Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 07/02/18

Results & Match Reports		Dunkin' Dönitz beat Charabancs Mantis Shrimp lost to Opsimaths Prodigals beat Ethel Rodin History Men lost to Bards
Dunkin' Dönitz returned to the top of the table beating The Charabancs of Fire at the Griffin. Kieran reports.... "Well that was some game. Ahead after Round One then behind all the way to the end of Round Six, finally just about hanging on to snatch the win by two. Gerry, with five twos, outscored the entire Donutz haul of four - you know how we win games by now. My brilliant idea of going second after winning the toss because the only hidden theme round was in the first half and we'd have more of a chance of getting the theme by going to school on the Charas questions, worked perfectly as we lost that round 5-2 and overall copped for six unanswereds to the Charas two. Unbowed, we scrapped for points anywhere they could be found. A stolen corpse here, an M25 there, a badger cull plucked out of the ether just as the point was disappearing into nothing. We somehow stayed in touch and then a fumble from the otherwise impeccable Father Megson allowed us to get our noses in front. My (not obsessional, honest) interest in American politics meant we could snaffle the faithless elector as a bonus and then Simon, subbing for the indisposed Martin, dragged Roger Casement out of his 'O' level history memory and we were home. Just. Great match. I was completely exhausted by the end. Both Barry and David said it was the mark of a good team to win when playing badly but I don't think we did - play badly that is - since we won. Just one of those nights when it takes everything you have and then some to get over the line. Hugely satisfying. Now we need a week to recover before facing the Shrimp in WIST. Same time, same place, next Wednesday. Can't wait." ....whilst Damian gives the visitors' point of view.... "As the scores indicate, this was a somewhat closer affair than our performance against the History Men last week and is yet another indication of how you can do very well on some papers, and not so well on others. The scoring was pretty much neck and neck all the way through but, although we had managed to open up a slight lead by the end of the first half and beginning of the second, we couldn't quite manage to hold onto it. However, it remained neck and neck right down to the wire. They say fortune favours the brave and, alas, I wasn't brave enough to insist on the correct definition of what US politics refers to as a 'faithless Elector' in Round 8, Question 6. Had I done so, we would have scored a famous (at least for us) victory over the best team in the league; but I wasn't, and so we didn't, and so the braver team won. There just ain't no business quite like quiz business!" Title hopefuls, Compulsory Mantis Shrimp, just couldn't get the better of their visitors, The Opsimaths, at the Turnpike. The Opsis were glad to welcome Clare back from her peripatetic University Challenges which take her round the country at this time of year seeking young quizzers ready to stand up to the Paxman glare. Along with Brian, Nick and Howell she was on great form as Rachael, Adam, Richard and Tom were just outplayed. The Opsimaths just kept their noses in front throughout amassing 11 twos to the Shrimp's 9. The unanswered questions broke 4-3 against the Shrimps so it seemed on the whole the paper was pretty fairly balanced. All in all it was a wonderful evening of intelligent banter and erudite debate only marred for me (as a spectator) by a truly dreadful Sam Smiths pint. Meanwhile down at the Albert Club The Prodigals beat another team with realistic title ambitions, Ethel Rodin. Anne-Marie reports... "A most enjoyable quiz! We were all very impressed that James came WithQuizzing on such a special day - so we all send him our best wishes for a very happy birthday." ....and Danny adds this from the QM's chair.... "I had the duty of being in the chair for this match as the home team put a dampener on Ethel James's birthday celebrations. Where else would you choose to celebrate your birthday other than the back room of the club? The game seemed closer than the final result suggested. The Prodigals got off to a flyer in Round One by picking up steals on the 'Pink Panther' and 'Thousand Island' questions and thereafter Ethel could never quite catch up due to the Prodigals giving nothing away whilst picking up a few more steals than their opponents along the way." The History Men lost to The Bards of Didsbury whose results this season seem highly unpredictable. Ivor tells his side of the story.... "Playing first we were always behind in tonight's match, but going into the final round only 3 points behind there was always a chance....however, sadly not tonight. Tony and Jim were short of their regulars but they never fail to recruit guest players of sufficient quality to keep each match unpredictable until the end game. Ironically I had my best performance of the season with seven consecutive twos until I was bowled out with the question on the Peugeot item manufactured since the 1840s. Had I been allowed 10,000 guesses there is perhaps a remote chance I would have come up with the correct answer but I would not have wagered money on this. A question like this on the very last question of the night! Not that it made any difference to our game - but had the scores been level….? And of course I would have got Tony’s question on Roger Casement correct. Such is the quizzing life."
