Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 01/03/17

At the top The Dunkers and The Shrimps both win; elsewhere there's the rarity of two tied matches - between The History Men and The Charas, and The Bards and The Men They Couldn't Hang

The Results

The Bards of Didsbury enjoyed a high-scoring tie with The Men They Couldn't Hang. Graham reports on a reet good evening out at the Cricket Club....

"Yawks-a-lordy, a tie!....and what a night out with the Bards, as ever admirably QMed by Eric....and a dramatic comeback by the Hangers hung on the winning question for Il Capitano Dave Barras....some people may call him the Space Cowboy, some call him the Master of Railway Engineering, Steam Trains, Ships, and other things such as Batman and Superman for instance....Richard, Steve and myself waited in awe for that Batman villain answer from the genius himself....as we were all thinking, he conferred and the answer was Penguin....Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson eat your heart out....we know who you are....brilliant night, especially if you sat in the 'Judge Tony' seat."

Ethel Rodin beat The Electric Pigs at the Ladybarn palace to nudge into the table's 'European slots' as we go into the last four matches of the league competition.

The Prodigals ended up on the wrong end of a points-fest at the Albert Club against (almost) league champions Dunkin' Dönitz. Kieran, understandably euphoric twitters....

"What a refreshing evening! And that's before any mention of events at the Etihad. Prodigal Dave and I exchanged the usual pleasantries about our respective football clubs. I wonder if Dave detests the plastic tourists who have been infesting the swamp for the last couple of decades as much as I do the similar sub-species who have more recently attached themselves to the blue half of the city? I suspect the answer is 'yes' and no doubt Dave and I will be exchanging mostly friendly fire as one, or maybe two, very important derbies bubble up in the latter part of the football season.

But tonight was very definitely about quizzing. The Prodigals have lost three matches by one point this season, and had all those results gone in their favour tonight's teams would have started the game as joint league leaders on 24 points. It's very narrow margins in WithQuiz these days. The contest was predictably close until half time, just two points in our favour at the break. And then as often happens we turned on the turbos in the second half and the win was certain before we got to Round 8. We even scored seven points on the science round! Barry was the star performer with 7 twos, only conferring on Swaledale cheese when the score was still tight. If that question had come later in the quiz I think he would have gone for it himself and got the perfect 8 twos for, I think, the first time in his massively illustrious Wednesday night career. But as Pep keeps telling the most lethal goal scorer I've seen since Denis Law, sometimes it is better to bring your team mates into the play even if you do think you can do it all on your own.

However, the highlight of Barry's night, possibly of his all time contribution, wasn't one of those 7 twos - it was knowing the Mohorovicic Discontinuity, which unsurprisingly had come over to us as a bonus having completely floored our opponents. He claims an interest in geology as a ten year old and a fascination at that age with the National Geographic magazine (ahem). The question is how can such an obviously nerdy kid turn into the funny, interesting and all round polymathic good guy that our relentless points-accumulating opening bat is today? It gives me some hope for the future of my own mulish brood.

The other crucial moment was when David wisely chose not to blurt 'Tiptoe Through The Moonlight' in the body parts round. With the scores at that point so close - and fifteen fingers held out over the table in front of him - I would have glowered had he given a bonus away. I can glower, just ask my team mates.

A splendid evening for us made even more enjoyable, it hardly needs saying, by the good humour of our opponents who surely will enjoy better luck in future seasons.

It's the club again next week and another titanic battle with the Opsimaths. We love those evenings and I believe that they do as well. We can't go there as champions-elect and make them give us an honour guard on our entry to the premises - damn that would have been sweet! But, depending on the result of tonight's Albert v Shrimps match we could seal the title with a win in seven days time. Or it could go to the last game of the season.

'Almost there, we're almost there'.

The Charabancs of Fire tied with The History Men at the Turnpike. Ivor was our 'conviviality gauger' on the spot....

"Our four match winning streak came to an end tonight with an exciting tied game against our old, companionable, fellow fading stars of yesteryear, the Charabancs. We have played the Charas nearly forty times in league and cup games over the years and contests are always close run and played in such an amicable way that the winners inevitably feel a tad embarrassed in inflicting defeat. Perhaps it was appropriate that tonight we ended up all square.

Ably QMed by Opsimath, Nick (who denied all setting responsibility) the quiz rattled along at such a pace that had anyone put their hand up it would have had less chance of stopping anything than it would of stopping a Stockport line train.

