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The Testers get
their show on the road with a well-earned victory
against the Charas; the Opsis slip up at the hands
of the History Men whilst the Prodigals and the
Shrimps record home wins to keep up their chase |
Prodigals beat Electric Pigs
Mantis Shrimp beat KFD
Albert lost to Bards
History Men beat Opsimaths
Charabancs lost to Turing Testers |
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Prodigals
beat Electric Pigs
The Prods record the evening's top score with a
home victory
Someone who did IT with Boris
(R3/Q6)
Mantis
Shrimp beat KFD
CMS beat KFD at the PWH in the battle of the TLAs
 Rachael
emails this
After a very exciting match, we finished an
extremely enjoyable evening 2 points ahead of our
excellent opponents. We established a very slim lead
early on and ended the first half four ahead. We
gradually extended this lead in Rounds 5 and 6 only
to have our opponents catch up a bit in Round 7. So,
going into the final round, we had a lead of six
points. However, we got off to a very shaky start
in the final round and, up until the last couple of
questions, it looked as though we were about to
snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Luckily we
were able to hold our nerve and steal the Star
Trek question.
We were joined by my lovely husband, Adam, who
delivered the questions beautifully!
K FD's
testosterone fix
(R1/Q3)
 and
Kieran has something fishy...
"What
fresh hell is this?" as Dorothy Parker once said.
It
was 8.45 on a Wednesday, and the regular crowd
shuffled out. A wise, foresighted decision since
what followed was 100 minutes of blether, confusion
and fish-style mouth-gaping from the newly minted
KFD on their first outing amongst the big boys.
Young
Liam® was on half term (yes he REALLY is young) and
in any case his transfer from the defunct Donutz
hadn't gone through before the Tuesday 11.00pm
(Central European Time) deadline in order to be
eligible for the humiliation that unfolded. So
the four old hands with season win rates of 40% and
25% (young Liam's® is 100%) took the field and
floundered. And carped. And haddocked for all I can
remember. And waited and waited for anything
approaching a question at which they could have a
confident nibble.
Tank
Girl? Jesus H, TANK GIRL? What the hell has
happened to Ethel? Since when did the boys
from the backroom of Murk get down with the
Nineties? And then follow it up with an entire round
on this century's - THIS century's - chart-topping
beat combos? Rachael happily shot fish in a
barrel on all things music and films as KFD
unhappily shot blank after blank.
God
knows how but it was 37-36 with four questions to go
and we were right on the Shrimp's tails. Our
famous late surge (that happens when you get to our
age) working well with the wheel once again in spin.
But while we were desperately trying to name the
missing Plunkett (sorry Liam, no not that one) we
opted for Morgan and, not for the first time this
year, Sir Joffra brought it home. Tom gave us a look
that would put Owen Farrell to shame.
You
guys are SO over.
Tank
Girl?????
"Are
those her breasts?" quavered a tremulous Martin at
the last rites of the evening.
'Soft Construction
with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War)'
(R3/Sp2)
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History
Men beat Opsimaths
The Opsis' mantle slips as the home team squeak
home
 Mike
Bath reports
Oh dear! The Opsis just couldn't seem to
choose right as time and again we opted for the
wrong answer when we had a choice to make.
Tottenham Court Road, picaresque, Edward
Scissorhands, the Williams sisters - they were
all written down but then we zoomed off on another
tack. Perhaps this is payback for all the good
fortune we've had in the previous 4 games of the
season. Meanwhile the History Men kept on
going, despite the traditional groans and gasps from
Ann, to notch up a good solid victory which sees them
into the top half of the table.
It was a very long drawn out affair with the Spares
overlapping the Red's throwing out announcements.
The background noise in the Red didn't help but in
truth the main reason for the slowness was the
amount of cogitation time required by both teams.
Mike H gave a solid QM performance but he had much
ambient racket to contend with. At the close
Stato Ivor declared Nick the MVP of the evening with
5 twos (though he could have had a full house of
twos if he'd have gone with first thoughts on
the other 3 questions).
No matter! The Opsis will lick their wounds and come
screaming back next week against the Pigs!
Forever going on about … The Brownian Ratchet
(R4/Q3)
 and
QM Mike H chucks this in...
