Volume 3

Latest reports are at the top of the panel below.
To read the answers, run your mouse cursor over the 'Answer' box

Report on Finals Night

Grimsby and District Quiz League held their Finals and Presentations Evening at the Bird’s Eye Club in Ladysmith Road, Grimsby on Monday, 26th April, 2010 when four Finals were keenly contested. Master of Ceremonies was Chairman Malc Towle and our special guest was Nigel Lowther, editor of The Cleethorpes Chronicle, who made a fine job of presenting the League’s impressive collection of silverware.

Team Knock-out Final

The participants here were Swats of Division 1 and Magic Robots from the Second Division, who enjoyed a 10 points start on handicap. It was an extremely close affair almost throughout but the top division side just edged out the gallant Robots, after a pretty testing set of questions from Time Out.

Individual Shield

This is a competition restricted to players from Divisions 2 and 3 only and this year featured a past champion in Graham Jackson of Time Out and Dick Burtle of Minders, who was making his first assault on this particular prize. After Dick went first and scored a creditable 14 out of 20, Graham found Harry Buck’s questions very much to his liking and took the honours with a brilliant 18.

The trophy is named in honour of the late Gwyneth Welham, who still holds the record as the oldest participant in the famous TV quiz Mastermind, when she was 87!

Individual Open

The level of questions went up a higher notch for this much-coveted award. Mick Cavanagh posed some very searching ones to Pete Sinclair of Rafa Dipsos and Alan Bentley of Nemesis and Alan took the spoils with 13 out of 20 to Pete’s 10 to regain the Title he narrowly lost last year to Andrew Hunter, a past renowned Mastermind and Brain of Britain contestant- such is the standard in this League.

Pairs Competition

Pete Sinclair and Andy Alcock (Rafa Dipsos) and Denis Brown and Pete Gardner (Nemesis) had emerged from the pack for this showdown but the Second Division pairing of Pete and Andy, who had a 6 point opening advantage on handicap, stormed away to a convincing win in a disappointing finale. Andrew Hunter of Surplus Rowdies provided a well-balanced question-set.

Other Winners

A Few Questions

Review of League Season 2009-10

Before going into the following review, I wish to place on record the grateful thanks of myself and my Committee to the editorial staff of the Cleethorpes Chronicle, for their peerless coverage of our affairs during the 2009-10 Season.

Division 1

In my preview for the 2009-10 Season, I predicted that Surplus Rowdies had to be regarded as the favourites to lift their umpteenth title in the top division. This has been borne out but only just, in the closest finish for years.

Rowdies prevailed by the slender margin of 32 on 'goal average' over a gallant Nemesis, who ended on equal points. The signing of Alan Bentley, prior to the 2008-9 campaign, strengthened an already highly-capable squad and Rowdies may yet meet the wrath of the Goddess of Retribution in some future season!

Rasen, predictably, found the top division a little more challenging than of yore but still managed to win half of their matches. Imps and Apostles found the going very tough and were relegated, each having only one victory to show for their efforts, although Imps lost an intriguing early fixture with the eventual Champions by a single point!

Division 2

In my preview I said that Rafa Dipsos would be eager to regain their top division status at the first attempt and this they achieved after an inauspicious start.

They had to wait until their last game before being crowned Champions, however. Their final opponents were Pond Life, who would themselves have snatched the glory had they taken the 2 points.

The two sides going down to Division 3 were Serendipity, who lost out to Quizlings on a 'goal average' of a mere 8 points, and Minders, the team of Committee Secretary Tree Singleton, who had but a single win all season in a Division in which they could reasonably have been expected to finish in one of the promotion spots.

Division 3

After my preview, this must have been the shock result of the year! After I placed my team in the also-rans, or rank outsiders, Bux Kwiz won every match bar two, both of which were lost by a single point.

One of these losses, the last match of the season, was to Woodentops, the team I had tipped for the championship, and they finished as runners-up.

Belligerent Fools had a remarkably poor season, after I had rated them as having an outside chance of lifting the Title, but redeemed themselves somewhat by winning their last two fixtures, even though it proved too late to avoid the dreaded wooden spoon.

Another fancied side was Time Out but they ended in a highly disappointing fourth place with only four wins from ten games.

Report on The Easter Table Quiz

Bird’s Eye Club, Ladysmith Road
Tuesday, March 30th 2010

This has now become a well-established event and this year saw a very high attendance for the themed quiz, which had been arranged and asked by Alan Bentley, assisted by his mates from Nemesis. I think most people thoroughly enjoyed the night and agreed that Alan and party had done an excellent job.

