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Albert beat History Men
A thumping win for Albert keeps them hot on the
heels of the Prods
 Mike
acknowledges a gracious gesture by Albert's
opponents
A very enjoyable quiz and, for us, a very successful
outing. We liked the puns round and Ashton
revelled in the substantial number of Generation Z
questions - which did not suit me so much, being
more of a Generation B type anxiously awaiting the
opportunity to purchase the latest record for my
Victriola. Ah, the pleasures of listening to
Ma Rainey telling me "You bin a good ole wagon but
you done broken down now", while sipping my cocoa.
But
in fact the outstanding incident of the night was a
generous gesture made by the History Men.
Because we were short-handed the HM agreed to
provide a QM. However when we arrived we
found that they had only 3 players plus their
volunteer QM. I offered to QM but this
was refused on the basis that they had agreed to the
arrangement and would stick by it. It is
graceful gestures like this which make WithQuiz
enjoyable far beyond who gets the most points.
Beware
of that cutting
ovipositor
(R1/Sp2)
 Ivor
tells of an Anne-less and Vanessa-less History
wreckage
Off to the Sun In September tonight for our game
with the Albert. Eveline tells me it used to
be a small hotel which probably accounts for its
1920s villa-style and, possibly, its almost 1920s
prices. Indeed, although it is only a few
yards from modern day life e.g. kebab shops and a
large Tesco's, it does feel like stepping back in
time, or to a parallel universe with its ban on
swearing and digital devices. The kind of
setting that would suit a strange film by M Night
Shyamalan, or David Lynch - or even an urban
bloodbath by Wes Craven.
And there was a kind of massacre tonight as we were
thoroughly trounced by the Albert. We thought
our defeat by 19 points at the hands of the Bards
was bad, but we sank further tonight and our only
consolation was that we decreased the Albert’s rate
of acceleration in the second half. Oops, I am
talking mathematics again (trigger alert) but more
of that in a minute. As always we had a good
time and QM Guy (Mr Anne) did not have to discipline
us, nor did Mike’s Paddle of Rebuke appear.
Hot To Go
(R3/Q2)
The reason we lost so badly was that we were awfully
bad. There were occasional flashes of
recovery: Rupert recalling Desmond Dekker for one,
but I was Offaly bad on the Irish pun, had forgotten
where the coxa bone was, had forgotten 'O' level
French places and even 'A' level maths (trigger
alert more of that in a minute). Although a
combined score of 80 suggests a reasonably easy quiz
this did not feel like it at the time. The
Albert piled on the score thanks to a superior two
rate (13-8) and steal rate (10-2), despite the fact
that they got more of the unanswereds (3-2).
Were the questions easier for the team going first,
or is this just the bleat of a loser? As
always the question falling to the wrong team member
played its part in our humiliation but, despite all
the steals, there were not really any significant
blurts (though Jeremy might need a recount of the
drunken sailors on his nursery rhyme deadman’s
chest).
The quiz was interesting (for once that is not a
euphemism for terrible), as it showed (somewhat
brutally for us) how much of modern life has passed
us oldies by. We actually managed to score
zero in the up-to-date entertainer’s round. We
had not heard of some of the streaming platforms (a
kind of television channel, M’Lord) never mind the
programmes or the actors. We certainly missed
not having Vanessa or Anne tonight who are good in
that department (or in the words of Anne “I do know
a lot of that sh*te”). Ashton seemed to be well up
in current trivia too, but perhaps it is a
requirement of modern teaching to know what dross
one’s pupils watch as you try to get them to take an
interest in the Victorian Novel or T S Eliot.
Bestselling Yank mimic
(R6/Sp2)
We did enjoy the challenges and Young David was
quick to spot the Avengers theme (some kind of
series on the silver screen, M’Lord). Greg’s
puns went down well as usual. Even the Dickens
round was accessible. My only criticism was
leaving the mathematics questions to the final pair.
Usually by that time alcohol has been consumed which
adds to the challenge. It did not disturb maths
supremo Eveline but yours truly was so triggered
that he required a bag of crisps with his loser’s
pint.
The most interesting piece of new knowledge was that
Freddie Flintoff is to host a relaunched Bullseye.
I am not sure how kindly he will treat contestants
compared to the affable late Jim Bowen. I think Anne
and Vanessa should enter. Were they to win the
rubber speedboat star prize it would just be perfect
for a couple of Derbyshire lasses!
Electric Pigs lost to Prodigals
The Prods soar away with a 19-point win to stay
firmly at the top
Voici le 'Coucher du Soleil' Parisien
(R4/Q3)
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Edgar's Dancers
(R2/Q4)
Bards lost to KFD
A close run thing with Martin clinching it on the
last question
 Kieran
bemoans the lack of Fat-bottomed Girls
The first week of our brief residency at the
Parrswood and Ethel James in the QM chair, under
instructions from his better and much more powerful
other half to get the whole thing done and dusted
sharpish in order to pick her up from Stockport
station at 11. We duly obliged, finishing before 10
with early departing Bards making it the cheapest
winners round I've ever bought. I rather
enjoyed the evening - indeed we all did.
David retained his place in seat three and
contributed twos and assists in good measure; my
selection dilemma gets more difficult by the week.
However he struggled in the 'Ten in other languages'
round - yes, 'Tenerife',
that one was really tricky.
Given his well-earned reputation for infidelity, we
all hoped that the answer to the Queen song inspired
by MLK Jnr's life would be Fat Bottomed Girls, but
alas the quiz comedy gods missed a trick there.
I've never wanted an opponent to score a two as much
as I did when Tony got the hip hop (or maybe hip op)
question, again, alas.
