Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 11/10/17

Wins for the Dunkers, the Shrimps, the History Men and the Opsimaths on another high-scoring

evening

The Results

Dunkin' Dönitz got their party underway this week. Last week they lost by a single point; this time they won by a single point against The Prodigals. I know Kieran prefers comfortable margins so here's his slant on the affair....

"Two games in, points on the board, 88 scored and a negative points difference. 'What's that about?' as a massively irritating millennial would say.

Barry the blurt continued his eventful start to the season. Last week it was his two gifts to Albert that was the difference between the sides (admittedly balanced by 6 twos and a clear win as MVP out of all the eight players). This week, at a particularly tense point in the game, he blurted all over Judy Murray (you're never going to be able to unsee that are you?) with the Wightman rather than the Federation Cup. But then at the start of the last round, and with the Donutz desperately needing a two, he screwed his courage to the sticking place and, reminiscent of Psycho against Spain, rammed home Chesterfield's impressive church to give us the lead. We stayed ahead until the end - just - and in truth neither Barry nor the west London sparks ever needed redemption. It's a white knuckle ride playing for the Dunkers this season though. Come to think of it, it was pretty much the same last time around.

We were outscored 16 to 11 on twos but last week we scored 19 maximums, including a run of eight consecutively, and still lost. Conferred answers and especially bonuses are priceless it seems.

Next week we're in the sometime Swan and no doubt with another thriller. It's good to be back."

Compulsory Mantis Shrimp emerged from the evening as table toppers with their second consecutive victory - this time over Ethel Rodin. Rachael sends these comments....

"After a very enjoyable evening we finished 3 points up. The paper inspired plenty of frantic conferring on both sides but we all enjoyed it even though it took a lot longer to finish than last week's offering. Another great evening!"

The Bards of Didsbury started well then faded losing to The History Men at the Cricket Club. Ivor sends his victory paean....

"It was a game of two halves tonight with the Bards racing to a 6 point lead by the mid-point interval. Usually we lose focus when we're adrift but not tonight; we'd levelled the scores by the end of Round 6. Then came the two bingo rounds. Tony is not keen on the element of luck involved in bingo rounds as opposed to a setter's attempts at precision pairing (not that that always works anyway). Tonight once again the Bards selected with less luck than their opponents.

We had our usual very good time in the Cricket Club with the Bards. Dom and Mike H shared the QM role."

....and from the losing side of the wicket Mike H contributes these views....

"Definitely a game of two halves with the History Men storming back after the break. Great fun QMing with Dom. I really enjoy reading the questions, and would be happy to QM for any team needing a QM over the coming season.

Oh, and by the way, The History Men expressed some concern that their season is starting with three away matches (although their home ground is definitely not in the process of refurbishment). They feared that they might 'do a West Ham'. They needn't have worried!"

The Opsimaths got the better of Albert on Round One (the pop lyrics round) and just kept the advantage right through to the end. Pop lyrics are not central to the Albert ethos so there was much huffing and puffing from the Albert Club's visitors when, as QM, I announced the first theme. Indeed the solitary Albert score on this round was a two from punk Steve for knowing about Gary Gilmour's eyes.

As ever with Albert it was good-humoured and somewhat fatalistic. Witchdoctor-in-chief, Mike, had brought his mojos (too numerous these days to list) in a plastic bag but forgot to get them out until well into the quiz. When he did there was a slight improvement in Albert's score rate - but, sadly for them, not enough to catch up with the Opsis.

The home team were blessed with another flying visit from Paddy Duffy who this time was on his way back to London after recording all the new series of RBQ programmes up in Scotland (they will be broadcast from late November onwards). Of course he was unable to tell us how his Northern Ireland team got on - or indeed try out any of the questions on us - but he certainly perked up when the connections round came along.

So a very satisfactory start to the season for the Opsimaths who sit out next week and look forward to the real possibility of being bottom of the league table with a 100% record!

Mike O'B sends his thoughts on the evening's match....

"The quiz set by the Charas (damn their black Chara hearts!) would have suited us better if we had lost the toss and gone second. We were behind early on and never caught up. The total score, however, suggests that overall the paper was fair enough. Our favourite question concerned Hartlepool. We don't hear enough about Hartlepool. In fact there should be more Hartlepoolcentric questions - and indeed whole rounds. The Albert team has solemnly dedicated itself to furthering this noble enterprise - so look out for entire quizzes devoted to this North Eastern settlement. We say if its good enough for the Ven. Bede its good enough for us!"

The Paper

This week the paper was set by The Charabancs of Fire.

Another high-scoring quiz with an average aggregate just shy of 80 points. Greatly enjoyed by all (judging from the feedback) and little to complain about (though The Bards expressed their traditional concern over the unfairness of bingo rounds).

If I remember rightly there were 8 unanswered questions in the Opsimaths/Albert match which is about par for the course, but crucially they broke 4 each. Favourite round? Well most of you seemed to enjoy the craft that went into the Bingo rounds at the end of the evening. Not just well-judged questions but plenty of quirky information on the side that delighted all. I suspect the light touch of the ironically brutal cleric was much in evidence here. Venerable Bede's 'stags watering-hole' question was the QotW choice of both Albert Club teams who worked out the answer from the material in the question text. When they did there was an audible 'penny drop' sigh from both sides of the room. Since the question went to Albert, however, it was they who earned the points.

Comments from other matches?

Kieran....

"A very good Charas paper produced a very good contest with our visitors still able to earn a draw right up the last question (if only they'd known their Mansfield from their Newark). Much post-match debate as to how on earth there could be an eyesore in Mansfield. We rather liked the fact that Queen Victoria was the only queen regnant to give birth to a king who succeeded her (none has given birth to a queen as successor either) and she remains so up to the moment of writing. Then again she was only the fifth, and two of her predecessors were in the 16th century so maybe it's not that surprising a curiosity."

Ivor....

"The stats show that it was a very well-balanced paper with only four unanswered questions and a combined score of 80 (slightly easier than some past Chara papers). There were 20 twos scored which is rather fewer than were gained in last week’s pointsfest. Incidentally Greg from Ethel Rodin got a perfect 8 twos last week playing against us. These are almost as rare as 147s in snooker so a belated congratulations to him.

A paper full of interesting questions. The song titles almost did for us. Can there be a worse start than a question on pop music to Tim with the very first question of the night? There seemed to be a large number of questions where answers were successfully dredged up from the deepest archives of memory - so deep that I cannot recall ever laying down the memory in the first place; Stamford Raffles and Kidderminster Harriers for example. These are always more satisfying than knowing the answer before the question is finished."

Rachael...

"It was a very good paper with lots of varied and interesting questions on a number of themes."

...and so say all of us.

The Dave Barras 'Question of the Week'

This week both the Opsimaths and Ethel Rodin rather liked Question 4 in Bingo Rounds7/8 where all the answers had the name of an English town in them:

Which town stands today on the site of the place referred to in the writings of the Venerable Bede as "the place where the stags come to drink"?

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

Setters v Sitters

The Charas and The Pigs got close to arranging a match this week but it fell through late in the day. So no S v S this time round.