|
Electric
Pigs beat History Men
Pigs beat this season's 'yo-yo' team in a fun game at the Moss
 Ivor
reports on a game of two halves...
St David’s Day
already and the birthday of our Zambian-born Welshman, Young David.
I know I said last year on his milestone birthday we would drop the
epithet 'Young' in reports, but at 51 David is by some years the
youngest Historyman. As commented on by our esteemed opponents
we, like themselves, and possibly most of our teams, have an average
age that creeps up by one year EVERY YEAR! However we do
appreciate constancy in this changing world; certainly the two teams
would have looked more or less similar 15 years ago. As would the
genial QM for the evening, none other than Lord Bath himself, whose
mellifluous tones, longevity and bi-monthly performances at the
Albert Club quizzes have earned him the title 'Doyen of QMs' (I
shall stop now as this resembles an Hello! article on a minor
European Royal).
An alternative view
of our match is that it was a 'dead rubber'. Neither team will
finish bottom and neither will gain a spot in the Champions league.
However we do like the thrill of the game even if the only reward is
a sense of satisfaction and temporary elation. The best quizzes are
like that: think Only Connect (no prize), University
Challenge (a glass shield) and Mastermind (a glass bowl).
Compare these with the tawdry affairs of celebrity game shows and
'big' money.
Where Stockport goes today, the world goes tomorrow
(R3/Q2)
We
had a most convivial evening and the result was that
the Pigs have done the double over us this season.
Maybe we will get Cup revenge.
We were missing Anne
tonight but we did seem to roll out our typical performance i.e.
four points ahead at half time and then four points behind at the
end. Rounds 5 and 7 were the swing rounds against us.
Stats-wise there were 10 unanswereds (4 to the Pigs and 6 to us), 20
twos (12-8) and seven steals (3-4). It was a slow start for
scoring for both teams only reaching double figures (10-11) at the
end of Round 3. Indeed it was a slow start to the match itself
as Vanessa went to the Parrswood by mistake. Regular readers
will know catastrophic 'fallaway' in the closing rounds is not
uncommon for us, but on this occasion it was not lack of focus but a
much better performance by the Pigs - especially in going for twos.
So in other words it was 'a game of two halves, Brian'.
"Evening all"
(R6/Q8)
 Guest
QM, Mike, reports from the Fletcher Moss...
An unearthly quiet
descended on the Moss last night once the United match had finished
(and to be honest there wasn't much noise before United had done
their bit). Gary, Guy, Tom and Andrew were arrayed against
Ivor, Vanessa, Alison and David in what turned out to be a most
enjoyable evening.
Of course it was St
David's Day and so History Man David used the evening to celebrate
his 51st birthday. Having answered the somewhat easy
preliminary question of "why did they call you David?" he proceeded
to surprise us with the information that in fact he was born in
Zambia all those 51 years ago. I can tell you that on March
1st 1972 Nilsson topped the UK charts with Without You whilst
Juan María Bordaberry was sworn in as the President of Uruguay.
Happy birthday, David!
Back to the match...
The History Men were their usual mercurial selves losing to the 8th
placed team this week having defeated the high-flying Prods on their
last outing. You never know what to expect next with Ivor and
co. Over on the other side the Pigs were good value for their
win despite the occasional animated and amusing exchange in their
lengthy conferences on the way to the wrong answer.
Final fact of the
evening: Alison was awarded her graduation certificate by Sir Peter
Scott all those years ago in Birmingham. Her wild life has
been conserved ever since (according to Ivor).
The Three Ages of Evil
(R8/Q1)
|
Haile thought of in Ethiopia
(R3/Q6)
Prodigals
beat KFD
Prods win this crucial head-to-head by 6 points - but we'll always
have Grimsby
Michael celebrates the Prods '10 in a row'...
Manchester City don't play Arsenal until late April so, until then,
last night's match will have to do. If KFD had won, the league
would have been all over bar the shouting. Yet somehow we kept
our remarkable run against them going: 10 in a row, apparently.
1970s suicide note from Manchester
(R1/Q8)
We had feared a long and turbulent night as KFD eked out an 8-7 lead
after two rounds, but the scoring thereafter was giddy. Steals
were few and far between and it was sheer luck that I have just
finished writing a book in which Richard (not Robert) Owen plays a
prominent role; less proudly, I also have the Oasis album featuring
Let There Be Love. Another fair and good-spirited match
with our opponents, for whom Grimsby's march into the FA Cup
Quarters might figure as consolation.
