Withington Pub Quiz League - Quizbiz 27/09/23

KFD win to go top with a superior score difference;

Ethel, the Opsis and the Prods also win their opening games

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See ...and also below for news from Ivor of Mike Hansford's funeral

Ethel Rodin beat Charabancs

Prodigals beat History Men

Bards lost to Opsimaths

KFD beat Electric Pigs

Ethel Rodin beat Charabancs

Valiant effort not enough for the Charas

Damian shepherds his flock over the cliff

A valiant effort to kick off the new season with a victory, but ultimately we failed against the powerhouse that is Ethel Rodin - even with Roddy dropping out to take the QM's chair.

Apart from a brief lead in Round One, we trailed by an ever increasing gap, being behind by 8 points at the end. Nevertheless it was an enjoyable evening with each Chara scoring at least one two-pointer - and John notching up a creditable four.

Welsh Rock

Centre Forward or Centre Half for Leeds, Juventus & Wales

(R4/Q5)

KFD beat Electric Pigs

Another op'nin', another show,

A chance for stage quizfolks to say "hello"

Another season, another Kieran

Another two from Lowestoft's golden boy to get us underway and another MVP trophy by the end of the evening.

Another early season holiday for David (inter-railing in Belgium, France and Italy - at his age!) meaning he'll miss the first four games.

Another appearance for even younger Thomas, ten matches played, five against the Pigs, all of them won.

Another absence for Bob the Hat, called away at short notice on urgent very hush hush business ........somewhere else, so another season opener QM'd by the Albert's ever affable Jeremy.

Another music round hoovered up by Martin (with additional Shostakovich from Barry).

Manchester's 'other team' - c1928

(R6/Q6)

Another game in the screenless middle room while a loan soul watched City's very satisfactory exit from the league cup in our usual room.

Another opening day defeat for the Prodigals at the hands of the History Men..... ah...... that's the league buggered then, we're all playing for second place now.

Questions about baseball were an innovation - Thomas's favourite niche interest. He enjoyed himself so much he's promised to turn out again next week when the Charas are certain to have set at least one round entirely on cricket - the grown up version of baseball.

Neither Elephant nor Donkey

(R3/Q5)

A two point half time lead turned into game over by the end of the music and sports rounds so the famed KFD second half onslaught still seems to be in good order.

Our old friends and opponents made the evening a great start to our 32nd attempt to harmlessly while away the winter Wednesday evenings.

Next up are this week's setters (I think I've been quite nice about the paper and the QM in this report, Mike). El Presidente will be back in his rightful place and the match will almost certainly take place in the middle room again owing to the fact that City have a rather more important dust up in Leipzig than they did in tonight's semi stroll in Newcastle.

The inappropriate manager

(R7/Q2)

King John XV of all Europe

(R4/Q2)

Bards lost to Opsimaths

A strengthened Opsimath team start with a win

Mike sums up from the sidelines

It was a joy to return to the Wednesday evening routine in the cavernous and virtually empty Parrswood. Smiles all round as the two teams settled down for another keenly fought contest. Retired judge, Tony, filled the Chair whilst I took his previous work position on the Bench.

The Opsimaths enter the new season with a squad of 7 players (3 women and 4 men) so there will be much 'squad rotation' in the coming weeks. For this opener Captain Howell's finger landed on me, whilst the latest Opsimath recruit, Charlotte, had her first match. Charlotte is an experienced quizzer who has lived within a few yards of the Albert Club for some years. She's a very welcome addition to our team.

Sadly for the Bards Round One was very much not their cup of tea, falling behind by 6 points, a margin from which they never recovered.

Tony was a genial host and QM, adding some personal knowledge now and again both as he gave the answers - and occasionally as he delivered the questions. The Beak's peepers are showing some wear and tear these days and unfortunately he'd left his specs at home so, having marked the Opsimaths down for correctly identifying hiragana, katakana and kanji as Japanese writing styles rather than wrestling styles, and suffered a hail of complaints from the visitors, he borrowed Brian's glasses for the rest of the match. This improved the quality of the QMing but left Brian hobbled when it came to reading his colleagues' scribbled notes.

Overall the standard of quizzing was good with the match notching up the highest aggregate of the evening. I suspect both teams will challenge for the title at some stage over the coming months.

