The Results

Albert Park got into top gear with a home win over Snoopy's (and that's without Dave Rainford, they asked me to tell you)

Meanwhile the unparked Albert, cleaned up in the basement battle with the Opsimaths

Ethel Rodin got back into their stride with a comfortable victory over the X-Pats at the Sun in September.  Roz reports:

"After the ignominy of last week's defeat at the hands of the Electric Pigs, Ethel finally recovered from the post Christmas/New Year festivities.  She beat X-Pats by 15 points, despite a pretty disastrous start.  On the whole (apart from Jim), everyone enjoyed the paper, although we were unable to come up with a 'Question of the Week' nomination."

St Caths continued their recovery with a narrow victory over the Pigs.  Dave Blythe from St Caths reports:

"Nailbiting stuff at St Caths last night as the Pigs clawed back a 7-point deficit to go in to the last 2 questions all square.  Pete Taylor saved the day for the home team by dredging from the depths of his memory the scene of Mr Senna's unfortunate accident.  Pete's opposite Pig had to go for 2, and whittled the possible cricket County Championship winners down to 2 options, but he picked the wrong one so was unable to snatch a dramatic draw.

Everybody thought the quiz was pretty good, barring a few minor quibbles.  It did seem strange that the questions weren't paired at all until the last round, and the pairs didn't seem to us to be evenly matched in terms of difficulty.   Still, overall it was good stuff, although Mike Heale was heard to demand a ban on pop music questions.  I'd rather see a ban on space questions (surely we've done them all by now?), not to mention obscure culinary questions about things that no sane person would ever eat (chicken and prunes? Pass the sickbag.)"

In a real cliffhanger at the Red, FCEK and the History Men fought out the season's second tied game to leave Fifth Finger still perched at the top of the table.  Ivor reports:

"A bit of a thriller this game and it all rested on the final question. FCEK had the last question (one point in the lead) and we needed the "steal" to draw and luckily the cricket question fell to our Gaelic sports loving opposition!  However a draw was probably a fair result.  The tale of the tape showed we were fairly evenly matched throughout.  10 questions were "zeros" so a moderately difficult quiz.  The battle for second place hots up again. Question of the Week - undecided." 

 - and as ever Gerry has provided his sideways glance at this game:

"It is a fact universally acknowledged that if you live in a city you are never more than 18 inches away from a rat.  This seems to be the case even when Fifth Finger aren't playing, only setting. The pesky varmints managed to manipulate things so that two of the most likely contenders for their crown were forced to scunder each other's chances by drawing last night's game.  This encounter was of the white-knuckled and clenched buttock variety.  The History Men - though it is evident even to the untrained eye that this name is now a misnomer - seemed to have it in the bag at one stage but a spirited fight back ensued and Sister Roisin Of The Perpetual Half Pints held FCEK's fate firmly in her sweaty mitts as she went into the final question needing only a point. "Just don't give me a cricket question", she pleaded as she was led to the block whereupon she was duly given a cricket question.  When last seen, Roisin was meandering off down the Via Dolorosa still cross and wondering just how Kieran had known where exactly to place the cricket grenade for maximum effect.

In fairness though, Ivor and Co. might be entitled to wonder how Finger managed to lob the new Nottingham Forest manager question directly into Fr. Megson's lap from such a distance.  Unlike his fellow Fermanaghman, the gainfully unemployed Roy Carroll, Fr. Megson never seemed likely to fumble this gift from the Gods of the Griffin though he was fortunate not to have been adjudged to have foot-faulted on the line of decorum when he likened answering this question to playing with yourself in a public bar.  It is to be hoped that he spoke purely in a metaphorical sense.   Fr. Megson."

The Paper

This week the paper was set by Fifth Finger.  As is evident from the comments above, you liked the paper though not averaging such high scores as achieved on the Fingers' paper at the start of the season.  Obviously half a season of quizzing has pushed their brains into deeper recesses.  My own particular favourite format is fast becoming the round where there is a declared theme in the answers but no common subject to the questions (such as Round 1 last night where the football team nicknames provided the glue).   Also I must mention the "negative picture" round.  Although I was hopeless at this myself it was an excellent idea and clearly the pictures had been very carefully chosen and doctored.  Rowan Atkinson was the easiest but they were all in the "Oh yes, of course" category when the answers were given.  To cap it all (as Gerry points out above) Kieran and co. managed to engineer a draw between the History Men and FCEK thus protecting the Fingers' table topping position.

I was planning to use this section of Quizbiz to cast various libellous statements in the Fingers' direction over the "linguine alla vongole" question (Round 6 Question 4).  Alice, who is well known in haute cuisine circles as the tastiest Opsimath of them all, swore that the answer was mussels rather clams.  So vehement was her contention that Kieran (who was QMing) retreated in the face of the onslaught and offered us the points (thanks Albert - very sporting of you).  However I heard just yesterday of the quiz website editor who had been fined 17 grand for libelling a question-setter over the ether.  So Kieran you're a real cutie and I really love your papers - even when they're economical with the actualité.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

This week with no recommendations received I have chosen my own favourite.  So the award goes to (Round 7 Question 2):

What apart from a play is Hindle Wakes?

Click here to see the answers to this and the rest of the week's questions and answers.

Eggheads

I have emailed a number of you an invite I received via the website to field a team in the BBC Quiz show 'Eggheads'.  Apparently a team of 6 pub quizzers are asked to pit their wits against a resident team of boffins for a lot of glory and some smallish cash prizes.  I have suggested to the programme makers that we field a composite Withquiz Allstars team.  I'll let you know via the website if and when the Beeb ask us to turn up.

(14/01 - update) Quite a number of you have now shown interest in this invitation so Kieran and I have put our heads together.  We will enter 2 teams (Withington All Stars - captained by Kieran, and Didsbury All Stars captained by me).  We have selected 12 names and some reserves.  Over the next few days you may get a call from one of us to ask if you are willing to take part, and, if so, to provide some details for the entry form which we have to get off to the Beeb asap.  I hope you don't mind me diving in and organising something but democratic processes can be a bit time-consuming.  Watch this space!!