Withington Pub Quiz League - Quizbiz 02/02/22

Back at last after a VERY long Christmas break!

...and after nearly 2 years of waiting Albert win the WIST Trophy and KFD take the Lowly Grail

2019/20 WIST Final

Albert beat Smart Alex

2019/20 Lowly Grail Final

KFD beat the History Men

The evening's Starter for Two

(R1/Q1)

2019/20 WIST Final

Albert beat Smart Alex

Albert take the honours winning 59-49

Mike 'Hebe' O'Brien reports...

Good to start playing again. It was an exciting final especially for The Albert as we came from 10 points down after the first round to win by 10 points.

Early turning Turtle

(R1/Q30)

As a tribute to the advanced age of the participants Tom included a large number of questions about 70s music which suited everyone else on both teams except me. It's a pity he isn't a fan of the B52s then I would have been in my element. Wild Party Out Of Bounds - who's to blame when parties get poorly planned; Planet Claire - No one ever dies there no one has a head (Memo to self next time we set produce an entire quiz on the B52s - that'll show everyone).

A modest man with much to be proud about

(R1/Q24)

QM Mike looked on...

Everyone was glad to be back - especially Mike O'B (as the foxy grin in the picture at the top of the page demonstrates).

Smart Alex (Roddy, Greg, Geoff and John) represented Stockport but in truth were a complete set of WithQuiz Ethels with the usual Smart Alex team members who play just in the Stockport league unable to travel down from Barrow.

Tall but how many stories?

(Tiebreaker 1)

The Albert turn out was Mike, Steve, Ashton and Jeremy and after falling behind on the 30-question first round they just powered through to win by 10 points. It was a most welcome triumph for a team that has been 'knocking at the door' for a few years now. They look to be a formidable line up and could well take the league title this season (let's hope that's put the hex on them).

Facing death in the South of France

(R5-6/Q8)

2019/20 Lowly Grail Final

KFD beat the History Men

KFD clinch the trophy winning 60-44

Kieran rejoices in completing the 'Trophy Set' ...

At last....

Three weeks short of two years since we won our semi final at the once and future Stadium of Murk and almost four years since our last trophy, KFD are on top of the podium again.

At the start of the Stockport round the Historymen matched us and we were tied at 8 all after four questions, and then, I don't know what happened, but we ran away with the round ending 32-14 ahead. We extended our lead during the written round to reach half time 22 points ahead. Glory was in sight then the Chorlton cyclist flash mob arrived and inspired our opponents. They took seven points out of our lead in the first two Withington-style rounds, but we rallied and ran out comfortable winners.

So we've completed the career grand slam - every trophy that we could possibly win, including Question of the Season, has been ours at some point. No other team from either Withington or Stockport can claim that, so yes we're feeling quite proud of ourselves.

Back to league action next week and more trophies to try to win. I think we might be getting the taste for it!

Slow Train:

"A perfect requiem for pre-1960s England"

(R1/Q4/5/6/7)

Ivor runs up with these thoughts...

As befits our lowly status the Historymen were unable to mount an adequate challenge tonight for the Lowly Grail (which I note we won once in the mid 2010s). This despite a good luck message from Anne (absent on holiday in Ibiza) with an exhortation to “give them a good battering. And keep up the foul language in my memory.” Instead KFD have won the only trophy they have not previously won; entry to the competition being confined to teams of the second rank. No sign of weakness in KFD tonight though I suspect, like the best premier league teams, the Lowly Grail might be regarded with mild embarrassment like the Europa Cup. Or perhaps not - a cup triumph is still a triumph even if the tangible reward is the size of an eggcup and appears to be entirely devoid of any precious metal.

I enclose a picture (see below right) of the successful team who have dominated our league - surely as eminently as Nadal, Federer, Djokovich and the other one.

The Historymen (me, Mike H, Young David and Younger Vanessa) tonight actually had a good game and we won the WithQuiz half 25-19. Unfortunately we were done for in the Stockport half 32-14 and 9-5 leaking 6 steals in the paired round. Not even a Nadal-like reversal of fortune could make up such a deficit.

Anyway winners and losers had an excellent night with Brian as QM not having to work too hard to keep us in order. Certainly great to be back quizzing.

Johnny Tyldesley at the crease

(R1/Q15)

and a postscript from Mike ...

Seeing you on the way to the Club this evening, Mike, unfortunately didn't prove a particularly lucky omen for the History Men - though I did manage a few correct answers myself. Indeed I was sorry to see the end of that string of Flanders and Swann questions.

After a bright start, the History Men were left behind, although I understand we won the second half by a few points. So it was the latter part of the first half of Stockport-style questions that did for us. Oh, but we did win all the tiebreak questions!

Some Potted Shrimps

(Bonus Round)

Quiz paper set by...

...Tom Benson (from the Shrimps)

Average Aggregate score 106.0

As a QM I really enjoyed reading this erudite paper from Tom with his trademark 'University Challenge' rubrics (e.g. "I need a three-word answer to this question") ensuring fairness and evenness in the paper.

I also liked the narrative approach to the 30-question Round 1 where, instead of dancing crazily from one topic to another he let many of the questions flow naturally from the answers to the previous questions. They do this a bit in Mastermind and quite a lot in Counterpoint. It provides a much more pleasant flow to the evening increasing the entertainment value. Of course it also makes it harder to get a fair balance - but I think Tom achieved that in this paper.

My own favourite question was the same as Jeremy's below which gets the QotW award. Another lovely 'Run on' was the one that linked Louisa May Alcott and Martin Clowes. And like Mike H above I loved the short excursion into the land of Flanders and Swann. Their Slow Train ditty is just about the most perfect requiem for pre-1960s England. Many thanks, Tom.

so what did Mike O'B think...

It was a well-balanced quiz which brought out a wide range of knowledge.

and Ivor...

Excellent paper for a quiz final and Tom pitched it at the right level for the right audience which is always a challenge in our league where complaining about questions is part of the fun - sometimes more so than dragging out an unexpected answer from deep in the cerebral cortex! Mercifully only one modern music question. A double bingo round on 1972 didn't faze us at all - even Young David (only a foetus in 1972) and Younger Vanessa (not even a twinkle in her parents’ eyes) were successful and for me and Mike H 1972 was almost current affairs.

QotW. I agree the Run ons were excellent this week. Who would have thought Andrea Leadsom would be resurrected in a pub quiz?

"Oooh, Betty!"

(R4/Q7)

Question of the Week

This week Jeremy from Albert recognises a most appropriate juxtaposition opting for Round 4 (Run-ons) Question 7...

The Leader of the House of Commons from 2017 to 2019,

&

A 1970s sitcom about an accident-prone simpleton.

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

...and also

Back to the schedule next week as we start the second half of our league programme with a paper set by the Opsimaths. And since the Red Lion is still in the throes of refurbishment the papers will be picked up from the Fletcher Moss for the next few weeks.

Lowly Kieran gets his Grail