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Albert tied with Ethel Rodin
A thriller at The Sun sees a couple of title
hopefuls stumble
 Mike
underlines the problem of keeping Ashton in check
What an exciting night! We should have won
really, having a four point lead going into the
final round. However Round 8 was our weakest
of the evening; so much so that we were scrambling
to force a draw by getting one point off the last
question. The questions varied in difficulty
but generally easy and difficult were paired. There
was plenty of interesting information in the
questions: e.g. who could imagine sourpuss Nixon as
a party animal.
One development I do object to is the trend for
dedicating questions to Quiz League participants.
Legends such as myself and Greg are fine, but to
extend the honour to the likes of Ashton is opening
the way to glorifying any old nonentity or parasite.
In any case how can being compared to a dreary
Greater Manchester suburb rank alongside the honour
of being associated with a naked Australian streaker,
the epitome of antipodean manhood and intellectual
development?
Carl, the bricklayer
(R5/Q1)
 Greg
tells the tale of an impressive Ethel comeback
We were Ethel Rodout tonight, Rod making way for our
new player Rob, whose children attend the same
school as James's. We got off to an
inauspicious start with QM Mike O'Brien having no
question paper. We are so used to Roddy
collecting the paper for away matches that none of
us thought to collect it. Being the only
member of our team who had driven to the quiz,
having travelled from Romiley in the far reaches of
Stockport, I was dispatched to the Fletcher Moss
with Michael riding shotgun.
With the paper safely in Mike's clutches, Ethel were
behind all the way. Going into the last round,
the Spillerisms, we were 4 points adrift.
Having lived all my life near to most of the
destinations mentioned, and having an ear for puns,
made this a good round for us and we managed to claw
back the deficit to earn a high-scoring draw.
 James
tells how Ethel's surname has gone from 'Rodin' to
'Robin'
A match of two halves: Albert carved out a lead that
was up to 7 at one point, before Ethel chipped away
in the second half to go into the final round 4
behind - then win that round 7-3 leaving honours
even.
A special mention goes to Ethel’s WithQuiz inductee,
Rob Ford, who settled in nicely with a two on his
very first question, and then contributed
brilliantly during the rest of the quiz. In
the meantime Roddy, who is gradually weaning himself
off quizzing, was at The Lowry, taking the
opportunity to see a Benjamin Britten opera,
(something even I would consider an acquired taste).
Ethel lost the toss - twice. One of the perils
of modern day middle class life is that nobody
carries coins anymore. However, a coin was found.
“Heads” we called. It was a Euro coin, with no
head on either side. It seemed a reasonable
compromise to toss again. “The number side, or
the side with some kind of other stuff?”. “OK
then, some kind of other stuff!” Didn’t help.
Round 2 was a reminder of how much of a secret The
Orion on Burton Road is to many people. Rather
like The Midland it had a few years in the
underworld, but is still something of a locals pub -
and busier than many.
Rob is a Political Scientist at Manchester
University, and so when there was a round called
'Politics', our collective eyes lit up. Alas,
Rob managed to cop for one of the only unanswered
questions in the whole quiz.
Nice quiz, good themes and a nice trip back to the
19th century at The Sun in September.
The real Layla
(R1/Q1)
Prodigals beat Bards
Another storming performance from the Prods keeps
them top
 Mike
watched the contest unfold from the 'Strangers
Gallery'
This
week I ended up as a spectator at the Albert Club
encounter. Most enjoyable!
However the evening didn't start too well.
Unfortunately the Bards had forgotten to pick up the
paper on their way so we couldn't start.
Efforts to print a copy from my phone on the Albert
Club printer failed so Tony nobly got back into his
car and went off to collect the missing envelope
from the Moss.
Eventually at about 8.55 we got going. Tony,
Robin, John and Jim were slumped in the visitors'
easy chairs while Katie, John, Richard and Jimmy
were sat up to attention at the home team's dining
table.
Despite the final 21-point margin the match remained
fairly close during the first half. Tony
cursed the Bingo rounds which were the Bards'
undoing. In his view "the appalling experiment
with this random format should be shelved for at
least the next 10 years."
Stella was in he QM chair - and very kindly allowed
me to be the 'Guest QM' for the final 'Spiller over
Manchester' round which was my one contribution to
the compilation process this time round. And
seeing as you ask: Charlotte contributed the Music
Round at Round 1 with good old Brian contributing
the other 6 rounds.
As
for the Prods well they are looking as sharp as
ever. Richard and Jimmy in particular were top
dollar.
A pair of Homonymics
(R7/Q3)
Electric Pigs lost to Charabancs
The Charas chalk up their first win - just
 Damian
tells how he avoided putting his foot in it
Last time we played the Pigs we led most of the way
through only to blow it in the last round.
