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Prodigals
beat Albert
The Prods go into next week's showdown with KFD on a high
 Anne-Marie
watches her protégés from the QM chair
The
Prodigals brought their 'A' game to the match with some epic
dredging of memory banks, especially Jimmy's, as he dragged up
Dragnet as the 'controversial' TV series, and Jimmy
Baxter as the drunken, Scottish footballer. Their conferring
on the way to a correct answer was a joy to watch.
The
quiz really didn't suit our gracious opponents but, as usual, the
Albert were their entertaining selves and an enjoyable night was had
by all.
The Four Yorkshire Lions
(R7/Q6)
 Mike,
the fat furry cat puss, purrs from the Club
We
lost because we didn't know enough of the answers. Not that I
would have noticed. These days I am like Bagpuss asleep in the
shop window. The team do not expect me to know anything (and I
rarely disappoint them). They confine themselves to waking me
up occasionally. Apparently it is bad form to curl up and go
to sleep under the table.
The gayest
of unions: Erika & Wystan
(R5/Q2)
Ethel
Rodin lost to KFD
Yet again KFD squeak home by a single point
 Kieran's
nerves are all a -jangle
Ach! God, this really? REALLY? We're doing this AGAIN?
Ecstasy and despair right at the end springing from the two simple
words Grant Shapps.
Simple names for a complex man or, more accurately, men.
Ethel never deserved to lose this game; neither did we. I
fulfilled a fantasy by scoring the winning two on the last question
about the above named multiple personality disorder, the answer
coming to me a nanosecond after the light bulb had shone above
Barry's head and five fingers had shot out assuring me we had the
draw at the very least. But I play fourth because of these
moments and because I couldn't put that responsibility onto anyone
else's shoulders - and also because every couple of years there's
the chance of some last second glory and the opportunity to bask in
the rare adoration of my team mates.
X -rater
(R2/Q1)
Martin and Greg somehow scored four and three twos respectively on a
very tough, but also very decent, Pigs paper. Greg and I, both
playing fourth, copped for five of the nine unanswereds between us.
Have I ever mentioned my gripe about seat four getting the hardest
questions? Greg of course put away Kendall Jenner on the
penultimate question to give Ethel a one point lead and leave it all
up to me and the oily conman/fraud for the win. It took a very
long time and an unpleasant rummage through the 'no marks', weirdos,
sociopaths and outright bastards currently seated round the cabinet
table before the member for Welwyn Hatfield rose like scum to the
surface and performed the only useful service of his life - at least
as far as I am concerned. I couldn't look Ethel in the eye as
my answer was called correct and our man on the North Korean border
punched the air in triumph.
Bigging up Est ée
Lauder & Mint Cake
(R8/Q8)
What a night! Where on earth did David
Copperfield and The
Country Girls come from? Just when did Pam Ayres
become Benjamin Zephaniah? A sample of KFD's trademark
conferring on the Gazza eight cans of lager and some 'cooked chicken
in a hostage' situation question...
Barry: "It's Moat.... Carl Moat?";
Me:
"No it's not Carl - it's an unusual name, Rafael?";
All: "No, not Rafael";
Me:
" OK, but it begins with an 'R'";
Barry: "It's Raoul, definitely Raoul";
All: "Yes brilliant";
Martin: "There's a film something Raoul, is it Eating Raoul?";
All: "Think so, it's the best we've got anyway".
As
an aside just what went through the police commander's mind that
night when, in the middle of a negotiation with the most wanted man
in Britain, a pissed up Gazza wanders into the scene with a chicken
and some beers?
Too, too draining but also the best reason to leave the house on a
midweek night in the middle of winter. Great fun, genuinely
exciting and more brain cells than expected still working.
We've been doing it like this with Ethel for six or seven seasons
now and long may it continue.
Next week the Prodigals. We haven't beaten them since four
Prime Ministers back but I can't think about that now. I need a
darkened room and a lie down. I just hope my dreams aren't haunted
by Michael Green, Sebastian Fox and Corinne Stockheath.
A Respectable pair
(R8/Q3)
 James
is disappointed...
Low scoring game; into the last question with KFD one behind.
A theme which had been got; a question with only 20 or so possible
answers - and no time limit. So 5 minutes later, and 3 minutes
after being prompted to give an answer, KFD got the two points for a
win. Disappointing - a draw would have been a fair result.
