Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 31/10/18

Major surprises tonight - as last season's top two teams, the Shrimps and the Dunkers, both lose by 5 points

History Men beat Bards

Charabancs beat Mantis Shrimp

Ethel Rodin lost to Albert

Electric Pigs beat Dunkin' Dönitz

History Men beat The Bards

Played 3 - won 3; the History Men remain undefeated

A very happy Ivor waxes lyrical...

A third win in a row for us tonight. It has been some time since that happened - and might propel us to near the table top. We found ourselves 11 points in the lead after two rounds but (as is our wont) managed to see this lead whittled away in the last three rounds and if there had been a ninth round we might well have been caught. In a rare example of not giving up too quickly with a question, we had a think for about the equivalent length of time it takes the Dunkers plus the Electric Pigs to ponder an answer times two, and then successfully came up with the late Rachael Bland. This was in the last round when normally our response is “It’s only a pub quiz just let's get on with it - we give up."

"... and who are The Beatles?"

Some unlikely support for quizzers who want to see an end to questions about long lost pop culture

(R8/Q1)

...and from the loser's enclosure Tony reflects on the match, the venue - and Judge Pickles

The Red Lion has one or two customers who think that it is necessary to shout loud enough to be heard three streets away although they are merely conversing with someone across the table - or even sitting beside them. It doesn't help we poor quizzers just across the room. Mike H coped very well but I for one found it frustrating, especially as I couldn't hear what our opponents were muttering to each other. So no help there.

Miss Ruston and her latest beau - Rome, 1953

(R1/Q7)

Having won the toss it was an unfortunate decision to opt to play second. By the end of the first round we were losing by an Irish Mile. We did our best to pull back the deficit and in the end the scores looked respectable. We lost to a rejoicing Ivor who thought it possible that the only undefeated team in the league might also be top of the table and already contending for the elusive treble. It did not help my morale that the bitter ran out before we arrived and only came back on in time for The Ann to buy me a pint post defeat.

Oh, and by the way...

The late His Honour Judge Pickles (see above) was not universally liked or admired by the profession. I was once sailing in the West of Ireland. The skipper was terrified of the IRA and refused to fly the Red Ensign west of Kinsale. We went into Annie's Bar, a superb seafood restaurant in Castletownsend. I paid with a Eurocheque. My bank had unfortunately decided that Europeans might be impressed with a title and had printed mine on the cheque. The proprietor. who had a booming West Cork voice, said "I see you are a judge - do you know my friend Judge Pickles? He has a house near here. A great man and a great jurist." For once I could not think of any sort of polite words with which to reply.

Ethel Rodin lose to Albert

Albert win at the Ladybarn Club

Mike O'B sends these words...

Before I begin the other team members have demanded that my picture on the home page should be replaced by the photo below which is of somebody they have real respect for and therefore better embodies what The Albert is about.

And they heaped more abuse on me because I blabbed Pepperoni instead of Peperami. This is really too much. Mind you it's a bit rich coming from someone like Jeremy who conferred his question in the Interrogatory round because he knew the surname of the leader of the Kentish rebellion was Tyler, but could not work out his forename. What would he have made of a question which asked for the meaning of the 'W' in the texting phrase WTF?

Round and round in circles - named in tribute to our PM's Brexit negotiating skill?

(R2/Q8)

...and from your webmaster Mike Bath...

Since the Opsimaths were setting this week I was free to fill in as QM down in Ladybarn. I have to say Ethel were unlucky. Roddy's "Rupert Maxwell" and Greg's "Portrait of the Artist as a Dog Licence" showed how they slipped up at the last having done all the hard work getting to the answer. Still the majority of the unanswerable questions went to the Albert team so Ethel can have no complaints there. In truth this was a good old-fashioned WithQuiz tussle between two well-matched sides.

Highlights for me were seeing Jeremy struggling to remember whether any of the Wat family had been baptised 'Tyler' and then running on to almost blurt "Raiders of the Lost Arc de Triomphe".

Electric Pigs beat Dunkin' Dönitz

Triumph for the Pigs at the Fletcher Moss

Andrew reports

Dunkin' Dönitz were short of a player this evening hence the photo below showing the empty seat.....

This was the Dunkers' first defeat by The Electric Pigs in a decade and they took it in good heart. The most bizarre aspect of the evening was a constituent coming over mid-quiz as I was asking the questions. He had a piece of housing case work to discuss!

The Fletcher Moss was lively. Chelsea fans tracking their game against Derby, City's Didsbury Blues occupying our usual room and plenty of students on a Halloween night out.

Charabancs beat Mantis Shrimp

The Charas win the 'ex-Turnpikers' derby in their new home at the Albert

Chara spokesman, Damian, calls in...

We arrived in our new home pub tonight to be greeted by festoons of eerie looking cobwebs everywhere. It seemed very much in keeping with the spirit of Halloween although one or two of us couldn't be absolutely sure we didn't spot the same grey, wispy filaments the week before (and maybe the week before that). It made Father M feel so at home that we decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. We were further reassured by the sound of Ghostbusters being piped around the pub to get us in the appropriate mood.

