Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 28/09/16

The season kicks off with wins for Albert, the Pigs, the Dunkers, Mantis Shrimp and The Opsimaths

The Results

The Men They Couldn't Hang lost their opening match at The Parrs Wood to Albert. Albert's captain, Mike O'Brien, summarises....

"For once the Paddle had very little to say about our performance but this was really because his mouth had fallen off during the summer break as he dried out in a cupboard. We may make the arrangement permanent."

The Opsimaths got off to a poor start against a trio of History Men in the back lounge of the Albert Club. Fortunately for the hosts they rallied towards the end of the first half to run out comfortable winners by the final whistle.

Ivor and Alison were off clubbing in Ibiza Town with their daughters in tow (making sure the wild adults didn't come to any harm, I imagine), so it was up to Anne, Tim and David to field the questions on behalf of the visitors and a pretty good fist they made of it - "It's MC chuffin' what's 'is name" being just an early example of Anne's valiant attempt to deal with a rapper question.

As ever at this time of year it was good to be back on Wednesday evenings amongst good long term friends after a summer of upsets on all fronts. The History Men make excellent guests and the evening was full of fun and laughter with a relatively early end to the quiz allowing time for friendly post-match banter. Many thanks to Anne-Marie who forsook Bake Off to act as QM and ensure the match and the evening was so enjoyable.

The Charabancs of Fire started their campaign with a 'Turnpike Derby' but lost narrowly to fellow tollbooth occupants Compulsory Mantis Shrimp. Both teams deserve credit though as they notched up the highest aggregate of the evening. First Rachael's perspective....

"We had a lovely evening at the Turnpike with our always delightful opponents the Charabancs. By the end of the first half we were quite a bit ahead but throughout the second half our lead was whittled down and we ended up winning by a pretty slim margin."

....and then Damian's....

"With our usual QM Jane playing in the absence of Roisin - and Carmel doing the QM honours - our opening match resulted in a narrow defeat. We were behind in every round but steadily narrowed the gap after the break to give our fellow Turnpikers a dramatic run for their money. Unfortunately Yours Truly opted for 'Ezra' in the final Biblical bingo round confidently expecting a question on Ezra Pound, or even Derek, but instead got landed with a question about someone called George Ezra who apparently produced a few albums. Now if only I had opted for 'Daniel' instead! Bloody bingo rounds (only joking of course)!!"

Ethel Rodin lost a thriller at the Ladybarn Club to Dunkin' Dönitz. Both teams were in the hunt until the final pair as Kieran reports....

"A great start to our 26th season with a very close game against the Rodinistas, decided on the last pair with never more than a couple of points between the teams all the way through.

Despite a lateish start (Celtic had scored their third goal before Barry stuck home the first two of our season) proceedings were ended by 10.10. It seems last season's resolve to move things along at a reasonable pace has carried on into the 2016/17 season. Good! More of this please.

Half time was enlivened by a spat between James and Barry about the future of the Labour Party (future????????) which of course I couldn't resist stirring just a little. But of course good manners were more in evidence than they will be in Minnesota over the next few days and the game was played in the expected hard but fair spirit.

On to the Cricket Club and the Bards next week with our one game unbeaten run on the line. Ah..........."

Meanwhile at The Fletcher Moss the home team, The Electric Pigs, enjoyed a comfortable victory over last season's league winners, The Bards. The visitors were without Steve, Jim and Sarah but, as Andrew says below, the new, younger Bards show there should be a bright future for the team from the Cricket Club. Andrew sends in his summary of the evening....

"An excellent evening at The FM with a depleted Electric Pigs calling on the services of quiz royalty to act as QM; would Dave Rainford's dulcet tones be any match for the excitement generated by City's gripping 3-3 draw at Parkhead? Yes! He boomed out the faultless Prodigals paper and had the tie wrapped up by 10.30 pm.

The Electrics took an early lead and clung on against a new look full strength Bards. Given their contribution there is no doubt we'll be seeing the youthful Tom and Catherine again this term. The icing on the cake came as Dave bought drinks all round at the end of the fixture. This followed a substantial win after his investment on an in-play bet - Newcastle to come from behind to beat The Canaries at St James' Park."

The Paper

This week's paper was set by The Prodigals.

Great stuff with plaudits all round. With the summer break dulling memories I'd forgotten how tough it is to craft a good, well-balanced but varied paper - so full marks to the Prodigals for this. I gather from Anne-Marie that Danny did the final editing though he has given over his winter Wednesday evenings to studying German (I think I've got the right subject) so we won't see so much of Danny this year. I wonder if German's do pub quizzes?

Fittingly Prodigals Mark and Cheryl, though resident in Vienna these days, had contributed Round 5 in memory of their close friend and ex-Prodigal, Richard Seed.

At the Club I did feel the paper started tough but eased off as we got going in later rounds - but then maybe it was our frozen brains that thawed out rather than the difficulty of the questions reducing. Having said this we loved the vey first question of the season, plumping incorrectly for Sadiq Khan after much debate.

Danny tells me, by the way, that the two questions in the paper that cropped up on this week's University Challenge (the ones about the Fields medal and the rhubarb triangle) were in the Prodigals' paper well before UC was broadcast.

Others had similar praise for the paper....

Kieran....

"A very good Prodigals paper to start things off. Only 8 unanswereds, split evenly, and no tired over-stretched themes - though I still maintain that over a whole season seat four gets more than its fair share of questions just there to satisfy a theme and consequently harder than those placed earlier in the round.

We liked the missing trios and there was a very nice acknowledgement of Richard Seed from his team mates of many years. As usual we were hopeless at bingo picks but that's not the setters' fault since there were plenty of points available - we can just never spot them."

and Damian....

"Minor whinges aside, we all thought tonight's quiz was an excellent effort from the Prodigals to start off the new season - full of variety and with something for everyone - the true hallmark of a good quiz! We particularly liked the 'missing member of the trio' round but naturally enjoyed the final 2 Biblical bingo rounds the most. Well done and thank you Prods!"

and Rachael....

"It was an interesting and diverse paper. We particularly enjoyed the 'what's missing' and 'double letter' rounds."

and Mike O'B....

"There was always something entertaining about this paper. We liked the question about the New York club drug - and in the Richard Seed round, the narrator of Gatsby. There was a good range of questions and even when the pairs were imbalanced they broke fairly evenly for both teams."

Question of the Week

First off The Opsimaths and The History Men nominate the first question of the first round - an excellent teaser to start the 2016/17 ball rolling:

Who currently holds the position of the Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead?

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