quizmastergc

[quizmastergc]

What height..?

24 March 2022

A similarly quiet night tonight, with at least 5 teams in (one started but did not finish). Everyone seemed in a good mood, and with positive smiles and happy hopes... and then they read the Quiz.

Pluffs appeared somewhat under-represented tonight, and were joined by some Blokes From GC (not a team name). QM steered a couple of questions to prevent time-wasting and arguments (eg "Don't put 'Ice Skating'").

Serious debate followed after The Reading of the Answers. The particular question in dispute was "What is the name of the liqueur obtained from the distillation of Marasca cherries?" Answer: Maraschino. But several teams put Kirsch, and one team requested, then pleaded, then demanded, one point for Kirsch. QM stood her ground and denied the point. Because the answer is correct. Maraschino is made from Marasca cherries, and Kirsch is distilled from Black Morello cherries. The temperature dropped, and bills were paid.

The Quiz went to a Tie-Break, and for the representative of Pluffs + 3 (one of The Blokes), much demonstration with forearms and elbows and waving and rotating and insisting that boats were lifted horizontally rather than vertically was needed from the Tie-Break Question, "What is the height difference between the upstream and downstream reaches of the Strépy-Thieu boat lift?" (In case you were wondering, the Strépy-Thieu boat lift was a featured Belgium question from a few weeks ago.)

Pluffs + 3 were closest to the answer of 240 feet. The representative from Reunited returned sadly to his team, shrugging his shoulders. And team To Be or Not To Be - That is NOT the question! left immediately after, height of dudgeon unknown.

QM forgot to take a photo of the Winning team (Congratulations all round! and a request for the Blokes to join the Pluffs any time they liked!). So here is a pic of QM instead. :-D

[quizmastergc]

Twizzlers

17 March 2022

A quiet and polite quiz tonight, with six teams taking part. Hot Shots (who attempted to rename themselves) remembered their specs. Some detailed explanation was required over the wording of the Barbie question

since they were under the impression that they had to name a real person who was 63 years old, who had been “woke” since 1959, representing women as an architect, an entomologist, an Olympic athlete, a banker and a computer engineer, as well as a surgeon and an astronaut who went to the moon.

The question with the answer in it ("The Syllipsimopodi bideni fossilised vampire squid was named after which person") only fooled two of the teams who thought it must be Boris. And literally everyone remembered the target of Jamie Oliver's attempt at banning, and maybe they have, like the public, decided they might buy some Turkey Twizzlers again.

It was close at the top but undisputed. Congratulations once again to Bad Losers.

[quizmastergc]

Noses

10 March 2022

Ten teams turned up tonight just before the Quiz started, to the relief of the TorchBearer, who thought it was going to be a quiet night. QM had her nose put of out joint after the first three teams she asked in the Dining Room replied to her question of whether they would like to take part in the Quiz with, "A Quiz? Ohhhh nooooo." QM decided to refer to them as the Down-Your-Nose-Noes.

Sitting opposite QM at the bar during the Quiz were Hot Shots, who had both forgotten their glasses and found their arms weren't long enough to read the questions. After helping them with about ten questions because she wanted to photograph them for the Blog since they were so funny, she gave it up (they even seemed unaware that there was a weekly Belgium question) and took a photo anyway. Posers!

QM was transported back to the days of the Virtual Pub Quiz by the team name, Virtual Isolation. Some brilliant team names during that time.

During the Reading of the Answers (more appropriately the Bawling of the Answers) a Partial Non Participant decided that then would be a good idea to hold a conversation under QM's nose. Halfway through the answer to Question 8, QM asked in the politest of ways if she was interrupting the conversation, implying an honest apology for the inconvenience she was causing to the Conversationalists. It went very quiet. Then from the corners of the pub, there came a sound of "Oooooooh" and "Oh dear" and a couple of booos and a hiss or two. The Conversationalists decided to postpone their conversation, and sloped off, sniffing.

QM hopes that Punters may have been reminded in some small way of our Alan's instant put-downs and banter. Remembering Alan with great fondness, tomorrow (11th) being his third anniversary. Still missing him.

Tonight's winners, Virtual Isolation, won by the narrowest but undisputable margin of 2 points (ie one question) ahead of the joint runners up, Bad Losers and Pluffs. Here they are with their well-gotten gains.

Congratulations! Lovely noses all round!

[quizmastergc]

Not so much Bad Losers as Apologetic Winners!

03 March 2022

Quiz teams were overly large tonight, mainly in the restaurant area, and the noise was immense! Eleven teams battled it out for the coveted Bottle of Wine. When it came to the Reading of the Answers, QM was forced to positively BELLOW to be heard. You could probably hear her in The Plough.

