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Albert
beat KFD
Albert get the better of a bottom half clash at
the Moss
 Mike
O'Brien reports
A very close contest
with the lead changing hands but never by a gap
greater than 3 points until the last round which
worked better for us than KFD.
There were 5
unanswered questions which broke 4 to 1 against us -
but such a small number had very little effect on
the scoring.
In other news Eveline
has had a reaction to her Luxury Shopping Therapy
and at present is unable to cope with anything more
than buying Advent Calendars from ASDA. We must be
very patient at this time in case she reverts to
hanging around Pound Shops.
Ancoats' One Star
hero
(R8/Q9)
Ethel
Rodin beat Charabancs
Ethel sashay their way up the table beating
erstwhile leaders, the Charas
 James
leaves off licking envelopes to give his account of
what appears to have been a hard slog
Geoff got 5
unanswered questions fired at him - but managed to
get 3 twos on his other questions. That pretty
much summed up the quiz.
Overall Ethel had 10
unanswered and Charas had 5.
Johnners
(R1/Q1)
and Graham adds this...
I was reminded tonight of my first experiences of
the WithQuiz League at the Ladybarn Social Club
(though in those days it was called the White Swan).
The smoking ban had just started (even though the
barman was smoking), the beer was rank and ladies
were reminded not to wear high-heeled shoes in case
they damaged the linoleum flooring.
Oh, and by the way, never give Roddy, Damian and
John an offer of a lift in your cab when they start
directing the driver.
Apart from that I'm happy.
UK's first Professor
of Ignorance
(R8/Q4)
Bards lost
to
Mantis Shrimp
Shrimps continue their climb up the table
 Rachael
reports
After an extremely
exciting evening of quizzing we won the Parrs Wood
derby by 2 points. At half-time we managed to gain a
5 point lead which the Bards gradually whittled away
in the second half, leaving us neck-and-neck at the
start of the final round. Going into the last
pair of questions we needed a two to guarantee us
the match, or a one to at least ensure a draw.
Fortunately, I picked the question on radio comedy
so was able to go for the two points! There
were some impressive two-pointers from the Bards
while we were occasionally over-cautious and
conferred when it was quite unnecessary!
Amber Gill and Greg O’Shea
Dating royalty
(R2/Q7)
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Labour’s Manchester Central MP looks youthful
while her husband is in the next room addressing
90,000 envelopes
(Sp/Q2)
Opsimaths
lost to Electric Pigs
The reviving Pigs just squeak their way to
another victory
 Mike
Bath reports from the losing side of the chamber
This was a hard quiz
to play and, for our QM Howell, a hard quiz to
oversee. Fortunately we all kept our cool and
in the end the one point win for the Pigs was
deserved. There was little between the teams
throughout but far too many unanswered questions for
comfort (18 which broke 9 apiece). An
unanswered question in a tight contest means that
both teams spend an age scrabbling around on the
outside of the knowledge before finally giving in -
or just saying something unlikely. Meanwhile
tempus fugit.
In other news we took
to wondering what 'KFD' stood for in the Dunkers new
handle. Brian no doubt suffering from a late
night outbreak of his
Prader-Willi
condition felt it might be 'Kentucky Fried Donuts.'
A trawl on the internet when I got home revealed
this promotional picture...
Perhaps others have a
different theory? Let us know.
Turing
Testers lost to Prodigals
Last year's champions overcome our newcomers
 Dave
sends his thoughts...
What a breath of fresh air the Turing Testers are! I
first encountered Joe at an aftershow gathering
where a few of us stayed up until 3.30 answering all
manner of trivia whilst a respected TV quiz
celebrity was sleeping off his earlier efforts on
stage. Joe served warning that he would be
assembling a team of quiz avengers ready to take on
WithQuiz and here they are.
We walked into the Greenfinch knowing we would have
a fight on our hands and that's how it turned out.
Tana, James, Alex and Joe will be stiff opposition
against any team in the league. Rubbing your
hands in expectation of a steal when Catherine
Bach's name comes up will not work against this lot.
All I heard was the brilliant Owen delivering
the dreaded words "2 points". None of this "Before I
was born..." business. These are top notch quizzers,
who have graduated from the Stephen Pearson stable
and are ready for any WithQuiz challenge presented
to them.
We were heavily outgunned in the picture round, but
steadied the ship to put ourselves in the driving
seat for the last two rounds. More apologies to
Michael, John and Jimmy as I embarrassed myself
again, this time not with turkey, but forgetting
Alan Ball in the Holy Trinity. I went for Alex
Young. I think my golden vision was blurred. However
my great team-mates made sure that error wasn't
decisive.