We already have the Lowestoft Ben Duckett as our
opener and of course the first question of the
evening went to the boundary with minimal fuss.
We also have the Didsbury Joe Root though tonight he
was benched, somewhat harshly given his stats thus
far. This quiz was all about the Grimsby Harry
Brook; six twos, numerous assists and the spotlight
solely on him right at the death as he checked and
checked and checked yet again his workings for the
probability answer which secured the win for us. It
was my question; you really think I was going to
take that on when we only needed a one and Harry
Brook / Carol Vordeman was sitting next to me?
Where women still alight
(R4/Q4)
After the quiz James was texting the score to his
fellow Rodinistas but accidentally sent the message
to his work group chat instead. This led to
his colleagues speculating as to what KFD could
stand for.
Brief Googling of the WithQuiz site gave them my
name and they immediately assumed my middle initial
must be 'F' (it's 'P' since you're desperate to
know). The conversation ended with one participant
commenting: "He named his quiz team after himself?
What a twat!" At last the recognition I've
always craved!
Excellent evening, terrific paper and very amiable
opposition. Just the antidote required to the
previous evening's two horror shows, both of which I
forced myself to watch, God knows why.
On to, well the same place, same time next week and
the History Men. We've got a decent run of form
going after an unlucky defeat in the season opener
even if we're still scoring rather less than our
rivals. An Opsis paper next - pointsfest please
Brian.
Not as deadly as at first made out
(R6/Q8)
Charabancs lost to Opsimaths
Opsis edge a victory in a match with a bumper
harvest of points
 Howell
celebrates getting the Opsis back into winning ways
It was a good all-round
performance with us scoring well on twos (Brian and
Mike both got 4) while Charlotte and myself picked
up the bulk of the 1 point answers for the team.
The quiz was close; both teams won one of the rounds
by 2 points, one by 1 point with 3 being tied.
The contest was therefore decided on a single round,
Round 5, in which the Opsimaths outscored the Charas
9-3 ... ultimately winning by 6 points. So
that's a Paris Match!
I sometimes drift off during
matches and this time it was in Round 1, the 'War'
round. When Brian said "Lord Jim" I could only
think about 'Wor' Jim - suggesting that this
particular round would fare badly in and around
Newcastle!!
The pun in the
'Charlton' question helped us avoid catastrophe.
We were on the verge of going for 'dandelion' (the
punning answer to 'lion's den') when we realised
that it's Millwall who play at the Den not Charlton
- so we steered ourselves back to the right answer!
Le Pont le plus flamboyante
(R4/Q5)
 Damian
bemoans his team slipping up on the 'Punny' round
We have a good record against
the Opsis and have scored quite a few victories in
our matches with them, but, alas for us, tonight was
not one of those occasions. As the results
show this was a high scoring affair with level
pegging between the teams for the first three
rounds. Then the Opsis edged ahead and never
looked back. As is so often the case with us
we had one round where we performed really badly and
this meant we found it impossible to catch up.
In this case it was Round 5 where we managed only 3
points whilst the Opsis notched up 9 - including two
steals from us. I really wish we'd stop doing
this as it's always downhill for us from that point
on! Our star player of the evening was new boy
Chara Bill who notched up no less than four twos.
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Quiz paper set by...
...
Ethel Rodin
Average Aggregate score 78.8
This
was a cracking paper with loads of points on offer
and plenty of penny-drop moments to be savoured.
We're becoming used to the pleasures of Greg's 'punny
old' rounds and this week was no exception.
I
always fancy a bit of Dickens, not least because I
know KFD grimace at the thought. This time it
was a curious Dickens-fest with the first 4
questions referencing Oliver Twist making us
think that it was all going to be Twist when
up popped Bleak House. Good questions
in this round but couldn't the Dickens references
have been a bit more evenly spread amongst the
books?
Mummy Mumford
(R3/Q5)
Oh,
and thanks Ethel for decorating your paper's title
page with a picture of your sponsor and his lesser
known work. For those who didn't see it it's
reproduced here:
a ...
and what did Damian think ...
Tonight's paper was set by Ethel Rodin and, in the
absence of our regular QM Jane, Rodinette Greg
kindly came to QM for us and got us through
proceedings at an efficiently brisk pace. It
was a good paper full of themes - albeit a little
taxing for those of us who don't watch too much
contemporary TV or know which actors performed in
them. I had at least heard of Netflix but who
knew there was something called Apple TV?
Apparently not those of us who tend to stick with
the five terrestrial channels plus a bit of Sky.
Opsi Mike, in particular, impressed us with his
detailed knowledge of such things.
Our favourite round was the 'Paris' themed one which
provoked nostalgic reminiscences for most of us.
I particularly liked the one concerning the station
named after a battle which paired neatly with a well
known London one.
58 years as Phil
(R1/Q4)
a ...
and Howell's feedback ...
As for the question paper, the round I liked best
was the one with the 'punny clues' in the questions
- the main reason being that Greg (who was our QM
for the evening) clearly enjoys setting them and
showed it. It's a pretty unique
question-setting style but one that offers plenty of
assistance to the quizzer.
Directionless
(R2/Q1)
a ...
and Kieran sums up ...
Ethel supplied the best paper of the season so far -
by some distance.
Ashton's Boddy
(R7/Q2)
Question of the Week
This week Damian and the Charas have chosen Question
3 from the 'Paris' themed Round 4 ...
Kind of an equivalent to Waterloo Station, which
Paris interchange originally served long distance
trains to the south-west, but now mainly serves
local trains to the centre of France?
For the answer to this and all the week's other
questions click
here.
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