Please note (including important changes of dates):

• Taking into account the correspondence received, I have decided that we should take Wednesday 17th off (for those who want to watch the European Champions League Cup Final) and hold our own finals on May 24th with the End of Season night moving to Wednesday May 31st

• I have booked the Albert Club for both Wednesday 24th and 31st - if either or both pairs of finalists wish to use the Albert Club as the venue for their final then the Club would be delighted to host (and provide QM facilities if so desired)

• Since Snoopy's (the lowest scoring losers) have already set, the honour of setting for next week's Plate semis falls to the History Men

• Next week's Plate semis will be between Ethel Rodin and Albert Park at the White Swan, and the Mad Dogs and the Opsimaths (highest scoring losers) at the Griffin

Plate Round 3

The Results

Ethel Rodin triumphed over the History Men - Roz writes....

"Ethel (ER) excelled herself last evening with a 7-point win over History Men (HM), with a score of 41 - 34!  We quite enjoyed the paper, but it was unanimously agreed that Q5 of the Spares was the best of the night.  Only 7 questions were unanswered.  Well done 'Pigs'.

Roddy (ER) and Anne (HM) shared Ivor's MVP (Most Valuable Player) award by scoring five 2s each.  Both teams won 4 rounds, but after trailing 8 - 12 at the end of Round 2, ER won the next round 7 - 2.  HM fought to lead 19 - 20 at the end of Round 4.  At the changeover, HM went walkabout, scoring a mere 4 points in the next 2 rounds compared with 14 points for ER.  Going into the final round, ER led by 10 points, then blew it scoring 2 - 5, but still 7 points ahead.

R3 Q6 caused a great deal of amusement.  Ethel picked up a steal on the question (for some reason, HM thought the mnemonic referred to Hebridean Islands!) .  By the way, Roddy had learned a different one 'Sergeant Major Hates Eating Onions'.  At this point, Peter was told to order the drinks (as you well know, you have to place the order in advance), and when he asked "What is the order?", Ivor replied "Superior, Huron, ..."

The worst 'blurt' of the evening was David being quite convinced that Titanic's sister ship was the Lusitania!

A thoroughly enjoyable evening with good company.

 Ciao"

Albert Park won the local derby against the Opsimaths who nevertheless survive as highest scoring losers

Snoopy's Friends succumbed at the Didsbury to the recovering Mad Dogs

The Paper

Having duly qualified for the final on May 17th - or May 24th if we decide to take a break to watch the European Champions League Cup Final - the Electric Pigs had the delight of setting for their lesser brethren still left in the Plate.  An excellent effort by all accounts (including Roz's above).  Various nominations for QotW with the Monopoly spare and the one about Marcus Samuel and the Caspian Sea foremost.  I scarce dare attribute the excellence of the paper to Gerry after the hammering I took last time, but I suspect there was a Hennessy hand at work here somewhere...

Question of the Week

This week Kieran has nominated Round 4 Q7:

Which company, the third-largest corporation in the world by turnover, derives its name from the entrepreneurial activities of Marcus Samuel in the Caspian Sea area in 1892?

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