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With a little
help from the handicap system Ethel, the Bards, the
Pigs and the Opsis go through to the Cup semis;
whilst the
Prods, the League's top team, end up as lowest
scoring losers earning themselves semi final setting
duties |
Ethel Rodin beat History Men
Prodigals lost to Opsimaths
Electric Pigs beat Albert
Bards beat Charabancs |
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Ethel
Rodin beat History Men
Ethel venka; la resto estas historio
 A
sadder and a wiser Ivor rose the morrow morn to
report...
Sadly the Val Draper Cup which has been on my
mantlepiece since May 2019 will have to be polished
and surrendered after our defeat tonight, despite a
five point handicap start over Ethel Rodin.
Sic transit gloria mundi (as they don’t
say in Esperanto-land).
Our team squad was somewhat disrupted by Association
Football notably the activities of Liverpool FC.
This has happened before. When we won the Cup
in 2019 Liverpool were playing Barcelona (away) in
the Champions League semi final and on that occasion
Mike H and Young David put quizzing ahead of
football. Tonight, however, Zambian-born Young
David and Londoner Mike H were granted a leave of
absence to support the Red Side.
"The
crowning triumph of Peter Sellers's remarkable
career"
(R5/Q6)
To fill the empty seat I turned to my brother-in-law
Ray (Liverpool-born but an Evertonian of Blood
Royal). Ray has not ever done a quiz league
before and by the end of the evening he must have
felt like a young apprentice signing up for the
Accrington Pals not realising what he was letting
himself in for. Ray did very well in the
trenches until he stepped on the landmine that was
Round 8 Q4. Having decided the theme was 'Birds' (as
did we all) he scrambled around for a suitable
Cumbrian place name to no avail. We hope the shell
shock is recoverable. Mercifully our drill
sergeant Anne was very kindly to him (though not to
me or her niece Vanessa).
Surely we could defend a five point start? But as
the game went on the lead was whittled away and with
the inevitability of a slowly sinking ship we had
gone under the waves by the start of Round 8.
The question then became “have we scored less than
all the other losing sides?” because we are a team
with zero rounds in the setting bank.
Thankfully we have been spared on this occasion so
every cloud has a silver lining (I wonder what that
translates into in Esperanto?).
Derby County's end of
season party
(R4/Q8)
 James
has a few thoughts too...
It was a competitive game with the usual banter we
enjoy with the Historymen.
A function at the Ladybarn Social Club meant that we
were displaced for the night and so played at the
Parrswood Hotel alongside the Bards v Charas
match. They got there first so commandeered
the best corner. Although notoriously big and
empty, the venue was still a little noisy, a fact
that was amplified by our strategic decision to use
our most softly-spoken team member (John) as QM for
the night. This, added to the strategic
mistake of sitting those with the poorest hearing
furthest away from the QM, meant that a lot of the
questions needed repeating several times.
Even without hearing them three times, it soon
became obvious that a lot of work had gone into the
questions and the result was a very well-balanced
and interesting paper. A few stinkers and a
few that were perhaps quite easy, but that is an
expected ingredient for a good set.
As with previous KFD papers, I enjoyed their Picture
round. The spaghetti, cheese and pepper
question of which the answer was simply an Italian
translation of the question raised quite a laugh.
Neither team were successful in the Esperanto
translations being close but not close enough.
Interestingly the Historymen did offer "Whose round
is it next?" as one of the answers - although
bizarrely that was their answer to the one about the
quiz question rather than the one about drinks.
And the eventual answer to that question ended up
being Ethel Rodin. We had a 5 point handicap
to overcome and it took us until Round 7 to catch
up. The last 2 rounds then had 7-4 scorelines
in favour of Ethel so we ran away with it a bit at
the end - but it had felt close right until the last
round.
We should probably have thought harder about the
name of Sade’s book, but in the end went for a
guessed wrong answer specifically to wind up Anne:
"The King Dominic Raab".