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The Bard of Rusholme
(R5/Q8)
History
Men lost to Opsimaths
A welcome victory and a superior goal difference moves the Opsis
up to 4th
 Mike
reports on a match that swooped from Larkin to Larks
There were really two
full-on matches here tonight: the Opsis against Ivor and his
mutinous bunch (let's call them the 'History Women and their plus
ones') which vied for prominence with the other epic tussle between
Mike H and the Pigs' paper.
The lead swung hither
and thither all evening but eventually at a little past 11pm
Polymath Nick swung into action with Kendall Jenner to put paid to
the Historiettes whilst Mike H conquered his last Spare of the
evening to see off the Pigs.
It was actually a
really good fun evening made much more enjoyable by the friendship
and sporting attitude of the two teams; for instance Anne blurting
"Bering" instead of "Barents" (R4Q5). Despite being marked
correct by the QM the Opsis picked up on this and Anne immediately
and honourably admitted her faux pas and we prepared for a spare.
The QM however had other ideas and insisted that he had heard
"Barents". "No, I said Bering - I was wrong" replied Anne.
"No you didn't" said Mike.
Dr Ivor had a patchy
evening with the assembled patients bleeding to death whilst he took
an age to identify the aorta (R5Q6) and then on another question
barking at his team to "Shut up! I'm not conferring yet" to which
they replied in one voice "It's not your bloody question!".
Mike H's finest hour
- we all agreed - came when he managed to render Benjamin
Zephaniah's Black Country verse in a broad Pam Ayres accent
misleading both teams magnificently.
"What larks, Pip!" as
Joe Gargery once memorably said.
And to poke a
metaphorical finger in Mr Larkin's eye: the concrete and tyres will
not completely take over whilst pub quizzes of this sort are still
around.
The late
slashing jerky twanger
(R1/Q4)
 Dismayed
by the quiz result Ivor resorts to family history...
Had I been speaking to Lady Susan Hussey today I would have told her
St Andrew’s Day is traditionally one of the happier days for this
Ulsterman given my descent from the Armstrong and Elliott clans both
of whom were rather troublesome Scottish Lowland reavers who caused
havoc for Mary, Queen of Scots. Any aggressive traits have
since been leavened by the Cartmill Cumbrian genes though sadly
knowledge of things Cumbrian have been lost after centuries of
plantation in Ulster which might help explain a poor performance
tonight. St Andrew’s Day at Edinburgh University always had
ceilidhs and the Gay Gordons. Strip the Willow and Eightsome
Reels are fondly remembered. I also recalled in Round 8 that the
Arts Faculty was named after the Enlightenment philosopher David
Hume (until this year that is when he has become a victim of
historical cancel culture) - but this was in vain as this was not
the Scottish philosopher required for the answer.
Tonight the only reeling to be had was that that followed the
squandering of a five point lead after two rounds, to a five point
deficit at the end. The quiz was long and of some difficulty
though there were only 8 unanswereds (breaking 4-4). There
were 14 steals (breaking 7-7) and a notable dearth of twos: we had 4
and the Opsimaths had 9. This was largely due to either everyone
sitting in the wrong seat (for which we cannot blame the setters),
or timidity in 'going for the two'. By the time the quiz ended
we had missed last orders.
Mike H was in the QM chair and did his best at hurrying us along but
the questions themselves were often long and (like Grade 5 piano
pieces) with phrasing that was crucial for understanding so that
repetition was needed. By the way Anne disagrees with me there
- she says I always ask for repeats whatever. It didn't help
that Mike had his wrong reading glasses (for which we also cannot
blame the setters)
As is usual in our games there was much discussion DURING the quiz
on many topics and such discussion was ROBUST. This included:
a) Is it a blurt if one actually blurts the correct answer?
b) Are Black Eyed Peas really a rap collective? (no, me neither),
and
c) Is over-specialisation a handicap in a quiz? For instance
if the left ventricle is not specified is pulmonary artery a
possible answer?
Possible answers to these conundrums:
a) a correct blurt is never a blurt, it is merely excellent and
automatic recall allied to a rapid delivery demonstrating the
prowess of the quizzer,
b) As Hywel said (having picked up the steal) "I only knew two bands
starting with Black and it was not going to be Black Sabbath”, and
c) Specialisation is a handicap. Our late members Peter
and Tim were bird watchers of some Twitcher magnitude but I cannot
ever remember them getting a 'bird' question correct in any of our
league games.
