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6th April 2022

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Clean sweep for the home teams with KFD notching the evening's top score on a friendly Prodigals paper

Opsimaths beat Ethel Rodin

KFD beat Electric Pigs

Bards beat History Men

Albert beat Charabancs

Opsimaths beat Ethel Rodin

A nail-biting finish with the home team winning by a single point

'Stentor' Mike reports from the QM's chair...

There was a real party atmosphere at the Club as Ethel (Roddy, Greg, John and Geoff) called by to challenge the locals (Nick, Brian, Hilary and Howell) last night.  The reason for the party?  The table-topping setters had turned up in force to watch on - and not surprisingly they were in a great mood having been for an early evening celebratory meal together at the nearby Katmandu restaurant.  They were keen to see how their handiwork was tackled by this mid-table brace of teams.

It turned into a very tense contest with never more than a few points in it.  It was not surprising therefore that, as the last question fell to Greg, he had the challenge of winning the match for his team with a two, or conferring with his team mates for a tied result.  As it happened Britannia Unchained remained unanswered by either team and the bloody Tories had done for Ethel.  Their absent colleague, James (on his hols with a local politician), would not have liked that.


The Rest is History

(R4/Q4)


KFD beat Electric Pigs

A sizeable victory for the season's runners up

Kieran's regular football column makes passing reference to last night's quiz...

"We've got to get ourselves someone who knows this classical bollocks"

Thus spake Pig Guy channelling Hunter S. Thompson at the end of an evening in which Martin had hoovered up all the classical bollocks on offer.  Guy was vocalising the thoughts of eight quiz teams as we look up at the Prodigals, a seemingly insurmountable distance away at the top. 


"I'll get the flowers myself"

(R1/Q1)


Nietzschean despair apart this was a splendid way to end the league season.  A points fest from our feet up, cigar-smoking champions and only two unanswereds, pleasingly falling one to each team.  Even younger Thomas recovered from his bruising experience at the club last week by potting a couple of twos and racking up several assists as we conferred.

Going back to Guy's cri de coeur, we're quite proud that we've never imported anybody who knew about "this classical bollocks", or indeed bollocks of any sort.  All the balls that we have served up as answers over the years have been home grown.  But during the evening I was reminded that, quite unbelievably, almost twelve years ago we made the best import that we or any other team could ever have made.  I speak of course of 'Bogota' Bob Ganley who first performed the QM role for us in October 2010.  We thanked him by immediately becoming useless and surrendering a twelve year title winning streak.  Despite this Bob wasn't as dismayed with us as 'Wreck it' Ralf seems to be with his charges at the swamp, and he has never questioned our boll... readiness for the fight.  I'd rather have Bob by my side than 'Super' Franky in any situation. 


Father Ted's hairy milko

(R5/Q2)


So, recent events have been very unsettling for the doyen of quiz masters.  We haven't seen Bob for five weeks and it seems he's been using the time to sequester certain 'assets' beyond the reach of the most zealous of international law enforcers.  He says that the yacht was a bugger to hide.  Even more worryingly, should we manage to raise a team for any round of the Plate (see Mike's note in the 'and also...' section below) Bob won't be around.  Well, yachts don't sail themselves though I wouldn't be surprised if his did.  And so he's off somewhere, maybe Spain, even now camping out at the airport for a (legal) flight in a couple of weeks' time.  His bid to acquire Chelsea didn't make the shortlist so what's to stick around for?  A broken-down quiz team many years past its best?  Especially with the internal revenue services of at least six countries closing in by the hour. 

Who knows what the summer will bring?  We have no reliable means of staying in touch and no idea if Bob will be able to sneak back into the country, if, and when, things calm down a bit.  The yacht might help with that if it wasn't so damn conspicuous.  Bonne chance El Presidente, just stay one step ahead of those pesky police types and with a fair wind and a few prayers we'll see you - and everyone else - in the autumn. 


Reasons to be cheerful - for Gary at least

(R7/Q3)


Cooking up a full English Brexit

(R8/Q8)


Bards beat History Men

The home team end their league season on a high

In a new seat Ivor is in retreat...

Our season concludes with a good trouncing at the hands of the Bards.  Over the last 20 years our matches have been much closer, and not infrequently the decider has been a shoot-out on the last two questions between Tony and me.  Now we have Anne in Seat 4 ("the seat that gets the easy questions”) but the damage was done long before the final round.  This was mostly due not to the stalwarts, Tony and Jim, but rather the 7 twos achieved by more recent recruit Robin, augmented by the Bards' impressive haul of 6 'steals' (we got none).

Of course our usual timidity and the loss of confidence that is a seemingly natural consequence of a blurt (and the associated tongue-lashing from the team member responsible for discipline and vituperation) does not help.  In my defence my “Maine Coot” blurt was either a misspoken, or a crossed, neuronal connection.  Or perhaps I was pre-empting the inevitable bird question I never get right anyway.  Or worse, perhaps I have been affected by the wokery disease and unconsciously bowdlerise any word that might cause offence in other usage. 


A clue as to what goes on behind the net curtains in Barcelona

(R3/Q5)


The quiz paper was indeed hard for the Historymen (though not for the Bards) but the combined score of 77 is a pretty good tally.  Nine unanswered questions which included the financial acronyms and the famous (?) German artist, and the famous (?) French physicist/engineer.  Likewise the podcasters proved elusive but it did allow a little sledging at Tony’s expense:

“A podcast is like a talk on the wireless, m’lord”, and later, “Reddit is something from the Internet, m’lord”.

