lead early on with the scores remaining perilously close until the last couple of rounds when we pulled away to finish ahead."

....whilst a chastened Damian reports for the Charas....

"With Jane and Rodinette Roddy ably sharing QM duties, the Charas limped out of the season much the same way as they limped in - i.e. with yet another loss, this time in an end-of-season derby with our esteemed fellow Turnpikers, the Mantis Shrimp. Whatever else you may say about us this season, at least we've been consistent! I guess this must be the worst we have ever finished. Thank goodness the dear old Hangmen managed to be even more consistent than us! Although we seemed to cop for most of the unanswerables (it broke 7-3 to us by my calculation), we were, as usual, outplayed by the better team on the night. Curiously, it was Round 7, the capital anagram round, the type of round we normally do well in, that really did for us. After that, we had no chance of catching the Shrimpers. The quiz gods have just not been kind to us at all this season!"

The History Men beat The Electric Pigs but, because of results elsewhere, were unable to haul themselves up into league position 8, and so miss out on next season's 'European' nights. A disappointing outcome for the team we have come to know as 'the second best WithQuiz team of all time'. I suspect when the end of season's all-time rankings are recalculated Ivor's crew may have slipped down a tad.

Ivor lets us into his thinking....

"The game tonight was of little consequence in the grand scheme of determining the glittering prizes this season. The Pigs, win or lose, were guaranteed 6th place and, barring bizarre results in other matches, we were doomed to 9th place (and out of Europe) to record our worst finish in the 14 seasons we have been playing in the league. Nevertheless it was gratifying to record a rare victory, especially as the Pigs had inflicted our worst ever defeat (by 17 points) earlier in the season. We did reflect that the solid mid-table (Pigs), and lower table (us), performances were both achieved with a bunch of old stagers - not so much squads as quads - and that there had not been a ringer recruited by either team since History Women, Anne in 2003. (Ed: One person's Ringer is another person's Belle.)"

Albert lost to The Opsimaths in a Manchester City-crazed Fletcher Moss. Mary O'Brien did a magnificent job as QM in trying circumstances - it was really good to see her once again. As for the result (for Albert that is, not for City) it was a disappointing evening. The Bards' triumph down the road at the Cricket Club meant that ultimately the top spot was beyond the Albert team's reach but even so their performance was below the very high standard they have set this season. Their rise up the rankings has been one of the brightest aspects of recent WithQuiz quizzing. Eveline, Mike, Nick and Ashton (not forgetting Mr P O'Rebuke - who was by Mike's side all evening) must be in the frame for the league summit next year when the 'Chelsea effect' hits Tony and his Bards in the autumn. What's more Albert are a jolly team to play, who do not take themselves or the quiz too seriously.

As for the Opsimaths, the evening's result meant we were able to nip into second place in the table at the death. The Bards beat us fair and square twice in this campaign so we have no reservations in saluting their overall victory.

Mike O'B adds this from the Albert perspective....

"We were never at the races last night. A combination of ignorance and talking ourselves out of correct answers was enough to do us in. Our official response to the final results is to damn the souls of the Bards to the deepest bowels of hell, to the indescribable horrors of Dante's lowest circle. However the WithQuiz Babelfish has translated this into 'Congratulations to the Bards, they deserved to win the League because they have been the most consistent team throughout the season.'"

The Prodigals beat The Men They Couldn't Hang quite conclusively at The Albert Club and so got themselves into 8th place earning a 'European' slot next year. It still baffles me how the The Men don't win more often than they do. The Opsimaths' matches against them are rarely one-sided and Dave sets (IMHO) magnificent papers season in, season out. Come on Men! How about gaining a 'European' position in the table next season?

