Opsimaths beat History Men

Unseating the champs last week, the History Men fail at the Club

'Skipper for All Seasons' Ivor reports in...

Once again we have avoided defeat by more than 10 points - but only just - and it was indeed a just (i.e. fair) result.

Always a delight to be in the back room at the Albert Club facing some of our oldest opponents (in every sense, though we are not far behind).  I am always amazed at the average age of University Challenge teams which seem to be 20 or 21 - though sometimes when it is 29 you can rest assured that the greybeard in seat 4 doing a post-grad diploma in an exotic subject is really a pub quizzer like us.

Anyhow good to face the Opsimaths (minus Mike B) and find that the 20 month quiz hiatus has not dulled their competitive spirit.  Bob the Hat was QM and he commented that the back room is like quizzing in someone’s living room.   Up to a point Bob.  At home you can open the curtains and tell the occupants of the main lounge to shut up or tone down their excitement on a televised football match, but perhaps not in the Club. 

We lost tonight not because of inequality in the unanswereds (4 to us, 3 to the Opsis) nor because of failing to go for twos (13 to us, 12 to Opsis) but because of our dreadful steal/passover rate (3 to us, 8 to the Opsis).  This was not due to blurting either, but most likely due to the Opsis knowing more than us, at least on the subject matter tested tonight.

It was however the mathematics and physics questions that tested us most of all.  When the Opsis got '4!' (4 factorial) as a question we expected something similar and gettable.  Young David still gets dreams in which he is doing an especially tricky exam in mathematical optics and has not a clue about anything  (“Were you naked in that exam” asked Anne).  Sure enough it became a living nightmare when our question arrived and it included two functions of 'x' (when even our knowledge of one function would be suspect).  Even Nick got it wrong in the attempted steal.  One does not have to be much of a mathematician to realise that our performance will have dented our standing in the league table and our reasonable score difference has suddenly become unreasonable.  Still there is next week…

(R2/Q8)

Triumphant Opsi skipper Howell adds...

The Opsimaths returned to some sort of form in a quiz set by people who are just a bit younger than us (rather than a lot younger)!  The History Men arrived at the Club first and made the mistake of sitting in the comfier seats that have now notched up 3 losses and no victories so far this season!

The quiz was played out in good humour, but with 4  twos for the Opsis in Round 2, we took the lead, and the margin was never any closer.  

Three bits of humour from the evening... 

1. R2/Q4: Anne is always an entertaining opponent and suffered some gentle ribbing when Bob said "you've got the paired Maths question" - cue groan from Anne as Bob started the question.  The groan made Bob pause after he'd said "If f(x)..." allowing Brian to interject "she's just adding 'off' to that". 

2. R3/Q5: The chess question regarding a player having to make a move that would significantly worsen their position, had the History Men in a huddle debating the possible answer.  Knowing it was something in German their deliberations centred around 'Scheisser Creek'. 

3. R5/Q2: Anne (again) was complaining as Nick was asked for the letter that represented Planck's constant.  Two points for Nick with Anne observing that it was a quiz question that is asked all of the time - to which I added "but at least the answer is always the same". 

Bob was excellent as QM and I wonder if we could consider a move for him during the January transfer window!!!

(R5/Q5)

and spectator Mike sums up...

The Opsis did very well but it was a slightly disappointing quiz containing a few specialist questions (e.g. maths) and some photos, many of which were very hard to identify - though some were guessable.  I would certainly not have recognised Christ the Redeemer, situated on the most beautiful bay in the world, but appearing from the photo to be in some kind of jungle. 

I was happy to know the answer to the first question of the evening though neither of the teams knew it (I was allowed by the QM to give the answer after both teams had failed).  On the first half of quiz I knew more answers than I usually do when I'm actually playing - though I wasn't so hot on the second half.

Personally, had I been QMing, I would not have allowed the answer given to R4/Q1, particularly as the hidden theme word was not part of the answer given.