There was a wide spread of scores, with an agglomeration of Teams at the top. QM declared the Winners to be GCHQ who were jubilant with their score of 51. During the Post-Mortem stage, however, Bad Losers queried their score, and to QM's amazement, she found that they had indeed been incorrectly marked. A Steward's Inquiry was upheld in their favour.

Bad Losers however also realised that they had been overmarked for their answer of HRH Prince George (correct answer his Royal Title being Prince George of Cambridge). But then (gasp, Dear Reader) then they actually said... "It Doesn't Matter"!

QM can point out that at least once per Quiz, for Quiz Teams it most certainly DOES matter!!!

Bad Losers had been awarded 50 points at the first pass, which should have been 49 because of Prince George. Awarding them another 2 points, for being correct about driving on the left in Australia, made their final total 51. The reasoning was that it should then have gone to Tie-Break. However, QM decided that Bad Losers were the winners because their first-pass awarded score was 50 and that adding two points made the final total 52. By then nobody was interested any more in who had won, and QM didn't have enough Vocal Power to do a tie-break that nobody was interested in any more.

Therefore she invoked the long-standing principal that The Quiz Master is Always Right.

Bad Losers however, went and apologised to GCHQ and told them that they had been robbed. Unprecedented!

But they smiled for the camera. :-)

[quizmastergc]

Paardon?

24 February 2022

For Goodness' Sakes! QM found herself suddenly deaf in one ear tonight. It was like being underwater. No idea why. The Quiz proceeded anyway , with ten teams in. And The Proprietor is much better.

It went to tie-break again (QM: *sigh*), between Bad Losers and No Matter What (58 points each). The latter took the prize, though how you share a bottle of wine among 12 team members is a good question. Protestations from said team that "Oh, he's only just arrived!" and "The women are a separate team!" were jaded excuses for an unpardonable breaking of the rules but QM was too distracted by sounds of roaring oceans to Disqualify.

Quiz questions ranged from what part of the anatomy of a mass-start long-distance skier froze during the race in the Beijing Winter Olympics, to the only vowel in the second row of a standard keyboard. This latter question sent GCHQ into wild consternation and pandemonium as QM had tried to clarify in the question which row she meant and only succeeded in making it worse. The number of stars on the (Lone Star) state of Texas's flag flummoxed some. QM did a wonderful Russian pronunciation of Ilynea Lydia Mironoff into Hillin Meeran. She also sang a bit, actually three bits, but only she could hear herself.

Arnold Schwarzenegger featured in the tie break, since in his 20s in 1968, he had deadlifted 683 pounds. QM also advertised his book The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, which is a jolly good read and has lots of pictures.

No picture tonight of the winning team. Just couldn't fit them all in.

[quizmastergc]

A Majestic Week

17 February 2022

The C&T was packed with Punters tonight, but all missed The Proprietor who was absent, recuperating from Covid - all wish him a speedy recovery.

The Proprietress was present, all smiles, beauty and cheer, but clearly unable to answer the question, "How's he doing?", for the thousandth time. All change behind the Bar, and here is the TorchBearer, who has stepped up several times as QuizMaster over the last few months and declared himself to be enjoying the whole Power Thing.

Eleven teams took part, in sizes varying from 2 to 8. Requests for hints were mainly for the music questions, with Brucey from the Pluffs accosting QM on a rare unaccompanied fag break in an attempt, it appeared to QM, to get the answer changed to the one he had, as he could think of no other. Luckily his Team Mates could.

QM experienced difficulty yelling answers, following a bout of something unidentifiable a couple of weeks earlier after having received a Fourth Vaccine, but soothed her ravaged voice box with the words, "More Beer Needed", which raised a Cheers. QM had intended to serenade Punters with a rendition of 'Up Where We Belong' but everyone agreed that not doing so would be an unarguably better idea.

After Final Scores were announced, a Steward's Enquiry was demanded as one of Insert Amazing Team Name Here reckoned they had matched Bad Losers and Little Londoners to the Tie-Break. QM ruled on the subject, announcing that she had never heard of the Majesty Concerto (name for a monarch given to Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E♭ major, Op. 73). Their profuse apologies for the Demand failed to divert Punters' attention away from this somewhat humiliating and embarrassing answer.

The Tie-Break question bemused the Combatants, being totally random with only a lucky guess to distinguish the two teams. QM found that her arithmetical skills were challenged by having to calculate, after a couple of pints, who was closer to the actual answer 65,000 (being the number of civil servants in Belgium who would earn the "right to disconnect" - a Belgium question from last week) - 25,000 being the answer from Bad Losers and 90,000 from Little Londoners...

