|
KFD beat
Bards
Another squeaky victory for this season's top team
 Kieran
sweats it out at the Griffin...
Ah,
that's more like it from the (second) most storied game WithQuiz can
offer; a high scoring thriller with both teams playing at their
peaks and the result in doubt right up until the final answer of the
evening. This week it was exactly like that and then some; the
best quiz match we've been involved in since the thunderous league
title decider with the Shrimp four and a half years ago (and that
had an aggregate score of a miserly 88).
"A Very Naughty Boy"
(R1/Q21-1)
A
quite ridiculous evening, how can you score 46 points and come away
with nothing? (Ethel also lost with a score of 45. A brave
answer from David ("P J O'Rourke") and a superbly "Happy as Larry"
predicted before the 'Origins of Phrases' Bingo round had even
begun, put maximums in our column. Barry's professional life
involves keeping all of us safe from the likes of Jimmy Savile so
that question fell perfectly. As an aside I'm not sure I'd have
included it if I was putting together a round bigging up 'God's Own
Country' but ultimately our trans-Pennine cousins are a rum lot.
Everyone scored twos and everyone contributed in our famed
conferring huddle. The longest team confer was spent deciding
which of the remaining three categories in the French artsy fartsy
round would give us the best chance of a winning point with the
scores tied at 46 all. As it turned out we would have scored
on sculpture and theatre but we were ecstatic over landing on La
Liberté éclairant le monde.
Called up for your country
A pair of Manchester Managers with Charlton's
Don Welsh
(R2/Q4)
There were only three unanswereds and the Bards copped for all of
them, two in the Yorkshire round and the other a bad bingo pick on
the subject of comics. The Yorkshire round moved us from a one
point deficit to a lead by the same tiny margin which we maintained
until the end; I guess that's the luck of the draw in going first
first - or lack of luck for the Bards in this case.
We
nearly messed up having been told the year for the release of
The Happy Dumpling-To-Be Who Talks and Solves Agricultural Problem
was 2010. Cue another interminable discussion but what
else could the answer have been other than Babe? We
decided it must be a blooper in the question and eventually got a
precious point.
We
somehow missed 'John Rylands' (no member of the Courtauld family had
anything to do with Manchester it seems), 'Shoemaker-Levy' (a rare
blank from our man at Goonhilly Downs) and Martin's hatred of all
matters Codhead meant we were never getting anywhere near 'Seven
Seas'.
A
superb performance from the Bards with new member Robin (hope I
heard that right) equalling Barry and Martin on five twos. If
the result had gone the other way I'd have been gutted knowing that
we couldn't possibly play any better and yet still ended up empty
handed.
s Pork
sausages from Sheffield
(R5/Sp1)
Bob? He was wearing the VIET NAM cap (two words, block capitals and
one red star), the genuine article purchased in Ho Chi Minh City.
Natch! Bob doesn't do frauds and fakery when it comes to
revolutionary accessories.
The
one disturbing element of the evening was that, in the absence of
football, the screens in the Griffin were broadcasting Talk TV.
Featured was a guy with an absurd preening nature, completely up
himself carrying a risible over-inflated ego vulnerable to
puncturing at the tiniest imagined slight. Oh, and Cristiano
Ronaldo was on too.
Next week WIST, and the Tiviot who did for us many years ago at the
same stage of the same competition. Shortly afterwards the Tiviot
was demolished which is some kind of payback. Next week we'll
be welcoming them to the cauldron of the Griffin, which it was
tonight in every sense. There was the match with the Bards, of
course, but also because when we played the Opsimaths last week our
room was unusually chilly, tonight I took the precaution of wearing
a jumper. So the landlord turned the thermostat up to 11 and
burned more gas than Qatar can pump in a day. Hope the former
Health Secretary doesn't have bad news for him tomorrow.
W Red,
Blue and Leeks
(R2/Q5)
Electric
Pigs lost to Albert
Thumping victory for Albert keeps them just behind KFD in the
table
 Banished
to the stands for this one, Mike reports...
I
sat this one out because I was suspended for giving an interview to
Piers Morgan in which I criticised the running of the team.
So. I became a baleful, malevolent presence, emitting the kind of
poisonous atmosphere normally to be found only near derelict cess
pits.
On
balance I think the Albert got the breaks in going first
The Iron Duke gets his man
(R8/Sculpture)
|
RIP Fitz
(R1/Q14-10)
Prodigals
beat Charabancs
A mountainous points tally for the Prods keeps them in third
place
 Damian
gets himself into a bit of a Pickles...
