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Ethel Rodin lost to KFD
KFD win a tense tussle at the top
 Kieran
lays bare his musical shame
That was some night; a banger from the league
leaders, a team selection choice that paid off
handsomely and the game that these days is always
decided by four or five points, decided in our
favour for the first time in four attempts.
The selection decision was Thomas over David.
I guessed that the Prodigals might set questions
that would favour youth over experience and my hunch
was vindicated as Thomas scored twos on 19th century
French Presidents and British Prime Ministers, 1930s
literary pseuds and Norman kings. Sometimes
when picking the team I just get lucky; Thomas
justified his starting spot and then some; he's
being benched next week, obviously. Thomas now
thinks his performance tonight, by some way his best
yet in a 'must win' game, should win him the KFD
Young Player of the Season award. Well he
doesn't have too much competition does he?
More of that later, maybe.
Corunna's Golden Balloon
(R1/Q8)
The evening did not start promisingly as Martin
announced he was feeling unwell and might not finish
the game, or even be able to start. Our
half-fit polymath mercifully lasted the pace and
delivered a couple of twos and double figures of
assists; there's just no one to equal him - except
maybe Greg on the other side of the upstairs room
who, for the second time, scored 7 twos against us
in a losing cause, only failing on the Bruckner /
Mahler toss up. Oh, Kevin De Bruyne / Jeremy Corbyn!
'Jos Buttler on one' fired off a couple of maximums
on his (and everyone else's) favourite sitcoms. I'm
told the former Mrs Bezos rinsed the appalling gimp
in the divorce settlement. However much she
got, it wasn't nearly enough and it's a tragedy for
honest and useful journalism that he owns the once
great Washington Post. Later on in the quiz
the superb Soap fell to Thomas and he
couldn't really be expected to know that answer.
Someone on the Prodigals team has great taste in TV
comedies.
We were one point behind after question 4 of the
first round and after that we were never headed.
Over the last five or six seasons we've had
fantastic contests with Ethel and a just silly
number of games won by one point, either way, right
at the death. They're our favourite opponents for
that reason. We have to be at the very top of
our game to stand any chance and even then it may
not be enough. I'm sure the Rodinistas feel
the same way and it makes for great contests.
America's 'Breakfast Diplomacy' - Uber Eats
delivers across the world
(R6/Q2)
We all speculated whether the Americans could have
dropped 2.4 million units of mustard, custard or
even tarragon on Afghanistan. Pop-Tarts shows
a serious lack of imagination on the part of Uncle
Sam. I screwed my courage to the crepuscular,
Southern Comfort and mantle-sticking places for
twos, only getting the Booker Prize theme after I'd
been asked the last question in that round.
It's very satisfying when the penny drops like that
and confirms what you were already 70% sure was the
answer. My only (tiny) gripe with the paper
would be that in the 'Northern Quarter streets'
round I could have been asked about Beyoncé's nailed
on Grammy winner rather than the card game from
which it takes its title. Any opportunity to
get Queen Bee into WithQuiz should not be passed up.
We started the last round 3 points ahead and neither
team was relishing the prospect of eight one hit
Spotify wonders. We'd have been very happy
with a 0-0 score but it proved to be an excellent
set of questions with four or five great songs as
the answers. Not the one that won it for us,
however. After four questions our lead had
been cut to two points. Of course it had!
This was Ethel vs KFD; what else was going to
happen?
Oxford's suspicious literary haunt
(R2/Q5)
And so to the shame, the dreadful shame ... You see
I knew the Chesney Hawkes answer - not immediately -
but pretty soon into Ethel's 'game on the line',
conferring and with absolute certainty. I like
to think I have pretty good taste in music; his
dad's band were an early favourite of mine and I'd
have had no problem scoring points for one of their
songs. What made it worse was that the other seven
quizzers didn't have a clue so that rather marked me
out as a dodgy music fan. At the start of the
round Ethel James - every time I describe him thus I
can't help but think of the magnificent Etta James
(put her alongside Beyoncé at the very least) -
anyway James had said of one hit wonders "Chesney
Hawkes is bound to be in there" and then, God be
praised, Ethel collectively forgot this wise advice.
It came over to us and I, anything but proudly,
hoovered up the bonus. I can never again claim
to be a proper music fan but we had won the match,
or we did once the formality (for those of us of a
certain age) of Zager and Evans was despatched.
Truly a bargain with the devil over music.
Shall I tell you about Robert Johnson? No,
never again. I did get to end the match with another
two for Norman Greenbaum's masterpiece but I don't
think that has rescued much credibility for me -
that's going to take a long, long time.
Great quiz, great opponents, great evening and City
didn't lose, or draw or throw away an impregnable
lead, what's not to love? By some distance our most
impressive performance against a top team for a few
years and it felt really good.
