Withington Pub Quiz League - Quizbiz 26/10/22

Barry Whitehead's funeral will be at the Small Chapel, Southern Cemetery at 11.30am on Friday November 4th

Please let Martin (mlbrom@tiscali.co.uk) know if you plan to be there and he'll inform Barry's family

Ethel go top; Albert and KFD remain unbeaten;

The Opsimaths top-score to get their first victory of the season

Electric Pigs lost to Ethel Rodin

Opsimaths beat Charabancs

KFD beat History Men

Albert beat Bards

Opsimaths beat Charabancs

The Opsimaths get their first win notching up a magnificent 53 points

Mike was on the back lounge sofa ...

At last a win - and a tidy score at that - as the Opsimaths chalked up 53 points to win by the healthy margin of 22 points. I say "The Opsimaths chalked up..." but in truth it was Nick who inflicted most of the damage on the Charas. Last night he was magnificent sniffing out points all over the place. He even knew the name of the pre-Romanov Russian royal family and the ruling clan of Tyrone when the rest of us were clueless.

The match itself was the usual friendly encounter with the 'new look' Charas which included Bernard and Dennis in their line-up alongside perennial favourites, John, Graham and skipper Damian. The more eagle-eyed of you will have counted 5 names; well that was because Dennis and Graham each played just one half.

Crimson Constant

(R1/Q8)

Over on the Opsi side of the room Nick, Brian, Howell and, myself piled on the points with a very capable and erudite Hilary doing the honours as QM.

I do miss Gerry Collins (Father Megson) on these occasions. His part in Charabanc matches for so many years was one of the highlights of the season (I can even remember missing a Wednesday night City game now and again because we were playing the Charas and I relished the craic so much). If you're reading this Gerry over in Stockport, hope all is well. Any retirement piece of wacky prose from Father M is guaranteed a few column inches in this weekly QuizBiz page.

Rockney rabbits

(R6/Q8)

Damian is not so joyous ...

Up until last week we were failing better (or so we hoped) but tonight brought such illusions crashing down to Earth with our biggest drubbing of this young season to date. Sorry Sam B, we'll try to get back on track as soon as possible. Promise!

Our first mistake of the night was to win the toss and opt to go first, judging by the way the questions unfolded. We seemed quite able to answer many of our opponents' questions but not our own.

This imbalance didn't correct itself in the second half as we just kept falling further and further behind until the desultory last round when we scored just 2 points to the Opsis' 7. We were all glad to see the punishment finally come to an end and acknowledge sadly that we were just not good enough on the night to give the Opsis a run for their money. Maybe next time guys? On the plus side our newest recruit Dennis made his debut which turned out to be a baptism of fire - but he still managed to score his first two!

5-4-3-2-1-and just turned 82

(R5/Q3)

Albert beat Bards

Albert remain unbeaten

No ifs, No butts, it's MOBO ...

Another good paper. The result was in doubt until the last couple of rounds. Prior to this several rounds had been tied. As usual the Run Ons went down well. The round on our latest PM was certainly up to date and nicely balanced with a round on the new King.

I felt sprightlier than usual, probably because I had spent the afternoon at Jacki's Gentlemens Club in Levenshulme (entrance round the back) where Big Olga had promised to properly iron me out - and by Jiminy that girl had kept her word. If you want your unmentionables squashed flat I can think of no one better qualified to make you sing a high 'C'. The only drawback was that she had shifted my new butt lift up to my shoulders so that I looked like Quasimodo.

Electric Pigs lost to Ethel Rodin

Ethel win at the Fletcher Moss to go top

This week's R1/Q1 as envisaged by last week's R1/Q6

(R1/Q1)

Would you believe it! A good Republican

(R8/Sp2)

KFD beat History Men

KFD close in on the table top

Kieran welcomes the return of Bob 'The Hat' Ganley ...

Our first home game of the season and a number of traditions needing to be observed. First, 'Pied Piper' Ivor was in the house so the youth of Didsbury could not be far behind. Specifically Thomas, making his third consecutive appearance - which brings us to the second tradition. Barry 'Sick Boy' McNorton cried off on the morning of the match with a head cold much as he had done last March against the same opponents. I don't know what it is about Anne and co. that our man in the isolation ward finds to be so beyond the pale but it is beginning to look like a bit more than coincidence. The final tradition was the return of Bob, wearing THE hat, a superbly on point Lenin (or Lennon) cap, a subtle but unmistakable comment on our times and the required remedy.

Bob had slipped back into the country unnoticed during the brief period when Cruella's disregard for propriety, security and the ministerial code had prevented her from occupying the office of Home Secretary. I don't know where he's sequestered the yacht - best not to ask too many questions - but we're very glad to have him back. He conducted the quiz with his usual quiet authority such that everything was completed by just after 10pm.

In keeping with the malaise affecting KFD, Martin was discomfited by an adverse reaction to vaccination but he's such a quiz trouper after all these years that he still managed to be MVP with five twos, and saw us through to our narrow victory.

