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In a low scoring night the Pigs
win the Val Draper Cup with a little help from the handicap, whilst
the Opsis win the Plate not needing handicap assistance; the underdogs take the
prizes!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
N.B. See foot of the page for The
Prodigals' AI experiment |
Val Draper Cup - Final
Electric Pigs beat KFD
WithQuiz Plate
- Final
History Men lost to Opsimaths |
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Val Draper Cup Final
Electric Pigs beat KFD
The Pigs go one better than last season as they lift the Val
Draper trophy
My little Chickadee
(R8/Q8)
WithQuiz Plate Cup Final
History Men lost to Opsimaths
A disappointing season ends on a high for the Opsis
 Mike
sees his team cruise to a comfortable victory
A
thoroughly enjoyable evening in the delightful company of Vanessa,
Ray, David and (of course) Ivor, who accepted their lot gracefully.
In truth there were sparks of the old Opsis as Brian, Howell,
Charlotte and myself racked up 15 more points than our opponents
starting in front and just keeping on going. Maybe the
questions favoured the team going second, maybe Charlotte was still
on fire from her recent visit to Cardiff to record Only Connect,
or just maybe it was having Howell back in the driving seat.
Anyway we are now primed and ready to go for next season. Oh,
and I forgot to mention our best behaved team member, Olive,
Charlotte's dog, who sat quietly in the corner faintly bemused by
what these crazy humanoids were doing.
As
for the History Men, perhaps they can blame Anne for going off on
holiday and missing a Cup Final. Of late they do seem prone to
these vast swings of fortune where they lose every match for half
the season, then win everything in sight, and then ....
Tony ('Richter') Hammond (R3/Q4) was our QM for the evening and kept
us pretty much in order.
Anne and Guy from their holiday
hideaway: the She-Wolf will be back
(R5/Q7)
 Howell
sums up nicely ...
We
started with a 7-point handicap advantage and, although it shrunk by
1 point at half time, the Opsis won all of the final 4 rounds to win
by 15 points (our biggest win of the entire season).
Undoubtedly it was quite a hard quiz - with just 9 two-pointers all
night (5-4 in our favour). The unanswered questions split pretty
evenly as well: 5 to the Opsimaths, 4 to the History Men (excluding
David) and - unfortunately - 4 to David himself, who had these
ungettables in his first 5 questions!
The
match was convivial throughout and marshalled (or perhaps martialled)
in typical fashion by the Judge ... who at one point stretched
things by awarding a point (rather than 2) for an answer that was
close but 'cigar-free' ... and citing that it was in the rules.
Rules? What rules!!
It
was a good finish to what has been a tumultuous season for the
Opsimaths. We fielded no fewer than 10 different players and
struggled to cope with the sad and unexpected departure of Nick
Mills a few weeks before the start of the season. Hopefully
next season will be better - but winning the Plate was a welcome
bonus!
Born in a log cabin in North
Caroline
(R7/Q2)
|
Founding Father & Hamilton
slayer
(R1/Q3)
Ivor wonders if the History Men have run out of knowledge
As defending Plate holders it was always going to be a difficult
task to concede 7 handicap points to our opponents. As it
turned out none was needed and the Opsis had a resounding victory.
The Opsis have been the whipping boys in this year’s league games.
What could have contributed to such a turnaround? Was it
because the Historymen have “run out of knowledge” (that's a phrase
from our absent Anne) or was it because of the return of Howell (3
twos tonight), or have our lucky seats in the Parrswood finally run
out of luck, or was it the magic of the Cup/Plate, or the magic of
Walpurgis night? Probably all of these.
Not as well
known as the 1975 Cup Winner?
(R4/Q4)
We had Tony H as QM tonight. He informed us that Anne-Marie
had sent all the non-playing captains a copy of tonight’s quiz for
final comments. Apparently his only comments related to
grammar and punctuation. He performed his duties with
customary aplomb tempering strictness with mercy with both sides on
the receiving end of judicial discipline regarding pronunciation
("You say Ahr-on, I say Air-on"). His only error (I hope
I am not held to be in contempt now) was in Round 8, perhaps because
of the long rubric, where he overlooked the fact that it was a Bingo
round and so we were just allocated the first 8 questions in order.
Not that this would have made any difference to the outcome as we we
so far behind that our compensatory pints were already on order.