A bit of love, a bit of lust
(R2/Q2)
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Food for thought
(R6/Q2&7)
Electric
Pigs beat Albert
Ruzaj Porkoj prosperas pro la handikapo, kiun ili
multe laboris dum la tuta sezono
Having carefully hoarded a healthy handicap all
season the cunning Pigs burst forth and demolished
their erstwhile cohabitees. Everyone watch out
the Pigs are up for the Cup!
Bards beat
Charabancs
Plej altaj poentintoj de la vespero la Bardoj
triumfas kun aŭ sen handikapo
 A
chastened Damian reports...
Once upon a time the Val Draper Cup was our oyster
(I think my picture on the website depicts me
holding up the cup with my team-mates after one of
several wins for us many years ago) - but, as with
other former glories, this is now only a distant and
rapidly fading memory.
Still, tonight started off as a close-fought and
exciting contest with the high-flying Bards.
Aided by our handicap advantage, we kept our noses
in front until a disastrous performance in Round 4
dashed any hopes of maintaining that momentum.
In a round of Run-ons, a subject we normally do very
well on, we managed to score only one measly point
whilst our opponents romped through it with twos
galore, stealing every single one of our failed
efforts. We came close on many of the
questions, but close is still no cigar (if only I
could have remembered the full title of that damned
Shakespeare play). As a result of the Run-ons
the Bards opened up a wide gap that we could
never reduce despite being relatively competitive in
subsequent rounds. Oh well, at least we
managed to score just enough points to dodge
quiz-setting duties in a fortnight's time.
Eric launches his bid
to join Brighton & Hove Albion
(R8/Q1)
Prodigals
lost to Opsimaths
Kiel la fortuloj falis!
 Mike
reports from the Club's back lounge...
Having been walloped by the Prods twice already this
season the Opsimaths got their own back in this
Albert Club derby - although without the adjustment
of the handicaps it would have been a tie.
A Glennon-heavy Prodigals team (Anne-Marie was
joined by brother Danny and brother-in-law John)
featured a very welcome return to the Club for
Rachael. The Opsimaths fielded Nick, Howell,
myself and newcomer Emma who quickly fitted in and
earned her share of the winning Opsimaths score.
It was, of course, an evening full of friendly
reminiscences with just a sprinkling of
disappointment for the Prods at the end when they
realised they had just fallen into the 'Lowest
Scoring Losers' box and thus got the setting duties
for the semis on May 11th.
Kate played the role of a patient and clear-spoken
Counsel for the Prosecution pronouncing French,
Italian and Esperanto in her stride.
At the close - as ever with an Albert Club derby -
Anne-Marie presented the Orkney Dark trophy to
Howell. Watch out the rest of you - the Opsis
are not finished yet!
 ...and
Prods skipper Anne-Marie chips in...
Oooh how the mighty fall! The Prodigals went
into the match sans 3 of their star players: Richard
and Michael had work commitments and Jimmy is saving
up in case the mighty Hammers get to the final of
the UEFA cup (we have our fingers and toes crossed
for you Jimmy). So we went in with Danny, John
and me, and a new, not so new, honorary Prodigal
just for the night - the return of the marvellous
Rachael Neiman-Wiseman to WithQuiz as our fourth
player. And Rachael didn’t disappoint, she was
her usual charming, funny and clever self. A
fun evening with the mighty Kate Hammond in the
chair keeping order.
The Opsimaths were on top form, blooding a new
player, Emma (I hope we didn’t put her off playing).
It was one of those nights where we now understand
why we drag ourselves out of our houses on Wednesday
nights to spend a couple of hours wracking our
brains with like-minded folk.
Looks like we're setting next week. Time to
dust off all the rounds we have started, tweaked,
edited, rejected to try and make our quiz as good as
last night’s….
The 'bugger for the bottle' that would have been
worth £250k to Howell
(R3/Sp2)
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Quiz paper set by...
