Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 16/05/18

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16th May 2018

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Val Draper Cup Semi Finals:

Charabancs lost to Prodigals

Opsimaths beat Albert

Plate Semi Finals:

History Men lost to Electric Pigs

Ethel Rodin lost to Dunkin' Dönitz

Val Draper Cup Semi Finals:

Val Draper Cup specialists, The Charabancs of Fire, tumbled out of the competition by losing their home fixture to The Prodigals. I say 'home' but.....well let Damian explain....

"First, the bad news: the doors of the Turnpike remained firmly unresponsive no matter how hard we banged on them and pleaded for entry. According to the latest rumours, the landlady has done a moonlight flit - apparently unconcerned about the upcoming semi-finals of the Val Draper Cup. We can't think of a single thing we might have said to offend her even if we'd had the opportunity given that we seldom ever saw her. Who knows, maybe she'd just had enough of poncey quiz types invading her premises every other Wednesday night?

Secondly, the good news: we managed to find a welcoming host in the nearby Albert Pub which, despite the rather cramped conditions and the presence of a regular who kept up a noisy running commentary in a language completely unknown to linguists anywhere, seemed keen for us to return and ply our trade there on a more regular basis.

Now more good news: Yours Truly is back in the team for next week after scoring his one and only two of the evening.

Now more bad news: there won't be a quiz for us next week, or at any other time this side of September. Yes, you've guessed it, the spirit of Val, after teasing us for the best part of 6 rounds, finally refused to descend upon us tonight and instead decided to smile on the Prodigals. What a fickle mistress she is! This is the second time in recent weeks we've had our collective hides tanned by the Prodigals. Rears of the year? Not this year, mate!"

With 'A Pint of Science' dominating the Albert Club the Opsimaths decamped to the Fletcher Moss for their home fixture against Albert and little harm it did them as they powered to 50 points with a 16 point margin of victory (19 points but for the handicap). After a sticky start with neither side understanding the first two questions let alone their answers things settled down and played to the Opsimaths' strengths subject-wise. Hilary got 5 twos with the other Opsimaths enjoying 4 twos apiece. So a good solid performance to whisk them to the Val Draper final next week (a trophy they've never won in their 30+ years history).

Mike had brought his Paddle of Rebuke in the customary plastic bag but left it unsummoned. Perhaps (as they frequently say about Premiership footballers at this time of year) the Albert team had their collective eyes on the sunny beaches of some Spanish 'Costa'.

Plate Semi Finals:

The History Men lost to The Electric Pigs in the front snug in the Red Lion. Generally results for the Pigs have been pretty dismal this season - but as ever when the cup competitions come round so do they. This time the Pigs hoisted an 11 point margin (5 without the handicap advantage).

Andrew was on hand to report....

"The Electric Pigs storm into the final of the Plate with this emphatic victory over one of their oldest and dearest rivals, The History Men. After a thoroughly convivial evening in The Red Lion with QM Alison at her mordant, yet patient, best, the Pigs won through without needing the six point handicap cushion.

As Pig Tom put it, this was the Electric Pigs 'B' team with captain-for the-night Andrew dragged out of his safe QM berth. What followed were considered discussions for one point rather than flashy drives for two that ended up in the wicketkeeper's gloves. Despite managing an impressive 'no twos' on the night he came through with Bananarama and, er, that's it…..

Ivor's 'Most Valued Player' calculations revealed that Barry was the winner of this coveted award. What a fitting follow up to a chance conversation at Gerry Hennessy's funeral that saw Barry back in the competitive quizzing arena!"

Meanwhile Ivor posts these comments....

"It was a great victory - for the Electric Pigs. They might have been the whipping boys in the league this season but they always perk up in the knockout cup and plate games and tonight they would have won 34-29 even without the handicap. Last week they came to grief when Lady Luck deserted them in the Bingo round, but tonight they moved to such a commanding advantage that the game was won with a round to spare. And this was accomplished with their so called 'B' team as Guy and Dave were elsewhere. As I said last week a week is a long time in quizzing and tonight the two Toms had a more successful and blurt-free evening - as did Andrew. However the star of the evening was our league’s Father of the House Barry W with 4 twos demonstrating knowledge of subjects as diverse as Canadian desserts, Pulitzer prize-winning musicians and Poe characters before being stopped in his tracks by some obscure female Polish physicists."

