Q: Which team hasn't won a match this season? A: NONE! - both TMTCH and The Bards chalk up their first victories of the campaign; elsewhere the Dunkers and the Shrimps continue undefeated

The Results

At last The Bards of Didsbury got off the mark for the season, overcoming The Prodigals at the Cricket Club.  Anne-Marie writes....

"Good quiz, most enjoyable.  We didn't get the rub of the green but that's WithQuiz. In the end we were beaten by the better team."

Compulsory Mantis Shrimp maintained their perfect start to the season beating The Electric Pigs at the Turnpike.  Rachael writes....

"A very pleasant evening at the Turnpike with The Electric Pigs as worthy opponents.  We eventually finished the night four points ahead after going into the lead in Round One.  Despite keeping that lead throughout our opponents were never more than a few points behind.  A close encounter!"

Albert beat Ethel Rodin at the Fletcher Moss.  Mike O'B chips in....

"In the end the evening's result was really decided by Round 5 which was better for us than Ethel.  All the other rounds were very close."

At the Red the History Men lost to Dunkin' Dönitz who manage to keep their 100% record for the season intact.  First Kieran Trump-ets the Dunkers' victory....

"There was to be no repeat of our famous 15 point victory in the corresponding fixture last year.  We had two Annes in our team tonight; this game saw the reappearance of little Anne deputising for the absent Tim.  He is in Bhutan (he does go on exotic holidays, spending his children’s inheritance).  But unfortunately the other Anne became our first player to have to retire hurt at half time with a rather alarming flu-like illness (as a microbiologist you can imagine my alarm at being downwind from a potential virion cloud).  Get well soon, Anne - we know you will not wish to miss next week’s TMTCH paper and the opportunity to shine on questions about boys’ toys and cement manufacturers.  The Dunkers have an excellent deputy for David too; Simon has a fine pedigree in that he played for the original Griffin years before any of us were quizzing in the league.  Any hope that his brain might have ossified sufficiently to give us a chance in this game sadly proved in vain."

And so to the clash of the cellarmen in which - at last - The Men They Couldn't Hang shook off their jinx and beat The Charabancs of Fire.  Ably QMed by the redoubtable Gilly, and observed by myself, this was a game of considerable quizzing expertise with good strong scoring on both sides.  It is quite wrong to think of our league as a few superstar teams at the top, a clutch of middle-rankers and a scrabbling bunch of no-hopers at the foot of the table (like the Premiership maybe).  There is precious little difference between the teams top to bottom.  Perhaps the greatest difference is that the confidence to go for a 'two' is greater in the top teams than in the others.  Certainly there were a few occasions this evening when players conferred even though the original thoughts of the player asked the question were spot on.  So it is not knowledge that marks out the good quizzer but the confidence to flaunt that knowledge in public - discuss!

The Men seem now to have a squad of some strength and talent exhibited by their ability to substitute one good player for another star performer at half time.  Across the evening Dave and Graham for the Men were on sparkling form with 4 twos apiece.  For the Charas John shone, also gaining 4 twos.

The evening was one of great merriment all round.  My own highlight was Graham's attempt at the Samuel Pepys' bedtime bon mot as: "Can anyone smell burning?".  The golfing pair in Round 6 provided a good deal of mirth when the Men claimed that the South Korean and Japanese holes in question both required the golfer to hit the ball over the ocean to reach the hole from the tee.  Waves of speculation about tees in Spain with their corresponding holes in Florida.

So what did the victorious Graham make of things?....

"At Last!  The Hangers register the deux points for the season.  Il Capitano Dave can stay in the 'Jamie Vardy' mannequin pose no longer.  Fine opponents as they were the Charas could not stand up to the substitutions played by our venerable captain, or the new 3-4-2-1 system that flummoxed our opponents.  Geigenpressing is obviously the answer - or just saying 'play safe'."

On the way home from the Parrswood in the company of John and Damian three elderly quizzers chatted about things WithQuizzical.  Although it is often covered up by humour Damian and his Chara colleagues are bothered about their slip from the top of the table over recent years.  Damian puts it down to the fact that the papers have got harder.  John and I were more inclined to feel that our power of recall had declined alongside a general slowing down of our mental processes.  One thing we all agreed on was that gaining and keeping new team members was a crucial factor in the success of teams - and indeed of the whole WithQuiz enterprise.  In this respect the Charas haven't prospered.  Sadly the most affable, good-hearted bunch of quizzers of all seem to be the only WithQuiz team without a new recruit for the past 5 years.  That really doesn't make sense.

The Paper

This week the paper set by The Opsimaths notched up a very respectable average aggregate score of 80.6 points with only 4/5 unanswerable questions reported from around the grounds.  Full credit should go, yet again, to Brian who is now well-established as the Opsimaths' 'go to setter'.  Although checked out by the rest of the team all the original work in the paper was Brian's.

Finally a plea from Gilly and all those at the Parrswood: "Less prose please!".  There was an awful lot to read out in the evening's paper and not all of it was essential to getting to the answers.  Interesting side facts can be entertaining but this took that indulgence a bit too far.

Question of the Week

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....and also

Question papers