The Scores

* A pseudonym for Belligerent Fools
+ Team not currently in the League

The overall winners, Swats, won one of the easter eggs and the rest were drawn out of the hat. The Picture round saw some high scores but the snap of a young John Prescott fooled everyone.

He was stunningly good-looking.
Thought it was Dirk Bogarde!
Just shows what a load of pies will do...
Ed. ;-)

Just a smattering of the questions

Report on Pond Life v RAFA Dipsos

RAFA Club 15th March 2010

Andrew Hunter is not only a Quiz Whiz but also a whiz with computers and it is he who compiles the fixtures every year. He excelled in setting this particular confrontation as the last match of the season.

Pond Life were but a point away from the leaders and needed a win to seal a highly-successful first assault on the championship of Division 2, after going through the previous season as unbeaten champs. of Division 3. At the close of Round 8 their chances were still very much alive with Dipsos only ahead by 67 to 66 but they garnered 18 points from the last two rounds, to only 10 from Pond Life, and Mick Cavanagh’s gallant crew of Tim, Raoul and Colin had finally to yield at 85-76.

So Dipsos are the new Champions of Division 2 and will be accompanied into the top flight by the Pond Lifers. Dipsos had reversed a bad start to the season to reclaim their place justly in the First Division. They were well served by veterans Pete Sinclair, Andy Alcock and Steve Pycroft and new member Roy Starling, making a comeback after a long absence from the local scene.

The following night saw a crucial clash between Surplus Rowdies and old foes Swats and, in a game which Rowdies had to win, they triumphed by a mere 2 points and will be champions, once again, unless Nemesis can overcome bottom club Apostles by more than 56 points in the very last fixture!

Some brain teasers from Frank Singleton’s testing questions.

Report on Bux Kwiz v Somnambulists

Division 3 at Bridge Club 08-03-2010

In my preview for the current season, I classed my team as rank outsiders for the Championship of the basement division but, here we were going for an unassailable top spot, after an amazing season when our only defeat had been at the hands of Two Wits (by a single point).

We were without one of our most successful players in Tim Burley but I had recruited a real last minute “ringer” in Paul Garnett, late of the defunct Simple Minds side, and he proved a revelation.

We established an early lead on the sleepwalkers and finally ran out winners and Division 3 champs by 82-52 on an interesting question-set by John of Nemesis. He had earlier played his part in one of the biggest shocks of the season when his side narrowly overcame the hitherto undefeated Surplus Rowdies superstars 96-92.

Nemesis had entered the last round with a lead of 11 points but just managed to hold off their dogged rivals. They are now locked level on points and everything now hinges on the last two games. Nemesis should overcome bottom side Apostles but Rowdies have a much more difficult task against Swats, who are always capable of springing a surprise.

A few questions from the Division 3 match

Note:

In Swats' match against Apostles, Geoff Swanney kept a clean sheet, scoring 10/10.

[ Ed.]

Report on Team KO Round 2

Serendipity v Woodentops

This game pitted Division 2 against Division 3, the lower Division side, Woodentops, receiving 7 points start. The score at half-time stood at 54-47 to Woodentops and, as someone remarked, could have been looked upon as a waste of time - take away the handicap and the scores were tied!

The Division 3 side pulled away to double the advantage at the close of a pretty even contest and progressed to the quarter-finals after a 103-89 success. Captain Janet Gardner had able lieutenants in Tim, Lawrie and Mike and the side of discoveries by happy accidents were led to effect by Bob Potter with telling contributions from Martin, Rick and Phil.

Out of the 80 questions, there were 35 answered for 3, 27 for conferred 2, 12 single points picked up from the opposition. The following questions were left unanswered by all:

These you have loathed (point zeros)

Report on Pond Life v Serendipity

This clash occurred on Tuesday, 23rd February at the RAFA Club as a bitter Nor-easter raged outside. Pond Life were there to further their highly-legitimate claims to the Division 2 Championship and they came away with a convincing 90-59 success to heap maximum pressure on Rafa Dipsos whom they will meet in the last game of the season. Watch this space for your reporter will have to be there!

The Pondsmen led throughout and took half-time refreshment at 52-27. Bob Potter’s crew had a much better closing half, only going down 38-32 but Mick Cavanagh’s men were never really troubled and he was ably abetted by Raoul, Telegraph Tim and Colin. Bob took his defeat philosophically as did his little helpers Martin, Bob 2 and Phil.