A
welcome guest appearance from our former captain Gerry could not
quite rescue our target of failing better and better which remains
very much a 'work in progress' as this latest score shows.
Yet
again we were up against a team that were much better than us.
It's not that we don't still know stuff, it's just that our
opponents know even more and score many more twos than we do. We
tend to confer for our points rather too often, and don't have the
courage to go for a two when we could. But it's a perverse
game. Tonight, for instance, I hesitated to go for a two on
the 'Wilfred Pickles' question but decided to strike bold on the
composer/choreographer etc. of The Three Cornered Hat and
ended up with no points at all. Just can't seem to guess when
to strike these days which is part of our problem. While we
still enjoy taking part in the league we may have to face the sad
reality that maybe we are just not IN the same league as our
opponents anymore.
That said we always enjoy Brian's papers and particularly enjoyed
the first half, the second maybe not so much. John got all
excited in the French Arts round when asked about À La Recherce
Du Temps Perdu and would have blurted "Proust" if not thrown a
curve ball about which famous critic critiqued it. Turns out
he should have blurted Proust anyway. Naughty one Brian! We
loved the 2022 obituary round and the Yorkshire round obviously
appealed to the resident Yorkshireman on the team. The Bingo
rounds particularly appealed to our sense of nostalgia. If
only nostalgia was what it used to be!
First flick
(R8/Cinema)
 From
the umpire's seat Mike adds...
Most enjoyable match
to officiate. A return for a WithQuiz legend (Gerry) and a
palpable warmth in the room made for friendly exchanges all round.
Highlight for me was halfway through the Yorkshire round when Jimmy
was straining every brain cell to locate the Yorkshire Building
Society for two points and, out of nowhere, John pops up with a very
audible and definite-sounding "Huddersfield". I had to accept
this as a conferred answer and pass the question across to the
Charas where Bradford-born John D slotted home for a steal. As
Anne-Marie often says John is the anchor for all the Prodigals'
recent success. Last night for just a few seconds he slipped
his moorings.
When the quizzing had
finished we took to the usual free-range chat. The main
subject under debate can best be summed up with another question:
"What do £30bn and half the Prodigals team have in common?".
The answer of course is that Richard, Michael and Kwasi have all won
University Challenge. The common thread stops there
though, since Richard just kept on with UC, Michael took to
writing books (amongst other things) and Kwasi blew everyone's
future.
Lawrence ventures south
(R2/Q6)
Ethel
Rodin lost to History Men
Ethel drop back whilst Ivor's History Men improve their lot
 Ivor
'one fact in, one fact out' Cartmill reports...
I cannot recall ever being in a match with a combined score of 93
(or at least one that we have won), but tonight was a points-fest
for both teams. Only 2 unanswereds (breaking 1-1), 16 twos to
Ethel and 15 for us, and it was the steals (4-2 in our favour) that
got us over the line. Fortunately we were well ahead going in to
the last round and not even a perfect 4 twos by the cultured
francophiles that are Ethel Rodin could deny us a, perhaps,
unexpected win.
Was our win due to our polymath Anne whose knowledge ranges from
Stalin cabinet members to failed Strictly contestants (but
not rivers of the world)? No, because she was in Ibiza. But that
did not matter as her niece Vanessa is a chip off the old block and
her knowledge of foreign film titles made this the 'swing' round
(9-2) of the game. Is successful quizzing an hereditary trait?
Possibly, as it is in other areas of life, e.g. the two Lampards,
the two Redknapps, George HW Bush and George W Bush.
Not every question was plain sailing however. I had one of those
brain-freeze moments trying to remember the famous dead Russian.
I could remember 'glasnost' and 'peristroika', the wife called Raisa
who died of leukaemia, the Russia shaped birthmark on his head, and
that he was the man who even Margaret Thatcher could do business
with. But could I remember his name? A possible
explanation for this phenomenon was once proposed in a sketch by
Alexei Sayle. Alexei is walking on a canal bank and he
speculates that the brain has limited storage and if you learned a
new fact then you might forget how to do something vital, like walk.
The sketch continues with a passer-by asking Alexei if he knew that
Cardiff was the fourth biggest port in Britain? Alexei then starts
to do a wobbling walk and disappears off screen followed by a
splash. So that is my excuse for failure on one of the easiest
questions of the night. I have obviously overwritten that neural
circuit with a fact on transuranic elements, or who is this week's
Education Secretary.
