Withington Pub Quiz League - Quizbiz 11/01/23

Wins for all this week's away teams;

The Prods power on at the top

Charabancs lost to Albert

Electric Pigs lost to Bards

Opsimaths lost to Prodigals

History Men lost to Ethel Rodin

Sloane & Jozy

(R1/Q4)

Charabancs lost to Albert

Albert keep up the chase in third as they start the new year with a win

Mike O'B, the 'Ben Stokes' of the quizzing world reports...

The quiz was a mixture of interesting questions and almost impossibly difficult ones. For example in the Bingo round one could pick up 2 points for knowing about Nancy Sinatra as opposed to trying to identify a novelist who died in Bournemouth 50 years ago. That said the quiz produced an exciting contest. At one point Albert had a lead of 11 points but in the second half the Charas whittled this down so that by Round 8 they could have won had the questions fallen more fortunately for them.

The Jewish Jane Austen

(R3/Q3)

In terms of the Albert I thought I played very well but I was a victim of my own good nature in that I was constantly undermined by the way in which the rest of them argued me out of correct answers. I put this down to jealousy. I truly believe I deserve better.

1937's British record crowd of 149,145

(R6/Q1)

Whilst Damian's view...

A profusion of Charas (not sure if that's the right collective noun for us) met in the Griffin for the first match of the new year, so Graham and I swapped places at half time and I dropped to the bench keeping score at a distance during the second half. It turned out to be yet another 'close-but-no-cigar' affair for us trailing the Albert by a handful of points all the way through. If we played by Stockport rules in which every question is a team effort we would very probably be doing much better in the league by now but, alas for us, we play by WithQuiz rules and so, our relative lack of twos once again proved to be our undoing with the Albert outscoring us 10 to 8. In a close contest like this one that inevitably makes the crucial difference.

A dapper-looking Dennis Pratt

(R7/Q2)

Electric Pigs lost to Bards

The Bards jump to 5th, leapfrogging the Pigs with a win at the Moss

'Our Father' lifts

(R1/Q5)

Opsimaths lost to Prodigals

Another derby victory for the Prods keeps them comfortable at the top

Jimmy gives us the lowdown...

A hard fought local derby between the denizens of the Albert Club. It wasn't decided until the second last question of the night. The Opsimaths were a little unfortunate, their questions seemed to land unerringly on the one member of the team who didn't know that particular answer.

A good night all in all and just the thing to get our befuddled noggins ticking over again after the mid-winter revels.

and Howell gives the Opsimaths point of view...

A good match with the Prodigals last night. Opsimaths were 6 points behind at the end of Round 5 (having failed to win any round) and then pulled back 5 points in the next 2 rounds before fading away in the final round.

Our newest player, Emma, amused us with her first blurt (though she may well have said the same answer given more time) when, a nanosecond after the South African capitals question finished, she answered "Johannesburg" with all the confidence one associates with a younger player (which is anyone under the age of 55ish)! Fellow Opsis were aghast!

History Men lost to Ethel Rodin

Ethel keep up the pace in 4th with a 15 point win

Ivor reports from the losers' corner...

Our hopes of doing the double over Ethel Rodin after our unexpected victory in November were soon dashed. We were 13 points behind and still to reach double figures by the end of Round 3. We only take comfort from the fact that the second half finished 19-19 and we actually won the last round - and our 15 point defeat is not our worst ever. The main reason for defeat was that Ethel knew more answers than we did: 12 twos (Greg got 6 of them) to our 8, and an astonishing 8 steals to our 2. There was the usual blurting, wrong seat syndrome, zigging instead of zagging, and complaints about obscure questions. However as there were only five unanswereds (splitting 3-2) and a combined score of 79, we can hardly blame the quiz (though it is traditional for losing teams to carp). Tonight we even lost the toss.

Here to help us all build post-war Britain - many thanks!

(R2/Q8)

Perhaps going first first was an advantage- especially as Korfball appeared in the banner of the picture question. Although the setters were not to know about our variable seating arrangements, Roddy ended up with the 'lambda frequency symbol' (part of his daily past working life in practical physics) and I ended up not remembering sigma as the symbol for standard deviation and summation (despite 'A' level maths). In fact remembering the 'A' level maths exam is my anxiety dream and perhaps this question triggered PTSD for the rest of the quiz (which also somehow ablated all knowledge of classical mythology, history and current Booker prize winners). I think I have mentioned before that a few years ago I found my 1976 'A' level Maths paper and thought re-reading it would exorcise this anxiety dream (especially as I ended up with a B in it anyway). However it was as unintelligible as a cuneiform tablet written in Western Canaanite. I was left wondering who was this clever person who sort of understood this back in the day.

The quiz itself proceeded pleasantly and there was plenty of time for rumination and post-quiz drinking. This despite a bizarre episode in which Vanessa’s soft drink glass disintegrated after a minor dislodgement on the table. If this was 'Carrie-like' telekinetic activity, perhaps Ethel are fortunate to escape with their handsome victory unscathed! Our only bit of luck tonight was, having identified the Booker prize winner wrongly as the Great British Bake Off Winner and conceding a steal, then gaining a reverse steal when Ethel misidentified the real Great British Bake Off winner with their paired question.

Quiz paper set by...

...KFD

Average Aggregate score 76.0

An average aggregate a tad (2 points) below the season's overall average but plenty of good things said by the correspondents in their dispatches.

I can't pass judgement myself as I had to miss the Opsis' match due to a nasty coughing bug which is currently laying me low. Back to the quizzing fray next Wednesday hopefully.

...so what were Damian's views?...

An interesting and varied set of questions from KFD (I still can't automatically recall these three letters and have to double check them almost every time) - with themes announced and hidden, pictures and 'pick your anniversaries' (no Run-ons this time so I'm guessing that won favour with you, Mike). We particularly enjoyed the pictures and anniversary rounds as well as the hidden theme. For QotW I chose the Disraeli question about the "wonderful city" to which he once referred. We all liked the answer to that one.

1979 - Wearside at Wembley

(R6/Q4)

...and Jimmy's...

The quiz itself was a good 'un. Well balanced with plenty of interesting facts. The anniversary Bingo round was a great concept, giving everyone a fair chance to shine and the final follow on round was very well put together. Particularly liked the way it looped back on question 8 (though that maybe because I knew the answer).

...and Ivor's...

The Picture round was interesting and the pangram round must have taken some effort to set - and would probably require a philologist or Bletchley Park boffin to crack in real time. Sometimes just answering the question is the right approach. Sadly tonight the Historymen were not even able to do that reliably.

...and Howell's...

We enjoyed the paper but struggled to get enough 2 point answers - just 8 during the entire quiz.

We felt the 'Following on' round was a good idea but were flummoxed by the Lake Victoria question as 3 of us all thought the answer was 'the source of the Nile' which is technically correct (as it was what he was looking for) but not the one given on the paper (which is what he called it). It didn't make a difference to the result though!

"Most wonderful city of modern times" according to a Tory PM

(R1/Q7)

Question of the Week

This week the Charas vote for Round 1 Question 7...

Where did Benjamin Disraeli say was the "most wonderful city of modem times"? It has much to answer for.

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

Aztec serpent god's sidekick

(R7/Q8)