Lee Todd sees f**king red
(R2/Sp1)
Bards beat Albert
Tony's troupe edge closer to Albert in the table by beating them
at the Parrswood
Mike pleads for more obscenity and less ignorance...
We
were beaten by a 3-handed Bards team. This was clearly a
cunning plan by our opponents to have one person less not to know
things whereas we had an extra source of ignorance to draw on.
Our spirits were raised briefly when the question on obscene rock
climbing surfaced but alas the racy tone was not sustained.
Surely there should be a place in the Olympics for a sport in which
obscenity is a vital part.
Rude food dude
(R5/Q1)
 Triumphant
Tony is pleased with his QM...
We played
three-handed so the Bards' win was particularly pleasing.
Opsimath Brian acted as
a brilliant quizmaster. Many thanks!
Ethel
Rodin beat Charabancs
Ethel leapfrog Albert into third place with a win down in
Ladybarn
...in Berlin and Rome
(R4/Q6)
|
Quiz
paper
set by...
...The
Opsimaths
Average Aggregate score
81.3
No verdict from me
this week as the Opsimaths were the setters (well, Brian, to
be honest). Just the observation that the aggregate average
was 3 points above the mean for the season and that most teams
seemed to enjoy themselves. Only barren patch in the Fletcher
Moss match (where I QMed) was the Sports Round (Round 2) where the
scoring was pretty low (though the information on display was
nonetheless quite interesting).
...this was James's view...
A good set of questions last night though the Sports round was a
low-scoring affair.
...and Tony adds...
We thought the quiz was well-constructed and most enjoyable.
...and Mike O'B feels that...
As usual with Opsi quizzes the themes were interesting, e.g. the
film titles round - and many of the individual questions were finely
crafted. However it would be interesting to know how many
teams going second managed to win since we felt that there was
somewhat of an imbalance in the questions.
...and Michael T is almost happy...
I thought 7/8ths of the paper was very good. The first round
was difficult, but fair and interesting, while the last six were
feasts of points. However, I will reserve a special place in
Room 101 for non-sporting sports.
....finally Ivor sums up...
The paper was
reported to be another 'single author' compilation by Brian
McLintock. Although we might grumble over perceived injustices
(that is getting a question one does not know the answer to, and
worse, one’s opponent getting the 'easy' question one does know the
answer to), it was an excellent demonstration of the setter’s craft
exemplified by the famous Opsimath’s logo on the front page, each
round separated and appearing on a single page, and a Q and A
grid system which allowed easy reading for the QM as well as
sufficient space for incidental information and anecdote. The Romans
had bread and circuses, we have beer and quizzes.
The theme rounds of
all types were well developed and maintained. Anne always
complains that her attempts at a theme round fade out/grind to a
halt at question 4. Not the case here; indeed even in the
theatre/cinema round we were still thinking of Roxys and Lyceums for
cafes and wrongly suspected Italian schools. We did worry
about the last round on the Hebrew alphabet; the Historymen have
little Latin, less Greek and no Hebrew at all. We need not
have worried; the first rule of quizzing is 'Just answer the
question!'
Weatherfield's rising sex symbol
(R1/Q6)
Question of the Week
Reminding him of a misspent youth this week Gary chose Round 7 (the
Run Ons round) Question 5...
In 1967, The Yardbirds reworked a
song by US singer-songwriter Jake Holmes, and it became a
centrepiece of their tours. Jimmy Page took it with him to Led
Zeppelin. With new lyrics and vocal line for their debut
album, what became a signature song for the group?
&
Based in Cardiff, which financial
services comparison website launched in 2001, becoming the UK’s
first car insurance comparison site?
For the answer to
this and all the week's other questions click
here.
"Good Golly, Where's Olly?"
(R7/Q4)
...and also
Next Wednesday following the Opsimaths match at the Griffin against
the Charabancs we'll make the draw for the Val Draper Cup Round 1
and 2 matches.
As last year there'll be just a single match in Round 1 in order to
reduce the number of competitors from 9 to 8 for Round 2. To
be fair I've decided to ensure that neither of last season's Round 1
cup competitors have to compete in Round 1 this year so both Ethel Rodin and KFD will get a bye straight into the Round 2 draw. I
suggest we adopt this practice for Round 1 cup draws from hereon.
Hope you're all fine with this.
Oh, and if you're new to the league this season, do note that the
handicap scores shown on the league table, as at the end of the
final round of league matches on March 15th, will be applied to all
cup match scores. If you're not doing so well in the league at
present maybe this is an incentive to lose your last 2/3 matches as
heavily as possible?
2012: Cricket moves east from Lords
(R2/Q1)
|