Marx & Larks

(R6/Q2)

Inspired by whatever spirits were being unleashed we celebrated our first victory in our new home pub, and first in ages against our customary nemesis the Mantis Shrimp. It was one of the highest scoring quizzes we have ever been involved in (I think) and a truly refreshing change from the genuine horrors of the week before. In an almost mirror image of what happened last week, it was our opponents who won the toss, elected to go first and promptly galloped into the early lead only to get steadily pegged back so that by the halfway stage we had grabbed the lead and never relinquished it despite a valiant fight-back from the Shrimps which saw them close the gap to just 5 points at the end. Everybody on both teams managed to score at least one 'two' - and the 'twos' broke almost evenly at 14 for us and 13 for them. I counted only 4 unanswered questions which, again, broke evenly at 2 apiece.

Carrots looking for her boeuf bouilli

(R4/Q5)

Ably QMed with her usual brisk efficiency by Jane (making her debut appearance for us in the Albert), the quiz cantered along at a steady pace and was done and dusted by about ten minutes past ten giving us plenty of time for post coital chit chat (metaphorically speaking of course) between ourselves and our opponents.

What's at Hoo

(R2/Q1)

Golden Bip

(R5/Q2)

...but is it a question?

(R1/Q6)

The non-PM Labour leader that everyone forgets

(R5/Q7)

Some early training for Wiggo

(R1/Q1)

Quiz paper set by...

Opsimaths

Average aggregate 84.3

No low scores this week as Mike O'B observes...

"The quiz itself was wide ranging with plenty of points on offer. We liked the Run Ons round - especially the pairing of Joseph Heller with 2 Fat Ladies. The aggregate score suggests it was a generous quiz with a reasonable level of difficulty."

Mike H who was QMing at the Red for the History Men reports in a similar vein...

"Very good quiz tonight!

There were several questions which could have been chosen as 'Question of the Week' and there were only seven unanswered questions, of which three came in Round 6. From memory, the unanswered ones seemed to be those which were more subject to guesswork, e.g. the height of the cathedral.

Most of the questions, though they took some time to read, were reasonably quick to answer. The most difficult part from the QM viewpoint was the competition in the room - I said I would need another drink tomorrow to refresh my throat having had to speak clearly, slowly, and in quite a loud voice, for most of the evening. My wife often tells me that I speak too loud, but tonight it was certainly an attribute!"

"... and tell us about your Dad..."

(R2/Sp2)

Ivor reviews the paper thus...

"Brian and Jitka were at The Red to see how the quiz was received. This was another of Brian’s solo efforts, and like his previous compilations it was a pointsfest with just the right amount of hinting in the question text for us to have a reasonable stab at every question. Plenty to interest too with the little factoid nuggets to illustrate some of the answers. Some of these were destined to set Anne off - the sale of development land for 87p by Westminster Council for example. “Tory b…ds!”.

We enjoyed the questions tonight and the themes. Perhaps the most unusual feature was that there was not a single pair all evening - and the paper was none the worse for that. The most annoying question was the height of Salisbury Cathedral which might supersede Bobby Fischer’s age at winning the US Chess Championship, or even Huw Edward’s age, as the most useless question of all time. That was also the question that stopped me getting 8 twos so perhaps my vitriol can be excused."

Pointing Godwards - forever

(R6/Q8)

...and Damian gives another thumbs up...

"The quiz itself seemed to suit both of us down to the ground as the scoreline suggests. Plenty of accessible answers that could be arrived at by either an individual answer or a judicious confer. For once, the themes hidden or otherwise did not act as a hindrance to deducing the correct answer even if it wasn't always immediately apparent what the theme might be. For instance I correctly answered the question about the youngest son of the biblical patriarch Jacob without ever realising that he shared his name with a Beatrix Potter character. All in all we felt it was a thoroughly enjoyable affair from start to finish and one of the best quizzes ever to come out of the Opsimaths' stable!

Round of the Week? We particularly enjoyed the chemical elements round.

Scare of the Week? Proud Yorkshireman John being faced with the prospect of a permanent ban from his beloved home county after suggesting that All Creatures Great And Small might be an appropriate answer to which popular 70s sitcom was based in thoroughly Home Counties Surbiton! May the Gods of the Northern Moors have mercy on his confused soul."

...and finally Tony sums up...

"Brian, the quiz setter, was a not disinterested spectator. We spared his blushes but he was a tad dismayed by the seeming lack of balance in the first round The paper taken as a whole was a good one. I was left kicking myself that I could not recall the leader of the Labour Party in the early 30's and forget I had an old client called Ivor Million who had also been at University with my wife, Sheila."

Question of the Week

...nominated by both the Albert and the Ethel squads goes to Round 7 (the Run Ons round) Question 7 ...

(Part 1)

This American’s novels include Something Happened, Good as Gold, God Knows and Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man, but he is still best known for his 1961 debut book. What is it called?

(Part 2)

What was the name of the BBC2 cooking programme of the 1990’s starring Clarissa Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson?

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

A lot of local history

(R6/Q3)