Mrs Hawking
(R6/Q4)
The score before the handicaps were added, was 26-34. A
combined total of 60 suggests a hard quiz. There were 13
unanswered and only 9 twos. The late great Dave Barras once
suggested that a perfect quiz evening was one where every player
went home content with at least a pair of twos. By that
definition six of us went home somewhat discontent including myself
(no twos at all).
Charlotte had brought along a dog called Olive (she was dog-sitting)
- a delightful small and shy creature (Olive, not Charlotte) and it
is entirely possible that Olive could have scored as well as some of
us. David was tonight’s Jonah getting four unanswered in his
first 5 questions.
Anyway an excellent end to our season (for the Opsimaths especially)
and it is good to know that human setters, rather than AI, have what
it takes to compile cunning and enjoyable teasers.
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Quiz paper set by...
...
'Knocked Out United'
Average Aggregate score 68.0
Somewhat harder than
our average this season (about 8
points harder to be precise - which is a fair bit in our world).
Also I fancy the team going second (in our case the Opsis) had a
disproportionate advantage on the night.
As for the favourite
round of the evening
there was a real spread of opinion. Double 'A's, Dad's
Army, West Ham and Scales all had their fans. In the end the
preponderance of mentions for Round 7 ('These are a few of my
favourite things') by Ethel won the vote - and the bottle of
wine at the End of Season event in a fortnight.
1975: last 'All English' Cup
winners
(R4)
... and these were
Ivor's views ...
As expected a good range of themes and questions and perhaps it was
to be expected that the level of difficulty was to be increased.
An example was Round 7, Q1. Spencer Percival would be an
answer in The Chase, John Bellingham an answer in
Mastermind, but Russia would be University Challenge
style knowledge. We did enjoy most rounds and not surprisingly
the old stuff (footie and sit-coms from 50 year’s ago), and little
(mostly forgotten) snippets from O and A levels.
Favourite rounds? The Scales and Dad’s Army - but all were
worthy. If we did not know the answer we are blinking idiots.
If we cannot spot a theme it was always likely I would plump for a
totally wrong state (Oregon instead of Maine; only 3000 mile apart
or so). Of course we are no better when a theme is announced
as a rule and end up anticipating absent questions; no Maastricht in
the 'AA' round, and no Mainwaring in the Dad’s Army round.
"Arguably the best wicket keeper the game has ever seen"
(R6/Q2)
Question of
the Week
This week i have chosen the Round which got the 'Best Round' vote
(Round 7 'These are a few of my favourite things') and have picked
out Question 2 which an inspired Charlotte got right by knowing the
only US President who had a middle name beginning with the letter
'K' ...
The United States bullion depository shares its name with the
middle name of which President, born in a log cabin in North
Carolina?
For the answer to this and all the week's other questions click
here .
... and also
Next week (May 7th)
The Alexandra (from the Stockport League) and our own
Prodigals will fight it out at The Alexandra Pub in Edgeley to
decide who wins this year's WIST Champions Trophy, and so has the
bragging rights to call themselves the best quiz team in South
Manchester for at least the next 12 months.
This year Greg
Spiller (who plays in both leagues) has set the paper.
Do get to The Alex if
you can (195 Northgate Rd, Edgeley, Stockport SK3 9NJ) to support
our team. It's a great pub and very hospitable - and there are
always free sandwiches on offer after the match is over.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The week after next
(May 14th) we have our End of Season evening at the Albert Club when
prizes will be dished out and we can reflect on the season just
completed.
Barry McNorton who is
leaving these parts (and KFD) for a retirement in East Anglia will
not only do the honours and present the trophies but entertain us
with a quiz he has prepared for the evening.
Can teams who have
trophies on their mantelpieces please make sure the inscriptions are
up-to-date (i.e. include a record of their own achievement last
season) and bring them along on May 14th.
By my reckoning
trophies should be currently in the following hands:
Barry
Whitehead Shield: Ethel Rodin
WIST
Champions Cup: Prodigals
Val
Draper Cup: Ethel Rodin
WithQuiz Plate:
History Men
Question of the Season Shield:
Albert
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Whilst editing this week's 'Knocked
Out United', paper the Prodigals decided to carry out an AI
quiz-setting experiment.
These are the results Anne-Marie has
sent me:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AI: In Plain Sight - Just
for Fun
Anne-Marie writes
"These are the instructions we fed to
AI (which were the same instructions we gave our 'Actual
Intelligence Bot' for comparison) ...
