The Lemmings were facing the Bate in the second leg of the League games – at the last battle the Lemmings scraped through by a very narrow margin so they knew it would not be an easy game. The Bate are old friends through their various manifestations from the Cricket Club and however close it was going to be a fun-filled night.
Wendy had recovered sufficiently to take part but Rosie had decided to stay in and watch the Manchester City and Barcelona game on TV.
The questions had been set by the Knot Know-alls and included some interesting ideas including fashion, the eye and even cake. A couple of questions however led to some discussion: both Bob and Nick felt the answer to GK47 was Gluck but the given answer is correct – Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo was written 155 years before Gluck’s. More contentious was Q3 in A Piece of Cake – not only was 
At the end of the Specialist rounds the Bate had slipped ahead by one point with 52 to 51 – not going well!! But the Lemmings recovered their composure in the General Knowledge and slowly built up a lead finishing with 75 points to the Bate’s 60 – final score 126 to 112 in the Lemmings’ favour.
Special mention must be made of the questionmaster from the Cock-A-2 – not only did he have to contend with the usual noise generated by the ladies’ darts competition but the Tavern was invaded by a party from a neighbouring pub making it very difficult to hear the questions – not the QM’s fault at all and he handled the problem with good grace and skill.
Individual scores were Bob 9/15, Wendy 15/21, Nick 6/9 and Tomo 12/15; conferred points were 5/7 with 4/8 pass-overs – the Bate picked up 7/9 pass-overs.
Manchester City lost 2-1 – Rosie’s reaction is not known at the moment.
Brian then supplied an excellent cheeseboard with delicious French baguettes and chutneys to round off the evening – many thanks Brian, the Bate and the unflappable questionmaster.
4 comments:
Not the easiest of nights for most of us. The outcome was another marginal win for the Robin, having fallen 20 behind at one point in the GKs. I’m going to put in a word for our opponents, the Park Taverners, as Nick has mentioned before, a genuinely good-humoured bunch; still smiling (and knocking back the Vino Bianco, whilst clearly enthused by the Bellini question) at the end of a tough season. Not only that, but a smashing venue in terms of rooming, liquid refreshment (whether it be the copious amounts of Bollington Best or Doppio Espresso that passed our lips) and a cheeseboard that was above and beyond the call of duty – Trevor the QM was given an allocation that cannot have been designed to help his cholesterol level. We probably won’t be playing them next year (one way or another), but we look forward to resuming “hostilities” two years down the line and wish them well in the Plate Final (sorry Nick).
So having done the plaudits, let’s move onto the questions. The Specialists passed by with few remarks (although the “eyes” round was basically the smuggling in of a second science round) and that left us poorly prepared for the GKs. I refer back to my previous post about a “roadkill of armadillos” – and some of the scores were very much in the carnage territory. The Knot had clearly put a huge amount of effort into sourcing the questions and seemed determined to stop any list-learners and quiz-show geeks having fun with an onslaught of current(ish) affairs questions – perhaps this deserves some credit. However, I’m not convinced that they were pitched at the right level (fair play to Wendy – 36 points was a hell of a score). To imitate Jose Mourinho, I will say nothing more than a list of numbers and leave the audience to judge for themselves - 29, 45, 48*, 58, 62, 79, 88. I’m not sure whether the swing from the Park (first second) to us (first first) in the last 6 or 7 rounds was connected to the questions or us. Maybe it was the Bolly Best, but I walked away with a score of 21 much more content than I have been with similar scores in the past.
*A particular whinge about Q48. I was feeling very smart when I suggested “Capital” but the QM was quite right to reject the title as incomplete because “Capital” was not underlined on the answer sheet. A Google Image of the front cover of said book with a dimuinutive “in the 21st Century” subtitle lurking underneath the dominant single word would suggest that “accept Capital” would have been a good shout on what is not going to be an easy question for the large number of quizzers who do not teach Economics.
There were certainly some obscure questions this week with a few NBA trophy candidates (did anyone know who directed The Imitation Game?) but I can't agree with Nick's nomination. I think the source of the quotation is reasonably well-known - several people in our game knew it - and I thought it was imaginative to link it with cake.
Well, Alice, none of us knew the Imitation Game director, although our awareness of the Academy Awards (for which he was nominated) was somewhat greater than what we knew about "tree of the year". Apparently, the winning oak was delighted, having narrowly missed out on the 1706 award. Seven out of the 10 nominations this year were oaks, something of a bias in the judging?
If I ever see any Bath Blue Cheese, I'm going to ignore it...
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