The Bards of Didsbury beat Dunkin' Dönitz in the match of the evening played at the Cricket Club. As we all knew they would, the Dunkers pushed The Bards right up to the end and consequently the aggregate score was a good 11 points higher than any of the other four matches of the evening. For the Dunkers it has been a season that fell below their traditional high standards (this time 12 years back they finished their season with 21 victories and one defeat - this season they have lost 7 and tied one). Nevertheless it would be a brave gambler that would place a bet against them winning the league next year.

For the Bards, once they'd got over their PMT problems of last season there was no looking back. By common consent they have been the outstanding performers of the campaign. Congratulations to Jim, Sarah, Steve, Dom, Eric and, of course, Tony on a great season. Now let's see whether you can overcome an aggregate handicap disadvantage of 14 points in the Cup against TMTCH next Wednesday.

Tony provides the league champions' perspective on matters....

"We went into tonight's quiz without Jim, who is away on familial duties in Spain. Dom stood in and performed extremely well.

Ethel set a very well-balanced paper. Kieran pointed out that the unanswered questions didn't just break equally to both teams, but also broke equally within each team. There was a slight problem with the typing of the questions with the result that we had to ask Eric just to read out the questions and stop when he came to the question mark.

The Dunkers are a great team and contest every point fiercely. The match was played in a very friendly atmosphere but with no quarter given or asked. There was never more than a couple of points between the teams until the final round. Three questions from the end Kieran said 'Congratulations, you've won the league!' - and so indeed we had. Ten minutes later Mike texted that the result at the Fletcher Moss was 37-29 but forgot to say who won (Ed: Oh, how careless of me!). Happily it didn't matter by then. We were truly delighted not to have won by default and the Dunkers were clearly happy for us. We now look forward to what has become a return match when we play the Dunkers again in the WIST Cup final. And so we move on to the knockouts. We rarely, if ever, progress beyond the first round, or whichever round it is when we are allowed to exit with such grace as we can muster."

Quiz Paper Verdict

This, the last League paper of the season, was set by Ethel Rodin. Clever stuff and worthy of the season's league climax - 2 hidden themes, 2 announced themes, 3 paired rounds and a bit of Bingo. An average aggregate of 65.6 meant it was slightly on the tough side but well within the acceptable zone.

At the Fletcher Moss I think our favourite round (at least the most fun for both teams) was Round 7 with its capital anagrams. The ELO Bingo at Round 8 made Eveline frown (she doesn't like Bingo) but seemed OK to the rest of us. I hope James is happy now he's got the subject out of his quiz system - and that he enjoys Mr Lynne at the weekend.

On the whole, in the 'Lover v Justice' stakes (see above for an explanation) I did feel Ethel's paper was skewed towards the Justice. Poor Opsimath Clare doesn't drive (and so doesn't feel a need for knowledge of Motorway Service Areas), has barely heard of Dixon of Dock Green yet alone harmonica player Tommy Reilly, and feels her ignorance of Jimmy Durante's theme tune to be less than a serious handicap to her procession through life. Although, as an habitual driver of 50 years standing (I remember visiting Newport Pagnell Service area in the early 1960s not long after it had been opened) I latched onto the service station theme in question 1 as soon as Mr Blumenthal emerged. Thereafter I thoroughly enjoyed tracking down the other stops on our motorway network. Where I did think the motorway mania went too far was when we were asked to name the junction numbers for two of the adjacent M6 exits in Staffordshire. It reminded me of one quiz I went to many moons ago when an entire round centred on the ability to identify a district of Greater Manchester from the 3-dgit landline phone number prefix ('445' for Didsbury, etc.). The whole room had to be woken up at the end of the round! No more motorway junction numbers please, question-setters!

Other reactions?

Damian....

"Tonight's paper from Ethel had a varied assortment of interesting themes, pairs and a welcome bingo round at the end (so nice to see some teams still remembering that these have always been a happy feature of Withquiz). In my opinion, it was probably the most balanced quiz paper we have had in what seems quite a long while now. Curiously, as I was about to depart The Turnpike trying to think up yet more feeble excuses for another lacklustre performance, I was approached by a Shrimper who suggested a bribe. Why a member of the winning team would want to bribe one of the losers? Is this a first for WithQuiz? Maybe it would have been wise to take him up on the offer.

