Withington Pub Quiz League - Quizbiz 30/10/24

The Prodigals retain their 100% record - KFD, the History Men and Ethel Rodin also win to keep up the chase

Bards lost to Ethel Rodin

Electric Pigs lost to History Men

KFD beat Albert

Opsimaths lost to Prodigals

Electric Pigs lost to History Men

The History Men notch up their first victory of the season

Ivor tells the tale of a Hog Roast in the Fletcher Moss Beer Garden

As always it was a most convivial evening at the Fletcher Moss. We avoided any excess noise by locating to a near empty Beer Garden where we enjoyed the warmth of the overhead heaters. In truth it was actually warmer than the Griffin snug (and that’s saying something). Young David reckoned we would all have cataracts by the end of the evening and I am not sure if Vanessa’s natural red hair had been augmented by singeing. However we enjoy this while it lasts; Ed Miliband will probably ban them next year to save the polar bears.

Chasing the American Dream

(R3/Q7)

We are enthusiastic quizzers and both sides were well rested after the early season break (we had only played one game). Our Steve negotiated train and tram from deepest Wilmslow whilst their Dave had hurried back from a day trip to Amsterdam. Andrew though had gone off to Deepdale to follow the fortunes of PNE, so QM duties were performed by Charabanc Damian. Damian is the Robert Robinson 'de nos jours' - but fortunately the game progressed in the gentle style of Call My Bluff rather than the cut-throat style of Ask The Family. With a combined score of 71 and 14 unanswered questions, this suggests a moderately hard quiz, but it did not feel like that perhaps because the unanswereds would usually have been answered with a third guess (another cowboy, another philosopher, another constituency).

My only complaint tonight was my PTSD being triggered by the 'A' level maths questions. My teacher always said that everything can be worked out from first principles. Sadly that did not work with the hexadecimal question but from somewhere, the repressed memory that a circle has 2 x pi radians emerged horrifically fully formed, like the alien from John Hurt’s chest.

A Chancellor on Budget Day

(R2/Q3)

Opsimaths lost to Prodigals

A notable win for the Prods in the first of this year's Orkney Dark derby matches

Mike watches his Pipedream flop

A stonking start for the Opsis who were (I think) 8-1 up at the end of Round 1. Even by half time they had a slender lead. Then doom! The Prods purred away into the far yonder with their all-round quizzing strength. Richard was particularly impressive. Half way through the final round the 'GTG' question came to him. We all thought he'd developed a sudden pain somewhere as he blurted out a strangulated noise that later turned out to be "Gozer the Gozerian".

It's going to take a pretty good bunch of quizzers to keep the Prods from winning the Barry Whitehead trophy this season. There you are, Anne-Marie, that should have jinxed you!

The line-ups last night were: Anne-Marie, Jimmy, Richard and John for the Prods against Emma, Brian, me (Mike) and Tehmeena for the Opsis. Tehmeena is a really welcome addition to our line-up. She hails from Edmonton in Canada and is working over here for Hilti, the construction support company. She has a range of knowledge that fills some very notable gaps in the traditional Opsimath offerings.

Finally a big thanks to Chara John Dennison who QMed, navigating the odd moment of contention with skill and fairness.

Let's pray he's still smiling next Wednesday

(R4/Q2)

Bards lost to Ethel Rodin

Ethel edge a victory against the Bards at the Parrswood to keep them in contention at the top of the table

Miesling

(R4/Sp1)

Memories of a misspent O'Brien youth

(R3/Q8)

KFD beat Albert

KFD get the better of a low-scoring affair against high-flying Albert

Kieran updates us on the seating arrangements at The Griffin

In recent seasons victories for us over the Albert have been rare - and victories on Charas' papers rarer still. Combining the two occurs about as often as Real Madrid graciously accepting defeat and congratulating those who have walked off with the trophy.

A memorable evening in Fortress Griffin then, even more so because we were forced into playing in a new part of the pub - the back room behind the bar just by the door to the beer garden and opposite the toilets, very classy. For an unfathomable reason the place was packed; it surely can't have been the pull of the Mickey Mouse cup can it? Additionally, over the summer, the always clued in management have vandalised the (second choice) middle room by sticking an enormous, almost never used, pool table in it thus making it useless for quizzes or indeed any sort of decent night out. Ah, Joseph Holt never, ever change. The beer was on good form though, about as rare an event as Real Madrid ..... you know the rest.

The next problem we faced was that the space in the back room is quite small and blaring at us incessantly was a TV screen showing the aforementioned Mickey Mouse cup and frequent ads for erectile dysfunction. Just let me clarify that, the ads were for the treatment of, erm, limpness in a certain vital area rather than advocating it as a lifestyle choice. More of that later, or probably not. Alpha medic, barrister and quizzer Jeremy took command of the situation, liberated the remote from the other side of the bar, silenced the idiot blabbering on about Villa vs Palace and our game was able to proceed.