...KFD
Average Aggregate score 79.5
Plenty of points on offer (pre-handicap aggregates
of 80, 80, 80 and 78 across the 4 matches) and
perfectly balanced (2 of the matches were tied
before the handicaps kicked in), this was an
expertly assembled paper. Perhaps the most
enjoyable aspect, however, was the way the setters
found innovative ways to ask their questions.
We had crossword clue format questions, themed
rounds (hidden and announced), a 'words in common'
round , a picture round and a 'famous people born in
the year nn22' round. There was even a
sprinkling of Esperanto buried in one round.
In fact the only groan of the evening at the
Club came when Kate announced that the next round
was the now traditional Run-ons. Time was, not
so long ago, when Run-ons were the novelty we all
yearned for.
Child with Dove
(R1/Q5)
...so what did Damian think...
Despite the thumping we all enjoyed KFD's paper
which was admirably and efficiently read out to us
by visiting KFDer Barry. It was well-crafted
and eclectic enough in subject matter to tickle most
of our fancies. Who could argue with a subject
matter of history, literature, sport and Esperanto -
although we were curious to know who might be the
resident lepidopterist on the KFD team given the
butterfly pics we were offered in the picture round?
All I can say is "Dankon KFD".
...and Anne-Marie...
It was a fabulous quiz from KFD, full of interest
and intrigue. Any quiz which manages to
squeeze in ‘sod Dominic Raab’ as a legitimate answer
gets my vote every time.
...and Ivor...
KFD did produce a clever set of well crafted rounds
with questions tricky enough to keep us thinking.
Not that thinking always helped. The seeds of
our defeat started with the very first question when
none of the Historymen could work out that 'lad
Harold' was an anagram of Roald Dahl. More
cryptic rounds followed with the Run-ons and the
connecting word round especially taking our fancy.
I do like a bit of double entendre in the dead pan
Julian Clary style, or is it just my Finbarr
Saunders alter ego that enjoyed the last three
answers of Round 4?
Dom & Non-Dom
(R4/Q6)
Question of the Week
This week at the Club the Prodigals and the
Opsimaths were unanimous in their nomination of Run-ons Round
4 Question 6...
Unfinished Marquis de Sade novel written in 1785
concerning the activities of four wealthy men locked
away in a castle one winter
&
MP for Esher and Walton and one of the five
co-authors of Britannia Unchained
For the answer to this and all the week's other
questions click
here.
The unspeakable word
(R2/Q7)
...and also
As stated at the top of this page we have decided to
shuffle the fixtures back by a week to allow City
fans to watch next Wednesday crucial European
Champions League semi final in Madrid. This
'shuffle-back' will absorb what would have been the
free fixtures week of May 18th but leave the planned
date of May 25th for the End of Season evening
unaffected. So there will be no matches next
Wednesday May 4th.
One slight knock-on affect of these changes is that
the 'Finals night' (May 18th) clashes with the
Albert Club AGM so the Club will not be free to host
any matches; perhaps we could use the Parrswood
Hotel's empty acres instead?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The second and third highest scoring losers this
week both scored 36 points but I decided to award
the 'second highest scoring losers' place to the
History Men since pre-handicap they scored more
actual points on the night (34) than the Charabancs
(32).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The
Red Lion is open again and is happy to resume duties
as our question paper drop off/pick up point.
As
well as visiting the Red, I popped into the Fletcher
Moss and thanked the manager there for helping us
out while the Red was shut.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...and whilst in the Red I talked to the new
landlord (Sean or Shaun - not sure) about naming all
or some part of the refurbished Red in honour of
Dave Rainford. He said renaming the whole pub
was not on, but he was in touch with the owners
(John Willie Lees) about naming a room after Dave.
What makes it more rather than less likely to happen
is that Ella (Dave's daughter) is now a member of
staff at The Red - a case of her joining the family
business you might say!
I
will keep on the case over this and let you know how
things are going. In the meantime if you're in
the Red it wouldn't harm the case if you sought out
the landlord and made the case to him yourselves.
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