Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 26/04/17

Travellers Call triumph in the WIST Champions Cup to take the trophy back to Stockport for the first time in 5 years;

The Prodigals win the A-Trophy for the second year running

WIST Champions Cup Final - The Results

Albert just failed to cap a successful season losing by a margin of 5 points to The Travellers Call. The team from the Robbies Buxton Road watering-hole have been in the WIST competition for most (if not all) of its ten seasons but, until this year, have not managed to get to the final yet alone win the cup. Their victory this year will be warmly welcomed both sides of the Mersey. My own team, the Opsimaths, have played at the Travellers a few times now and always enjoyed their friendly company and sporting approach to our contests (not to mention the trayful of butties served up at full time).

Unfortunately the actual WIST Champions cup was not present at the match (a last minute message to the Bards to remember to bring it to the Club fell on deaf ears) so there was no presentation ceremony. Many apologies to the Travellers. I will ensure the trophy is retrieved and dispatched to Mike Wagstaffe in plenty of time for the Stockport League's end of season ceremonies in May.

Albert skipper Mike sends his reflections....

"After the first round the score was 24 each but then a few key questions which we might have got went against us and this allowed the Travellers to establish a small lead which they never lost - so, all in all, they were worthy winners. Eveline attempted to subvert the opposition with cakes she had brought from a bunfest at the Midland Hotel earlier in the day but on the night nothing worked."

WIST A-Trophy Cup Final - The Results

The Prodigals (Michael, John, Jimmy and Dave) were on top form beating Compulsory Mantis Shrimp (Rachael, Tom, James and Adam) by 15 points in a raucous Albert Club back lounge. In a reversal of their usual role the heavy dividing curtains were closed to protect the main lounge (football-less and demure) from the quiz hysteria that gripped the back room. What's more the A-Trophy contest was undisturbed by the thumps and bumps that are often heard from the table tennis players upstairs since the wiff-waffers were absent and their room was in use as the venue for the 'senior' WIST final between the Travellers and Albert (who, it seems, remained seated and stationary throughout their tussle).

There was a gaggle of spectators on hand - both neutrals and 'bench' players (such as Richard and Anne-Marie) from the two competing finalists. I had the honour of QMing. As a non-playing member of the defeated team Richard pretended to be the Queen and presented the eggcup-sized A-Trophy to the Prods at the end of the evening.

The match was over shortly after 10pm which left loads of time for animated discussion of matters quizzical and also political. One of the matters discussed (naturally) was which question should take the 'Question of the Week' award (a shoo-in for the 'Westerngrund/Gädheim' poser in Round 1). In discussing this there was a groundswell of sentiment for Dave Barras's memory to be associated with the weekly (and end of season) celebration of superlative question setting so I have used Dave's name in the heading for the QotW section below and suggest we introduce a Dave Barras cup for the Question of the Season award at our End of Season evening in a few week's time. I have to say there was also a feeling that the name 'A-Trophy' had run its course and we should seek a better title for this cup competition for next season.

As for the politics......well let's just say that May can't come and go quickly enough for most of those present (but nor can Corbyn for that matter!).

The Paper

This week the paper was set by The Stockport League (in fact by Alice Walker and Haydn Thompson of The Railway a.k.a. Locomotiv Stöckpört).

Just the right mix of rat-a-tat knowledge testers in the early Stockport-style rounds followed by more 'ponder-ful' themed rounds in the WithQuiz-style second half. Haydn was present at the Club and enjoyed a hearty round of applause at the close of the evening. The average aggregate across the two matches (106.0) was well ahead of the usual WIST paper average (the mid 90s).

In the A-Trophy contest I can't recall any challenges or groans throughout the evening. The contest started with a string of twos only broken by the question about the American Puritan minister, Cotton Mather, who nobody had ever heard of. Often the WithQuiz side of the table at these matches wonder whether their style of questions with plentiful themes and various other forms of answer-linking trickery might tax the 'foreign' setter but there was no such worry in this paper. In particular the final round where you were asked to chose a year and then find an answer containing the name of a US State capital was nigh on perfect WithQuiz fodder.

As for 'Question of the Week' the Round 1 question about the two German villages got everyone's vote. The Shrimps fielded this first and after much pondering James persuaded his colleagues that it could just be that one village had overtaken the other as the largest settlement of ex-pat Germans in Brazil (????). When it passed over to the Prods there was again much pondering before (I think) Michael latched on to the '50 miles to the south east' clue and worked it out. A great 'penny drop' moment which made it the clear front runner for the QotW award.

And then right at the end of the 'Extra Time' Round (inserted just in case and read out after the match had finished and the beer been bought) was a memorable gem about the development of the Fanta drink during World War 2. Check it out!

Mike O'B offers his thoughts on the paper....

"This was an exciting quiz with lots of interesting questions. We liked the round which involved personalities with first names identical to American State capitals. Could Lady Bracknell's first name really be Cheyenne?"

Many thanks to Alice and Haydn for a great paper.

The Dave Barras Question of the Week Award

Round 1 Question 16 at first baffled but then after careful consideration gave just enough of a hint to make it gettable. Both A-Trophy teams plumped for this as their Question of the Week:

What distinction is currently held by the German community of Westerngrund, but will soon be passed to the village of Gädheim, some 50 miles to the south east?

For all this week's questions and answers click here.

....and also

Next Wednesday we move on to the semi-finals of the Val Draper Cup and the Plate for which Compulsory Mantis Shrimp have set the question paper.