Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 25/01/17

Only one headline tonight:

The Bards ram-raid Fortress Griffin and nick the Dunkers' 100% record

The Results

The History Men beat The Electric Pigs in the closest of finishes at the Red Lion. Ivor's two on the final question was crucial as he now reports....

"A bottom half of the table clash between two teams whose glory days seem to have passed would not be expected to be anything other than pedestrian, or even dull, but that was not to be the case tonight. If the swings of previous weeks made for games of four quarters, this was a game of eight eighths. We were 10 behind at half time but managed to seize an unlikely victory on the very last question. I had to think for a long time trying to recall James Mason’s forename otherwise the match would have been tied (as our first game of the season was)."

...to which History Men new recruit Mike H adds....

"At the Red Lion it was very similar to the match I QMed between the Bards and Ethel the previous week - one team romping ahead in first half and the other catching up in the second. After much deliberation Ivor decided eventually that the answer to the first half of the final question was James Mason, rather than Cary Grant and immediately saw the connection with the answer to the second half of the question. If he'd conferred, it would have been a draw."

The Men They Couldn't Hang lost at home to Compulsory Mantis Shrimp. With the Dunkers falling at last could this be the year the Shrimps reach the summit? Graham reports from the ever-convivial Parrs Wood....

"A two-man Shrimper's outfit (James and Tom) beat a four-man Hanger's outfit at the 'Stadium Of Light' that is the Parrs Wood Hotel. It was an enjoyable, embarrassing home defeat.

Il Capitano Dave Barras had no comment to make after the match, except to say that although himself and Gilly live in the Peak District, Madrid is not the highest capital in Europe."

....and 'half a Shrimp' James H adds this view from the winning camp....

"As ever, it was a pleasure to quiz against TMTCH, a fun group who always make for an enjoyable evening. Only two Shrimps could play tonight but we were lucky with the paper, which we both felt played heavily to our strengths. It was a tightly fought contest throughout the match being 17-17 at the half-way point. In the end the American Presidents round proved decisive for us and we never looked back."

The Charabancs of Fire slumped back into their pre-Christmas form losing to The Prodigals. Damian lets us in on the proceedings....

"The evening began inauspiciously for me when I arrived at Chez Turnpike just as 3 blokes were moving out of the vault into the lounge seizing the only unoccupied table in the room. Given that the vault was also unusually busy I was about to suggest that we may have to repair to some other establishment when it was pointed out to me that the 3 blokes I had noticed earlier were actually 3 Prodigals. On closer inspection, I was forced to admit it was so. 'Should I have gone to Specsavers?' Well, I already had. Maybe I should demand a refund?

Things quickly went from bad to worse as any hopes that we might maintain our recent unbeaten record against teams from the Albert Club proved in vain as the Prodigals adamantly refused to be renamed 'The Opsimaths' for the evening, and promptly led in every single round. Stubborn gits! Nonetheless we remained in touching distance until the first of the paired bingo rounds when some unfortunate choices on our part opened up a gap that we could never manage to close. Chara John's optimistic visit to the bank in case we might have to buy a round proved sadly unnecessary. Maybe next time, John?"

In an excellent tussle between two well-matched teams The Opsimaths just beat Ethel Rodin by a single point on the last question. The lead stayed with the visiting 'Sculptor's 'er indoors' team until well into the second half with the home side just drawing level and then pulling ahead at the end of Round 8. The aggregate score was 83, by some way the highest of the evening proving the credentials of both teams in the WithQuiz title race.

These days I lag a bit behind some of my Opsimath colleagues when it comes to points scoring but on this occasion I was able to notch up 5 twos - and would have had 7 if I had not conferred on two questions when I had the right answer. The first was on the 'Hades sounds very black' question when I couldn't see what 'sinky' had to do with black and the second was when I understandably played safe on the final question of the evening needing just one point for victory. I doubt if I've been anywhere near 7 twos since the last century!