Questions that produced blank looks and nil points (as the French would have it)

Pairs Competition Round 1

Traces of the previous week’s snow were still evident as players braved the cold to attend this popular event at two venues again. Malc Towle was in charge at the R.A.F.A. Club and Andrew Hunter was the organizer at the Bridge Club.

At the end of an enjoyable night, the following duos went through to the quarter finals:-

The big surprise of the whole event was the non-qualification of possibly the two best players in the League, Alan Bentley and Andrew Hunter, and this after they opened with a stunning victory over the Pilcher/Jackson combo, who went on to qualify.

The questions- Just a flavour

Report on Quizlings v Minders

League Division 2 - RAFA Club 25th January, 2010

This fixture, on Burns’ Night, featured a dog fight over the haggis of precious League points. No one in their right mind would have expected the pretty-strong Minders side to have reached the second half of the season still searching for their first points but here they were, desperately trying to kick-start their season in January!

At the end of the affair, the Quizlings were overthrown in no uncertain manner and confidence restored. Half-time was reached at 47-30 to Minders, who were never headed, and the second half saw their score exactly doubled and they cantered home by 94-68.

Captain Geoff Turner marshaled his troops to great effect and got maximum response from Tree, Dick and Olive, while evergreen Bill Mercer led with his usual quiet panache and his good humour proved catching for Joe, Sue and Dave.

No takers!

Report on Minders v Magic Robots

RAFA Club, Tuesday, 8th December, 2009

I have been reporting on Quiz League affairs for about a decade and cannot ever remember covering a Robots fixture before, so this is an opportunity to right this long-standing omission.

Each of these teams has a yo-yo reputation - alternating between the first and second divisions with almost bewildering regularity. In my preview for this season, I gave the opinion that both Robots and Minders would provide stern opposition to the favourites for the Division 2 title, R.A.F.A. Dipsos but, whereas the Robots have fully borne this out, Minders have now reached the half-way stage of the season without a single point!

They went down 67-83 in a tussle that was always interesting but, in which, the result was never really in doubt from Round 2 onwards.

Robots’ perennial star, Dave Hill, was his usual brilliant self and he was very well supported by Mike, Nigel and Graham. Minders displayed a certain lack of confidence, following their unpredicted plight but Tree, Dick, Olive and Geoff kept their good humour while their World tumbled around them!

Know that feeling - Ed. ::wry grin::

Questions scoring 'Nil Points'

Report on The Table Quiz

Bird’s Eye Club, Ladysmith Road Tuesday, 1st December, 2009

This is the annual Christmas get-together to which all teams are invited. There are awards for the winners of each Division of the League and the quiz features rounds on various 'themes.'

There is the opportunity to play a 'joker' in just one of the rounds and there is a certain skill in deciding which round is likely to be the best one to choose in order to double the team’s score for that round.

There is a pronounced difference between league quizzes and table quizzes in that all of one’s squad can play and every player is able to participate fully.

The turnout this year was down on 2008 in that only 10 teams took part as against the 13 of a year ago. This was still a reasonable attendance on a cold and cheerless Winter evening, however. Division 1 had 3 out of 6, Division 2 only 2 of 6 and Division 3 fielded 4 from 6. Thw winners were:

Other scores:

The setting of the questions poses enormous problems in a table quiz, where the players are of unequal standard, but the men of R.A.F.A. Dipsos, namely Andy Alcock, Pete Sinclair and Steve Pycroft did a grand job and were warmly thanked by Chairman Malc Towle at the close of an enjoyable occasion.

Just a Sample

Report on Rounds 1 & 2 of the
Individual Shield 2009-10

Link to Results from the Individual Competitions

There were some close matches and some surprises. Mick Cavanagh was last year’s losing finalist and was probably this year’s favourite for the title but he found the questions not to his taste and succumbed to Time Out’s Alan Pilcher by 3 points.

Alan’s fellow Time Outer, Graham Jackson, produced a near flawless 13 against Mark Robinson from Somnambulists who could only manage a mere 5. Prue Whincup (Somnambulists) was amazed when she edged out the Quizlings Queen, and previous double-champion, Sue Fytche by 8-7.

Graham Jackson and Geoff Turner progressed to the semi-final by default - Geoff being particularly unfortunate in having turned up and not playing! In the only two matches played, Alan Pilcher had a relatively easy passage over Prue Whincup but old stager Bill Mercer of Quizlings had a titanic struggle with Dick Burtle of Minders for Dick to scrape through by a single point in a high scoring affair.

So the semi-finals will be contested by two players from Time Out (Alan and Graham) and two from Minders (Geoff and Dick).