Notts' Drunk & Sobers
(R5/Q7)
Charabancs
lost to Bards
Charas still looking for that elusive win
 Damian
hopes for better things in the New Year
So,
after last week's WIST heroics, the Charas were soon brought back
down to Earth when faced with our last WithQuiz opponents of the
first half of the season.
Fortunately it was not a humiliating experience as we went
toe-to-toe with the Bards for almost the entire quiz and were
actually leading in four of the rounds. Until we got to the
last round, when the Bards forged ahead, there were never more than
two points between us. What let us down is what so often
happens with us: we hit upon a zero point round and that scuppered
our chances for the evening when the scoreline was so close.
Given that the subjects are often so familiar to us (in this case
the Run-Ons and the Literature rounds) it is particularly
frustrating to come away scoring only one point at best in these
rounds. Our opponents never seem to experience the same
problem and as a result we are finishing the first half of the
season with no wins at all against any of our WithQuiz opponents.
I fear this is a grim record for us to ponder as we look ahead to
the Season Part Two.
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Quiz
paper
set by...
...The
Electric Pigs
Average Aggregate score
69.8
A gentle return to
more traditional scores after the 'points binges' we've had of late;
plenty of erudition too (indeed some of our correspondents felt a
little too much extra erudition had clouded some of the questions).
For me a paper featuring Larkin, David Copperfield, and Benjamin
Zepheniah couldn't have much wrong with it.
To my shame I was
undone by Larkin. That question (R7Q2) came to me and my team
mates couldn't help. Was it Going, Going, Gone or
Gone, Gone, Gone or Going, Gone? In the end I went
for Gone, Gone, Gone and the correct answer was Going,
Going. Larkin was such a miserable old git, and yet, and
yet... He had the knack of putting his finger bang on the nerve for
my generation. The generation stuck between country
churchyards and one-nation Tories on one hand and Kendall Jenner and
all that he/she has brought on the other. Ah, well!
Oldest and youngest Centurions
(R3/Q7&8)
...but what views did Damian have?...
Tonight's questions were set by the Electric Pigs and I think it is
fair to say that both teams came away with the impression that this
was the wordiest Quiz of the season so far. QM Jane was quite
out of breath with all the reading she had to do and the teams
frequently lost the thread of what particular answer was being
sought. We were misled on more than one occasion into giving a
right answer but not the one that was actually required. On
other occasions the answer became obvious to us before even half the
question had been read out. Nevertheless we felt the range of
subject matter was extensive and well researched and varied enough
to sustain our interest throughout. Just maybe cut back on
some of the superfluous information?
G one!
(R7/Q2)
...and Mike O'B's
take...
The quiz depended a
lot on paired rounds with the emphasis on knowing or not knowing the
answer, so there was less scope for conferring or working things
out. On the whole it would seem that it was better to go
first, which we did not do having lost the toss.
...and Kieran's
verdict?
...a very tough, but also very decent, Pigs paper.
...and
Anne-Marie's QMing experience...
That was a tough quiz for the QM (me in this case). Tough, not
only to read (a bit of spacing between questions and answers, and
some punctuation would have helped) - but also tough to follow with
the content occasionally overly long.
Retailing it like it is
(R8/Q5)
...and finally
Ivor passes judgement...
Content of quiz I
thought acceptable. Had we known the answers we would have won
by a landslide. I note that all the matches had relatively low
scores. Sometimes it just happens. We did have the occasional
stroke of luck however. The airman downed in Iraq in 1991 had
the same surname as Our Vanessa so she has never forgotten that
fact. Shame there were no Black Eyed Bevans or Webley Cabinet
Ministers to help with other answers.
The other love that dared not
speak it's name
(R1/Q1&2)
Question of the Week
In the excellent Hidden Theme Round (Round 8) Question 5 fell to
Howell and after some time he clocked the link between the theme and
the answer and slam-dunked two vital points. For him this was
the question of the week...
This English retail consultant and broadcaster began her
career as a Saturday girl in John Lewis. She then worked for
Harrod’s and Topshop before being appointed Creative Director of
Harvey Nichols. By the age of 30 she was on the Harvey Nichols
board. In 2011 she was appointed by then PM, David Cameron, to
lead an independent review into Britain’s high streets. Who is
she? (forename and surname required)
For the answer to this and all the week's other
questions click
here.
...and also
If you glance at the
Fixtures
page you will note that, following last week's WIST Cup results,
Mike Wagstaffe and myself have drawn the ties for the next round of these Cup
competitions (to be played in February).
Gary's two Coventry Lions
(R7/Q5)
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