27th November Cup and Plate

The Phoenix were not playing as they had secured a bye to the next round, but they had to provide one question master. The plan was to make it a social gathering in the Tavern but due to various family and work commitments just Nick was left to ask the questions. Fortunately Tomo arrived just in time to keep an eye on Nick and his repeated scoring cockups.
As one set of the questions had been considerably delayed the two sets had not been vetted as was obvious when the questions were read out: there were two questions on China's longest rivers (does anyone know the third longest? It's actually the Pearl river), there were two questions on the British Prime Minister at the time of the Suez War, some questions could have a variety of answers (Fitzroy, who accompanied Darwin on the Beagle did a lot more than give his name to a shipping area and the Met Office) or were incomplete (the Ganges Delta whilst partly being in India, has two-thirds of its extent in Bangladesh where the floods cause most damage).
The questions can be seen by clicking here
The quiz was in good spirits and it was good to see the Phoenix sister team win despite their grumbles. A fine selection of sandwiches rounded off an evening of quizzing and fine ales.

Away to The Knot

Please click here for the questions -
We thought we had seen the last of The Knot when they finished 2^nd at the end of last season (having beaten the Phoenix both at home and away!!) and were eligible for promotion to the A League. But then Fate intervened and as two teams dropped out with just one new team signing up it meant that only the team in first position was promoted. Undeterred by this setback, The Knot have started the season with a great run of 5 wins out of 5 games and are sitting comfortably at the top of the League. Nevertheless the Phoenix made up 30% of the top ten scorers, with Bob, Wendy and Tomo all making an appearance.
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Wendy had volunteered to do the long drive to Rushton Spencer and was very keen to show off the heated passenger seat, despite Nick’s constant anxiety about the effect the warm seat might have on his cold body (he believes putting cold feet into hot water gives chilblains and was drawing uncomfortable parallels …).

The Knot is a large pub originally built in 1853 next to the newly-built station on the North Staffordshire Railway, later a victim to Beeching’s destruction. It offered a warm welcome and a choice of three real ales.

The Specialist questions had been set by the New Castle who were kind enough to send two lovely young ladies as questionmaster and timekeeper. The questions were very well received, with a different slant being given to the five mandatory rounds and inventive questions for the remaining three. At the end of the Specialist the Phoenix were ahead with a score of 67 to 48.

The General Knowledge questions had been set by The Cock and were of uneven quality – some were very easy bog-standard questions and others terribly obscure. At the end of the rounds, the Phoenix had increased their lead with a score of 77 to 68. If there was an imbalance in the questions it was clearly to the advantage of the Phoenix. The final score was 144 to 116 in favour of the Phoenix. I feel it is probably true to say that the Knot had called on their strength in depth and did not necessarily turn out their strongest team - there were dark murmurs of pantomimes etc.

Individual results were Bob 15/18, Wendy 15/12, Nick 12/9 and Tomo 12/18; conferred points were 5/13 and passovers 8/7. Obviously the top three scorers were determined to hang on to their places in the top ten doing so with strong team work as The Knot only picked up 3/5 passovers.

At the end of the quiz the landlord showed why they have built a good reputation as a food pub with a selection of generously stuffed sandwiches.

A very pleasant evening - thankyou The Knot, the team and the landlord.

November 10th -Home to the Plough Taverners

Last weeks comments were rather reticent but having now seen the full results for all Leagues it seems proper to add a little detail. Bob's magnificent score of 39 whilst being equalled by the Albion's John Hargreaves was otherwise only beaten by Mark Watson's astounding 54 and Liz Horrocks' 42 in the A League. The overall score of 144 beat all teams in the B and C Leagues and whilst being equalled by one in the A League was only beaten by 2 in the A League. A great game for the Phoenix.
Despite this result the Phoenix gathered on 10th to play the Plough Taverners with some trepidation - whilst being third in the League, it was actually 3rd equal with the Albion and our opponents for the night both of whom had a game in hand - and without being too cynical that means 5th!! Nevertheless we had the benefit of a home game with the (rather noisy!!!) home supporters and no distraction from football. The Specialist questions were something of a tour de force by Rick Davies of the Church House Bollington and put a fresh slant on the categories (so much so that the Lamb vetoed the Science round which sounded interesting). At the end of the Specialist rounds the Phoenix had managed a slight lead of 46 to 41 - nothing to get complacent about there!
The General Knowledge questions were by The Lamb and were well received - again the Phoenix ended the rounds with a slight lead of 80 to 70. Wendy maintained her high-scoring rate but this week was overtaken by Tomo with a very strong 30.
All the questions can be seen by clicking here

Individual scores were Bob 9/12, Wendy 6/21, Nick 9/6, Tomo 12/18 with conferred points 3/13  and passovers 2/10;  the Taverners picked up 9/5 passovers emphasising the strong team work of the Phoenix who eventually won by 126 to 111.

It was a most enjoyable evening with old friends and adversaries overseen with humour and tolerance by the Church house questionmaster, rounded off with a generous supper of sausages, onions, chips and bread and butter. Many thanks to Brian and Tracey and the Plough Taverners.

To see the night's questions click here

The Phoenix were at home this week playing against the British Flag, a team we have met on several occasions with fluctuating results. It was therefore with some trepidation that the Phoenix took their places with the Tavern's excellent ale and cider. However, the questions suited the Phoenix and by the end of the specialist rounds they had edged ahead with a lead of 51 to 35. With confidence bolstered the General Knowledge rounds were tackled with more of the Tavern's refreshments and the lead was increased with a score of 93 to 80.
The questions we felt were balanced and the specialist in particular unusual; the Phoenix played a very disciplined game keeping all the questions “on the table” and allowing the Flag little chance to pick up pass-overs.
Bob and Wendy set a fine example while Nick and Tomo played a strong rearguard defence, individual scores being Bob 18/21, Wendy 9/21, Nick 3/18 and Tomo 3/18; conferred points were 12/9 and passovers 6/6. That the Flag only picked up 7/5 passovers is testament to the fine team play of the Phoenix
A most enjoyable game rounded off with a fine selection of sandwiches.

Problems accessing the questions

I've had some correspondence with Google and think I may have cracked the problem.

In future the link will be in the text as Questions and clicking on it should work.

Still need to work on the funny layout

Any problems please the Comments