Is sledging allowed in quizzing?  Anyway it did not help our cause.  Not even “Let’s kill all the lawyers” as an answer put the Bards off their progress to a well-deserved victory.


 

Self-publishist

(R8/Q1)


and Mike H adds a view from the QM's chair...

The Historymen won just one round (Round 5 as it happens).  I was QMing for Bards this time, and was glad I was not playing for either team as almost all the questions were beyond me.  Once again the Historymen varied their order and Anne did better in Seat 4 than Ivor did in Seat 1.  However the star was Robin in Seat 1 for the Bards with seven twos.  As ever a very convivial atmosphere.


Putting the Berk into Birkdale

(R2/Q4)


Albert beat Charabancs

A comfortable win for the season's third placed team

Mike relishes the prospect of litigation against the setters...

A very enjoyable quiz which has surely opened the door for more abusive and possibly legally actionable questions.  With this League's capacity for imaginative invective I look forward to reading it.  Actually. Mark Francois comes off worst - the others can laugh it off as cheery banter.  Oh, the irony of being the MP for an academic hothouse like Cambridge.  As usual the Run-ons were well received.  The only quibble was the status of potassium in the missing link round.

As usual my attempts to liven up the proceedings went unappreciated.  Why, in the Burgundy question I even sang the opening lines from the song in The Vagabond King:

"Men of fire and danger /  Will you serve a stranger / And bow down to Burgundy."

Sometimes I feel that the Albert don't deserve me as a QM.


MikeO Brien sends above strip

(Round 5)


Quiz paper set by...

...The Prodigals

Average Aggregate score 78.0


A paper full of interest and erudition (with a few pictures thrown in for good measure) which registered an average score slightly higher than that for the season to-date.

There were enough unanswerable questions to prove that the paper was a proper challenge but not so many to raise any 'who knows, who cares' complaints.  As for controversy, well, the Round 4 question about the constituent parts of the pre-1947 German Empire raised a few eyebrows - and the Round 1 question about the wanton slaughter of lawyers had to be carefully tackled as Prodigal lawyer Kate was in attendance.  Not to  worry, we assured her, Shakespeare was surely referring to elderly retired judges not their younger practising colleagues.

As a QM what I enjoyed most about the paper was the variety offered by the subject-matter and the ingenuity displayed in the format of each round.  Chatting to Prodigal Michael after the contest I made the point that in the early days of our League question-setting was regarded as a necessary chore where an imaginative approach to wording was frowned upon.  These days we have setters who relish the challenge of making even the most mundane piece of trivia dance in front of the eyes of the quizzers.  In which regard the late Dave Barras and, of course, Gerry Collins come to mind.  Prodigal Richard was in attendance last night and even he might admit that question-setting for University Challenge has gained from some of the ideas developed by WithQuiz setters.  And by the way I know Michael does set the occasional question for University Challenge and I believe he had a major part to play in drawing up last night's paper.


but what did Mike H think...

One slight criticism: only three of the pictures were numbered, and the answers to the spares in the Picture Round weren't given.


and Ivor's feedback...

This quiz was well-crafted with many questions offering two ways into the answer (if only we had listened correctly) - the Wordle round and the Pictures round were excellent examples of this.  Who would have known there were so many 5 letter films?  And Rupert Murdoch as a picture too!  Sadly the demise of the News of the World means we will never have the double-page spread inside story exclusive of how the multi-divorced magnate ends up married to the multi-talented Jerry Hall.


Magnate attraction...

(R3/Q2)


Question of the Week

This week I've chosen the Shakespeare quote in Round 1 Question 7...

According to Henry VI Part 2 what is "the first thing we do"?

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


...but only disdain from the setter's moggy

(R3/Q2)


...and also

The Red Lion is getting close to reopening some time later this month.

It occurred to me (and after discussing with Anne-Marie earlier this evening she heartily agreed) it would be highly fitting if the re-launched Red carried some remembrance of our lost friend Dave Rainford.

This week I sent the following message to both the brewery and the landlord...

"I've been a local resident for nearly 50 years and a regular Red Lion visitor.

One of the best loved Red Lion regulars was the TV Quiz star Dave Rainford - sadly no longer with us.  Dave won £250,000 on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, was an Egghead on the TV show of the same name and was a regular quiz setter/presenter at the Red, as well as being a star of the local Withington Quiz League which started at the Red back in the 1970s.

With the refurb almost complete it may well be a bit late to rename the whole pub 'The Dave Rainford' but might one of the bar areas be named after him?  It would be hugely popular with locals and ensure that Dave's name lives on in the place he loved best."

I have offered to provide any material (e.g. pictures and text) which might be of help.

If you agree with me it would greatly strengthen our cause if you could also message the brewery/landlord via the Red's website.  Let's make it happen!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sadly KFD have had to scratch from their Round 1 Val Draper Cup match next Wednesday against Ethel.  As a result Ethel will go through to Round 2 leaving KFD with setting duties for the Round 2 matches on April 27th.  KFD slip into the Plate semis which are scheduled for May 4th.  Apologies to the History Men who were due to set next week's paper and may have already concocted a few rounds - no doubt they can be reused at some later date.

So just to be clear there is no match next week or the week after, and the next set of matches (Val Draper Cup Round 2) will be on Wednesday April 27th with KFD as setters.

Have a good Easter!