Withington Pub Quiz League - Quizbiz 14/02/07

All round low-scoring in a theme-dominated evening. The Girls just beat their rivals, 2 FCEKs, at the Griffin and are now pretty much unassailable at the top of the table.

The Results

Albert held on against the X-Pats in a low-scoring game at the Fletcher Moss

Ethel Rodin eventually made their home advantage tell in a close-fought game with the Opsimaths - in the end Roddy's mastery of music and Polish notation probably made the difference

History Men beat the Electric Pigs at the Red in another close run thing

Napier Girls just edged it against 2 FCEKs (reduced to 3 by the need for Fr M to go on one of his pastoral forays to the Province) - unusually for the Girls the Griffin scorer was relatively untroubled

The Paper

Albert Park set this week. Themes led the paper with gettable general knowledge playing a distinct second fiddle. Will the Parker who rates Bill Brandt a second rank artist please stand up? He's a peerless photographer of the first order in my book!!

STOP PRESS (Thursday evening):

Thanks to Brian (clearly the legal system is not so busy these days despite what we hear on the news) I am now informed that we all missed the point of the 'Second rank artist round'. The rubric was a cryptic way of telling us that all the answers started with the letter 'B' - not that they were all pretty crap at painting. OK, so one-nil to the Park. But hang on a sec....wasn't I meant to be playing against the collected brains of Ethel last evening? And why was there no explanation for the QM to read out at the end of the round?

Question of the Week

Both the Men and the Girls voted for Round 3 Question 8 this week since it ingeniously contrived to satisfy the 'Riverbank' theme not once, not twice but 3 ways round:

Three original members of Procul Harum - the lead singer, the lyricist and the organist - went to court in December 2006 to dispute the authorship of A Whiter Shade of Pale. Name any two these.

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

Withquiz Venues

(With Fr M away I am using his "tailpiece space" to let Howell, this season's Opsimath's Youth Policy product, air his initial views of our hallowed venues)

Following my debut last October, I have now had chance to visit all of the venues. Here's a light-hearted review from a 52 year old new boy.

Venues are ranked 1 - 5 (1 is low) according to the following criteria:

Ambience - is this a nice friendly location to while away a Wednesday night

Quiz Facilities - is the actual location for the quiz suitable for a group of people to exercise their memories and drag from the depths obscure knowledge they learnt some years ago

Oddball - an important factor reflecting the strangeness of the location

Sheila Friendly - would my wife like it if I took her for a drink in this location

So then - on to the results (in alphabetical order)...

The Albert Club:

Ambience 2 (it might score higher if there was anyone else in it)

Quiz Facilities 4 (pretty good)

Oddball 2 (nothing particularly unusual to comment upon)

Sheila Friendly 2 ("it's OK but I'm glad I haven't worn anything nice")

TOTAL = 10

The Didsbury:

Ambience 1 (great if you like table numbers so you can remember where you were sitting though)

Quiz Facilities 5 (your own little area cordoned off indeed)

Oddball 1 (nothing at all odd - not even Snoopy's Friends!)

Sheila Friendly 1 ("why have you brought me here?")

TOTAL = 8

Fletcher Moss:

Ambience 4 (this has the feel of a nice friendly local)

Quiz Facilities 2 (nice little room but one that tends to get a bit noisy as the night progresses)

Oddball 1 (nothing odd here either)

Sheila Friendly 3 ("this is OK for a drink on the way to Jem & I")

TOTAL = 10

Griffin:

Ambience 3 (a pleasant location with a nice bar)

Quiz Facilities 5 (nice acoustics in your own room)

Oddball 2 (all Holt's pubs automatically get an extra point for being a bit odd)

Sheila Friendly 1 ("can we go yet")

TOTAL = 11

Red Lion:

Ambience 4 (great for a buzzing atmosphere with plenty of TV watching opportunities)

Quiz Facilities 1 (the buzzing atmosphere puts paid to concentration!)

Oddball 1 (this is a very sensible location)

Sheila Friendly 3 ("Speak up a bit if you want to talk to me")

TOTAL = 9

Sun in September

Ambience 3 (friendly but very quiet without music)

Quiz Facilities 5 (a nice little area all to ourselves)

Oddball 3 (it does have the feel of being in someone's living room)

Sheila Friendly 2 ("Shall we just stop for the one")

TOTAL = 13

White Swan

Ambience 3 (quite cultural on the jazz nights, otherwise football lover paradise)

Quiz Facilities 3 (On your own yes, but in a dimly lit barn)

Oddball 5 (Keep your steel tipped shoes to yourselves etc etc)

Sheila Friendly 0 ("I'll stay in the car")

TOTAL = 11