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Great night for the WithQuiz
teams with all bar Ethel proceeding to the Semis in February;
Cheers for the Railway who
carry the Stockport flag forward;
Congratulations to the Opsis
for emerging with the highest score |
WIST Champions Cup
Flying Horse lost to Prodigals
KFD walk over Tiviot
Alexandra lost to Albert
Ethel Rodin lost to Railway
WIST Lowly Grail
Opsimaths beat Wandering Star
Bards beat Horse & Farrier
HMRUFC lost to History Men
Sun & Castle lost to Charabancs |
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WIST
Champions Cup
Flying
Horse lost to Prodigals
A comfortable progression to the Semis for the Prods who won by
20 points
 Michael
ventures to the Left Bank...
F or my first away trip
in Europe (until last night I had not forded the Mersey for the
purposes of a quiz), the Prodigals found themselves at the Horse & Farrier in Gatley. Sequestered in an upstairs room, with a
poignant collection of abandoned shoes guarding the door, we took on
the Flying Horse, who played three-handed. Despite being 9-2
down at one stage, we rallied well, survived a potential cataclysm
in the round on Cumbrian lakes, and then relaxed in the familiar
terrain of the WithQuiz rounds. Our hosts were charming and
post-quiz conversation turned to Liege's red light district, the
culinary 'charms' of tripe and offal, and the self-evident
righteousness of putting mayonnaise on chips.
The Blues Brothers
(R5/Q7)
Alexandra
lost to Albert
A real nailbiter goes to the visiting WithQuiz team by a single
point
 Mike
tingles with excitement...
What a superb contest created by an excellent paper! On the
last question we were one behind but Stephen knew enough about
treacherous American generals to score two points.
The
paper itself had some fresh ideas. For instance we really
liked the round based on two words with one letter difference
between them. As is customary by now we scored better on the
Stockport section than the WithQuiz part - and as usual the hidden
theme remained hidden as far as we were concerned.
In
other news...
I
have recently received sympathetic communications regarding the
state of my Brazilian Butt Lift after Big Olga's (Jacki's
Gentleman's Club - entrance round the back) ministrations. Sad
to say the girl was just too rough. When I first had the
procedure, I could balance a tray of champagne glasses on my
projecting derrière. Now I drag myself around as if someone has
stuffed a half hundredweight of nutty slack down the back of my
trousers!
KFD walk
over Tiviot
Unfortunately Tiviot were unable to turn out a team and conceded
- KFD advance by default
Ethel
Rodin lost to Railway
The Railway travelled to Ladybarn and emerged the sole Stockport
survivors
When posting the
result, Ethel's skipper, Roddy, commented (as I did from the
Opsimaths match - see below) that the questions in Round 1 very much
favoured the team going first and that this had a decisive effect on
the outcome of the match.
Leaning on a lamppost in Cumbria
(R1/Q1)
WIST Lowly
Grail
Opsimaths
beat Wandering Star
The Opsis notched up a whacking 62 points winning the toss and
going first
 From
the comfy sofa in the back lounge of the Club Mike reports...
First of all many
thanks to the Wandering Star for being such friendly opponents.
They had every reason to drop their heads as they lost the toss and
the Opsimaths chose to go first. By halfway through the
30-question Round 1 the Wanderers hadn't a single point whilst the
Opsis were well into double figures. The balance of those
first 15 questions was highly skewed in favour of the team taking
the odd-numbered questions and once the visitors were that far
adrift on the scoreboard it was near impossible to stage a comeback.
Also many thanks to
quiz trooper, Anne-Marie who turned out at very short notice to act
as QM. As usual Anne-Marie was clear, informative and
entertaining. Most of the questions in Round 3 (the 'Comedy
Gold' round) were preceded by hearty laughter on her part as she
embroidered the question with her memories of her 'golden age' TV
moments.
As for the Opsimaths
we seem to be in good working order. No Howell this week (he's
watching Wales in Qatar) but Mike, Nick, Brian and Hilary clicked
through the gears competently. My main contribution seemed to
be slotting home the answers to Mike W's Manchester City posers.
My chief embarrassment on the other hand was failing to see
the word 'menu' nestling in Yehudi Menuhin's name, conferring and
then, when the others had nothing to offer, giving the answer I
first thought of just as Nick shouted "Menu".
"Ta ra Hilda"
(R1/Q12)
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Triturus cristatus
(R1/Q26)
Bards beat
Horse & Farrier
The Bards sail through to the Semis on a 19 point winning margin
"Don't tell him, Pike"
(R3/Q7)
HMRUFC
lost to
History Men
A close run thing at the Rugby club with the History Men edging
it
 Chuffing
victim, Ivor, sums up...
Our first trip away to Stockport for a Europa Cup game (or rather a
Lowly Grail match) since we played the Alexandra in pre-pandemic
times in February 2020. Our charming hosts this time were HMRUFC at their cavernous function room in the Heaton Mersey Sports
Club.
Tonight HMRUFC had George, Rachel, Andy and Alan in the hot seats
and Jo in the QM chair. They faced Vanessa, Anne, Young David
and me. At the bar before we played I explained the
anachronisms of our team: half of us are not men; and although we
are competitive we like to be kind to each other even though
occasionally our internal team conferences might appear to the
untrained eye as if we are having a mixed martial arts bout.
