Withington Pub Quiz League - Quizbiz 29/03/23

Bards, Prods, Opsis and History Men earn a Cup semi final berth;

Ethel, Charas, Albert and Pigs contest the Plate;

League Champs KFD exit to be our semi final setters

Val Draper Cup - Round 2

Ethel Rodin lost to Bards

Prodigals beat Charabancs

Opsimaths beat Albert

History Men beat KFD

Val Draper Cup - Round 2

Prodigals (-4) beat (+5) Charabancs

The Prods overcome a 9 point handicap to move to the Cup semis

Jimmy enjoyed a paper perfectly suited to the Prods' strengths...

We agreed to switch the match to the Griffin as the Albert Club was already hosting the Opsimaths game. I don’t know if it was the reviving qualities of Joseph Holt’s fine brews but the venue change proved most efficacious. It was a quiz that played to our strengths and despite the Charas’ best efforts we ran out clear winners. After a tight opening round, the Prods went up another gear in what might have been our best display of the season.

A most enjoyable evening, expertly QM'ed by the lovely Stella, was rounded off by everybody berating Chelsea fan, Graham, for Peter Bonetti’s woeful display in Leon way back in 1970. Even after 53 years, it sticks in the craw. Long memories these WithQuizzers...

Almost a Bridge Too Far

(R2/Q3)

Damian looks forward to the Plate semis...

With the agreement of the Prodigals we relocated to our home territory of the Griffin due to a potential clash of quizzing space with the Opsimaths at The Club, and settled in for what we fondly hoped would be a good night for us as our only two wins in the league this season had both come at home. As it turned out, it wasn't all that bad despite any hopes of beating the Prodigals being soon dashed. Thank goodness for the handicap I guess or it could have been much worse - although, for the most part, it felt quite close.

Our usual habit is to suffer at least one very bad round and tonight proved no exception with R3 proving our 'Jonah Round' scoring just one point to the Prodigals' 8. As befits last year's champions and this year's runners-up, they didn't suffer any bad rounds at all and thus, handicaps notwithstanding, they finished well ahead and early enough for some extended post-quizzing banter.

Tonight's questions were set by the Electric Pigs just three weeks after we scored only our second win in the league this season on one of their papers. We thus looked forward to another good night and, as I said earlier, it didn't for the most part disappoint.

Well, at least we didn't finish lowest scoring losers of the night (thanks to our opponents' generous handicap) and thus we dodged the bullet of setting again for the semis in a few weeks' time - although new boy Chara Bernard seemed a bit bemused at this attitude as it appears he's the only one in the current team line-up who actually enjoys setting questions! Maybe he could become our Brian and set all our papers in the future. What do you think, Bernard?

Gone for one in 2022

(R6/RH)

History Men (0) beat (-3) KFD

The History Men gain cup revenge for their earlier league defeats

Topsy turvy Ivor reports in...

The magic of the Cup! KFD had beaten us in the league matches by 3 points and 5 points so having a three point start in the handicap was likely to have made this a really competitive encounter. As it turned out we did not need the handicap and 'won' both halves with 'raw' scores of 17-16 and 24-19.

Before you assume that we, like Elisha inheriting Elijah’s mantle, have replaced KFD as quizzing supremos it should be noted that KFD were playing three-handed. This is a serious handicap as a fourth player is usually good for an extra four points or so, when extra twos, 'saves' in consultation, and 'steals' are factored in. Of course the downside of an extra player must also be weighed up; namely the blurts. We Historymen are infamous for blurting but luckily the only notable blurt of the evening was Anne’s "Hadrian’s Wall” in R8 Q6 when fortunately the game was already won.

Andrew Simcock was our genial QM tonight and the margin of victory was due to us getting more twos (11-8), more 'steals' (5-4), fewer 'unanswereds' (3-4) and better luck in choosing the 2022 dead people. Maybe it was because we relocated to the snug at half time and settled into our traditional lucky seats. Perhaps the Goddess of Quizzing decided it should just be our night for a win. If there is a Goddess of Quizzing it might well be Nemesis. Our worthy opponents and league champions find that they have not only been knocked out of the Cup but also out of the Plate and to add salt to their wounds will have to set the next question paper.

The quiz ended early enough for drinks and banter including Anne’s memories as a student in Minsk in 1974 and her contempt for Larry Olivier’s pronunciation of Russian cities in The World At War.

We face the Bards next. I wonder if our season will continue as 'topsy' or 'turvy'?

Where's Wally?

(R3/Q8)

Opsimaths (-1) beat (+1) Albert

Traditional Cup rivals slug it out once more - this time with the Opsis edging it

Mike with his view from the QM chair...

Yet again it was the Opsis and Albert. Two weeks back it had been the final fixture of the league season for both teams - and going a few years back there was an incredible cup run when - with a very complicated cup draw system - these two teams played each other 3 weeks running in successive cup ties.

It was a most enjoyable evening with smiles all round - no moment more smiley than the one in Round 6 when it fell to Eveline to choose the initials. Now if you've been around these parts for a while you'll be aware of a certain amount of sexist banter between the male Albert cohort and Eveline. Ashton (I think it was) declared that Eveline was no good at choosing things in a Bingo-style round so he was going to choose for her - and nothing seemed more appropriate than the late 'US' who sadly passed from this mortal coil last year. "Eveline will have the Una Stubbs one please, question 13; she'll know all about Una." It was with untold glee that I started the question with the words "Last year Uwe Seeler died aged 85...".