This time, following the first two rounds, we led
most of the way through and almost blew it in the
last round where we needed just one point to win.
To the chagrin of our opponents who, like us, were
looking for their first win of the season and
itching to get a steal on the final question, I
toyed with idea of going for a two but thought
better of it and conferred - so we avoided the
debacle of our last meeting and scored our first
victory of the season - and indeed our first against
the Pigs in quite some time. It must go down
as one of the better decisions I have ever made as
Chara captain.
A most
enjoyable evening playing against one of our
favourite opponents. Hopefully they will
forgive me for not going for that two on the last
question!
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An emphatic Greater Manchester quizzer
(R8/Q7)
History Men lost to KFD
KFD sneak a victory to leapfrog into second place
 Kieran
tells how, unable to press the switch, Ivor's lights
went out
I asked for a points fest and that was what the
Opsis delivered. It made for an extraordinary
game which seemed beyond us at the half-way point
and still out of reach after Round 6, but which then
fell into our lap right at the death with Ivor at
the centre of an agonising defeat.
A first round on names in song titles was pretty
good for both teams except that the History Men
disputed Layla being described as a ballad.
I have some sympathy with them over that. Three of
the songs were ascribed incorrect years in the
questions but that didn't seem to throw anyone,
including Thomas in seat three who kicked off his
evening with a two for a song written twenty eight
years before he was born. I doubt I would have been
so knowledgeable on the hot numbers of 1931.
The two was just as well since the benched David
would have scored similarly before the QM had read
half the question.
Local pubs were fine, both teams scoring heavily,
but we struggled on mythical creatures and our hosts
took a handy lead which they consolidated as we
bombed - of course - on the first Bingo round. The
History men had a five point lead at half time and
things were looking bleak for us - but then
something unusual happened and we chose wisely in
the 2024 Deaths Bingo. I lucked out landing on
the mighty Duane Eddy
while Ivor had the opposite experience, choosing
Carl Andre which Martin, of course, knew for the
bonus point.
The deficit was cut to a manageable two points but
then further trauma as Ivor and co. re-established
their five point advantage by the end of Round 6.
My managing to pull noted ivory tinkler Tricky Dicky
from somewhere out of the ether kept us just about
in touch but it was looking a tough ask.
Martin concentrating on the name Blythe in
question three and missing the
Bubba open goal
didn't help - and what should have been a two was
only a one.
Something special was needed and Miss
Marple supplied
it. If we'd realised the actors in question had all
played her rather than just any fictional detective
we'd have done even better. The round started
well with a pass over for
Ian McEwan and
ended the same way with Barry's trade union career
giving us another bonus for
'McKenzie Friend'. In
between, Thomas's 'A' level history and love of
warfare on the American continent supplied a
priceless point for Gray's Elegy. There
was almost one of the great misspeak answers as the
History Men very nearly had George Lazenby leading
the 1930s Labour Party - if only.
Only one point in it at the start of Round 8 and we
made a clean sweep of twos. History David
having to confer on Belle
Vue meant Ivor needed a two at the death for
the draw but Prestwich just
wouldn't come for him and the win was ours. We
really felt for Ivor who is a fearsome opponent and
always great quiz company. I've been in the exact
same position he was last night and it's a horrible
way to lose, especially after scoring five twos on
his seven previous questions.
Ivor paid homage to Bob by wearing a very orange cap
for the evening. We assumed it signified a
religious affiliation but he explained it was more
in the way of making him a walking Belisha
Beacon, since being dressed all in black and
copious amounts of drink having been taken, the walk
home in the dark would have been treacherous.
The Parrswood has added 'being expensive' to its
list of faults, joining 'being empty' and 'being
noisy somehow at the same time' - and cold.
Well would you pay to heat that barn if there was no
bugger in there? Not our favourite venue but that's
it done for this season.
Weird, unlikely and very exciting win, and a good
paper Opsis. Yes we're setting next week - how
did you guess?
Neoimpressionistic
Boulevard Montmartre
(R4/Q7)
 Ivor
recounts how the final question made him the villain
Halfway through November and at last a home game for
us; not that it makes much difference except for the
usual difficulty of finding five players willing to
pursue what looks like another lost cause. The
bottom end of the table is already looking as
ominous as it did last season. The only thing that
keeps us going is reflecting on how in past seasons
those titans the Bards and the Opsimaths have also
been recipients of the wooden spoon. As Kieran
has noted previously the Parrswood is an enormous
cavern, but despite the usual sparse sprinkling of
humans our favourite spots (and lucky seats) were
occupied so the match took place in the most distant
corner close to a hitherto unknown Gents (no bad
thing for ageing beer swilling quizzers of a certain
gender).