Brian acted as QM in his usual imperious manner just slipping up once when Roddy got asked the first question for Round 6 instead of Round 5. Roddy knew the answer and was pretty miffed when Brian withdrew the question in mid flight. Happily he knew the Round 5 answer as well so no points were lost.

The match completed its journey a few minutes before 10.30 and segued seamlessly into conversation about French cathedrals - specifically 'What is your favourite French cathedral?'. It turns out that James is something of an expert on the matter and treated us to a guided tour of the highlights of Les Domes. By common consent Chartres was the jewel in the crown with Bourges a close second. We were just moving on to English cathedrals when time ran out and the bar staff started moving the furniture around us.

Another great night quizzing!

(Round 5 Question 9) Hell! Hope springs eternal for the rest of us! In the standout result of the evening (and arguably of the season-to-date) the all-conquering Dunkin' Dönitz were comprehensively done in by last season's champions, the mercurial The Bards of Didsbury. And this was no nailbiter either with the Bards finishing 15 points up. Steve was back in the visitor's line-up at just the right time. Kieran reported that despite the fact that he scored 7 twos himself it was a paper that just didn't suit the home squad - and then to cap it all they selected all the wrong Bingo questions (Don't you just love Bingo rounds, Tony?). Before we all get too hopeful it's worth pointing out that the Dunkers are still 6 points clear of their nearest rivals at the top of the table.

The Paper

This week the paper was set by Albert. An overall average aggregate of 74.6 just above the season's average of 73.1 means that the difficulty level was pitched just right. Plenty of happy quizzers reporting their reactions below so well done to Albert.

At the Albert Club we enjoyed the paper and it gave us a thrilling match with a very close finish. Gripes? Well nothing too serious. Is unscrambling a fairly simple crossword-type clue to the name of a city quizzing? Well, maybe - but it was quite fun. Perhaps the only complaint shared by all 8 players was the unanswered question on the last two journalists on Fleet Street (Round 4 Question 3). Did anyone get this one?

Comments from others....

Damian....

"On the whole we enjoyed tonight's paper from the Albert with its nice variety of themes and a couple of bingo rounds thrown in to boot (even though they didn't favour us on this occasion). As the old cliché goes, 'There was something in it for everybody'. Just a couple of quibbles with 2 of the questions (which both fell to us): R6/Q7, the name of the author's wife was not Milly but Nora; and in R8/Q5, the husband of Hillary Clinton's aide with the naughty smartphone habit was not a former senator but a former congressman. In both cases we opted for spares!

As for 'Round of the Week' we particularly enjoyed guessing the city from the cryptic clues in Round 2."

Ivor....

"Plenty in the Albert’s offering tonight to please. As always the excavation of barely remembered facts teased us - including the belladonnas of The Go-Between and St Veronica’s handkerchief. We did find the cryptic capital cities more difficult than we should have done considering Tim’s and Anne’s Guardian crossword expertise. There was also the usual luck of 'the right person in the right seat for the question' phenomenon - though sadly for Electric Pig Tom G he failed to identify the Coronation Street family despite the fact that they shared his own surname!"

and finally James H....

"Both teams at the Parrs Wood really enjoyed the quiz paper tonight. There was great variety in the content of the questions, and the format of the rounds which seemed pitched at just the right level of difficulty. A particular highlight for my fellow Shrimp, Tom, was the question on Rupert Bear."

Question of the Week

This week the Opsimaths make the choice. Round 1 Question 6 ('Which fictional character from a 1976 film is a socially inept 26-year-old who becomes smitten with Betsy, a woman working in the campaign office of presidential candidate Charles Palatine?') and Round 6 Question 5 ('Which American film studio, established in 1914, is the only remaining film company with its headquarters in Hollywood?') got honourable mentions but the vote eventually went to Round 7 Question 7 which afforded (bit of a clue there) the most animated team conference of the evening leading to us getting not just one but both answers wrong:

Which two Presidents were born in 1913?

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