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WITHQUIZ The Withington Pub Quiz League QUIZBIZ 1st November 2017 |
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| WQ Archive | Comments | Question papers | |||
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WITHQUIZ The Withington Pub Quiz League QUIZBIZ 1st November 2017 |
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| WQ Archive | Comments | Question papers | |||
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The Shrimps strengthen their hold at the top whilst Albert, the Opsimaths and the Bards slip up |
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The Results |
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Last season the Opsis were confidently in contention for the league title until Christmas came round, and then a couple of defeats home and away to the Charabancs either side of the festival brought all hope tumbling to the ground. Surely it couldn't happen again against a team shorn of its inspirational leader (apparently off on a break in Ireland)? Bloody hell! It did. While Megson was away Roisin, Damian (in particularly good form), John and new boy Graham triumphed. It was an epic struggle with the visitors leading up to the break, and then the Opsimaths creeping into pole position in the latter stages, until a swing of fortune in Round 8 left the Charas ahead by two points at the final whistle. After the match was over and the excitement in the room ratcheted down a few degrees, the winning side requested that I send this message (via the website) to their absent captain and coach, Father M:
So well done Barry Shanks but beware the Opsimaths will be gunning for you in April in the return match at the Turnpike!
Albert lost to The History Men. The losing skipper, Mike O'B laments.... "OMG we were a total Shiloh Pitt tonight. We started off badly with me blathering about Wolfson College and we never caught up. Since we had a late QM crisis Eveline volunteered to officiate and I am here to tell you she's ever so fierce. We quivered with fear when she spoke our names. To replace Eveline Jeremy called up his friend Mark who was thankfully able to join us. Jeremy warned us that there was to be none of the usual foolishness and we did try hard for a couple of rounds but you can't keep a good Paddle down and soon the bespectacled rat was out on the table. Now Mark knows what top level quizzing is all about."
"An unexpected victory for us tonight at the Fletcher Moss. We gained a lead in the first round and pulled steadily ahead to record what is a rare win these days against the Albert (and indeed a rare win against anyone)."
Compulsory Mantis Shrimp kept their 100% record - just - beating The Electric Pigs at the Turnpike. Rachael sends this report.... "In what was a very enjoyable evening we just pulled ahead to beat our excellent opponents by two points. After falling behind in the first round we made up lost ground and were neck and neck by half time. In the second half we remained within a point or two of each other, with the Shrimps just clinching victory on the last question. Roddy did a fine job reading the questions for us."
The Bards of Didsbury lost to The Prodigals
who have, at last, broken their duck.
Ecstatic, Anne-Marie sends these words....
"The
Prodigals are back!! Lovely evening at the Cricket
Club and all finished by 10:30. Danny and I
were inspired by our visits to see David who is now
on the
....and QM Mike H adds these
comments....
"Prodigals got off to a good start (partly helped, I
regret, by a little QM generosity on the very first
question) and won every round except Round 6 which
was tied, and Round 7. It looked as if the
Bards might be making a late comeback, but then the
Prods won the last round, probably the most
difficult of the evening, 5-0.
Incidentally Round 5 was possibly the fastest I have
experienced. The Star Trek pair
produced no points, though Anne-Marie was certain
she knew the name of the new Spock, but it just
wouldn't come to her. But then the Bards
didn't know either.
Altogether 18 twos (split 10-8 to Prods) and six
unanswered questions four of which fell to the
Bards." |
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The Paper |
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'Most unlike a typical Ethel paper' was my immediate thought. Erudition yes, with a number of trademark classical music questions (set by James I'm told) - but quite a bit of playfulness as well peaking in the invented spoonerisms presented cryptically (Round 3 Questions 7 and 8). This was a thoroughly enjoyable pair but in no way a test of knowledge. It did occur to me at this point that my job as QM was more akin to a Strictly Come Dancing judge than a WithQuiz interrogator since there might well have been other answers just as valid as the ones given in the paper. But so what? It was worth the laugh. We did wonder who got Round 3 Question 8 in the Albert v History Men match. I really liked Round 2 where the answer was a name shared by two celebrities though this round proved to be the downfall of the Opsimaths who only scored a single point. I gather from Roddy that Greg was the mastermind behind Rounds 2 and 3 whilst Roddy himself was responsible for Rounds 5, 6 and 7. All in all loads of diversity in this paper - and isn't diversity what we're all expected to celebrate these days? So many thanks to the Rodinistas. Ivor had this to say on behalf of the History Men.... "Unusually for an Ethel Rodin paper we enjoyed it (but do winning teams do this anyway?). A combined score of 75 and only 7 unanswered questions is just about the right level of difficulty.