Ethel Rodin lost to Dunkin' Dönitz.

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week the paper was set by Compulsory Mantis Shrimp

The average aggregate was 72.3

In no time flat the Shrimps conjured up a paper of great merit that just nicely hit the season's average aggregate score. They are becoming expert setters these days. Even when the dreaded post-2000 popular culture questions come up in their papers I've got to thinking now that I really ought to know the answer (although Avengers: Infinity War and Mordecai seemed not just to have passed me by but have whooshed over the collective heads of all this week's combatants at the Fletcher Moss). Full marks to the Shrimps too for insisting upon an all-female list for Round 3. For too long our pastime has been too male-centric. Maybe next season team captains should be made to adopt female-friendly selection policies. Finally I really want to know more about the serious folk who sit down each year and vote for the 'Pantone Colour of the Year' award. Would they like to enter a team in our league maybe?
Ivor sums up the reaction to the paper from the players at the Red Lion....
"The quiz was certainly a challenge - and of University Challenge standard too. By the end of the first half we had scored a total of 6 points to the Pigs’ 26 (or 16 before handicap) which is pretty dismal. Fortunately more points were obtained in the second half (23 to us, 18 to the Pigs). There were 18 unanswered questions but they broke 8-10 so the paper was well-balanced in terms of question hardness.
There were some interesting questions and themes. If you think marrying into the Royal Family can be unsettling in this era as a divorced 30-something American, spare a thought for Mary de Bohun, impregnated by the future Henry IV at the age of 12 (he was 14). There was also some speculation as to how thick Edward Thomas’s book Six Poems might have been - perhaps it was a large print version.

Our QotW? The one about the dual winners of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar (Round 7/8 Question 10) was nominated by Andrew."
....and Damian's feedback is as follows....
"Tonight's quickly put-together quiz set by our fellow Turnpike orphans, the Shrimpers, played fairly well to our strengths - or so we thought as we went toe to toe with the Prodigals for 6 whole rounds with never more than a couple of points between us. Finally we snatched the lead in Round 4 and kept it throughout Rounds 5 and 6. The paper was ably QM'd by Bard Tony, who struggled throughout with the finer points of the grammar, tense and phraseology that he was forced to read out (warning to the Shrimps and others: expect a sternly worded memo on this subject from Tony in the near future). Eventually we came unstuck in Rounds 7 and 8 by falling into the trap yet again of choosing all the wrong questions in the Bingo Rounds. It's as if your very own love-child rises up against you and repeatedly kicks you in the softer and more delicate parts of your anatomy! Nonetheless we could not fault the quiz for its overall fairness and variety as evidenced by the fact that I counted only 6 unanswereds which broke evenly between us at 3 apiece. In any event, best of luck to the Prodigals in the final and see y'all at the end of season bash in 2 week's time!"

....and the Dave Barras Question of the Week award this week has been nominated by Andrew and goes to Round 7/8 Question 10:

Walter Brennan is the only person to have won 3 Oscars for Best Supporting Actor. However 6 actors have won this award twice. Name any 2 of them (surnames will suffice).

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

.... and also

As is now the well-established tradition next week's setters will be 'Knocked Out United' (i.e. an amalgamation of all 6 teams who have not reached one of the two finals). This year The Charabancs of Fire have kindly agreed to edit the submissions for this paper so can....

The Bards of Didsbury,

Compulsory Mantis Shrimp,

Albert,

Ethel Rodin,

and The History Men

please submit....

One complete round and,

2 pairs of questions (to go towards Rounds 7 and 8)

to Gerry Collins (email address: GerrardCollins@hotmail.com) by last thing Saturday (i.e. May 19th) evening.

And to keep the Charas' editing work to a minimum Gerry asks me to stress that you must submit your questions as a Word file attachment to your email and not text embedded in the email.

As usual the 4 finalists will vote for the round they think the best and its compilers will win a prize at the End of Season presentation evening in a fortnight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once again a reminder to those in possession of trophies won last season to get the engraving up-to-date. Recently all our engraving has been carried out at very reasonable prices by....

Manchester Trophy Market, 287 Palatine Rd, Northenden, Manchester M22 4ET (Tel: 0161 946 9200).

Once all engraving is up-to-date then please remember to bring the trophies to the presentation evening on May 30th (or if you can't be there then leave them behind the bar at the Albert Club before the 30th accompanied by a message with my name on). Thanks.