As it happens there was only one episode of vituperation, and one
'chuff' this week and that was when I blurted “Conchita Fernandez”
instead of "Conchita Martinez” as the Wimbledon winner. I
think I must have confused her with the eminent and beautiful Puerto
Rican Gigi Fernandez who won many doubles titles. The
unnerving thing is that had that been a million pound answer on
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire I would still have got the wrong
answer. All the more reason to keep my quizzing strictly
amateur.
Miruts, the Moscow legend
(R4/Q7)
We won the toss and played first. We won the Stockport 30-question
round 27-16. We then came unstuck with the written round on
the 10 largest lakes in the Lake District losing 7-13. We must get
out more, but consoled ourselves that at least it was not that other
worthy quiz staple, the Munros.
So we were 5 points ahead going into the four WithQuiz format rounds
which we duly won 23-12. It is often the case that WithQuiz
teams do better with our own format. Presumably this is
because we are more used to being put on the spot for solo questions
and making the judgment of whether to 'go for the two' or 'play safe
for the one'. One can be a hero or a zero, a sheep or a goat -
especially when a blurt can effectively amount to a 'minus one' if
the opponents get the steal.
And have I mentioned the opprobium if one does blurt? Oh yes,
I have (see above). Certainly HMRUFC could have got a few more
points including the occasion when they failed to give "Yehudi
Menuhin" as their answer because they couldn't see how it fitted the
theme. That left us with an easy steal.
"...not necessarily in the right order, Mr
Preview"
(R3/Q1)
Sun &
Castle lost to Charabancs
A welcome Cup victory for the Charas to banish their league woes
T el
From Russia with Love
(R1/Q26)
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Quiz
paper
set by...
...Stockport League
(Mike Wagstaffe)
Average Aggregate score
94.9
Plenty of points on
offer and a quiz full of interesting content, as well as attractive
round formats in the second (WithQuiz) half. The chief
complaint at the Albert Club was the enormous benefit gained right
at the start of the evening by the team going first and enjoying
much the easier questions in the first half of Round 1. We
bided our time saying that the second half of this round would skew
the advantage the other way but it didn't; it just brought balance
back to the scoring.
We liked all the
WithQuiz-style themed rounds but special mention must go to the
'Comedy Gold' round which entertained us all, prompting many happy
reminiscences. The Hidden 'Keyboard' round was also much
enjoyed including just the right amount of added-value quizwork to
keep us all on our toes throughout.
Earth Mother
(R1/Q4)
I'm a great fan of
the 'name the top ten ...' Tenable format and the ten largest
Lake District lakes proved good fodder for the Round 2 'Written
Round'. The lake missed by both teams at the Club was Crummock
Water whilst we both incorrectly included the smaller Buttermere
lake which sits just a few yards away from Crummock in the beautiful
Buttermere valley.
...in other feedback
I've received there was a straightforward 'tick in the box' from
Mike O'Brien ...
What a superb contest
created by an excellent paper!
"You CAN see the sea. It's
over there, between the land and the sky"
(R3/Sp)
...and from
Ivor...
The quiz itself was excellent and the Stockport pairs were well
matched in both difficulty and pairabilty with only 7 unanswereds.
The four WithQuiz rounds were a delight exemplifying all that is
excellent about quiz question construction for theme and topic
rounds. Interesting, gettable by more than one approach, and
most of all fun. One round was literally fun and it is a
measure of great comedy that I suspect we could all have recited the
very scripts never mind get the answers. Of course it might have
been different if the comedy clips were from more recent shows and,
indeed, there have been some dire shows of yesteryear too.
We continued drinks in the bar after and both winners and losers
agreed we had all had a good night out. Much more entertaining than
staying at home to watch Belgium play Canada (cannot imagine Likely
Lads Terry and Bob worrying about that either).
...and finally from Michael...
As for the quiz itself, we thought some of the pairs in the
conferred round might have been unbalanced, but everything probably
evened out in the end. Richard and I suffered palpitations
upon the announcement of a round on 'Classic comedy' - intrusive
thoughts about minor, racist comedies of the early 1970s came
flooding to mind - but, thankfully, this comedy truly was classic.
We can only imagine the delight of the Opsimaths at an entire round
on the puddles of the Lake District; the Prodigals managed to name
six of them, but I've forgotten them already.
(ED: As it happens, Michael, the Opsimaths did prove Erie-ly
Superior on the Great Lakes of Cumbria)
"Wild, I was absolutely livid!"
(R3/Q3)
Question of the Week
This week the vote goes to Question 8
in the Hidden Theme Round 4. The overall theme of the round
provides just the right degree of difficulty/help and, for Question
8, the thematic element is very nicely disguised...
Sometimes referred to as 'the Mona Lisa of musical instruments' the Soil
Stradivarius of 1714 is considered one of the finest violins ever made. Which
musician owned it from 1950 to 1986?
For the answer to this and all the week's other
questions click
here.
Mona Lisa and her smiling
owner
(R4/Q8)
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