Nature reclaims Glasgow's Cathkin Park

(R6/Q5)

Prodigals beat History Men

Behind up to Round 8, the Prods sneak a win over the History folk

Misty and fruitfully mellow, Ivor unloads

The nights draw in and earth becomes autumnal. All right-thinking mammals will be contemplating the run down to hibernation. But not we quizzers who after a close season of dabbling in less challenging 'fun' contests return to the high octane battles that characterise our league. After last week’s trouncing by the Stockport League in the 2023/4 curtain raiser we were all hoping that that performance was an aberration and that we would return to the spectacular brilliance we have displayed over the last quarter century (recollections may vary).

We had a new look Historymen team tonight. Anne is in Ibiza and Young David is in the USA. Anne will return soon but David is on a three week Winnebego road trip through at least 12 states most of which are Republican red neck flyover states. I hope he doesn’t say anything out of turn (e.g. “Joe Biden has some good ideas” or “Can I have a go with that automatic rifle that fires 1200 bullets a minute?”) and that he will be back for our November games. We still had Vanessa and tonight saw the return of Rupert and our new player, Steve. Some of you will know Steve from his Film Club Sunday quizzes - he has an encyclopedic knowledge of the Silver Screen in the Golden Era.

Our match tonight was against the Prodigals. We beat them twice last year thus denying them the title and had hopes of doing it again. We were a point ahead going into the last round but sadly forgotten Arizona legislators and obscure music hall lyrics were our undoing.

Definitely not wrestling

(R3/Q1)

Quiz paper set by...

...Albert

Average Aggregate score 75.0

A good paper with a good aggregate score to start the 45th WithQuiz league season. Sport got quite a look in for a change (although perhaps a little too US-focused for everyone's liking). Howell didn't appreciate the title of the 'Wails' round, but certainly liked the content.

The only slight quibble was about the word 'military' used to describe Nelson. 'Military' does tend to imply 'army' so at the Parrswood Tony used the phrase 'national hero' instead.

... and this is what Damian thought ...

We found Albert's paper to be generally interesting with plenty of variety. Round 6 was the flop of the evening with only two points scored, one from each team. American sport is a bit of an acquired taste for most of us and having to name two teams didn't help when, in some cases, the teams struggled to name even one. Of the eleven unanswerables I counted, six of them occurring in that round.

For QotW, I nominate the one about what Lord Chesterfield was referring to when he advised his son that the pleasure was momentary, the position ridiculous and the expense damnable. Our suggestion that it was smoking didn't quite make the cut!

Paris Olympic champion attempts to reproduce his form

(R2/Q5)

...and Kieran...

Gripes? Well for weeks you research and research Berkshire and what do you get? Bloody South Wales! That was a curve ball and then some. Small beer though - overall this was a good paper.

For QotW we chose the one about the football venue called 'The Toughsheet Stadium'

... and finally Ivor...

The quiz itself was just what we expect from the Albert - with formats as comforting as a pair of woolly socks. Some questions were trickier than others of course, and as the losing side we can always carp. Neither of the medics on our side got the blood transfusion answer. I had heard once that Pope Innocent VIII had received a blood transfusion from a healthy choirboy (both died) in the late 1400s but perhaps that is a Protestant calumny; though Wikipedia reports that at the end the pope derived nourishment from a few drops of milk from a young woman’s breast (not available on the NHS).

Always good to have proper music questions (even if we get them wrong) and tonight’s quiz was probably the only one in the country to have two questions about Norman French. The varied nature of the questions in our league does set us apart. Vive la difference (as the Normans might say if they were still here).

Question of the Week

This week the Charas nominate Round 8 Question 2 where their answer of "Smoking" was just a little too late...

To what was someone (perhaps Lord Chesterfield although the quotation is variously attributed) referring when he said “the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous and the price absurd”?

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

"Vegan? You must be joking!"

(R1/Q7)

...and also

Our friend Mike Hansford’s funeral will be in the Large Chapel at Southern Cemetery on Wednesday 4th October 2023 at 10.00 in the morning (it is a cremation).

Silvie (Mike’s widow) has asked that attendees wear something white on top of their clothes as a symbol of peace, honour and respect to Mike - and as a link to his soul/spirit.

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Our first 'Free' Wednesday of the season will be on October 25th. If any of you want to organise something for that evening, now's the time to get weaving. Happy to help by making the website available for publicity - just let me know.

Lily of the Abbey

(R7/Q5)