Celestial body spotters
(R3/Q4)
Greg also had an unusual fail with the second easiest question of
the night when he identified the dead Czech-born woman married to a
party-changing politician as Madeleine Albright and was further
annoyed to find he had actually answered what would be a subsequent
question. A bit like the Two Ronnies Mastermind sketch
of answering the question before last. Sadly no points in WithQuiz
for such mental dexterity. The easiest question of the night fell
to Young David but it was so easy he pondered long in case Jimmy
Savile was a trick answer which in retrospect was pretty sensible
given the number of 70s celebrities still doing time.
|
Quiz
paper
set by...
...The
Opsimaths
Average Aggregate score
90.8
Interesting to recall
that just a few years ago an aggregate score in the mid-60s was par
for the course and now and again it dropped into the 50s - and even
once or twice the top 40s.
Well last night we
soared into the 90s and the key determinant in the match I QM'ed at
the Club was whether you got the expected two points or chickened
out for a one. I think it was just on half time before we got
the first unanswerable - and that was the 'British Empire', which,
unlike the rest of that excellent 'Origins of Phrases' round had no
real pointer as to the answer in the question text.
Of course as we know
from bitter experience points don't necessarily mean fun; you need
to add a fair bit of intrigue and 'well, I never knew that' into the
mix. However last night I think Brian (for he indeed is 'Mr
Opsimath' for the setting nights) achieved the fun factor pretty
well.
There was one glitch
for which the Opsimaths apologise...
Round 5 Question 8
had a film release date of 2010 when it should have been 1995.
At the Club we spotted this and took a spare since the date had
misled the Charas into a wrong answer.
Yorkshire's inimitable Newsreader
(R2/Q7)
...so this was
Kieran's take on the paper...
A superb performance from the Opsimaths, delivering a paper with an
average aggregate of just under 91 - but nothing felt like Brian and
co. were giving points away just for the giggles.
...and Mike O'B
offers these thoughts...
It was a good quiz and I marvel that it had such range and
entertainment value considering Brian produces it as a solo effort.
Although the round formats were not original there were a number of
tweaks to old established styles, such as the foreign film title
round. My personal favourite of the night was the 'Marcel
Proust' question.
...QM Bob 'The Hat' Ganley chips in with these words
of praise from the Griffin...
What a work of genius was the Opsimaths offering last night?
The Franco-Tyke contrast a particular highlight (although maybe a
more worthy Tyke than Savile could have been chosen as an answer:
Trueman, Close, Illingworth or Boycott perhaps - on second thoughts
scrub the last suggestion). The Run Ons, the acronyms and the
sheer hilarity of the night with the Bards made for fun galore.
Indeed I haven't enjoyed a paper as much since the classic Charas
paper a while back which had rhyming couplet answers and featured
'Herpes Zoster' paired with 'Arlene Foster'.
Brilliant! Many thanks Opsis.
Going out with Rita Hayworth in Finland
(R5/Q6)
...finally Ivor rounds off the favourable
commentary...
The quiz itself was a splendid example of the setter’s art.
Everyone got at least 2 twos and the easy and hard questions were
fairly scattered. The typesetting was excellent and a delight
for the QMs with a round on every page and the Bingo grids easy for
us oldies to read. The questions were full of humour too which
adds to our enjoyment compared to the drier questions seen in other
quiz formats.
The Run On answers become more and more surreal in their
juxtaposition! The 'Origin of Phrases' round was well-regarded
and fun too. The final round had questions that would never
see the light of day in any TV quiz (especially in quizzes played
for money) but it is a measure of our league’s talent that I suspect
most teams did well after the initial groan of “French culture when
we have all been drinking?” We should have remembered that
drinking IS French culture too.
No need to visit Preston any more
(R2/Q1)
Question of the Week
This week Mike O'Brien watching from
the stands was particularly taken with the Literature question in
the French Arts themed Round 8...
Published in 1913, Swann’s Way was the first of the seven volumes of À
la Recherche du Temps Perdu. Which notable French critic of the time,
somewhat arrogantly described it as a "little masterpiece…almost too luminous
for the eye"?
For the answer to this and all the week's other
questions click
here.
The Boss and his backing group
(R7/Q4)
...and also
Next week the WIST competitions return with the
Quarter Final matches of the WIST Champions Cup and
the Lowly Grail. This season it's Stockport's
turn to do all the question-setting.
I've arranged with Mike Wagstaffe for the question paper envelopes
to be left at the Fletcher Moss and to be picked up in all cases by
the WithQuiz team in each fixture WHETHER THEY ARE PLAYING AT
HOME OR AWAY.
Having said this Albert need not pick up their paper since they are
playing Mike W's team (The Alexandra) and Mike W will bring the
paper with him.
Good luck to all our competitors!
First Impressions
(R8/Painting)
|
