"We are of course delighted to have won the Val Draper Cup - it has been five years since our only other victory in this tournament.

The handicap system worked very well though our four point start was gone by the end of Round 3 and the remaining 5 rounds saw the lead change four times.  Scores were level with Ethel receiving the last question.  They conferred for their winning point - and then talked themselves out of the right answer.  The unexpected 'steal' saw us home by the narrowest of margins.

With Tim absent due to baby-sitting duties with grandchildren in London, Anne’s niece Vanessa had her second game with us - and did not disappoint; nor did Auntie Anne whose time at uni doing modern languages (and watching Countdown) proved crucial.  Highlights of our side’s efforts included:

• David racking his brain trying to recall My Chemical Romance (unsuccessfully) - but then successfully recalling that in Norse mythology there was “a big ****ing snake somewhere”,

• Vanessa knowing all about box jellyfish, and the Manchester band Los Trios Paranoias (because her partner plays the bass in the very same band)

• Anne having read the works of a certain Peruvian Nobel laureate’s works,

• and 'our man on the bench', Mike, having actually spoken to the very same Peruvian laureate (in Spanish of course)."

James offers these thoughts from the losing corner....

"Ethel's match with the History Men was a close run thing all the way through, with ER catching up their 4 point handicap early on.  Enjoying rounds on a fraternal  theme, and struggling through esoteric tattooage, we ended up tied going into the 'final' final question.

So the 'final' final answer in the final, in a final round where all the answers could be preceded by 'final', was 'final score'.  Greg had it for 2.  And in any other context would have simply gone for it.

But no!  It was the final.  A crucial final question.  And only 1 point needed.  And surely the missing word of 'final' wouldn't have already been in the answer...?  (After all, that's never happened before in any of the similar rounds we've ever had, and particularly not those set by the most experienced setter in the league...).  And so we conferred and, to our final cost, discounted the correct answer.

Many congratulations to the History Men on their victory."

As a postscript 'our man on the bench' Mike H sends in a thought about our practices when a theme has been uncovered in a Hidden Theme round....

"If a person yet to answer is handed a list of possible answers, why does that not count as conferring?"

As it was the average aggregate score of 66.5 was 6 points below the season's overall average.  In the Val Draper match there were 13 unanswered questions splitting 5 to Ethel and 8 to the History Men.  In the Plate final there were (I think) 16 unanswered questions splitting 8 apiece.

As indicated above there was controversy over the final question of Round 8 (set by myself on behalf of the Opsimaths).  The announced theme for Round 8 was that answers should include a word that could either precede or succeed the word 'final' in a familiar phrase.  When I set the round I thought it would be a good idea if the final question in the final round of the season's final paper had the answer 'Final Score' - a question-setter's indulgence maybe but nevertheless a nice way for the season to end.  At the time I overlooked the fact that the word 'final' was actually in the answer.  On reviewing the round I spotted this obvious point of confusion but then (wrongly I guess) let it pass since the answer included a word ('score') which conformed to the rules of the round.  Nothing said that the answers didn't actually include the word 'final' as well!  Of course this resulted in what appears to be a trick question and so I regret not taking this final question out and replacing it.

There was one other faux pas by the setters - this time The Bards.  The answer to Round 3 Question 3 should have been given as 'Thomas Moore' not Henry Moore.  Fortunately this did not cause too much grief since neither team got it in the Plate final and Brian allowed the answer 'Thomas Moore' to get the points in the Val Draper final.

So far this inquest has been a bit gloomy and detracted from some excellent material.  The Electric Pigs 'Fraternal round' was much enjoyed and was at just the right level of challenge.  Ditto Albert's 'Container round' (as QM I enjoyed closing the round by announcing the theme as "Each answer in this round contains.").  Clear favourite for question of the night came from The Men They Couldn't Hang's delving into folk songs with the one about a Vegetable Compound aimed at strengthening the weaker sex (the wording of the question not my own words, I hasten to add).

Ivor rounds off this review....

"Quiz paper was hard - but as Jeremy Paxman would say this is what we should expect as the tournament progresses.  A combined score of 69 with 13 unanswereds (8 to us) with 9 twos each and 5 'steals' each.