Withington Pub Quiz League - quizbiz 12/01/06

Results & Match Reports

Snoopy's Friends lost to the Opsimaths after dominating the first half. Alice's propensity to 'Name the songs' - including the eponymous one from Smokey (that took her ages) - and the Friends' collective inability to get any of the 'One to Eight' questions right, swung it the way of the storming oldsters.

X-Pats sneaked a home victory over Albert to end the Albert's recent run of victories and leapfrog them to 4th place in the table.

Albert Park just managed to finish before midnight after 3rd placed History Men had seen them off at the Albert Club.

Ethel Rodin lost a high-scoring match at the Swan to Fifth Finger (a.k.a. the Dogs). FCEK and FF are now level on points, and games played, but FCEK are just one point ahead on score difference (86 to 85).

Electric Pigs had a comfortable home win against the luckless St Caths.

Quiz Paper Verdict

This week the paper came from FCEK.

No beating about the bush from the Fingers. Their verdict was "the best paper of the season by miles". X-Pats also gave unalloyed praise.

At The Didsbury, Snoopy's and the Opsimaths certainly enjoyed the paper (watched over by a full squad from FCEK) but it did take a long time. The bingo questions in the first half were packed with interest and inventiveness - good general knowledge questions asked in an entertaining way. For instance Q17: "In November 2005 which successful sports celebrity died suddenly and publicly from a heart attack in Exeter?", or Q13: "What was the highest mountain on German territory in the year 1900?"

The second half, however, took its toll. The 'One to Eight' round took ages and we spent more time on the theme and its tortuous variations than on getting the answers to the questions sorted out. I must say, however, FCEK redeemed themselves on the 'Manchester City' round at the end. We have far too few Manc questions and these were top notch. Overall verdict: A great first half, a bit of a dip, then a cracking finish. Thanks FCEK for a good evening's entertainment!

The Question of the Week

The vote this week comes from X-Pat John and goes to Bingo Question 25:

The following is the Latin version of the chorus of a popular 1960s song:

"Fumus draco magus, incoluit mare. Lusit autumnal'illic, maritimo hanalo."

Name that tune.

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

Chatterbox

Eggheads & The Albert Club

In case anyone is interested, a few of us have had invitations to take part in auditions for the BBC Quiz The Eggheads. Last year, you probably remember, we put 2 composite teams in for this programme, neither of which made it past the auditions. Fair enough, but nobody from the Beeb took the trouble to tell us we had failed the auditions. As a result we were on tenterhooks for a number of weeks thereafter wondering whether we would be asked to travel to London to compete in the actual game when it was recorded.

I don't feel inclined to organise it all again this year but will happily use the website as a communication channel if anyone out there wants to have a go. I know John Tolan (Ethel), Mark Bassett (Albert Park) and myself all have the details.

On another tack the Albert Club have decided to resurrect their monthly quiz evenings every fourth Monday. The first of the new series will be on Monday January 30th from 8.30pm. I'm organising this event - and setting the first paper. There will be prizes and you will be made very welcome at the Club. Why not put it in the diary?