The Results

In the WIST Champions Cup - Quarter Finals.....

Opsimaths lost for the second season running to Stockport Champions, Chunky, though this time the margin was a bit more respectable - Opsimath Howell writes:

"An evenly balanced paper with no one knowing much!! The questions were hard and the 'time please ladies and gentlemen bell' sounded before we'd finished as every question seemed to need much head scratching.  Still, the big plus for the Opsimaths was that having lost against Chunky by 25 points last season (in the Stockport format), we were a mere 7 points behind this time."   

Traveller's Call (mercifully for WithQuiz) crashed out at home to the pride of Ladybarn, Charabancs of Fire - Damian writes:

"We were treated to a most courteous and convivial evening in the company of our Stockport hosts during which tears of nostalgia were brought to to the eyes of Father Meggers and Yours Truly as we fondly reminisced about our Stockport quizzing days.  Roisin and John contented themselves with tucking into the butties and Pringles our hosts had kindly provided in the good old Stockport tradition.  It seemed almost bad form for us to repay their courtesy by beating them after all that!"

History Men lost out at the Red to the marauders from the Alexandra - Ivor comments:

"A repeat of last year’s fixture only this time in the Red Lion.  The culture shock did not seem to impair the Alexandra’s winning ways.  They quickly adapted to our way of doing things: helping with the traditional verbal assault on innocent drinkers in the vicinity who are asked to give up their tables 'because there’s a quiz on', accepting the more leisurely thinking time allowed for each question (we didn’t finish until 10.40), adapting to our raucous real-time commentary on the perceived quality of the questions, tolerating our endearing dog-eat-dog behaviour when a fellow team member 'blurted' a wrong answer; and even enduring a finale without a sandwich supper (unlike the Stockport folk we Withington lot go to a quiz to drink).

The game was actually very finely balanced in the second half but as we had ended the first half 8 adrift it was a comprehensive victory for the away team."

Tiviot beat the cream of WithQuiz, SPW, in a disappointing, low-scoring match at the Tiviot Dale

All of which means 3 Stockport teams, plus the Charas from WithQuiz, go through to contend the WIST Semis on April 1st

...whilst in the League (postponed from November 12th)....

Ethel Rodin scored a fine home victory over Snoopy's Friends

Question Paper - The Verdict

This week the paper was set by the Stockport League.

Down at the Albert Club Chunky and the Opsimaths found it pretty tough going.  It was after 11 o'clock before we were able to declare a result.  17 of the 64 questions went unanswered by either side.  That's a pretty high number (though I have to be wary about what I'm saying here since the recent Opsimaths question paper got a similar score on the 'unanswered front').  There were shafts of light however - a collective recital of Little Richard's Babyface followed later in the evening by the Eurovision-winning Volare come to mind.

At the Tiviot Dale there were 24 unanswered questions evenly divided between the 2 sides and, judging by the feedback, it was a pretty dour evening.

At the Stadium of Murk there were some positive comments about the second half of the paper - although the Dickens theme clearly didn't work (at the Albert Club we were conjecturing whether it was the 'The' or the 'Old' in The Old Curiosity Shop to which The Old Man and the Sea was alluding!!).

At the Red Ivor comments:

"A hard quiz - you know you are in trouble when you only reach double figures half way through round 4 -  and there were 14 unanswered questions in total.

Many questions were worthy enough but devoid of interest - a bit like the annual report from Scottish Provident. The answer to the Kashmir dividing line question is probably the dullest all year (no one got that but perhaps if you did know you would be too embarrassed to confess knowing it).  The theme rounds did not delight either -  the Dickens connection was not at all obvious with theme words diluted by 'background noise'.”

One final grouse - if there is another Bob Dylan question this season I am at risk of 'going postal'."

From the Traveller's Call Damian speaks up for the Charabancs:

"The questions ran the gamut from the inspired to the obscure.  For example: combining a US state capital with a food fish to come up with a 20th century painter; questions about long forgotten Terry Nation TV shows; listing the scales used for measuring pain.  There were some thought-provoking history and literary questions mixed in with what seemed rather specialised stuff about racing terminology! The upshot was a good deal of unanswered questions and hence a well below-average final score.  But an enjoyable evening nonetheless."

The average aggregate score of 57.0 across the evening's 5 matches was by 5 points the lowest in the WithQuiz season to-date.

'Question of the Week'

The vote this week comes from Chunky & the Opsimaths and goes to Round 4 Question 6:

What English word is derived from the Italian word meaning 'loaded portrait'?

For the answer to this and all the week's questions click here.

Chatterbox

Courtesy of Ethel's James Williamson I now have a picture actually taken inside the White Swan to represent the Stadium of Murk on this website.  James used his phone to take a rather fine picture of the stained glass swan in the front door.  Click here to view it.

Megson's Pulpit

Our favourite cleric has been in the neighbouring parish of Stockport this week, ministering to the folk at The Traveller's Call.  We await his words of wisdom!