And so it was that Little Londoners were declared the Winners! Second week in a row. Congratulations to they!!

[quizmastergc]

Lockdown Hiatus

And then, Covid.

The Quiz at the Crown and Thistle continued virtually for more than a year, on a closed Facebook group, which had over a hundred members. The highest number of participating teams in one quiz was 39.

[quizmastergc]

Ain’t it grand!?

12 March 2020

Another low-regulars night and a rather subdued one, too. The talk of the bar was the virus. The God Squad were in, under an alias, and QM blessed them all. QM and former team meats, Pluffs, marked the first anniversary of our much-missed and beloved Alan. 

Vertical Take-Off and Landing were variously static, stationary/stationery, and (correctly) short. Pluffs were the only ones to correctly calculate Q30 (acknowledgment to mensa). Bar Gals also were correct except for a suspicious comma instead of point in the answer (which QM allowed since the numbers were correct...). The God Squad (alias Instinction Rebellion) had also actually calculated correctly but only wrote the answer rounded down with no decimal points. Why??? They would have scored a full house otherwise. A member of Last Again teamed up with a (large) number of new team members (Ain’t It Grand Up Da North), intent on winning, but alas this was not to be (52 points), and he was very much miffed, and left complaining about internet access and team size (pah!). Internet access was actually not available tonight, without a new sign-up. 

Deserving winners: Instinction Rebellion

A Pluff also wanted his picture taken. He thought QM said “sexy boy!” when she actually asked, “sixty points?”. He said she wasn’t to mention that.

On the podium

1st place: Instinction Rebellion (58 points) 2nd place: Pluffs (56 points) 3rd place: 5 Go Viral (55 points)

QM thought the quiz rather easy this week. See what you think.

[quizmastergc]

Not many regulars

05 March 2020

A relatively quiet night tonight, with not many regulars in, but a brave bunch of spontaneous new teams to make up. QM welcomed Little Londoners who recently moved in to the village and promised to make it a regular thing. Team Chas & Will were bamboozled into joining in and jolly good thing they did too, coming second, pipped at the post by their unexpected literary knowledge gap.

Participants were appalled at the concept of Q14 and sneered at QM’s “of course” comment for Q23. Only one team knew Hilary Mantel’s latest offering (although one team had the right words in the wrong order). Although Bad Losers complained about their knowledge lack, they nevertheless scored highest and won!

Winners: Bad Losers (from another angle)

On the Podium

1st place: Bad Losers (50 points) 2nd place: Chas & Will (48 points) 3rd place: Wet Ones (after spilling a pint of lager on their answer sheet) (44 points)

Try the quiz yourself!

[quizmastergc]

N-n-n-n-nineteen.

27 February 2020

A slightly quieter quiz this week at the C&T, but nevertheless just as competitive as ever. Actually more than ever, as it transpired.

Ten teams took part, and QM welcomed newcomers Maltings Mad Men, one of whom has been living unsuspecting (of the Quiz that is) in the village for more than a year but has apparently up until now been imprisoned by an unspecified number of small children. 

Teams struggled valiantly with what might have been thought of as a tough quiz, but in the end the winning teams, Bar Gals and Pluffs, scored very highly indeed. They both scored the same score (albeit for different reasons). So it went to a Tiebreaker. 

The average age of the Bar Gals is Nineteen. When asked on what date the decimal halfpenny had been demonetised and taken out of commission, their first answer was 1954. QM felt instant pity (or something like that). Although she (and many others in the pub) can remember the new halfpenny (not to mention the old halfpenny, tanner, thruppeny bit and half crown), it was patently clear that the event was outside living memory for the bar team. QM therefore felt it incumbent upon herself to inform them that decimalisation took place in 1971 and asked them to “have another go”. They then hit closest to the correct answer of 1984 and won the Quiz. Young children and dogs were audible again above another round of screaming delight.

After the event, QM congratulated and thanked Pluffs for their sporting-ness, considering that they would have won without QM’s intervention. Pluffs replied that it was not right but it was ok because they had actually had a SUPERMASSIVE COMMUNAL EXCHANGE OF ANSWERS with the Bar Gals.

Winners: Bar Gals (”What, another picture???”)

On the Podium

1st place (joint): Bar Gals and Pluffs (With A Lot of Help) (56 points each) 3rd place (joint): Construction Pharma Favorites and Where The F**k is Howard? (54 points each)

Here’s the quiz. There are two possible ways of getting the mensa question right. If you want to know how, see me after.

[quizmastergc]

Standing Room Only!

