Withington Pub Quiz League - Quizbiz 22/02/23

*KFD comfortably beat third-placed Albert whilst the Prods just squeak past the Pigs; home teams clean up in all 4 games*		Ethel Rodin beat Opsimaths Prodigals beat Electric Pigs Bards beat Charabancs KFD beat Albert
Ethel Rodin beat Opsimaths Well-matched mid-table clash goes to the mercurial Ms Rodin - just Mike reports from the naughty step... Yet another nail-biter right up to the final pair of Bingo questions when Nick had the misfortune to choose Peppa Pig's dentist while the matching question chosen by Greg was the one about the connection between the aristocratic/royal ladies which Ethel got for the match-winning point. Go back 5 years (say) and you could have found the same 8 slightly younger men playing in the same seats upstairs in the same venue: Roddy, Greg, Geoff and James against Howell, Nick, Brian and myself. We'd have probably scored fewer points on a harder paper than this week's bumper haul of 87 and we might have had slightly sharper memories but essentially 'plus ça change'. "See, I was right after all" Physics laureate vindicated in 2012 (R2/Q6) Last week I enjoyed myself at Brian's expense by recounting his error in choosing 'roach' rather than 'chafer' when describing his irritable boxers, so this week I'm making up for it by a) reporting his excellence in scoring 4 (or was it 5?) twos and by b) wearing sackcloth and ashes myself in owning up to the slip that cost the Opsimaths the match. I got the 'Hindu Holy Books/Spanish meadows' question and answered in the singular ('Veda/Vega') for which the QM marked me down. Ethel picked up the bonus by answering in the plural and so gained a 3-point advantage which ultimately saw them home and dry. Apologies, fellow Opsimaths, I mistook what the question was asking for. All in all it was a merry evening with plenty of banter. Like last week some of the questions invited lengthy conferences which kept us going well past 10.30 but I think we all enjoyed the content and style of the paper. There was only one bone of contention I can recall and that was whether the pineal gland was indeed correctly categorised as an organ. Doctors James and Ivor can fight that one out. "Completely out of order" 2010 Medicine laureate (R1/Q3) Prodigals beat Electric Pigs Prods just survive a close encounter with the Pigs Anne-Marie texts in... Nip and tuck all the way. Pig Guy was this evening's MVP ('Most Valued Player'). Bards beat Charabancs The Bards climb the table at the expense of the Charas Damian looks back wistfully to the glories of February 1st... One of the Historymen's rounds was subtitled 'Close but no cigar' and that, yet again, summed up tonight's proceedings for us. You may be forgiven for thinking we should be used to it by now but it still hurts to be 'so near yet so far' to coin another well-worn cliché. I guess when the day ever arrives that we cease caring that'll be the day to think of calling it quits, but thankfully we are not there yet. Again, it's not as if it was a bad team performance from us but, although we all scored twos, our opponents scored more and it always seems like whoever we play against has at least one player, unlike us, who scores nothing but. 2007 Apprentice eventually recognised for her contribution to society (R4/Q2)	1961: Husband Keith and Brucie unleash the spending spree (R4/Q4) KFD beat Albert A comfortable victory for our table-toppers Kieran reports on a speedy evening... The second time in as many weeks in the middle room as City's tour of European fleshpots, and Nottingham, once more put our usual location out of action. We seem to have been the outlier tonight with a comfortable victory while the other three games went to the wire. We were also all done by 10.00. The Albert have always been a splendidly brisk team, either giving an answer or passing the question over within a very short time - and a quiz-friendly Historymen paper was rattled through in no time at all. This was our penultimate home game and maybe the last time we'll see Bob until the autumn, he being elsewhere when we finish the season against the Pigs in three weeks time. Tonight Bob was in the classic VIETNAM cap while David was in the black turtle neck, channelling Jack Kerouac, and we were much the happier when he put away successive twos to have us five points ahead at half time. We had our shooting boots on, scoring 16 twos vs the Albert's 7 and we'll need to keep that form going in the remaining matches if we're to get anything out of this season. In a radical departure from standard KFD practice we won the final two bingo rounds 16-8, very strange. Cooking up a Fortune (R6/Q7) The question about the ArgenTina Turner collaboration with David Bowie led me to show Barry the YouTube footage of Bowie and David Gilmour singing Arnold Layne and Comfortably Numb