|
Well done Ethel, the new League
Champions!
They squeaked home this week
against the Charas to make themselves unassailable at the top of the
table; also this week the Opsimaths' win confirmed them as the
season's runners up
The Val Draper Cup draw has been made - details
below
|
Electric Pigs lost to Prodigals
Bards beat Albert
Charabancs lost to Ethel Rodin
Opsimaths beat History Men |
|
Charabancs lost to Ethel Rodin
Home and dry - just! Our new league
champions are crowned
 James
looks forward to a thumping defeat next week
Another close match for Ethel, but, whereas we
slipped to narrow defeats in our last two matches,
this time, despite the Charabancs hanging on in
there until the end, we just about held on. So
for the second time in four seasons Ethel are
WithQuiz league winners.
R oddy
gets his bone
(R3/Q1)
For new team member Michael Byrne this represents a
100% success rate, so no pressure next season….!
Next week we can safely lose to the Prodigals by 30
points to make sure our handicap for the cup is
minimised.
Our team photo for the 2023/24 season should really
include John Mellor, whose contributions this season
have been as valuable as any of the four in the
picture - but he wasn't playing this week.
The Dandy Number Ones
(R1/Q4)
 Damian
tells of a close run match against the Champs
Well, we did our best to spoil Ethel's coronation as
2024 League Champions but our valiant opponents were
not to be denied. In a close fought affair
that went down to the wire they beat us by just 2
points - albeit they had led by a point or two at
the end of each round. Being slightly ahead on
twos and steals did the trick for them - and so big
congratulations to Ms Rodin for securing their
second league title in just three years.
Where Housman's "lads in their hundreds come in for
the fair"
(R8/Q7)
All in all we had an enjoyable night even if the
result, yet again, didn't quite manage to fall our
way (so apologies to Sam once more as we yet again
endeavour to fail better).
To rub salt into our wounds our conquerors asked us
to take the celebratory picture for the website
(see top of page). Even my warning that we
would refuse to take the picture unless they all
agreed to strip naked couldn't deter them. In
the end I relented and let them keep their clothes
and dignity intact. Chara John volunteered to
do the honours and take the pic; I think he finally
managed to get it on the 25th attempt!
'Allo 'Allo, it's Herr Flick
(R3/Q8)
Bards beat Albert
Albert slip up again and drift down to fourth
place
 Like
the Stones, Mike needs to find out how to Not Fade
Away
Well, a continuation of our poor run. I
attended as a spectator last night. As I
watched them struggle I wondered about the idea of
hiring some ninjas to beat them with bamboo poles to
make them know more. It would be win/win
really, as, even if it didn't work, I would have the
pleasure of inflicting pointless pain on them.
The quiz itself was fair enough full of interesting
facts. At the half way mark we were only one
point behind but we faded away in the second half.
The Scriblerus Four
(R5/Q6)
|
The only golden Oscar
(R6/Q5)
Opsimaths beat History Men
Completing the double over the History Men earns
the Opsis second place
 Mike
chews over a great evening with old mates
A thoroughly enjoyable evening with our genial
(could 'genial' become the new 'convivial'?) guests
from the Parrswood. Anne was her usual
charming self; Vanessa was firing on all cylinders
(though towards the end of the evening she slumped
to the Club carpet claiming that this term's
teaching burden had just about finished her off -
Howell who could only see her head just poking above
the sofa back thought she had shrunk); Ivor was -
well just Ivor; while David's encyclopaedic NFL
knowledge had him all a-flutter.
Over on the other side of the room the Opsis sat at
the big table and coasted their way through to
victory courtesy of Round 6 which (I think) went
10-1 our way. Howell and Charlotte were
particularly impressive with Hilary and myself
notching a few crucial points along the way.
Brian was his usual authoritative self in the QM
chair pitch perfect except for a 'Dove' which
accidentally emerged as part of the question when it
was indeed the answer.
So, after what seems to us a somewhat lacklustre
season - to our surprise - we end up runners up
behind Ethel. Full marks to them for being
clearly the best team this year. The 25-point
pounding they gave us at the Club back in the
November fixture was an extremely chastening
experience. So, watch out Roddy, we're coming
for you next year!
Burnhamshire
(R6/Q1)
 History
Man Ivor remembers days of silver and bronze
Oh dear! A week is a long time in quizzing.
My thoughts last week of possibly challenging for a
Champions League place for next season has been as
hubristic as David Steel’s 1981 party conference
election hopes. We can now only aspire to
fifth place (and saying that probably guarantees
defeat next week).
Nemesis came in the form of our old rivals, the
Opsimaths, who have not only done the double over us
but also the treble as they eliminated us in the
Lowly Grail semi final. We possibly gave them
a scare being two points ahead going into Round 6
which we proceeded to lose 10-1, and, although we
clawed a little back, the game was all but lost (or
won if you are an Opsimath). So
congratulations to them as they have secured the
silver medal this league season.
I would not be so churlish as to mention that I
recall the days when the Historymen got the silver
or bronze medal and the Opsimaths were challenging
for the wooden spoon (Oops! I might have mentioned
that accidentally).