Quiz Paper Verdict		This week the paper was set by Albert The average aggregate was 74.8
At the Turnpike I think the overall opinion was pretty favourable. It didn't take too long to get through the paper (although understandably the Links Round attracted quite a lot of lengthy conferring) and there were plenty of points on offer (our aggregate score was 77). We finished a tad before 10.30 which left plenty of time for spares, a round of drinks and some catching up with old (and young) friends. As far as the character of the paper was concerned plenty of good thoughtful stuff - but it does seem to me that the 'Run Ons' format has now run on a little too long. 'Hi De Hieronymus Bosch' and (outrageously) 'Debbie Does Dallast of the Summer Wine' whilst being most amusing, have stretched the rules of the format well beyond reasonable limits. We've gone from phrases sharing the same last and first words, to those sharing the same last and first syllables, to those with just a few letters overlapping. What next? Phrases sharing the same last and first letters? Well it seems my views on 'Run On' rounds are diametrically opposed to Kieran's as his review of the week's paper demonstrates.... "The Albert provided several contenders for the best Run Ons ever. 'Fabrizio Ravanelli the Elephant' and 'Danny La Roobarb and Custard' were more than inspired and 'Debbie Does Da-Last Of The Summer Wine' simply breathtaking. We can only marvel at the mind that came up with that one. We were also more than surprised to learn that Arkansas is the Natural State. Hard to believe that anything which occurs in Arkansas could be thought of as natural. ....and Damian strongly disagrees with me on the Run On format as well.... "We thought tonight's paper from the Albert was a thoroughly enjoyable affair with plenty of varied questions that elicited loads of twos all round - and they were, by and large, accessible with some creative conferring. Some of our conferring was maybe a tad too creative. In addition to the one mentioned earlier, we managed to talk ourselves out of: the correct answer to the alternative name for a 'pink' (Roisin insisted a pink was also known as a carnation and a quick google seems to indicate she could have been right - but we will leave this one up to the experts to decide); the first name of the German-born scientist who shared the Nobel Prize for penicillin (I talked us round to going for 'Boris' instead of 'Ernst' - in my defence, it turns out 'Boris' was his second name but nevertheless the answer did call for first names so, mea culpa yet again); and Father Meggers' perhaps overly fond memories of his years as a part-time chaplain and part-time booze runner for the IRA led him to decide on 'Sinn Fein' as the answer to the Irish links question in Round 6. So, plaudits and paddles of rebuke all round! Despite Mike's growing misgivings about Run Ons, I think we all enjoyed those rounds the most and the Charas would vote them as 'Rounds of the Week' - sorry, Mike!" Danny adds this from his perspective as QM in the Prodigals/Ethel match.... "The stats on the paper were: only 6 unanswered questions, 19 twos (9 to Ethel and 8 to the Prodigals) and 39 ones (15 to Ethel and 26 to the Prodigals) - so in total 58 answered questions. I think those stats prove that on the whole it was a very good paper which gave everyone a fair go. There were one or two quibbles but mostly intelligent questions with enough clues in each to get to an answer. Even the wrong answers were good wrong answers, if you know what I mean. My nomination for QotW would be the 'Duterte Harry' question in Round 8." ....and Ivor this.... "Good questions and interesting variety. A number of examples of the right question falling to the right seat: medic Bernard getting the PET question, lawyer Tony getting the case hanging (and even a hanging) on a comma, me getting the Irish Republic party names. The 'Run On' answers do seem to be getting more tricky - 'White Rajahs of Sarawak!'. And I am not sure if the most appropriate description of the film Debbie Does Dallas is 'seminal' even though it probably was." and finally fellow History Man, Mike H, this.... "A very enjoyable quiz with various good questions though not regrettably the last one which was a bit of a dud. A pity as the result might have come down to this last question. As it happened, it would not have affected our result."
....and the Dave Barras Question of the Week award this week has been nominated by Danny and goes to Round 8 Question 4: Which country, in 2016, elected as its president a man whose nickname is derived from a fictional San Francisco policeman played in three films by Clint Eastwood? For the answer to this and all the week's other questions click here.
'WithQuiz at 40' News		Make sure you've got Wednesday March 28th in your diaries as this is when we will be gathering to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the formation of our Quiz League.
Celebration Evening The end of this week is the deadline for letting me know who you're inviting to this event. So far I have only had returns from Ethel Rodin, the Dunkers and the Charas. Team Captains, please let me know who you're bringing as soon as you can. As reported here earlier, now we are going to Didsbury Sports Ground (TOC H Rugby Club on Ford Lane, Didsbury) there is no '7 per team' upper limit but I do need to know numbers for catering purposes as well as for organising the accommodation. Once all the nominations are in (names, email addresses and a note of anybody wanting a veggie option for the supper) I will confirm the list back to team captains and we can then make sure we invite anybody else who isn't connected to one of the current teams but has been a friend of the league - past or present. Many thanks.
....and also
Next week we play the semi finals of the 2 WIST competitions. The paper has been set on behalf of WithQuiz by the eliminated Opsimaths team (Brian to be specific). For the 2 all-WithQuiz matches and the Smart Italics all-Stockport match papers should be collected as usual from the Red Lion. For the HMRUFC match I have volunteered to drive the paper down to the Rugby Club, so Brian could you please also leave that paper behind the bar at the Red and I will pick it up from there. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Note that I have placed an extra button on the navigation bar to the left to facilitate getting into Father Megson's back catalogue.