The game was not without interest. KFD’s early
lead had vanished by the end of Round 3 and going
into Round 7 we were five points ahead. Then
the disaster (for us) of the 'Marple' round and a
final round where KFD scored 4 twos leaving me with
the last question needing a two for the tie.
Like many denizens of the fourth seat (I am now
doing that thing that police forces encourage us not
to do, that is 'speculate') I enjoy the jeopardy,
perverse excitement and tension of occasionally
being the last throw of the dice that can decide the
whole game. I then end up being praised as the
GOAT ('Greatest Of All Time') or condemned as the
goat (you Irish half-wit, or similar sentiment).
Hero or zero with no in between. Alas I had no
idea where Howard Jacobson was born. Pondering
on the pun I had a light-bulb moment, but alas “turn
on the light” was not Flixton.
T S Eliot’s words from East Coker (“In my
beginning is my end”) are very prescient.
Perhaps we were fated to lose from the very first
question which fell to Rupert. Rupert is an
aficionado of sixties and seventies music including
the most obscure recordings and tracks. Sadly
this was of no help, and his protestations that
Layla is not a ballad fell on deaf ears. It is
often the case that an expert knowledge of something
is of little help in quizzes. Our late
colleagues, Peter and Tim, were bird fanciers of
almost 'twitcher' status, but I cannot recall them
ever getting a bird question correct. Tonight
we also nearly came to grief with the neuroanatomy
question.
Tricky Dicky & Pearl, the singer
(R6/Q7)
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Quiz paper set by...
...
The Opsimaths
Average Aggregate score 83.3
The
Opsimaths aimed to blow the lid off the record
average aggregate for the season and get it above 80
points for the first time, and we succeeded.
Judging by the comments received most people enjoyed
the experience - and I certainly had great fun
emulating Greg's 'Funny Punny' type round compiling
Round 8. Tony bemoaned the Bingo rounds but
others love this injection of randomness into the
weekly offering so I guess the 'Choose your own'
element will remain a regular feature of our weekly
fare.
Good Morning, Earth!
(R5/Q6)
... and what was Damian's verdict ...
We thought tonight's paper was absolutely excellent
with accessible themes galore plus no less than two
Bingo rounds which can only gladden the hearts of
all true Charabancs given we tend to regard them as
our own particular speciality.
It was certainly an educational paper as, until
tonight, I had never heard of the Labour and
Cooperative Party and their 43 seats in Parliament.
Apparently they are all members of the Labour Party
proper - but not all Labour MPs are as Cooperative
as they are. Who knew (well, the Pigs
certainly did)?
One quibble which Chara Bernard raised was the
incorrect year for Sting's song Roxanne which
was given as 1983 in the question but the song was
actually written and released in 1978. It
deterred him from going for a two.
More Salford stones than you'd care to mention
(R3/Q3)
... and Greg was pretty happy too ...
With plenty of points on offer, and two WithQuiz
players mentioned in despatches, this was a very
enjoyable quiz.
His flashes were
inspiration
(R4/Q2)
... and Ivor sort of liked it too ...
Despite losing we thought the quiz was fine, and it
fairly raced along with not many constipators to
slow down the action. Some good confounders
and potential blurts largely avoided by conferring.
Our favourite wrong answer was the computer acronym
DFTT. How often do we think "Don't F…ing Touch
That" when an inappropriate combination of keys
sends a half hour’s e-mail into the ether, or worse
a cruelly unedited message to the recipient?
When 'Late Late Breakfast' meant what it said
(R4/Q6)
... and finally James has his say ...
A highscoring match with an aggregate of 90 points.
Probably the highest tied score in the history of
WithQuiz - and we thought we possibly even left a
few points out there. Can’t complain about
balance when there are 2 Bingo rounds and such a
close game (except perhaps for the slam dunk 'River
Phoenix' answer).
The in-jokes about WithQuiz members in the 'Punny'
round were entertaining for the three members of our
team who got the references. However it wasn't fair
on our new player, Rob, who missed out on a possible
two in this round.
The Waterbury's
(R2/Q3)
Question of the Week
This week Damian and the Charas chose Question 8
from the Politics round (Round 6) ...
With 43 Members of Parliament, which party is technically the fourth largest in
the House of Commons, after Labour, the Conservatives, and the Lib Dems?
For the answer to this and all the week's other
questions click
here.
Liverpool's Battleaxe
(R4/Q8)
... and
also
Just a
reminder for those of you that can never have enough quizzing ...
The Albert
Club hosts a quiz evening every third Sunday of the month and (a
slightly harder quiz) every last Monday of the month.
So the next
of these will be ...
Sunday
November 17th and
Monday
November 25th.
Both evenings start at 8pm and admission is
£3.50 a head for non-members and £1.50 for Club members.
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