As
always many of the questions and answers evoked past
memories and asides: Norman Rockwell’s drawings (not
on the New Yorker), Anne Packer’s brood of
successful footballers, and a strange story that
when The Winds of War was being proposed as a
mini-series an aged Wallis Simpson misheard the
title as The Windsor War and instructed
solicitors to monitor for potential libel (I read
that in the Daily Mail so it must be true).
Greatest British film of all time?
(R3/Q6)
Electric Pigs lost to Prodigals
A thumping victory at the Moss moves the Prods up
to third place
 Jimmy
reflects on a good time at the Moss
A relatively quiet night down at the Fletcher Moss
with the international break putting paid to braying
Blues and raucous Reds - and for once this quizzing
season, the Prodigals were all sat in the right
seats.
After a couple of close early rounds we got into our
stride on the hidden theme Round 3 and never really
looked back. I don't remember that many
unanswered questions by either side as we kept
slotting regular two pointers away to rack up our
joint best league total of the season against a Pigs
team that had deservedly turned us over at the
Albert club back in October.
QM Andrew handled matters superbly throughout and
the match was played in a really good spirit.
The Man who fed Sergio
(R6/Sp1)
|
Quiz paper set by...
... KFD
Average Aggregate score 73.3
An
excellent paper from the always reliable setters
from the Griffin. Good themes (how did it take
us so long to rumble the cricket one!) and a wide
range of subjects.
The
evening kicked off well for me with the first
question in the 'Prime Numbers' Round 1. Only
a few days ago I read the results of the same BPG
poll referred to in the question (the poll to find
the 'Most influential TV shows of the past 50
years') with a view to using it in a quiz I'm
setting - not least because its choice of the Number
1 programme exactly chimed with my own assessment.
Sadly the maker of all but the first programme in
this series, Michael Apted, died a few years back
and so I think the '70 Up' version we were
due in 2 years time will never happen. The
curious thing about this series was that it was
conceived as a way of proving Aristotle's words
"Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you
the man” - but in reality it has proved the opposite
with the life stories of the subjects being anything
but predictable. In taking us on this journey
through these lives we have all learnt so much more
than if Aristotle had been proved right. Thank
you Granada, thank you Michael Apted and thank you
KFD for reminding us all!
Artistic covers galore
(R3/Q2)
..
and Jimmy's verdict ...
There
was plenty to enjoy about tonight’s offering.
Dot Cotton, Doris Day, the delights of Shropshire
and the pop prodigies from Broughty Ferry featured
amongst the topics in a wide-ranging set of
questions which had something for everyone.
All
the Prods thought that the question about the lone
Italian premier league winner was too good to only
be a spare, but kudos to the setters for a
well-balanced and entertaining quiz.
..
and this is how James saw the
paper ...
Tonight’s quiz was a little less accessible than
some recent offerings from KFD, whose quizzes we
usually enjoy. That said, it was fair with the
difficult questions shared evenly.
Even
more questions than usual, landed with the only team
member (in either team) that didn’t know the subject
(e.g. “Roddy, which Marvel film….?”, “Graham, in
maths…?”). So, a generally low-scoring affair
- but the last round did help to lift the scores.
...
and Damian's view ...
We found KFD's paper a bit of a toughie, although
the final score seemed to match the season's
average. I counted 7 unanswered questions which
seemed to break evenly between the two teams.
That said the themes were all gettable although my
knowledge of prime numbers (like most things
mathematical) is extremely wanting, so thank
goodness for the presence of the more mathematically
attuned players on my team.
For QotW I have personally chosen the one from the
Prime Numbers round about which TV series was voted
the most influential in the last 50 years.
Given that the series in question actually began 60
years ago I thought it was a tad misleading but
nevertheless much appreciated it.
...
and finally Ivor gives his feedback
...
A tricky little test this week from KFD. Anne
did comment sotto voce that she thinks she now knows
what the letter 'F' stands for in their team name.
The genetics questions both yielded zero points.
Most of Dawkins’s books have interesting titles:
River Out Of Eden, Climbing Mount Improbable,
Unweaving The Rainbow, amongst others so clearly
there had been a failure of imagination with the
second book title. Soil science and ionosphere
layers also stumped us, though we did enjoy the
cricket-themed round (probably because we spotted
the theme early) otherwise I might have blurted
Brief Encounter as the best British film ever
(it is, of course).
Up there!
(R1/Q1)
Q uestion
of the Week
This week (much to my approval) Damian has voted for Round
1 (the one with prime numbers in each answer) Question
1 ...
In a recent poll of the
Broadcasting Press Guild which British TV series was
voted the most influential of the last 50 years?
For the answer to this and all the week's other
questions click
here.
... and
also
After
the match at the Club, between the Opsimaths and the
History Men, we made the draw for this year's Val
Draper Cup competition. You can see the
resulting ties on the Fixtures page. The
highlights are ...
-
Albert play at home against the
History Men in the preliminary round (Round
1) on April 10th
-
The Bards shoulder the burden (or joy?)
of setting the Preliminary Round paper
-
The Round 1 losers set the paper for the
following week
-
In Round 2 our top two teams get to fight it out
(Opsimaths v Ethel Rodin)
Given
that 6 of our teams are neither competing nor
setting on April 10th it seems a good idea to
arrange one or more friendly matches for the
non-competitors using the Bards paper. The
Opsimaths are up for this - any takers?
|