back in 2006, which he hadn't seen - and Barry's a bigger Bowie nut than I am. Crosby and Nash were in that show as well and still seemed pretty friendly to one another at that point. Who knows where the time goes? We've got a huge game against the Prodigals next week at the club on an Opsis paper. Recent history suggests there will be a lot of points on offer and I don't know which team that might favour. The last few of our meetings with the reigning champions will count for nothing. It's 0-0 when the quiz starts and we'll see what happens. At the very least we're in a title fight for the first time in five years and we're very happy about that. That also means that we're either Arsenal or United and, with apologies to our sometime man on the Stretford End, I think I need to be comfortably numb before I can deal with that thought. Barnard & Humphrey "Yes, Prime Minister" (R3/Q1) Mike O'B has his hopes raised by Katy Hopkins... A very entertaining quiz. Lots of interesting questions, even the ones we couldn't answer. Our team was much changed, being shorn of the services of Jeremy (Northern Norway) and Ashton (Harry Potter Land - Ha! Proof that God does have a sense of humour). Nevertheless Julien proved an able replacement, hoovering up medical and music questions alike. The encounter was closer than the final score suggests. We came to grief on the two Bingo rounds where KFD were luckier/more skilful in their selections; this allowed them to outscore us substantially. My favourite question concerned Katy Hopkins which briefly raised my hopes of another X-rated Historymen pornfest but alas the excitement soon subsided as we were forced to settle upon ocean-going Queens such as Somerset Maugham.	Quiz paper set by... ...The History Men Average Aggregate score 81.5 A great average aggregate indicating everybody had a good chance to get at least one two-pointer. Some good formats as well with a nice idea in Round 6 where various 'favourite WithQuiz formats' were paired. The closeness of most of the results indicates good balance which made the matches exciting affairs. On the downside? Well the 'Grand Day Out' theme seemed a bit thin - but the questions in this round mostly stood on their own without the need to resort to a thematic hint. Also the debate as to what constituted an organ (R2/Q2) kept James exercised for a while. Finally perhaps it's not such a good idea to have the last round as a Bingo round since in a closely fought match happenstance is not the most satisfying way of deciding things. Manila street food found under a Bush (R3/Q8) My own favourite question was the 'Cities 1' question in the Bingo Round 7 which I chose myself. A very tense but ultimately enjoyable conference ensued where, after considering and dismissing a host of candidate US cities, we alighted on the correct answer (courtesy of Brian's prompt). It was the surmise that the national monument to which this question referred was the one commemorating The Alamo that clinched it. Very satisfying. Well the Opsimaths meet tonight at the Club to run through the paper that Brian has set for next week's crucial round of games that sees the Prodigals entertain KFD. I wonder how many Dickens questions can we squeeze in, Kieran? 1900 St Valentine's Oz mystery (R5/Q4) ...and these were *Damian's views... QM Ivor announced at the start that he and his team had set a target of 75 points as an aggregate total for their paper and, at least in our case, we did him proud with a combined score of 80 reflecting the general accessibility and popularity of the questions they set. As ever, we enjoyed the Bingo in Rounds 7 and 8. The 'Multiple Best Actor Oscar' theme round and the 'Missing member of the list' pair in Round 6 were also popular. Yours truly was Blurter of the Week for confusing glucagon with glycogen and so blurting the wrong organ for producing it when a confer would have gained us at least one point - but it wouldn't have made much difference to our overall score. Irish MP prepares to welcome Boris's NI Protocol* (R8/Q8) ...from the Club *Anne-Marie* sums up... Tough but interesting quiz tonight. Question of the Week This week Opsimath Nick who suffered at the hands of Peppa Pig's dentist on the final pair of the evening rather liked the corresponding question which Greg chose to win the match for the home team (Nick had worked out the right answer, but sadly it never came across). So his choice was Round 8 (a Bingo Round) Question 1... Since the Conquest what uniquely connects these aristocratic/royal ladies: Matilda of Flanders, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Cecily Neville, Henrietta Maria of France, Anne Hyde, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Mary of Teck? For the answer to this and all the week's other questions click here. Peppa goes for a check up (R8/Q2)