Results & Match Reports		Val Draper Cup Semi Finals: Charabancs lost to Prodigals Opsimaths beat Albert Plate Semi Finals: History Men lost to Electric Pigs Ethel Rodin lost to Dunkin' Dönitz
Val Draper Cup Semi Finals: Val Draper Cup specialists, The Charabancs of Fire, tumbled out of the competition by losing their home fixture to The Prodigals. I say 'home' but.....well let Damian explain.... "First, the bad news: the doors of the Turnpike remained firmly unresponsive no matter how hard we banged on them and pleaded for entry. According to the latest rumours, the landlady has done a moonlight flit - apparently unconcerned about the upcoming semi-finals of the Val Draper Cup. We can't think of a single thing we might have said to offend her even if we'd had the opportunity given that we seldom ever saw her. Who knows, maybe she'd just had enough of poncey quiz types invading her premises every other Wednesday night? Secondly, the good news: we managed to find a welcoming host in the nearby Albert Pub which, despite the rather cramped conditions and the presence of a regular who kept up a noisy running commentary in a language completely unknown to linguists anywhere, seemed keen for us to return and ply our trade there on a more regular basis. Now more good news: Yours Truly is back in the team for next week after scoring his one and only two of the evening. Now more bad news: there won't be a quiz for us next week, or at any other time this side of September. Yes, you've guessed it, the spirit of Val, after teasing us for the best part of 6 rounds, finally refused to descend upon us tonight and instead decided to smile on the Prodigals. What a fickle mistress she is! This is the second time in recent weeks we've had our collective hides tanned by the Prodigals. Rears of the year? Not this year, mate!" With 'A Pint of Science' dominating the Albert Club the Opsimaths decamped to the Fletcher Moss for their home fixture against Albert and little harm it did them as they powered to 50 points with a 16 point margin of victory (19 points but for the handicap). After a sticky start with neither side understanding the first two questions let alone their answers things settled down and played to the Opsimaths' strengths subject-wise. Hilary got 5 twos with the other Opsimaths enjoying 4 twos apiece. So a good solid performance to whisk them to the Val Draper final next week (a trophy they've never won in their 30+ years history). Mike had brought his Paddle of Rebuke in the customary plastic bag but left it unsummoned. Perhaps (as they frequently say about Premiership footballers at this time of year) the Albert team had their collective eyes on the sunny beaches of some Spanish 'Costa'. Plate Semi Finals: The History Men lost to The Electric Pigs in the front snug in the Red Lion. Generally results for the Pigs have been pretty dismal this season - but as ever when the cup competitions come round so do they. This time the Pigs hoisted an 11 point margin (5 without the handicap advantage). Andrew was on hand to report.... "The Electric Pigs storm into the final of the Plate with this emphatic victory over one of their oldest and dearest rivals, The History Men. After a thoroughly convivial evening in The Red Lion with QM Alison at her mordant, yet patient, best, the Pigs won through without needing the six point handicap cushion. As Pig Tom put it, this was the Electric Pigs 'B' team with captain-for the-night Andrew dragged out of his safe QM berth. What followed were considered discussions for one point rather than flashy drives for two that ended up in the wicketkeeper's gloves. Despite managing an impressive 'no twos' on the night he came through with Bananarama and, er, that's it….. Ivor's 'Most Valued Player' calculations revealed that Barry was the winner of this coveted award. What a fitting follow up to a chance conversation at Gerry Hennessy's funeral that saw Barry back in the competitive quizzing arena!" Meanwhile Ivor posts these comments.... "It was a great victory - for the Electric Pigs. They might have been the whipping boys in the league this season but they always perk up in the knockout cup and plate games and tonight they would have won 34-29 even without the handicap. Last week they came to grief when Lady Luck deserted them in the Bingo round, but tonight they moved to such a commanding advantage that the game was won with a round to spare. And this was accomplished with their so called 'B' team as Guy and Dave were elsewhere. As I said last week a week is a long time in quizzing and tonight the two Toms had a more successful and blurt-free evening - as did Andrew. However the star of the evening was our league’s Father of the House Barry W with 4 twos demonstrating knowledge of subjects as diverse as Canadian desserts, Pulitzer prize-winning musicians and Poe characters before being stopped in his tracks by some obscure female Polish physicists." Ethel Rodin lost to Dunkin' Dönitz.
Quiz Paper Verdict		This week the paper was set by Compulsory Mantis Shrimp The average aggregate was 72.3