The most important aspect of this
round is the AI theme - to achieve this, every answer will contain
the letters 'A' and 'I' consecutively at some point. Please
write me 12 questions.
-
Ensure the
answer of every question contains the letters 'ai'
consecutively, e.g. 'Paint', 'Haiti', 'Laila Ali'
-
Cover off a
range of typical trivia topics: history, sport, culture, current
UK affairs, general knowledge, geography etc.
-
Aim for an
advanced level of difficulty
-
When you
provide the answer, please also give a line of context that
could resolve disputes or additional info. quizzers might
appreciate.”
And this is what AI came up with ...
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Questions |
Answers |
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1 |
Which Baroque painter,
known for his dramatically lit scenes and turbulent
compositions, created masterpieces such as "The Calling
of Saint Matthew" and "Death of the Virgin"? |
Caravaggio
(Michelangelo Merisi da
Caravaggio was known for his revolutionary technique of
tenebrism, or dramatic illumination) |
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2 |
This Pacific island
nation declared independence from New Zealand in 1962
and has its capital at Apia. |
Samoa
(Formerly known as
Western Samoa until 1997, it consists of two main
islands: Savai'i and Upolu) |
|
3 |
Founded in 1909, which prestigious motorsport race is
held annually on the Sarthe circuit in France? |
24 Hours of Le Mans
(First held in 1923, it's
considered one of motorsport's "Triple Crown" events
alongside the Monaco Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500 |
|
4 |
Which 1996 thriller film
stars Denzel Washington as a former Secret Service agent
who must prevent a terrorist attack during a football
game? |
The Siege
(Directed by Edward Zwick,
it also stars Bruce Willis and Annette Bening and
explores themes of civil liberties during
counter-terrorism operations) |
|
5 |
In Norse mythology, what
is the name of the rainbow bridge that connects Midgard
(Earth) to Asgard (realm of the gods)? |
Bifröst or Bifrost
(In Norse cosmology, it
was guarded by the god Heimdall, who could hear grass
growing and possessed extraordinary vision) |
|
6 |
What ancient Egyptian
board game, whose name means "passing," was played on a
board with thirty squares arranged in three rows of ten? |
Senet
(Dating back to 3500 BCE,
it's one of the oldest known board games and was often
included in burial chambers for the afterlife journey |
|
7 |
Which British government
department, headed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
is responsible for public finance and economic policy? |
HM Treasury
(Officially "Her
Majesty's Treasury," it occupies the Government Offices
Great George Street building in Westminster) |
|
8 |
Known for his detailed
anatomical studies and pioneering dissections, which
16th-century Belgian physician is considered the founder
of modern anatomy? |
Andreas Vesalius
(His 1543 work "De Humani
Corporis Fabrica" revolutionized the study of anatomy
and corrected many errors from Galen's earlier work) |
|
9 |
This painful inflammatory
condition affects joints, particularly in the big toe,
and is caused by elevated levels of uric acid in the
blood. |
Gout
(Historically called "the
disease of kings" due to its association with rich foods
and alcohol consumption) |
|
10 |
Which Ukrainian-born
American abstract expressionist painter is known for his
"Color Field" paintings and large-scale works featuring
rectangular blocks of color? |
Mark Rothko
(Born Marcus Rothkowitz,
he rejected the label of "abstract expressionist" and
committed suicide in 1970) |
|
11 |
What type of tropical
cyclone that forms in the northwestern Pacific Ocean is
equivalent to a hurricane in the Atlantic? |
Typhoon
(These storms are called
hurricanes in the Atlantic/Northeast Pacific, cyclones
in the South Pacific/Indian Ocean, and typhoons in the
Northwest Pacific) |
|
12 |
The indigenous people of
northern Japan, who have recently gained official
recognition, are known by what name? |
Ainu
(They have a distinct
language and cultural practices including intricate
textile art and oral traditions) |
I think the subtleties of WithQuiz
question setting are safe (for now). Only one answer out of the 12
fits the brief. I have been very tempted to edit the
questions, and don’t get me started in on the American English use,
but I resisted. We used Claude 3.7 Sonnet. If anyone is
interested in seeing the Chat GBT questions, drop me a message on my
email annemarie.glennon@gmail.com
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