Withington Pub Quiz League - Quizbiz 27/10/21

Ethel stay top; KFD drop a point in the first Griffin derby for some years; Woking gets an outing

Prodigals beat Albert

Electric Pigs lost to Opsimaths

Bards lost to Ethel Rodin

Charabancs tied with KFD

Prodigals beat Albert

The Prods get into their stride

Stand-in Albert captain, Ashton, reports...

I'm starting to regret the gloating email I sent to Mike O'B after the first game of the season in which I drew his attention to the nascent league table and our position at the top of it under my temporary helmsmanship. Mike was joined by Eveline in the Albert sick bay last night and our three-man outfit were no match for a Prods team who, it seems, outscored everyone by a good margin last night. Our early season optimism seems a long time ago and I am beginning to suspect certain characters of fomenting dressing room unrest. Jeremy was our MVP last night but bemoaned the fact that "I can't do this on my own" as he notched another two. My fears in him stick deep...

Finest Roman cameo glass

(R1/Q3)

Electric Pigs lost to Opsimaths

Opsis win at the Moss

Some viewers may find Mike's report uses offensive language...

Life continues and the Pigs versus the Opsimaths on a History Men paper at the Fletcher Moss is as old as - well - history itself. This tussle went the way of the visitors with questions that very much suited the Wise Old People (and don't try and acronymise that for fear of the Round 5 setter). Precious few pop questions and plenty of geography suits the Opsimaths fine.

Gary acted as QM and was clear-throated and full of voice throughout, embellishing some of the answers with his own take on life when the occasion allowed. His attempt to read out the list of names in Round 4 Question 4 in the accents of the areas indicated worked reasonably well on the Dukes of Newcastle and Devonshire but came unstuck on the Duke of Grafton who nobody could link to a regional accent. Nice try, Gary!

During the half time break Guy, Tom and myself attempted some WithQuiz proselytism with a few other drinkers in the front lounge who had shown more than a passing interest in the first 4 rounds (shouting answers that were usually wrong - much to Gary's irritation). By the end of Round 8, however, I suspect they had been put off by the need to keep a relatively high level of sobriety throughout the match. Hey, Ho!

Wokest leader

(R5/Q5)

Bards lost to Ethel Rodin

Ethel continue on their triumphant way

Greg sums up...

While young James was away on half-term duties, the even-younger Michael came off the bench to make his WithQuiz debut. Michael is a professional bridge player/teacher:

https://www.ebu.co.uk/biographies/michael-byrne

He did not disappoint, netting a few goals and assists with his knowledge of the Schwarzeneggers, the Windsor dynasty, Equatorial Guinea, the definition of TERF, and of which leader uttered the phrase "2SLGBTQQIA".

Rudest bleeder

(R5/Q7)

and Mike H's twopennyworth...

Ivor was just slightly out with his 80 point estimate for the aggregate score. I was QM tonight and was a little disappointed that no-one twigged the theme to Round 6 (which I had set) - despite Ivor's excellent hint at the start of the round. I also set the Latin America round (this is the region of the world I possibly know best) and was pleased that it produced the greatest number of twos for the evening. Overall the highest scorers of the evening were Jim for the Bards and Greg for Ethel Rodin.

Kevin's hopes dashed

(R2/Q8)

Guy's mother-in-law

(R4/Q8)

Charabancs tied with KFD

Honours even in the Griffin derby

Kieran's weekly missive...

Putting on the agony.......putting on the style

We can't quite get to feel comfortable in the Griffin this season. When we arrived the juke box was playing Elvis singing Suspicious Minds and we left to the sound of Tom Petty's Free Fallin'. This is the Griffin? Then there's the makeover; weird tartan seat cushions clashing wildly with carpets which would have been rejected by The Conti in the 1970s (if you don't get that reference you're way too young for this quiz league). And our front room is no longer heated like the Palm House at Kew Gardens. Weirdest of all though is that this was an away game for us, the Charas having continued their progress south from Ladybarn while we were all away, to pitch up on our Heaton Mersey turf. Presumably sometime in the next couple of years they'll slide off down Didsbury Road into the parallel universe of Thursday nights in the Stockport league. No they didn't occupy our bench, most likely because we got there before them.

Lounging lizard

(R1/Q8)

When we arrived for the first Griffin derby in over twenty five years Pied Piper Ivor was already in situ ready to QM which could only betoken one thing. Yes multiple champion Michael's travel arrangements had got totally messed up and so young Liam® (now at the grand old age of 25 so still completely frightening) took his place and made the journey from Salford to (just) Stockport at short notice. Thank God he did because there was no way Barry, Martin or I were going to get the entirety of the TERF acronym. But Dhani (he can no longer be Jadon for obvious reasons, though Erling's still in play) nailed it (Ed: please check for possible issue resulting in cancellation) for a two thereby keeping us in the game. On a night of few twos Daphne Moon was pretty handy too (ah, Daphne Moon... no can't go there tonight).

Despite, or maybe because of, going first we only led after the first question and were then behind for the next 62. That was in large part down to me idiotically snatching at James Joyce when I knew damn well that the other Irish literature laureate was Yeats. Barry and Martin knew that too and as I blithely handed over a priceless bonus their faces were a picture. Specifically The Scream which is also how I imagine Barry looked around 5.30pm on Sunday.