Ambushed in Cork

(R2/Q1)

Noises off from our normal room, from which we'd been displaced by a couple of slack-jawed football fans, could be heard all evening. They came to an agonised climax as both our game and the Champions League matches finished around the same time. I'd like to think they were Spurs fans - at first ecstatic and then despairing as Kane's late 'winner' was ruled out. Pure spite on my part. I was at the Etihad three and a half years ago... Aguero, Sterling, injury time winner, Pep and 50,000 people going insane, semi finals and then....... VAR. Payback's a bitch isn't it?

The Pigs and the Fletcher Moss next week. Between football, illness and I don't know what else, I have no idea what team we will be fielding but it's already shaping up to be a fascinating season.

Three Lions and some headgear

(R5/Q8)

Ivor solves the riddle of the Mad Dog ...

Over the years we have occasionally left the Griffin after matches with the KFD with the points rather than the pints, but not tonight. However we did leave with dignity intact and, indeed, showed sufficient fighting spirit (well Anne was back…) to make us hopeful that our return next week to the Griffin to play the Charabancs might bear fruit.

The match tonight was closer than it seems. We were six points adrift after only two rounds and yet there was a chance of a surprise draw with just two questions to go. Sadly, despite thinking for almost as long as Lord Saville had taken to write his report, I could not retrieve the name of the author of this magnum opus. The game was played in the middle lounge (football of course dominating the usual venue) but at least I finally realised why KFD were once called The Mad Dogs (see the 1797 poster on the Griffin wall).

Crushed by a Teapot

(R2/Q2)

Quiz paper set by...

...The Prodigals

Average Aggregate score 82.3

A high-scoring paper that equalled last week's bumper average aggregate.

Not surprisingly the Opsimaths loved this paper. Well constructed and full of interesting facts presented in a way that kept our attention. Topical too with a round on Rishi Sunak followed a little later by a round inspired by our new monarch ("Oh dear! Oh dear!"). I think my favourite moment came as a result of the 'rectangular cut of beef' question. Howell took this one and he must have scoured his brain for a good couple of minutes seeking something appropriate derived from the name 'Charles' with the rest of us all frantically jabbing our fingers in his direction. When he eventually succumbed and asked for our help he just sighed in recognition, too exhausted by his mental gymnastics to even utter a mild 'oh shit!'.

To be fair however, I do have to voice the Charas' sense that the pairings were somewhat askew and that going first did confer a significant disadvantage.

100 years of horror

(R2/Q7)

...and this was Ivor's take on the paper...

Only 6 unanswered questions in our match and plenty of twos. Despite a very good combined score it did feel hard in places. This might just reflect our short-comings in knowledge. It might well be that Viscount Goderich has never been an answer in any quiz ever. I wonder if that fate awaits Boris, Liz or Rishi in two centuries should quizzing survive. And despite Tsars having always come from the same family for half a millennium none of us had ever heard of it.

An entertaining paper - though it does seem to us that the content of the Run On questions gets ever more bizarre each time a team sets a round in that format. A whole round on Rishi did seem to cover his life as comprehensively as Eamonn Andrews and his Big Red Book would have done. Possibly the only fact not covered was his liking for Coke (Coca Cola that is) which has left him with seven fillings. Only seven fillings at 42? He is certainly not a child of the 1950s.

...and Damian's view...

As the scoreline might suggest this was a quiz that somehow didn't seem to bring out the best in us. I say "somehow" because most of the questions and rounds were perfectly fine and yet were balanced in such a way that we couldn't quite do them justice. Having said that we enjoyed the '1922' and the 'If we must have a king' themed rounds - albeit containing rather too much football and cricket for my taste (how often have you heard me say this before?). Not at all a bad quiz but, as I said, just one we couldn't get to grips with. Hey ho!

...and Kieran's...

The quiz was a belter from the reigning champions. 6 unanswereds, an aggregate of 43 and only a handful of points between the teams all the way through. Barry's absence worked in our favour at one point because, love him as we do, he wouldn't have been anywhere near getting 'Lizzonal marking' but it scarcely detained Thomas who is now a fixture in the team. The fight for a starting spot is on and I'm in the unfamiliar position of being able to 'rotate' team members on a whim. Best call Pep and ask how he keeps them all happy, then again......

'Er indoors at No. 10

(R3/Q4)

Question of the Week

This week I'm going to upset the vegans amongst us by opting for Question 5 in the round relating to the regnal name of our new monarch (Round 6)...

What is the common name for a rectangular cut of beef containing part of the shoulder bone? It’s also known as a seven-bone steak.

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

...and also

In memory of our founder whose funeral takes place a week on Friday (see notice at the top of the page) I have gone all autocratic and renamed the annual WithQuiz League Shield:

'The Barry Whitehead Trophy'

You'll find the new name at the head of the Honours Board in the 'WQ Archive' section of the website. I'm sure you'll agree with me (and Kieran judging from his match report last week) that this is a fitting tribute to Barry.

We'll get the actual Shield rebadged at the end of the season ready for the presentation evening.

England's best ever Ashes Skip?

(R6/Q2)