We were intrigued by Rounds 2 and 3. It must have
taken a year or two to craft these questions since
namesakes and spoonerisms are as rare as interesting
questions on Munros or naval ordnance. I suspect we
will not see their like again for a while.
Although 'Shiloh Pitt' might well appear as an
The most interesting thing I learned is that a prescription costs £8.70 per item. You would have thought I ought to know this but the last time I had to pay was for painkillers for sinusitis in 1978, and it cost 20p (four shillings in old money). Inflation is a strange beast and so variable. In 1978 I paid £1.99 for a bottle of Hungarian Bull’s Blood red wine (there was not a great selection in Presbyterian Edinburgh then) and it is not much more than this today." ....and Mike O'B this.... "The Spoonerism round was a good effort which didn't always come off, but any initiative is to be encouraged. The aggregate score suggests that there were enough gettable questions though it did seem that this was a good toss to win and go first." ....and Rachael this.... "We enjoyed the paper very much; lots of interesting and challenging questions on a wide range of subjects. We particularly liked the 'same name' and 'spoonerism' rounds - with the spoonerism about Jurassic Park and Angelina's eldest child's name our favourite." ....and Anne-Marie sums up the general sentiment.... "Really enjoyable quiz." |
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The Dave Barras 'Question of the Week' |
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For the answer to these and all the week's other questions click here. |
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....and also |
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The question paper is being set by Gerry Collins on
behalf of WithQuiz (it's our turn to set all the
WIST competition papers this season).
Whether your team is playing at home, or away over
in Stockport, please note it is the WithQuiz
teams that are responsible for collecting the papers
from the Red Lion.
Good luck!
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Finally this week I thought I'd share a little of the content of the
monthly Albert Club quizzes I've been presenting for
the past ten years or so.
This month's quiz was held last Monday - they're
always on the last Monday of the month except when
Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year's Eve
intervenes. If you want to get an independent
view of their standard ask Ivor, Anne-Marie, Danny,
Graham, Dave Rainford or Mike Wagstaffe who have
been regulars for a few years now.
By the way Dave wasn't able to make it this time
round as he's in Trafford General Hospital
recuperating. If you're tuned in, Dave, all
the regulars asked me to pass on their best wishes
and tell you that they are looking forward to seeing you soon (oh, and
the 'Anonymous' team that you usually play for
managed to come first despite your absence!).
For a while now Anne-Marie has been urging me to make some
of the monthly quiz material available on a website - so I'll
place something up here each Wednesday for
the next few weeks and see how it goes. Feel
free to comment via the message board or any other
which way.
Hopefully the puzzles will provide you with some
innocent fun during the week and - who knows
-possibly tempt you to come along to the Club and
sample a future quiz first hand.
Whenever I put a round of questions up,
I'll give you the answers the following Wednesday
via this same home page.
So here are four rounds from last Monday (originally
compiled as Powerpoint files but shown here as pdf files).
In each case the
initial page explains the challenge. Try
them out and let me know what you think.
Albert Club Quiz - 171030 -
Home Internationals - Questions
Albert Club Quiz - 171030 -
Connecting Wall - Questions |
Yet again The Opsimaths (Nick,
Howell, Clare and Brian this time) lost to The Charabancs of
Fire.
It
was a jolly gathering which I had the privilege to
QM. It got off to a spectacular start with the
Charas thinking that Andy Burnham had had the good
sense to appoint Councillor Andrew Simcock as his
deputy with special responsibility for business and
the economy of Greater Manchester (Round 1 Question 2). Even better in
Round 6 Chara Graham guessed that the answer to the
question paired with the one about Max Planck was
'Four by two'.
....whilst gobsmacked winning captain
Ivor has this to say....
mend and back in Manchester at Trafford
General."
This
week the paper was set by Ethel Rodin and it
notched up a very healthy average aggregate of 78.8
- a little above the season's average to-date of
76.0.
answer in other quizzes it is unlikely it will be in
the context in which it was used tonight.
This week - not unsurprisingly - a number of you mentioned Round 3 Question 3
where the answers to the two parts were spoonerisms of one another:
Next Wednesday we play the Quarter
Finals of the WIST Champions Cup and the WIST Lowly
Grail competitions against our colleagues from the
Stockport Quiz League.