Next week we play Ethel's alter ego in WIST but it
will be a Smart Alex shorn of Greg and Roddy who
have chosen not to transition but will stay Ethel
rather than Alex. And on a Thursday, that's
just weird!
The McGears
(R1/Sp2)
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Scott & Crook
(R1/Q1)
History Men beat Charabancs
A solid win for the improving History Men
 Ivor
watches (almost) everything go right for his team
Our recent home form has been a little poor; our
away form not much better. All great teams (we
were once sort of good) can have wobbles (Manchester
City spring to mind for some reason) but then
natural order is restored. Tonight we faced
our old friends the Charabancs, who themselves once
proudly bestrode our league like the Colossus of
Rhodes. How would we fare? For once we
were well prepared. We got our lucky seats in
the Parrswood snug; Young David and I had pre-match
training in Mike Bath’s Monday Quiz (winners) and
Tuesday night’s Fletcher Moss Quiz (winners).
We even won the toss. The biggest difference
however, was the first season’s appearance of both
Anne and Vanessa on the same night. Vanessa
scored 6 twos. “She’s highly competitive”,
said Anne about her niece. Not to be outdone
Auntie Anne got 6 twos as well even though her
philosophy remains: “It’s only a pub quiz”.
We all try hard in our league but sloppy play seldom
remains unpunished by team captains or those
responsible for team discipline, be it the Paddle of
Rebuke or a pithy comment debating whether you are
an idiot or just an imbecile. Although there
were no blurts to rival my Fu Man Chu of yesteryear
I did offer Annette Crosbie rather than Geraldine
McEwan on a passover without consulting team members
who of course ALL knew the correct answer. My
defence that they look the same was dismissed out of
hand. I think I will have to plead
prosopagnosia as one of my invisible disabilities -
which would also account for my poor performance in
picture rounds where everyone is either a young,
gifted sportsman, or a young, blonde starlet of some
pulchritude.
We nearly got to 50 points but sadly I blurted 2025
in my final question for the famous Zager and Evans
hit. However looking at the lyrics of the song
many of the far off predictions are already here.
In 3535: “Ain’t gonna need to tell the truth, tell
no lie / Everything you think, do and say / Is in
the pill you took today,” does sound like the way
the dystopian world of the Donald and Comrade
Starmer might be in 2025.
"As La Rochefoucauld observed: 'Humility is the
worst form of conceit.' I do hold the winning hand,
James"
(R2/Q4)
 High
praise from Damian for the returning History Girls
Last week I failed to submit a report for various
reasons and promised to make up for that by
submitting one this week. How I wish it had
been the other way round! Last week we secured an
honourable draw; this week we were thoroughly
trounced by one of our favourite opponents who
remain in that category despite the trouncing. At no
point in tonight's proceedings were we ahead;
trailing all the way through with the gap gradually
getting wider and wider. Everything just
seemed to play to their strengths and not to ours.
Generally speaking we conferred pretty well but just
couldn't score enough twos, managing only 8 to our
opponents' 17 - and grabbing 4 steals to our
opponents' 6. The welcome return of Anne only added
to our woes. How could we compete with someone
who knew all about space travel and came up with
answers like 'crepulous'? I submit that she
and niece Vannessa are a lethal combination for
anyone to take on. They could form a team of two on
their own and still be among the favourites to win
the league!
"What's that behind, behind you, Kate?"
(R5/Q4)
Opsimaths lost to Bards
Another bad defeat for the Opsis who are slipping
down the table
 Mike
was in the QM chair watching events unfold
Full
marks to the Bards who seem now to cover a variety
of age ranges and subject ranges (although unlike
their opponents last night are worryingly deficient
in the gender range department). Jim was off
to a flyer with twos in the first 4 rounds and Robin
and John (the 'Teenage Dirtbags' of the Bards'
line-up) proved pretty impressive on the pop stuff -
clearly they're not one hit wonders! Tony was
- as ever - certain about what he was certain about
even if, occasionally, it proved wrong.
Altogether an impressive performance from them.
On the
home benches things weren't so rosy as the
score gap widened inexorably. Emma was pretty
good on popular culture but couldn't quite remember
that Carl was a Douglas. Tehmeena revelled in
the unusual abundance of Canada questions (Tehmeena
hails from Edmonton) but many of the popular culture
stuff predated her teenage years. Hilary and
Brian had some sparkling moments but not as many as
were required.
Next
week WIST - and a trip to the heart of darkness in
Edgeley where we face the impressive Alexandra
line-up.