In no time flat the Shrimps conjured up a paper of great merit that just nicely hit the season's average aggregate score. They are becoming expert setters these days. Even when the dreaded post-2000 popular culture questions come up in their papers I've got to thinking now that I really ought to know the answer (although Avengers: Infinity War and Mordecai seemed not just to have passed me by but have whooshed over the collective heads of all this week's combatants at the Fletcher Moss). Full marks to the Shrimps too for insisting upon an all-female list for Round 3. For too long our pastime has been too male-centric. Maybe next season team captains should be made to adopt female-friendly selection policies. Finally I really want to know more about the serious folk who sit down each year and vote for the 'Pantone Colour of the Year' award. Would they like to enter a team in our league maybe? Ivor sums up the reaction to the paper from the players at the Red Lion.... "The quiz was certainly a challenge - and of University Challenge standard too. By the end of the first half we had scored a total of 6 points to the Pigs’ 26 (or 16 before handicap) which is pretty dismal. Fortunately more points were obtained in the second half (23 to us, 18 to the Pigs). There were 18 unanswered questions but they broke 8-10 so the paper was well-balanced in terms of question hardness. There were some interesting questions and themes. If you think marrying into the Royal Family can be unsettling in this era as a divorced 30-something American, spare a thought for Mary de Bohun, impregnated by the future Henry IV at the age of 12 (he was 14). There was also some speculation as to how thick Edward Thomas’s book Six Poems might have been - perhaps it was a large print version. Our QotW? The one about the dual winners of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar (Round 7/8 Question 10) was nominated by Andrew." ....and Damian's feedback is as follows.... "Tonight's quickly put-together quiz set by our fellow Turnpike orphans, the Shrimpers, played fairly well to our strengths - or so we thought as we went toe to toe with the Prodigals for 6 whole rounds with never more than a couple of points between us. Finally we snatched the lead in Round 4 and kept it throughout Rounds 5 and 6. The paper was ably QM'd by Bard Tony, who struggled throughout with the finer points of the grammar, tense and phraseology that he was forced to read out (warning to the Shrimps and others: expect a sternly worded memo on this subject from Tony in the near future). Eventually we came unstuck in Rounds 7 and 8 by falling into the trap yet again of choosing all the wrong questions in the Bingo Rounds. It's as if your very own love-child rises up against you and repeatedly kicks you in the softer and more delicate parts of your anatomy! Nonetheless we could not fault the quiz for its overall fairness and variety as evidenced by the fact that I counted only 6 unanswereds which broke evenly between us at 3 apiece. In any event, best of luck to the Prodigals in the final and see y'all at the end of season bash in 2 week's time!"
....and the Dave Barras Question of the Week award this week has been nominated by Andrew and goes to Round 7/8 Question 10: Walter Brennan is the only person to have won 3 Oscars for Best Supporting Actor. However 6 actors have won this award twice. Name any 2 of them (surnames will suffice). For the answer to this and all the week's other questions click here.
.... and also
As is now the well-established tradition next week's setters will be 'Knocked Out United' (i.e. an amalgamation of all 6 teams who have not reached one of the two finals). This year The Charabancs of Fire have kindly agreed to edit the submissions for this paper so can.... The Bards of Didsbury, Compulsory Mantis Shrimp, Albert, Ethel Rodin, and The History Men please submit.... One complete round and, 2 pairs of questions (to go towards Rounds 7 and 8) to Gerry Collins (email address: GerrardCollins@hotmail.com) by last thing Saturday (i.e. May 19th) evening. And to keep the Charas' editing work to a minimum Gerry asks me to stress that you must submit your questions as a Word file attachment to your email and not text embedded in the email. As usual the 4 finalists will vote for the round they think the best and its compilers will win a prize at the End of Season presentation evening in a fortnight. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Once again a reminder to those in possession of trophies won last season to get the engraving up-to-date. Recently all our engraving has been carried out at very reasonable prices by.... Manchester Trophy Market, 287 Palatine Rd, Northenden, Manchester M22 4ET (Tel: 0161 946 9200). Once all engraving is up-to-date then please remember to bring the trophies to the presentation evening on May 30th (or if you can't be there then leave them behind the bar at the Albert Club before the 30th accompanied by a message with my name on). Thanks.