Withington Pub Quiz League

Welcome to WithQuiz's 46th season!

The new season's fixtures are now up on the Fixtures page. Points to note:

League matches start on Wednesday October 9th with the History Men as the setters for the first week
The traditional pre-season tussle with the Stockport League will take place the previous Thursday (October 3rd) at The Parrswood Hotel
The Lowly Grail competition has been abandoned and WIST Champions Cup matches will be played on Thursdays this season
There will be a few 'Quiz-free' weeks throughout the season, with a 3-week break for Christmas and a one-week break for Easter
There has been some thought given over the past few weeks as to whether we should schedule the league so that each team played each other team 3 times per season - but, on the balance of views received, we decided not to go for this change

Do come along to the Parrswood on October 3rd if you can. There'll be plenty of subs at half-time if necessary to ensure everyone present gets at least half a match. Stockport currently hold the Pre-season trophy and we want it back!

Finally in case you hadn't heard there's some sad news below.

Nick Mills - funeral arrangements

The funeral will be on Friday 27th September, 11:30am at Altrincham Crematorium with refreshments afterwards at the Rope & Anchor, Paddock Lane, Dunham Massey.

Many thanks to Greg Spiller for passing on these details provided by Nick's sister, Amanda. If you intend to be there please let Greg (gregspiller13@gmail.com) know and he will tell Amanda so that she has an idea of the numbers.

Nick Mills

Some really sad news for The Opsimaths - and for all of us.

Nick Mills died in his sleep earlier this week.

Nick had played for The Opsimaths since 2009 and was by some way the most accomplished quizzer we've had in our team over the 40+ years we've been competing in WithQuiz. Indeed he has a claim to having been the best quizzer WithQuiz has ever had.

Famously it was the Opsimaths who broke the 12-year KFD stranglehold on the League title in 2011 and it's fair to say that without Nick that would never have happened. In 2014 and 2015 he helped us to 2 more titles and only last season we finished second with his contribution a sizeable element in our success.

His team mates will sorely miss both his encyclopaedic knowledge and his impeccable reasoning skills when he wasn't sure and was conferring. If Nick suggested an answer, it was a brave Opsimath who didn't go with it!

One story about Nick I will always treasure ...

It was the Opsimath/Prodigals derby in the back room of the Albert Club, 12th October 2011. The Pigs were setting and (Round 6 Question 8) the QM asked me:

"If you travelled due east from the southern tip of India, in which country would you next touch land?".

Correctly (as it turned out) I answered "Sri Lanka". "Wrong" was the QM's response. Nick exploded arguing that I was right (rather than the answer "Thailand" given in the paper). The debate got somewhat heated and it was a while before Anne-Marie and I cooled tempers. However this was all too much for Nick; he stomped out of the back room almost taking the curtain divider with him. "Oh, God", thought the Opsis, "our best quizzer has just walked out on us." A few minutes later, much to our relief, Nick reappeared. On the way out he'd stopped to consult a Pears Encyclopaedia which he'd noticed on the Club's bookshelf and returned somewhat sheepishly to show us all a map from the encyclopaedia that showed that "Mike was dead right". Thanks to the generosity of the Prods I got my two points and we moved on. A few years later Nick and I laughed about that incident and I think Nick did slightly regret his impetuosity. For me however it just showed what a committed Opsimath he was - and how important the quizzing scene was to him.

Away from WithQuiz Nick was a celebrated quizzer nationally, at one stage standing very near the top of the national quizzer rankings. On TV quiz shows - like our good friend Rachael - Nick was a regular, competing in University Challenge, Mastermind and Only Connect to name but three.

We will all greatly miss his earnest Yorkshire-ness and his occasional loud chuckle. Being an Opsimath will never be quite the same again. Nick, I hope you realised how much your team mates loved having you as their colleague every Wednesday. Many thanks and Rest in Peace!

When I have more details about Nick's funeral I'll pass the information on via this site.

(Nick, second from the right, with all his Opsimath mates celebrating the 2014/2015 League title)