On the KFD side of the room we were very aware of the looming horror of Blockbuster Bingo to finish the contest. That format is the granddaddy of Achilles heels for us. I've lost count of the number of matches we've led all the way through, only to be blown away by random, initialled weirdness at the very last. So we tried to build a lead as a buffer and were pretty successful. Nine points ahead after seven rounds (a thirteen point margin would have been better) had us reasonably relaxed prior to our ordeal by gibberish. Somewhat less relaxed after three questions of this final round and our lead more than halved, but then Martin assisted David to a point for Ghost Sonata, the rot was stopped and ultimately it was a rather more comfortable win than the score suggests.

David made his season debut so of course the paper contained quite a few questions on reality TV, whatever the hell that is, plus niche quiz shows that no one from KFD has ever seen. We were collectively nonplussed and handed a few of these irritants over for potential bonuses with barely a word of conferring.

The upside-down feeder

(R2/Q8)

Looking at the other games our low aggregate score seems to be an outlier but grinding out a dull win when not playing well garners just as many points as a bells and whistles thrashing. We'll see if tonight's victory was important come the end of the season or, more likely, in a few weeks when we play Ethel and then the Prodigals.

For now we have games against the Bards and then the History Men, two sides who certainly have the beating of us with the wind behind them. And two successive games in the Parrswood, the world's emptiest yet somehow noisiest pub. I still can't work that place out; it can't survive on the takings from a few Wednesday night quizzes a year and yet somehow it's still there. And in order to turn hooky cash into something more useful you do have to have significant proceeds from a legitimate trade in the first place. Maybe it will become clearer in a week or two and at least we won't be assailed by ads reminding us of our increasing infirmity. Hopefully.

Mike reflects on his manhood

Unlike most other teams both sides found this quiz hard going. As a spectator I found several questions interesting but once again there appeared to be an emphasis on contemporary events which was beyond the participants. An analysis of the Albert responses indicates a 'sandwich' - most twos went to players 1 and 4 (Ian and Eveline). In between there was something resembling an inert cloud of gas: thick, impenetrable and immovable. Extensive recent foreign travel has clearly had a bad effect on Jeremy and Julien.

In his diary Andy Warhol recounts walking down a New York street with Truman Capote and hearing someone mutter as they went by: "Look - living legends". So imagine how I felt about appearing as the subject of one of the questions - although I must point out that when I was at primary school I had the biggest head in the school being the only child with a size seven and five eighths cap. Had the anatomy of my streaking namesake been of equivalent stature it would have required much more than a standard size police helmet to preserve his modesty.

Quiz paper set by...

... The Charabancs of Fire

Average Aggregate score 72.5

I thought this an excellent paper and a good advert for the typical range of subject-matter and question styles that WithQuiz habitually offers the punter. No simple 'know it, don't know it' boring TV-type quiz for us. Hints, clues and themes galore, enabling the questions to burrow into much more interesting territory than, say, your average Chase show.

There was a good average aggregate score as well, so no-one ought to have gone home empty-handed. Well done Charas!

Pam & Lily

(R5/Q6)

One minor quibble that caught out the Opsis (Brian in fact)...

Round 7 Question 2 asked who said "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train." The answer given in the paper was "Oscar Wilde". Well it turns out to be spoken by the character Gwendolen Fairfax in Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest. Knowing it was from the Wilde play Brian said (mistakenly) "Lady Bracknell". Across it went and the Prods said "Oscar Wilde" and got the points. Well if the question had asked "Who wrote ..." then Brian would have picked up a two. Badly worded, Charas.

Yorkshire Spit

(R2/Q7)

a... so what did Ivor make of the paper...

The quiz paper was most enjoyable. I probably say this most weeks but it is remarkable that every week yields questions of variety and interest and novelty (unlike most day-time quizzes) whilst never straying too far from what is regarded as 'general knowledge' (which sadly University Challenge now does rather a lot - anyone into obscure art house films, battles in middle eastern Caliphates or the increasing zoo of fundamental particles?).

We did have quite a lot of fun along the way; the Bingo round invites desperate attempts when we haven't got a clue. Some day Ghostbusters might well be remade (a third time!) with Gilgamesh the Great. Does anyone else remember the furore that followed Ghostwatch and the tabloid headline: “What Possessed Parkinson”?

The hidden themes were well disguised (completely in the case of the Carry On links) and the ship parts led us looking for indoor games for a while.

"D. Ennis the ..."

(R4/Q4)

a... and Kieran's reaction ...

The Charas paper was a touching tribute to the recently departed Svennis - 'first half good, second half not so good' and also to the Historymen's effort which kicked off the season and followed a similar course.

Slye the Cowboy

(R5/Q1)

Question of the Week

Jimmy enjoyed the memories of olden days evoked by the ITV sitcom question in Round 5 (Question 7) ...

Which actor played alongside Donald Sinden as a rival antique dealer in the 1980s TV sitcom, Never The Twain?

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

Half of Twain

(R5/Q7)