NB:  If you look at the fixtures page you'll see the timetable and draw for the cup competition posted.

Note the Plate has been reintroduced after being rested last season.

Also note the complicated formulae for determining who goes through and who sets.  To be sure of getting it right I strongly recommend checking up on the website each week.

Results

Albert Park beat St Caths by a comfortable margin at the Albert Club.

Ethel Rodin and the Opsimaths fought out a tied match at the Stadium of Murk, leaving the Opsies just clinging on to the fourth spot.

The Pigs went down at home to the rabid Dogs, who notched up yet another 50+ score.

Snoopy's lost at home to fifth placed Albert.

Down at the Red FCEK overcame third placed History Men to keep up their challenge on the Dogs.  The Dogs still have their noses in front with FCEK sitting out the final league week as setters.  Damian describes what was by all accounts a pretty bizarre match:

A good, standard quiz from the X-Patters but the prize for 'Quizzee of the Night' does not go to any of the players but to the extremely colourful QM who conducted proceedings at breathtaking speed, helped by the fact that he saw conferring as rather pointless and kept bellowing: "Come on, you either know it or you don't, so stop pretending!".  We voted him a leading contender for 'The Annual Jitka Prize For most Blatant Abuse Of Your Own Team' as occasioned by the repeated instances of encouragement he kept throwing at the Historians such as "Coooommmee Onnnnn, you're just SHITE aren't you?" .

 

Having matched our own tipple-loving captain pint for pint, shot for shot, once proceedings were concluded about half-past eight, he promptly fell asleep!  So obviously we had been keeping him awake with our pathetic attempts to answer his questions way past his bedtime.

 

I think Anne from the History Men captured some pictures of the slumbering QM on her mobile and has threatened to put them on the website with a 'Suggest a suitable caption' competition!  I hope she does.

 

So, all in all one of the funniest and most entertaining, if one of the quickest, quizzes we have had to participate in.

Fr M gives his unique slant on the evening in his weekly missive even further below.

The Paper

This week the paper came from X-Pats.  All round a good solid paper enjoyed by all who've written in.  No themes in the structure but the traditional 'first half/second half pairings'.  This format usually meets with approval from all parties.  There were no contentious issues as far as I can tell.  At the Fletcher Moss they chose one of the flag pair as QotW.  My favourite pair were the racehorse questions (Round 4/8 Q5).  The 'penny-drop' when I got the Round 8 half of the pair was most satisfying.

Question of the Week

The Dogs & Pigs went for Round 3 Q5:

Which country has, this month, changed its national flag so that the horse is now facing left rather than right - and has added an eighth star to honour the country's founding father from 1813?

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

Voice from the Net

An email from John Holden of (I think) the Stockport league, on the issue of results affected by wrong answers in the quiz paper:

Appeals......Where do I begin to comment on an appeals system in which an anorak in a garret with reference books scours the question paper the day after?

In our league my team has been involved in one appeal in eleven seasons, which is probably MORE than the average. That statistic proves that 99.9% of problems are handled by the QM and the two teams; just as in Withington.

The difference is that every time our opponents give a correct answer they do so knowing it can’t lose them the quiz, but you don’t afford your opponents that comfort.

It doesn’t sound like a big difference, but by crikey it is. It makes for a more relaxed game, gives the QM a safety net and lets the setters sleep more easily.

Your solution to the situation where the other team insists their answer is correct, and you and QM don’t know, is apparently to expect them to grin and bear it, because you would grin and bear it if you were in their shoes; OR to concede the point every time?

Our solution is that both teams are happy for the QM to put a mark against the question and move on. At the end of the quiz, if the question made no difference to the result, no appeal can be made. It’s neat, civilised and (blindingly obviously) fair.

Evening work stopped me playing in Withington ten years ago, but I still feel part of the league, and this fantastic website has added to my sense of involvement and reminded me of the brilliance of your quiz papers, so I hope people don’t mind me contributing.

John Holden

         Fr Megson

     Battle of More Marstons re-enacted at the Red

A Chairde,

Very much a skirmish of two halves last night with Fr. Megson's roundheads taking the high ground in the first half and Prince Ivor of the Bann mopping up resistance and leading a valiant if belated counterattack in the second.  Unfortunately for Ivor the first half contained 7 rounds and the second half consisted solely of round eight.  Hence the somewhat inevitable futility of the comeback. 

In between bouts of internecine warfare with their QM Ivor remained philosophical about the result.

"I thought we tossed well tonight and ultimately that was our undoing",

he blurted cryptically,

"In philosophical terms I thought FCEK played a very astute game. Much of their knowledge was a priori whereas it soon became obvious that our knowledge tonight was argued very much from an a posteriori position. At least I assume that is what our QM meant to say when he said we were shite!  But what else would you expect an auld epistemologist like him to say?"

The QM was quick to retaliate by cuddling his man-bag and falling asleep.

Slan,

Fr. Megson