The match was all square with two questions to go which meant a head-to-head between Damian and myself (not for the first time either). Damian got his two and so did I. Everyone a hero tonight - no goats. Can Wednesday nights be more convivial?"

...and that very Damian makes these observations....

"Tonight, we Charas notched up our first draw of the season against a team we have so often fought neck-and-neck with in the various enjoyable encounters we've had over the years. We seized a fairly commanding lead in Round 1 and then slowly but surely got pegged back until the difference between us was only a couple of points. Although we managed to hold onto the lead in all but one round, that one round allowed the History Men to come back and secure a draw. History Man Ivor yet again heroically dredged up a two on the very last question to ensure that his team remained undefeated against us this season."

Meanwhile at the Fletcher Moss Albert lost to the Compulsory Mantis Shrimp leaving the visitors still just about in the hunt for the league title. Triumphant Rachael sends us this report....

"It was a most enjoyable evening in the excellent of company of The Albert."

....and weatherman Mike O'B pens this somewhat more oblique reflection....

"For a while in the first half it looked as if the Shrimper youth would fall foul of the Winceyette pyjama wearing, Wincarnis quaffing, Wilfred Pickles worshipping, zombie/triffid mutating crones that the Albert has become. Alas, we were done in by a combination of science and alcohol, and drifted off the pace in the second half. Still mustn't complain its bound to turn out nice again."

The Paper

This week the paper was set by The Opsimaths.

At 80.8 this was one of the highest average aggregates of the season so far, just nudging past the Opsis earlier 80.6. So loads of points on offer and a stark contrast to the mindbender set by The Bards last week. Isn't that just the strength of our league though? Oh so hard one week, and easy as pie the next.

As a lifelong Opsimath (an oxymoronic phrase if ever I heard one) I can claim no merit (or otherwise) for this week's offering - nor can Nick, Howell, Hilary or Clare. As has been the case each time we have set in recent times Brian prepares the paper and then tests it out on the rest of us.

Here's how you reacted to Brian's work of art this time round....

Kieran....

"Expert, experienced question setters, the Opsimaths, set the evening up perfectly with a points-full paper. Announced themes which helped both teams to score heavily, an absence of inaccurate answers or misleading questions, very little in the way of telegraphed pairs, only 4 unanswereds (all falling to the Prodigals but I don't think that slight bias influenced the result), varied subjects which caught the interest of all the players and, best of all, a long overdue reappearance from that venerable quiz chestnut, the Haber Process. It's been years since we've seen that one but the Prodigals gobbled it up for points in the blink of an eye."

Ivor....

"After last week’s stern trial tonight’s paper provided more scoring opportunities. It was also beautifully balanced (at least in our game) with the added luck of the draw regarding the 'wrong seat' syndrome (where everyone knows the answer except the person to whom the question was addressed). It is interesting (possibly) that announced themes are more popular this year than hidden themes. They allow the setter more scope for rustling up theme words hidden in larger words - CAVAlier, HASTIngs and BeGIN were good examples of this feature in tonight's paper."

Rachael....

"The paper was well received and provided lots of points all round with very few unanswered questions. There was plenty of variety and the themes were mostly well thought out. There were loads of interesting and challenging questions on a wide range of topics."

Mike O'B....

"On the less dark side, our favourite question was the one concerning Serbian culture. Serbia doesn't get enough exposure in the quiz league in our opinion."

and Damian....

"Tonight's paper from the Opsimaths was a variety of paired rounds and announced themes which went down quite well for both of us. I counted only 7 unanswereds which again split fairly evenly between the two teams. Our only slight criticism was that the paper seemed a bit top-heavy with booze-related questions, Father M being of the firm opinion that talking about booze simply takes up too much valuable time that could otherwise be usefully spent drinking the stuff. For him, actions always speak louder than words!"

Question of the Week

Albert's Mike O'Brien doesn't think Serbia gets anything like enough exposure in our quiz league so he's headed for Round 3 Spare Question 2 to find this week's nominee (though he may have got his envelopes muddled up - who knows?):

Serbia has only four protected items. Cheese and slivovitz are two of them. One of the others is a foodstuff called Čvarci. The other is a non-food item traditionally manufactured in Pirot. Either tell us what Čvarci are, or what are made in Pirot.

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