29th January .- Looks Like We Peaked Too Soon

Away to The Plough, another long-standing team well-known to the Wonderers, now settled in at The Plough after some years as the Cricket Club.

The questions were well thought-out by The British Flag and newcomers to the League The Knot at Rushton, compiling their first set of questions.

If there is any criticism it is that some of the questions were too long! Once again, Nick's shocking memory for names was displayed when he was asked question 5 of round 8; at the beginning of the question he knew it was Kurt Waldheim, but by the time the question master had come to the end he'd forgotten it!!

The Wonderers were missing Wendy but Eric came along as substitute and played a strong game particularly on conferred questions. But the Wonderers seem to have peaked too early in the season, once again trailing by 6 points at the end of the specialist rounds (45/39); they battled back in the General Knowledge but only managed to claw back 4 points eventually losing by 2 points, 110 to 108. It is interesting that conferred and passed over points were very high (Specialist 13/2, General Knowledge 19/11) without which there would have been a much greater gap between us. Individual scores were Bob 9/12, Eric 3/3, Nick 3/12 and Tomo 9/12.

By way of compensation, or perhaps it's just spite, Nick can report an error in one of the answers to the previous round of the Cup/Plate, (Q118) about the birthplace of Mother Teresa; several people had challenged the given answer Yugoslovia (Nick added Skopje when he published the questions). She was born in 1910 but the kingdom of Yugoslavia was not formed until after WW1 in 1918.

And finally, it's surprising that our questions are provoking comments from all over the world - in particular see the comments for the questions of 7 March but also 21 and 27 November.

Excellent refreshments were provided at the end of a good-humoured and hard-fought game.

22nd Jan - Cup Game

Once again we faced the Harrington Arms - this time their B team in the Cup. Found them as friendly as the Academicals, played with good spirit with many laughs in a very close but enjoyable game.

The questions were tough but fairly balanced and the Wonderers were lucky to scrape through just 1 point clear after a great rally by the visitors. Final score 80 to 79.

Brian again had cooked one of his wonderful hams for refreshments and it was a most enjoyable evening.

15th Jan - Home to The Harrington Academicals

The Harrington is a wonderful old pub (until recently part of a working farm) frequently described as "The best pub in Cheshire". It is in the village of Gawsworth just outside Macclesfield. The team are well-known to us as a friendly bunch with a similar approach to the Wonderers - that a quiz night is fun.

However, they pulled no punches in last night's game dealing a blow to our promotion ambitions. We had had a shock earlier in the day when Wendy fell ill and were very lucky to be able to get Steve to cover for her. The specialist questions we thought were very good with a lot of thought having been put into them - in particular, the history picture round where we were shown a series of cartoons and had to identify the event in 2007. Even so we were trailing when the General Knowledge rounds started.

These however were very different: many seemd to based on the premise "They won't get this, ha ha!!"; several questions had been asked in recent quizzes; and again they were lop-sided with an easy question frequently being followed by an obscure one. Judge for yourself by following the link at right.

Having had a chance to read all the questions again, I now think this judgement is too harsh. Sorry.

The Wonderers played cautiously again hampered by Nick's failing memory (couldn't remember the title of "The Grapes of Wrath"!! He tried to cover this up with a joke from Alan Sherman -see end of this entry) and there were no high scorers. Bob 15/6, Steve 9/12, Nick 6/9 and Tomo 9/12. Conferred questions raised another 19 points but the Academicals passed little over and only 14 points were gained from their questions.

It was a game played with good spirit, won by a very good team and rounded off with an excellent spread of sandwiches in particular the ham cooked by landlord Brian only that morning.


With thanks to Alan Sherman:

The Ballad Of Harry Lewis(Parody of "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic")

I'm singing you the ballad
Of a great man of the cloth
His name was Harry Lewis
And he worked for Irving Roth
He died while cutting velvet
On a hot July the 4th
But his cloth goes shining on

Glory, glory Harry Lewis
Glory, glory Harry Lewis
Glory, glory Harry Lewis
His cloth goes shining on

Oh Harry Lewis perished
In the service of his Lord
He was trampling through the warehouse
Where the drapes of Roth are stored
He had the finest funeral
The union could afford
And his cloth goes shining on

Glory, glory Harry Lewis
Glory, glory Harry Lewis
Glory, glory Harry Lewis
His cloth goes shining on

Although a fire was raging
Harry stood by his machine
And when the firemen broke in
They discovered him between
A pile of roasted Dacron
And some french fried gabardine
His cloth goes shining on

Glory, glory Harry Lewis
Glory, glory Harry Lewis
Glory, glory Harry Lewis
His cloth goes shining on

Away to The Baths

The Baths is an old Victorian pub (built 1875) standing silent testament to the old municipal baths that stood around the corner (now council offices). One of the few local pubs left in the town The Baths is known as a real ale pub.

The quiz team are well known to us as they moved from The Beehive following changes there - a very friendly bunch and good fun.

The Wonderers were jaded following their first defeat just before Christmas and the excesses of the holiday period and began cautiously - so much so that at the end of the specialist rounds they were trailing by 9 points and looking decidedly shaky. However they rallied in the General Knowledge round eventually slipping into the lead very late and scraping a close win with 115 to 111.

We were very impressed with the questions which were out of the ordinary and even the mandatory specialist had a novel twist - very different from run of the mill questions. In fact the Wonderers would not have won had there been none of the classical music questions.

Scores were not high except for Bob with 9/24, Wendy 6/9, Nick 3/9 and Tomo 15/9. And again the strength of the team in conferring is illustrated with 23 points and 18 passovers.

A most enjoyable evening ended with a fine selection of sandwiches - thankyou The Baths.