Eveline's US

(R6/US)

A shout out too for captain Mike who faced with the picture of Mae Muller clearly labelled with her name refused to admit to any knowledge of such base popular culture and asked his minions to identify the picture lest his reputation be sullied. That's what I call sticking to your guns!

The scores were close throughout with the slight Albert handicap advantage disappearing early in Round 1. There were moments when Mike O'B felt minded to brandish his various rackets of power but by and large the effect of these implements of repression have worn thin and no longer carry the weight they used to.

All in all it was great fun with Albert (Mike, Ashton, Jeremy and Eveline) moving forward to the Plate and the Opsis (Nick, Howell, Brian and Emma) carrying on their assault on the Val Draper Cup - a trophy they've never ever won in all the long years of WithQuiz.

Down amongst the cabbages and peas

(R3/Q5)

Mae Muller fan, Mike, updates us on Albert's training regime...

A very enjoyable quiz. In my opinion The Pigs produced one of the best papers of the season. This included some imaginative tweaks in the Bingo rounds. The one problem regarding Bingo rounds is the balance between luck and knowledge. Sometimes this is exacerbated by structural inequalities; e.g. last night many would have said the 'Lester Piggot' question was harder than the 'Gorbachev' question - but this was made even harder by just one answer being required for the 'Gorbachev' one whereas you needed to give two for the 'Piggot' one.

My training programme for the head-slapping tournament continues to go well. To show her support Eveline has, at her own expense, purchased a pair of wicketkeeper's gloves into which she has sewn ball bearings. She says a few wallops from her each day with these will develop my resilience. I have complete confidence in her judgement.

Gerald has only himself to blame

(R2/Q4)

Ethel Rodin (-2) lost to (0) Bards

The handicap does it as the Bards squeak home by 2 points

Unique World Champion: 2 & 4 wheels

(R1/Q5)

Quiz paper set by...

...The Electric Pigs

Average Aggregate score 80.0

What an excellent paper the Pigs conjured up so late in the season! Loads of pictures and themes.

Once more there was a round linked to famous people who died last year (I seem to remember this style of round the last time they set). Sometimes the link from the person who'd died to the subject of the question was a bit tenuous - but so what?

An excellent evening based on a well-constructed fun paper. Many thanks Pigs.

Fairey's in Levenshulme

(R1/Q1)

...and this was Jimmy's view...

The quiz itself - particularly given the short notice the Pigs had to put it together - was excellent.

We particularly loved the 'jumbled biographies' round which was both well constructed, novel and really hit the sweet spot of our combined knowledge.

The only gripe would be that the UK Eurovision contestant’s name was actually on the picture provided but hey, no worries as there were plenty of spares to go at.

...and this Damian's...

The questions were varied and interesting and, with one or two exceptions, well balanced. We couldn't guess either of the hidden themes although that didn't seem to hinder us too much in answering the questions - and as always we looked forward to the Bingo rounds of which there were no less than three.

However I have to say that when it came to it we didn't particularly enjoy the Rounds 4 and 5 Bingo questions as our knowledge of contemporary business heads and minor cabinet members is somewhat limited and we hardly recognised anybody despite the well produced pictures provided. We much preferred 'Pick the Initials of the Deceased Person' round where we did a lot better. Letters rather than numbers always appeal to me more!

A couple of early Davids

(R1/Q2)

..and Ivor's feedback...

Though the Pigs had only a week to devise, organise, and moderate their paper we thought they'd made a fine fare for us. Andrew reports that the Pigs always have a fun session on the Sunday before a 'Pig-setting Wednesday' with eats and drinks to help craft their offering.

Unusually we found this quiz difficult at the start (the first two questions were unanswereds and we didn't spot the rivers or the Booker Prize winner themes) but things speeded up as the evening progressed and the last three rounds were point-fests.

The picture round of eminent women was beautifully presented; other setters know how hard it is to physically print, cut up and organise pictures. Having said that, and despite all of them being alive and currently active, we had some difficulty putting names to them. I even failed with vaccinologist Dame Sarah Gilbert. There is a condition called prosopagnosia which might account for this, but more likely it is just that we quizzers have difficulty catching up with contemporary life and retaining new facts.

Our Round of the Week was the new format of 'Jumbled Biographies'. Not often we get novelty these days and certainly this is one for future sincere flattery via imitation!

A gangster and his molls

(R3/Sp)

Question of the Week

This week many of you applauded the 'Jumbled Biographies' round (Round 3) so I've selected what I felt the rummest trio of the round clued in the Spare Question...

Australian 3-time Olympic 100m swimming gold-medallist between 1956 and 1964 who appeared as Peter Sellers daughter in I’m Alright Jack and a career criminal who was once dubbed the most dangerous man in Britain.

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

...and also

A two-week break now while we rest and take our Easter hols (our Nick is off to Australia as it happens - bon voyage, Nick). Back on April 19th for the Cup and Plate semis. See you then!

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By the way Mike O'Brien has posted a comment onto the Comments page earlier today. He has mentioned to me that he would like to see us make use of this facility again. I rather agree with him!

Mighty Victorian engineering

(R8/Q6)