"Zip-a-dee-doo-dah"
(R4/Q4)
Albert tied with Electric Pigs
Need a new tie? Get yourself a game against
'Ties-R-Us' Albert
 Mike
trawls through his one-hit wonder knowledge
Well, who would have foreseen it? A third
consecutive draw involving the Albert. Is
there a precedent for this in the history of
WithQuiz? Once again a very high aggregate,
with very few unanswered questions, from two in-form
teams. It's a mystery why the Pigs have been
in such poor form this season after such a display.
It was an enjoyable quiz. As QM I was much
taken by the 'One Hit Wonder' round; all that misery
and doom; it was more like one of Albert's
paper-setting meetings. I would have done very
badly on this round since my knowledge runs more to
Oh Mr Porter. Think why would anyone
want to go to Birmingham? It was clearly an
act of mercy to put the poor woman off at Crewe.
Or if you want more angst: "The Boers have got my
daddy, my mother heard today / So she's taken in a
lodger and sent me out to play".
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Quiz paper set by...
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Prodigals
Average Aggregate score 82.5
Well,
the Prods certainly did the accessibility thing with
an average aggregate of over 80 and a top aggregate
(Albert v the Pigs) of a massive 94. There was
quite a lot of pop stuff including the whole of
Round 8 which didn't suit everybody but then plenty
else seemed to appeal - especially the proliferation
of Announced theme rounds where all answers contain
a word that meets a defined criterion (e.g. the
'T-A-R' round, or the round with film titles with a
point of the compass in them, both of which featured
in this week's paper). So, all in all, a
cracking paper from the Prods.
Peter Blake's impression of bible-black Llareggub
(R2/Q8)
... and what was Damian's verdict ...
Tonight's paper from the Prodigals had plenty of
interesting and amusing fare on offer. We
loved the themes on films with a compass point in
their titles, questions requiring answers beginning
with 'Mac', questions with answers involving the
consecutive letters 'T-A-R', the old familiar
Run-ons and the Northern Quarter street theme
(albeit none of us knew the actual street names
though it didn't prevent us from having a good stab
at the answers).
The combined score of 82 suggests a high-scoring
paper well above the season's average. My only
quibble was the profusion of pop music questions
which seemed to crop up regularly all the way
through, despite there being an entire round devoted
to them at the end. That was one of the
reasons it played so much to our opponents'
strengths or, at least, it felt that way.
Specially for Kieran
(R8/Q5)
... and this was Ivor's view ...
The quiz? We all enjoyed the bits we knew, of
course; the French president of Irish ancestry was a
steal for Damian. Only 7 questions unanswered
including the Bundy who wasn’t Ted. Anne
surprised herself by getting two science questions
correct. Young David was not young enough to
use Urban Dictionary terms. Fortunately Vanessa
being a primary school teacher is well up in modern
jargon if only to ensure pupils (students) are not
actually swearing at each other - the latest means
of disparagement is to accuse someone of not having
'ris'. Sadly the Booker connection passed us by
though arguably some of the writers (never mind the
winning books) are not in the first rank.
... and Kieran's summary ...
A banger from the league leaders.
View from a Provencale Asylum
(R6/Q4)
Question of the Week
This week I enjoyed the way out conferences that
accompanied the efforts to answer Round
6 (the one with 'TAR'
in every answer) Question 2 - without either
team at the Club hitting upon the right answer ...
.
The US military air-dropped 2.4 million units of
which apparently much-loved food product into Afghanistan during the 2001
invasion?
For the answer to this and all the week's other
questions click
here.
France's Irish Royal President
(R1/Q5)
... and
also
Interesting email received this week from one of our
regular website readers, James Graham. James
writes ...
"I
have been very impressed recently with your website
and league set up.
I write quizzes and do the administration work for
the Pattaya expat quiz league (Thailand), a very
competitive league. I am wondering what your
league does in the event of a wrong answer to a
question (or even a wrong question which happens
from time to time).
One of the questions in the WithQuiz league two
nights ago (20th November) had an answer I don't
agree with. In our league we have an appeals
section where the administrator (me or another guy)
sits down, re-reads the question and then compares
the writer's answer to the answer of the player
making the appeal. How is this rectified in
the Withington league?
P.S. The answer I didn't agree with was this one:
R7Q8: What is the lowest possible 3 dart
checkout?
The
answer given was 163 but I think it should be 159."
In my
reply to James I told him we prefer to make the QM
all-powerful on the night rather than have some
'after the event arbitration process'. James,
who, I believe was based in Thailand, is now in
Prestwich carrying our his admin duties over the
internet. He has suggested he might come along to
one of the Albert Club quizzes in the next few
weeks.
And to
round off this item Barry (who set the question) has
agreed with James that 159 rather than 163 was
indeed the correct answer. Thailand 1 -
WithQuiz 0!
The Blossoms at home in Stockport
(R7/Sp1)
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