A very convivial night with excellent company and a
challenging, enjoyable quiz.
Now into uncharted territory for the Prodigals and
the WIST Quarter Finals before the battle with our
immediate predecessors as champs KFD, who must be on
their ninth name change, but still provide a tough
fixture every time. This is a very competitive
league and no match can be taken for granted.
Space Walker & Ace
Walker
(R1/Q5 & San Siro)
and Joe from Turing Testers adds...
A decisive and thoroughly deserved win for The
Prodigals, but we like to think the final score
doesn't tell the full story. We were only 3
points behind at the start of Round 7! We
could club together and flag up what caused our
downswing, and drive home that message, but we want
to take an honest stance without any spin.
Compared to The Prodigals, we were below par. Using
our basic German we made an informed (and what we
thought was an utterly hopeless) guess on Round 7
Question 3 and said "Their names both mean Power
Station". Being correct provided much
hilarity. Thanks a lot to The History Men for
writing a paper we enjoyed.
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Quiz
paper set by...
...History Men
Average
Aggregate score 68.4
At
the Albert Club the paper made for a long hard
evening with some low scoring and a points aggregate
almost 20 points below the 75 target set by the
History Men in the paper's introductory remarks.
The bar called last orders just as Howell was
reading the final question of Round 8. In
Ivor's own terminology there were far too many 'constipators'.
From
the Ladybarn Club James sends similar
comments...
"Some
way short of the target score proposed by Ivor...
The University Challenge round was a lot of
effort and hot air for very few marks. A bit turgid
overall I’m afraid.
The first half of the picture round was ridiculously
hard, the second half was ridiculously easy."
Graham was none too complimentary
either...
"Tonight's quiz
was a reminder of why my Pussycat compadres retired
from the League. Thank God I now have two
weeks off."
Mike O'B found the
paper more to his liking...
"The questions were fair and ranged
widely. Our favourite was the one linking the 1980s
supergroup and the 1970s electronic band."
...and Rachael was pretty positive
too...
"We very much enjoyed the paper. It was
challenging and varied and there were few unanswered
questions. It provided plenty of food for thought
with lots of mental exercise! I was personally
very pleased there was a question on one of the
greatest festive pop songs ever, Last Christmas.
It's nice to know that I'm not the only one already
in the Christmas spirit, most of our decorations are
already up at home now!"
...as was Dave Rainford...
"I thought it was a good paper. Lots of interesting
themes. Some took us outside our comfort zone, but
tough doesn't mean ungettable"
...and James Haughton...
It was a very intriguing quiz, with lots of nuggets
of fascinating information on a wide variety of
subjects. There were quite a few long conferences
for both teams, but overall the quiz went at a
decent pace. A few uneven pairs, but I thought they
evened themselves out between the teams. So overall,
the paper made for a very enjoyable night's
quizzing. We're glad to have done our bit for the
History Men's target score too (we're sure they'll
accept us being just one point off).
Question of the Week
This week both the Opsimaths and Albert favoured Round
7 Question 3...
What specifically and uniquely do the two
following bands have in common? Firstly, an '80s
supergroup featuring members of Duran Duran, Chic
and a successful solo singer, and secondly, an
electronic band formed in 1970 who have had hits
including Radioactivity, Autobahn and
Computer World.
For the answer to this and all the week's other
questions click
here.
...and
also
In earlier weeks on this page I have celebrated the
recent achievements of James Haughton on
Countdown and Howell Davies on Who Wants To
Be a Millionaire? It would be remiss
of me not to mention Ethel's own Greg Spiller who
has been taking part in this season's
Counterpoint competition on Radio 4. Greg
won his heat a few weeks ago in some style.
This week he played his semi-final heat and got
some stinking questions so he won't be through to
the final. Nevertheless well done Greg for
getting so close.
Next week we take a break from the WithQuiz league
and play the Quarter finals of the
WIST and Lowly
Grail knockout competitions against our friends from
the Stockport Quiz League.
Please note that all 8 WithQuiz teams (whether
playing at home or away) are responsible for picking
up their question paper envelope from the Red Lion.
The
Railway, although drawn at home to play the Albert,
will actually play their match at the Fletcher Moss
since the Railway over in Stockport is busy with
other noisy activities that night.
Finally November 13th is guaranteed to be a great
night's entertainment as Father Megson himself has
been commissioned to set the paper (the Charabancs
deliberately finished outside the WIST/Lowly Grail
qualifying places last season so that his reverence
could be next week's setter - many thanks to them).
Sheila Hancock, Julie
Christie, Sir Lenny Henry,
BILL SIMCOCK and TONY
BATH
(R3/Sp)
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