Report on Two Wits v Bux Kwiz

Tuesday, 20th October, 2009

This match, from the base of the basement Division 3 - or the lowest of the low, proved that, even in such murky depths of the league, an excitingly close contest may be enjoyed even though many of the questions, posed by a masochistic Bob Potter of Serendipity, bordered on the 'Mastermind' level.

The whole game hinged on the very last question: "What is the age of criminal responsibility in the UK?"

Bux failed to respond successfully and League Chairman Malc Towle plucked out the answer "10" to end the proceedings at 58-57 and send the four half-wits home happy.

Their disgruntled opponents, feeling just like the current Liverpool players, slunk away to lick their wounds. Captain Malc was well served by fun-time Frankie, Chris and Tilly, and Bux had on display a quartet that should surely be in the 'Stiffs' in any other league, namely Mick, Tim, Geoff and Harry.

N.B. Reserve teams are sometimes referred to as the 'Stiffs.'

Report on Last Night's Excellent Contest

Surplus Rowdies v Imps - Bridge Club, Monday, 12th October, 2009

In my preview for the new season, I stated that, in my opinion, it was difficult to imagine any side other than Rowdies lifting the Division 1 Trophy for the umpteenth time, even though Imps and Apostles were "lurking in the background, ready to cause the occasional surprise." Then the fixtures threw up this match so early in the season!

After an amazing contest, Rowdies scraped home 90-89 after a case of 2 distinct halves. The first 5 rounds ended 46-36 in favour of Rowdies but rounds 6 to 10 yielded a swing of 53-44 to Imps.

Overall, there were 42 answers for 3 points, 19 for 2 conferred points. 15 single points picked up from the opposition and only 4 questions remaining unanswered by either side.

Both sides displayed a remarkable level of general knowledge and Sue, Rodney, Carol and Andy could hardly have given it a better shot, causing Ian, Pete, Andrew and Nick some very anxious moments in the closing few rounds!

*Imps captain over-ruled herself on this one. ::sigh:: Ed.

Report on the Table Quiz

29th September, 2009

This took place at the Bird’s Eye Club and was supported by 9 teams. Questions were posed by Mick Cavanagh, of Pond Life, and consisted of 4 rounds with 20 questions in each. The most interesting question was this:-

In which year did Henry the Eighth’s daughter Elizabeth become Elizabeth the First? The answer of '1952' initially caused some bewilderment and Mick had to explain that she was only known as Queen Elizabeth until the present Queen came to the throne as Elizabeth the Second! It will be fascinating to speculate on the future year in which King John will become John the First!

The winners were Nemesis, with Rafa Dipsos, Surplus Rowdies and Bux Kwiz second, third and fourth respectively. Others taking part were Minders, Pond Life, Somnambulists, Time Out and Two Wits.

The proceeds were presented to the charity of the choice of the team members of Nemesis. I must say that I much preferred the format to the normal 'themed' quiz. In the case of the latter, there are bound to occur themes such as Pop, Science Fiction* and Sport which have limited appeal to some players, who may then tend to lose interest. I must stress that this is purely my own opinion.

* Could be much worse, Harry - could be
Reality T.V. and Soap Operas! ;-) Ed.

Scores

Preview of 2009/10 Season

There is a distinct possibility that our results and tables will be published, this Season, in the weekly Cleethorpes' Chronicle. We used to enjoy excellent coverage in the G.E.T. but this dried up long ago.*

Division 1

The outstanding achievements of Surplus Rowdies over the years, bearing in mind that they now include the remnant of the, now defunct, Rams superstars, are unsurpassed and it would, therefore, be rather foolish of me to propound a theory that their reign is about to end.

Their opposition for the new term is likely to be fronted by Nemesis and Swats with Apostles and Imps lurking in the background, ready to cause the occasional surprise. Rasen, having finally reached the 'pantheon,' may initially struggle to establish themselves in the top flight.

Division 2

The shock of relegation for Rafa Dipsos can only spur them to strive for an immediate return to their rightful place in the League’s premier Division but they have stern opponents in Magic Robots and Minders. It will also be fascinating to see how the dark horses of Pond Life, who dropped not a single point in last year’s Division 3, fare in more exalted company.

Division 3

In this 'fun' Division, it is very difficult to predict a winner. Woodentops were very unlucky to be relegated and must be considered favourites to lift the trophy but Time Out will always be a threat and the rest are all capable of springing the occasional surprise, with Belligerent Fools the outsiders. The rank outsiders are sleepwalkers, four half-wits and the only team which incorporates the name of one of its players- what a bucking big’ead!

Harry Buck

* Which is why this site was set up... Ed.