24th March - Question Masters

This week it was the turn of the Phoenix to ask the questions in the B League. It is amazing that the questions can be scrutinised by both teams (the Church House Sutton set the Specialist) and then on the night you are confronted by something that is so obviously wrong and you thought you had removed it (Winter Q6); that, and the fact that one question was omitted altogether (GK76). Apologies for that.

Other than that, it seems the questions were regarded as balanced if rather obscure - the results will tell a truer story when published.

Nick covered the Pack Horse Bowling Club, the new home of The Baths team following the pub's closure. It is a very large and comfortable building selling Hyde's ales that are well kept and it is good that the quiz team found this haven. Other teams in the League can help them stay there by taking advantage of the bar giving good reason for the quiz team always to be made welcome. Perhaps with time the Club will go so far as to provide refreshments that are currently provided by the team themselves.

Comments below from other teams are welcome, if with some trepidation.

EXORCISM AT THE CHURCH HOUSE

The demons of the Phoenix (to win every game in the second half of the season) were decisively rooted out by the Church house Bollington. It was all prophet and big loss.

The Church House is a highly respected pub with a good reputation for food; there were three real ales on the bar including the almost-local Beartown Kodiak Gold - most welcome. It has had some ups and downs over the past couple of years but has now settled down with a firm customer base - and a very strong quiz team.

The questions by the Ox-FFord were very good indeed and will no doubt see some big scores this week - including the Phoenix; the Specialist rounds saw some new ideas (see link at right) but just did not fall the Phoenix' way - by the half-way mark the Church House were winning by 87 to 54!! We've never been so far behind at this stage before.

The General Knowledge questions saw a more even contest but the Phoenix were unable to make up the deficit with a final score of 182 to 147 - the Phoenix tally of 147 is enough to win most weeks but the Church House were so enthusiastic  about winning points they even started to answer the Phoenix' questions at one stage!

The departed spirits were soon replaced with a selection of sandwiches, pork pies and sausage rolls and the Phoenix returned home bloodied, de-spirited but unbowed.

Individual scores were Bob 15/24, Wendy 9/18, Nick 9/18 and Tomo 9/15; conferred points were 10/15 and a wretched 2/5 passovers shows the strength of the home team who garnered 9/8 passovers.

A great game by the Church House - well done!!

Third Meeting With The Plough - this time at home

Getting rather incestuous this! The return match with the Plough in the League, we played them in the Cup and Granville has asked the questions at the Tavern the previous two weeks. A great bunch with equal amounts of knowledge and humour but this time we had our mascot Rosie!

The Specialist questions were set by The George & Dragon with some new twists on the rounds, in particular the History and Geography - see link at right.

However, although the Phoenix enjoyed the questions and marked them quite highly, there were no big scores - in fact at the end of the Specialist the Phoenix were trailing by 51 to 42 and Nick had scored 0!! So it was with some trepidation that the Phoenix settled down for the General Knowledge questions.

Our fears were justified - it is hard to believe that the laid-back and friendly guys we had met only  the previous week could produce such a set of questions - is it really the same team? By question 20, two questions were already vying for the title of the most ridiculous of the season: would it be "What is the fastest ever recorded speed of someone travelling on a jet-powered skateboard?" (Q5) or "What is macropocide?" (Q19) - if anyone is interested the answer to the second one is the killing of kangaroos!!!

Nevertheless, the questions allowed the Phoenix to slowly make up the difference and gradually overtake the Plough eventually finishing with 114 to 93 - it is a sad irony that the questions that we judged very harshly and gave (for the first time I can remember) 0 marks were what allowed the Phoenix to save the day.

Wendy continued with her strong performance this season, with Tomo scoring a good 24 but otherwise the questons just did not fall our way.

Individual scores were Bob 6/3, Wendy 9/12, Nick 0/9 and Tomo 9/15; conferred points were 10/15 with passovers 8/18. The Plough picked up just 6/5 passovers evidence of very strong team work by the Phoenix.

A fine spread of sandwiches rounded off the evening - thank you Brian and Tracey

3rd March - The Cup Quarter Finals

For the quarter final of the Cup, we were drawn against The Albion currently top in the C League with John Hargreaves the top scorer in the individual merits. It certainly would not be The Fall of Albion as foreseen by William Blake (Albion dancing aside).

Steve was making a welcome appearance in Wendy's absence and for the second week running the genial question master was Granville from The Plough Taverners.

The questions were quite good but the importance of balance meant there were a large number of follow-on questions - i.e. consecutive questions taking the same form. (See link at right)

Since all questions were conferrred there are no individual scores, and the Phoenix managed to win most of the six rounds with a small margin. Final score was 102 to 82, a well-fought contest.

This means that the Phoenix will now go forward to the semi-final to play one of the teams from the Ox-Fford or The Dolphin who are towering above the rest in the A League - bring it on!!

A well-lubricated evening ended with a lovely selection of sandwiches - thank you Brian and Tracey.