Rather a long quiz, not dissimilar to last week's -
but you know, I always very much enjoy my middle
seat as QM (though it was a difficult role tonight
with our noisy neighbours). Mostly it was a
pretty even match in which the Opsimaths were just
let down by their performance in one round, and then
eventually lost on 'steals' (and Nick's conferring
when a possible blurt would have been correct).
As last week there were few twos, but few
unanswered. There were a couple of very close
calls - Ivor's 'M' instead of 'Q' comes to mind.
Overall, as ever, the match was most convivial (now
there's a popular WithQuiz word!).
Forever going on about …
Fludd's Water Screw
(R4/Q3)
Charabancs
lost to Turing Testers
Only 3 matches in and the Testers gain their
first victory
Roddy breezed into the Red late doors and proclaimed
to the assembled History Men/Opsimath throng "Bloody
Hell! They're good these newcomers."
He'd been down the road at The Albert watching the
Testers play the Charas.
So no pressure then Joe and Co. The rest of
you should expect a testing time when you meet the
Testers. Indeed, Kieran, that testosterone
generated by tonight's appearance of Tank Girl may
come in handy.
On
display at a Manchester City Centre Ford dealership
in 1939
(R3/Sp1)
and now James (TT's vice captain) sends this...
The Turing Testers's maiden victory was never a
certainty. While our relative youth may have
helped us in establishing a 7-point lead by the end
of the
top-selling albums of this century
round, it counted against us when it came to
identifying the 1966 hit (?) Winchester
Cathedral. The Charabancs quickly closed
the gap back up to reach level-pegging at one point
in the crucial final round, which came down to the
very last question, where our patchy knowledge of
England cricketers just about paid off.
The Charabancs were affable and generous hosts, and
we look forward to welcoming them to the Greenfinch
for a return fixture in the new year.
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New York's starting point
(R1/Q7)
Albert
lost to
Bards
The Bards haul themselves up the table with a
welcome victory
 Mike
O'B was on hand...
As the score suggests a tough quiz by recent
standards. A number of interesting questions which
required a lot of conferring. Our main problem
was being slow to recognise some of the hidden
themes and this probably cost us the match.
As for the paper we queried whether Remington Steel
really was set in London - but we did like the
perpetual motion question.
Although I have reached the financial target for my
butt lift, I will not be proceeding. This is
due to the large number of communications from
quizzers stating that my posterior already has the
proportions of a statue of a Greek deity and one
should not interfere with the perfection of nature.
But the money will not go to waste. I know you
will be sorry to hear that Eveline has been
diagnosed with Advanced Luxury Shopping Dependency.
Consequently, it is proposed to set up a charitable
foundation to administer your contributions to be
called 'Money U Gave Someone'. Please continue
to be supportive while she searches for a cure.
Marnus and Lappies –
Springboks away from home
(R2/Q1)
Quiz
paper set by...
...Ethel Rodin
Aggregate score 71.8
Scoring was a little down on the average so far this
season but there was plenty of inventiveness with a
few quirky facts to keep our attention.
At the Parrswood Hotel Kieran seems have been roused
by the inclusion of a picture of Tank Girl as his
report indicates. I was struggling myself with
quite a lot of the more up-to-date popular culture
stuff and just kept waiting for James' usual raft of
politics questions ... and kept waiting ... and kept
waiting.
Jazz genius
and inspiration for Alan Plater
(R7/Q8)
Rachael certainly liked it...
"The paper was great - we all thoroughly enjoyed it.
An excellent range of subjects, well-executed themes
and lots of challenging and intriguing facts. I was
glad to see plenty of pop music questions again!"
and so did TT's James...
This week's paper was an enjoyable affair with
questions ranging from a cleverly clued question on
the LGBTQ pride flag, to a great use of the words
'Perpetual Motion Machine' in a hidden theme round -
as well as a question on (ahem) current affairs
requiring the identification of the Prime Minister's
technology advisor.
1984's Metropolitans
(R5/Q4)
Question of the Week
A constant criticism of our papers is that there are
far too few science questions - and Maths in
particular. Well this week Round 2 had a
couple of Maths teasers and predictably Opsimath
Nick rolled up his sleeves got out his pencil and
cracked this one when the rest of us were flummoxed.
So here's to Round 2 Question 1...
What is the sum of the infinite series
1 + 1/3 + 1/9 + 1/27 + 1/81 ... etc?
For the answer to this and all the week's other
questions click
here.
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