Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 23/11/16

The Shrimps lose leaving the Dunkers as the only 100% team left standing

The Results

The Bards of Didsbury beat The Charabancs of Fire at the Cricket Club. Damian takes up the story....

"One of these days the Charas will arrive for our annual visit to the Cricket Club and manage to find the right entrance straightaway without desperately trying to attract the attention of the barlady. Apparently the middle entrance is fashionable this season and Father M was the only one of us who sussed it out first time thus proving yet again why he is the captain and we are just the cannon fodder (or maybe it was our frantic waving at him from the other side of the window as he prepared to pass by to the other entrance that had some bearing on the matter - but that may just be the heathen view). Anyhow, once we had all found our way in we settled down for a pleasant evening's quizzing in the company of Eric, Tony and co. in the front lounge with a nice pint or 3 of Mansfield bitter (Becks for Roisin, of course)."

Dunkin' Dönitz kept their 100% show on the road - just - as they beat The Prodigals by the merest of margins. Kieran reports....

"For the first and - odds on - last time a TMTCH paper was delivered on their home ground in The Parrs Wood, The Griffin having been declared collateral damage from the kerfuffle going on in North Rhine Westphalia. Four or five charabancs made the journey up Didsbury Road and Parrs Wood Road, and, having added a significant carbon footprint to the world's problems, we got underway around 8.55pm.

Our opponents were the new look Prodigals. Pace Mark, Cheryl and Dave - but not only did they more than live up to the Prodigals reputation as tough opposition, they may even be an improvement on the original. Yeah OK, we won, so I'm feeling happy writing this (for once) but it was a fantastic match decided on the last question by Martin's love of 80s schlock. Some of us have tried hard to erase the memory of Lionel Richie but we all love Fred Astaire. As for those of us who do it backwards and in heels, well our lips are sealed - back to the 80s again.

Seven points ahead after three rounds we were sharply yanked back into line by the 'tools bingo' in which our lead was cut to two. We built a six points advantage in Round 6 and more or less maintained it through Round 7 only to be tied at 38 all when Lionel and Fred fell to me. Of course I conferred!

New look, or proud league stalwarts, The Prodigals were great company as they always are. They just need one of their new boys to perfect the trademark Mark Bassett smacking his hand on his forehead as another two just eludes him.

Next week we welcome The Opsimaths to what I assume will be a more or less deserted Griffin. Always a keenly fought game, and, unlike recent seasons, we still have an interest in the top of the league - for now at least.

Right - I've dusted off my copies of Hello and Say You, Say Me and am up for some late-night easy listening as some swivel-eyed insurgent loony tells me that Sir Elton is going to play the inauguration in the Washington Mall.

Say It Ain't So Joe......."

The Opsimaths beat The Electric Pigs in the back lounge of the Albert Club, whilst Sergio and the gang struggled to an away draw in the front lounge thus ensuring City go through to the next stage of the European Champions League.

Behind the curtains separating front and back lounges The Pigs leapt into a healthy lead early on and were ahead up to the halfway mark. However the toolbox options favoured the Opsimaths who gained ground progressively throughout the second half ending up with a convincing victory.

Brian ably QMed - and we were graced by the presence of the setter supreme, Dave from The Men. Dave purred with satisfaction at the comments on his paper until halfway through the toolbox rounds when the 'Cold Chisel/Spirit Level' mix up became apparent. It didn't really affect us as the Pigs got the 'Common Cold Unit' answer despite staring blankly at the picture of the spirit level in front of them.

After the match I was able to remind Pig Dave that he was sitting in almost the exact same spot as the one he sat in 10 years ago when his legendary 'Tosca' answer rescued victory from the jaws of defeat in the memorable Val Draper Cup Final of May 2006 between the Pigs and FCEK (now known as the Charabancs of Fire). Two points were needed on the last question of Round 8 for the Pigs to draw level with FCEK. In a round with an opera theme Dave was asked 'What was the name of Pat Smythe’s champion show jumping grey horse?'. An age elapsed. Drinks were bought; bladders emptied; and still Dave sat eyeball to eyeball with the QM. Eventually the word 'Tosca' crept out of the side of his mouth and the Club erupted. A tie-break situation! The Pigs were now on a roll and proceeded to put the match to bed by guessing more accurately than FCEK the Eskimo population of Greenland in 1952. Now Dave's son, Tom, is quizzing with the Pigs and he assured me that he was very familiar with the story of that 'Tosca' moment, thank you very much.

So the stage is set for next week. As you can see below the Shrimps just got pipped by Ethel leaving Kieran and his Dunkers as the only 100% team. The Opsimaths mount a raiding party on the Griffin next Wednesday and will be busting a gut to burst the Dönitz bubble. Watch this space!

Compulsory Mantis Shrimp surrendered their cloak of invincibility losing at home in The Turnpike to the lads from Ladybarn, Ethel Rodin. James sums up for the visiting victors....

"We enjoyed this quiz. It was a high scoring and close match. The lead swapped hands a few times during the match - both teams were in it right until the last pair of questions.