QotW: Consensus seemed to be for the one about the guy with the ridiculously long name who had just taken over a football club (Yours Truly can't recall which one)."

Rachael....

"The paper was challenging but full of interest. The general consensus was that the question about Vichai S was QotW."

Anne-Marie....

"Tough quiz!"

Ivor....

"A combined score of 66 with 14 unanswereds does suggest a moderately hard test for us, but it was not a quiz without interest. The evening did start off with 2 unanswereds (the musical lyricists) which might have put a downer on things to come but, like Graeme Gooch’s test pair, it was followed by inspired performances all round.

The 'Master' round invited some smutty speculation but there was no sign of either HE, Kathy or Norman Bates; and Anne waiting like a coiled spring for Ulan Bator waited in vain. The Motorway Service Stations and painters were spotted fairly quickly but, of course, there are an awful lot to choose from and no doubt there are another 20 or more possible reserve theme words in these categories for future evenings.

QotW: A special mention for the African country pair of questions at the end of Round 4. These represented a master class in balanced question construction; two ways into the answers and plenty of general interest - things of beauty even if their answers were tricky. These are just the kind of questions which elevate our pub-based frivolity into Art."

The Question of the Week

This week the Shrimps and the Charas opt for Round 4 Question 1:

How is Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha's investment likely to pay off this year?

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

Chatterbox

Val Draper Cup

Next week we play the first round matches of the Val Draper Cup competition with a paper set by the Charabancs.

The Cup and Plate competition handicap scores have now been placed on the fixtures page against each team name.

Your handicap points score should be treated as your starting score in each match with points gained during the match added on. Please do not net off the handicap scores for the two teams at the start of a match as this may affect the calculation as to the Lowest Scoring Losers or Highest Scoring Losers for the Round. So, for instance, Team A may have a handicap of -4 points and Team B a handicap of +3 points but do not treat this as Team A starting with 0 points and Team B with +7 points.

When you report match scores to me report the final scores including the handicaps.

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Changing how we do things?

Following my remarks about the lengthening time taken to complete each of our Wednesday evening's games there has been a debate on the message board. I'll try to sum up......

Everybody agrees that some weeks matches go on too long, detracting from the enjoyment of the evening.

The latest many of you think matches should finish is 10.30pm with some thinking 10pm is late enough.

All agree we must not place the burden solely on QMs and that whatever we agree must be backed up by the players in support of the QMs.

The general diversity of our papers and the high level of craft that goes into their composition is acknowledged far and wide and greatly appreciated, so we do not want to suppress the creativeness that goes into the quiz paper production process (Dave Rainford reminded me of the high reputation our papers have amongst the Eggheads and was keen that we didn't jeopardise this).

There are differing views as to how Draconian we should be in trying to limit the time taken to answer questions:

30 seconds per question (with 15 seconds per passed over question) was suggested, but seems to most too harsh;

no more than 10 minutes per round would allow a balance of more time for the more complicated questions but less for the straightforward - but we would be asking quite a lot of QMs to navigate through a Round to ensure it lasted no more than 10 minutes;

leave it to the QM to hurry things along question by question more forcefully than is done at present, with after, say, a minute a reminder of 10 more seconds to think before the question was passed over and then just, say, 15 seconds for the second team if the question was indeed passed over.

As a trial during the Cup matches, I suggest we follow up on the last suggestion mooted above - that is:

for the team initially asked, the QM prompts after a minute saying there is just 10 seconds to go before the question is passed over,

the second team getting a passed over question has just 10 seconds to answer before the QM gives the answer.

Team Captains could you please arrange that the above two bullet-pointed stipulations be implemented as from next week's Cup matches.

Let's see how this goes with a view to a more definite change to our practices for the new season in the autumn.