"Don't some mothers 'ave 'em!"

(R8/Q7)

Having been responsible for that horror I had to try to redeem myself somehow and an unwanted knowledge of the more ridiculous and irrelevant branches of the royal family weren't going to cut it. And, no, I had no clue about Sienna thingy. So to the last question, KFD two points down and that other favourite area of knowledge for bedroom revolutionaries, golf. Look Iggy Pop is a golf nut, how much more edgy would you like me to be? Aided by the Lancashire towns theme and the fact that he's Pep's bezzie who gets name-checked in pretty much every pre- match press conference I fell ravenously upon Tommy Fleetwood and salvaged the draw. I may be allowed to show my face again next week after that.

Next week the Prodigals who seem to have hit their stride. David will be back but Barry's away and Liam will be at the Etihad watching Phil Foden miss a penalty (please no, that game matters) so at present I have no idea who our fourth will be.

Putting on the agony

Putting on the style

That's what all the ~~young~~ woke folks

Are doing all the while

Long may it continue, Liam's generation should be giving us old farts a good kicking regularly.

and Damian's point of view...

In our very first home match in our new home venue the words of dear old Sam Beckett continue to resonate as we strove to fail better. Indeed so better was our failure that we almost secured a victory - but, hey, we'll gladly take a draw. Maybe next time Sam?

Our first home match in the Griffin turned out to be the first derby quiz ever to occur there since goodness knows when. In the dim recesses of my ever ageing brain I seem to recall there was once, long ago, a Griffin B team but I'll leave it to the grand old stalwarts of Griffin quizzing, Kieran and his merry men, to recall the appropriate stats for that particular question.

In any event, a draw seemed a fitting outcome for the Griffin's first derby match since whenever. We led by a point or two in every single round until inevitably our lead was clawed back by Round 6 when the two teams drew level. However, we managed to edge ahead again only to secure a draw at the close. So we avoided losing our first home match against our longstanding and extremely worthy rivals. For once we worked well as a team and came up with some inspired guesses that kept us in the fray. It seems like a good omen!

Onwards and upwards!

Quiz paper set by...

...History Men

Average Aggregate score 75.8

Another high-scoring paper with a range of question styles: Announced themes, Hidden themes, Pairs and 'Fill the gap in the list'. To be honest most of the hidden themes were pretty obvious after just the first question of the round had been tackled - but that's fine. The one Hidden theme round in which the theme defeated both teams at the Fletcher Moss was Round 6 entitled 'Sweet Sorrows - but not in Verona'. But this was a reasonable theme - especially as the film concerned is just 60 years old this month.

As for the Wokery round (Round 5) congratulations to the setters for sticking their heads above the parapet. Anybody expressing any views in this area, however gentle, seems to be opening the door to threats of violence from a hard core of extremists hell bent on eradicating free speech.

So many thanks History Men, your hard work made for an enjoyable evening.

Thursday's gaffer

(R6/Q6)

so what did Kieran think...

A very respectable average score of 75.8 for the paper but somehow it didn't really grab us, and it was quite a slog to the end. Only five unanswereds though, so there can't be any serous criticism of the Historymen's efforts on our behalf. I'd just rather have been in Philadelphia for quite a lot of the evening (see the first paragraph of my match report if you don't get that reference).

and Ashton...

The paper was a good one but (appropriately enough, given the setters) was quite 'history heavy' which seemed to suit our opponents. Scores elsewhere suggest we might have given other teams a closer game even with our man down.

and Damian...

With Historyman Ivor in the chair, we found the questions to be more accessible to us than most of the recent offerings - as our scoreline suggests. This has often been the case for us with Historymen questions. Lots of nice themes that didn't take too much headscratching to figure out and liberally sprinkled with surprising info (who knew that English is a widely spoken native tongue in Nicaragua for instance?). My personal favourite was the one about which national leader was 'woke' enough to recall the full gamut of letters that now describe the various gradations of sexual and gender identity in a recent address on this subject. I was particularly proud of guessing that one correctly.

A Stone at a time

(R6/Q3)

and Greg...

It was a varied and mostly enjoyable quiz. The cryptic clue 'Sweet sorrow but not in Verona' - brilliant as it was - was wasted on us since it led us into a dark tunnel without so much as a candle to guide us. Even if we had twigged the theme, our lack of knowledge of the characters involved would probably have prevented the theme being of any help.

and finally Mike H...

Though 46 of the 64 questions were conferred, only 5 went unanswered - which seems a fairly good return to me.

Question of the Week

This week I've chosen Round 4 (the 'Complete the list' round) Question 3...

William Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Warren Harding, BLANK

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

Few Doubt Renown

(R4/Q3)

...and also

Roddy has been checking up on the forthcoming closure of the Red Lion for refurbishment. It seems there are some delays so we should be alright for the next week or two using the Red. When it does close however we intend to use the Fletcher Moss in Didsbury as the temporary 'paper collection point'.

I'll keep you informed on this matter and make the appropriate arrangements when the time comes.

Manc in Seattle

(R3/Q5)