We hit the mixed up tools the other way round from that already mentioned ('This is a Spirit level.' - 'No it's not!!') but negated the mix up by subsequently going for the actual not-spirit-level question as well.

It is really healthy for the league these days that CMS are such a competitive and brilliant team."

Albert beat The History Men at the Fletcher Moss - as Mike O'B reports...

"The History Men started off performing much better than we did; in fact we were behind until Round 6 but the second half of the paper suited us more than part one allowing us to end up comfortably ahead."

....and Ivor echoes....

"Talk about a game of two halves! We were 3 points ahead after five rounds and then three rounds later were 9 behind. Very evenly matched in steals and unanswereds but the Albert had a superior 'two rate' (12 to our 5) which sealed their victory. Luckily, despite a late finish, there was sufficient time to obtain our pints in lieu of points."

The Paper

This week the paper was set by The Men They Couldn't Hang.

What an excellent paper written (rather than compiled) by Dave Barras. Replete with interesting facts and never without some sort of handle for the competitor to grasp. This was question-setting at its highest level. The aggregate scores testify to the fact that there were few questions that went unanswered even though often the first sentence or two from the QM left the most hardened of quizzers nonplussed. Typical of the evening's entertainment was the 'Terra Nova question' - a hint from the Greenland reference (though to the wrong pole since the vessel was most famously used by Scott and his team in the Antarctic), a clue from the 'pin' theme (though we hadn't put 'terrapin' on our prospective list of pins) - and yet with a great churning of brain wheels it all fell into place when Nick uttered "I think it might be Terra Nova". Brilliant! Or the Cornish branch line ending at Looe. I was sure that Looe was on the railway but couldn't see the 'pin' connection. Then Howell slipped a piece of paper across the table with the word 'lupin' written on it - as it happens Dave from the Pigs had been going through the same mental contortions making the final jump that had eluded me and picked up the two points before we could have a go.

Let's see whether the rest of you shared my enthusiasm.

Kieran's verdict....

"The paper was, as is now is expected from a TMTCH offering, perfectly balanced, full of interest and capable of getting you thinking about subjects you thought you couldn't care less about. TMTCH certainly know how to construct a paper to maximise excitement and tension. Only five unanswereds (3-2 against our dislocated visitors) and eighteen twos (10-8 in our favour)."

....and Mike O'B's....

"Even though this was the longest quiz of this season it was not without its high points. Who would have thought that a toolbox could be so charismatic. Mind you I'm an avid reader of that Dave's DIY Blog, though I am still finding it hard to hollow out a lump of wood with a spirit level. Still I'll persevere - he seems like the type of chap who knows what he's talking about. It was a mixture of the incredibly easy with the exceptionally hard but it was a very enjoyable evening which is what matters most - and the aggregate score suggests that it was a reasonable paper."

....and Ivor's....

"As expected from TMTCH, a cleverly constructed paper with some major challenges - not least our inability to recognise most of the gizmo tools in the box despite A3 paper and colour printing. Even the announced themes proved a challenge - and connections such as 'Loo-pin' and 'Terra-pin' illustrate a fiendish setter mind. Blurt of the night was my smugly over-confident assertion that 'Flash-fire' must be the product that 'won’t let you down' proving once again that any quizzer can indeed 'let you down'."

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

"Ours was a game of two halves with the Charas leading all the way through the first half but with steadily diminishing leads and the Bards seizing the reins in the second and steadily getting better. In each case it seemed as if the team who went first had the better pick of the questions. In his usual style, Hangman Dave came up with some original and well researched themes with the highlight being the Blockbuster Bingo Tool round. We managed to suss out most, if not all, of the tools but there was a bit of a boo-boo when we were given the wrong question for the Spirit Level which should have been the question for the Chisel. Despite being awarded a spare it did not halt our steady decline. We felt that some of the pairing was a bit uneven (a common failing for this type of question) and that this penalised the team going second in each half. We counted 13 unanswerables altogether which broke 9-4 against us. We copped for 7 of these in the second half and no less than 4 in the final round. Oh well!

Theme of the week? Definitely the Toolbox Bingo (even if Dave sometimes gets his spirit levels mixed up with his chisels - I'm guessing he never got his O-Level Woodwork?)."

....and James's....

"The quiz was excellent. Only 3 unanswered in our match - and at least 6 where educated guesses scored marks. Roddy was on inspired form in this regard."

Later James sent me the picture on the right of his visit this morning to the Dentist next door to Round 3 Question 5!

Finally I thought you might be amused to see the picture below of the original Pools Panel in session in 1963 along with the caustic description from the press at the time....

Question of the Week

The Pigs and The Opsimaths voted for the 'pin-themed' Round 3 Question 7 which perfectly illustrated the art of, and the fun generated by, the well-seasoned thematic setter:

Which Cornish fishing port with a population of 5,000 is also the terminus of a branch line which connects it to Liskeard, 7 miles away, and from there to Paddington?

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