20 February 2020

A dozen teams of good proportions again tonight meant that QM was forced to sit by herself in the window seat and (not) help the adjacent team because there was hardly any room in the inn C&T. 

QM would accept no ‘c’s for Q21′s answer, confounding certain teams, but balanced that astringency by allowing the suffix -ograph as well as -ometer for Q14. When confronted with the 1985 and 1979 questions, a Bar Gal complained bitterly that she was only 19 and QM had to concede that she wished she was only 19 too.

Two correct answers marked as incorrect were spotted at Counting Up Time, thus avoiding another Tiebreak situation.

Bad Losers in the foreground (and one in the background too) 

On the Podium

1st place (56 points) Bad Losers 2nd place (joint)��The Thick Hunts and Dave Says Boris Is A Racist

(Disclaimer: team names do not reflect the opinion (or standards) of the pub or the Quiz Management Team)

Here’s the quiz:

Acknowledgements: mensa.org.uk

[quizmastergc]

Feeling the love

13 February 2020

Nine teams partook of the Quiz this Valentine’s Day eve at the C&T. The new name for Coronavirus (the butt of so many beer jokes) seems to have settled after several attempts (temporarily “2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease”, and China's own "novel coronavirus pneumonia" or NCP) on to [see quiz below]. 

Bar Gals confessed to QM that they had correctly “guessed” the answer to the mensa question (QM is absolutely certain of their honesty - why else would they do that??) and they also guessed close to the tiebreak answer too! - for they were co-leaders with Hotspur Trio at the end of the Quiz; who had to be pulled up for breaking the no-conferring rule. The tiebreak question was a leftover (pardon the pun) from Christmas, which asked how many Boxing Day curries could be made from the amount of poultry thrown away in the UK every year. Bar Gals first answered 850 thousand but decided to add a zero, getting them closest to the answer of 800 million (according to the charity WRAP). Their screams of delight at winning woke sleeping children in nearby streets and set several dogs barking.

Ecstatic: Bar Gals

On the Podium

Joint 1st: (56 points) Bar Gals + 3 men + a baby; Hotspur Trio 2nd place: Pluffs (54 points)

An astounding number of participating teams knew their Masarati car models, as also did they for the colour of the scarf worn by the Girl With A Pearl Earring. Last week’s winning team attempted to purloin points by tricking QM into the answers of the Greek & Roman gods questions; and then complained that their team number was so small (3) that they should be awarded extra points; so that QM was forced to remind them that their team number often exceeds 12. Tonight, they [team name not printable] were joint last with St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (44 points).

The Reverend and his team of Men were noticeably absent from the proceedings.

You can try the quiz yourself:

Acknowledgement: mensa.org.uk

[quizmastergc]

Asymmetric cold shoulders and wheelie bins

06 February 2020

It was a busy night in the C&T, with a dozen teams taking part and all in vibrant spirit. Current affairs played a strong role in team names. The answer ‘symbol’ to Q16 was disallowed, but at least Bob & The Gardeners knew how to spell Fritillaria and Axl Rose. QM attempted to serenade quiz partakers with Q24 but was howled down. Hotspur Trio failed in their attempt to establish the epiglottis as the same as the soft palate. Bad Losers cursed their failure to remember Super Over (what is a Golden Over anyway?) because it cost them the winning place. In the end, three teams topped the podium, which called for a triple tiebreak. 

The achingly long time it took for the winning team to calculate the number of days in 47 years paid off in the end, with Bang Me Over a Wheelie Bin hitting closest to the correct answer of 17,195 days that the UK was in the EU. Here is the winning team, weird even without the ceiling fire-detecting laser.

Winners: Bang Me Over A Wheelie Bin

On the Podium

1st place:  Bang Me Over A Wheelie Bin (54 points) Tiebreak winners Joint 1st place: Bad Losers (54 points)  (2nd in tiebreak) Joint 1st place: Pixellated Perms (54 points) (3rd in tiebreak) 2nd place: Hotspur Trio (52 points), joint with Birds & Bunnies.

You can try the quiz yourself:

[quizmastergc]

“You don’t have to...”

30 January 2020

“...say you love me...” and you don’t have to sing it either, yet the Quiz Master (QM) did so anyway, for question 28, although quiz participants at the C&T begged her to stop. They did join in the chorus, though; not being able to beat her, they had to join her.

It was pretty rammed with 13 teams taking part. Bob’s retirement party was still in full swing, possibly affecting their team’s score. 

Bar Girls put in a valiant effort but sadly only matched Last Again’s score. The mensa question was dispatched with apparent ease though some teams were flumoxed by the need to provide two answers. Hotspur Trio didn’t read question 28 properly and so lost points by providing only the song title. They were also caught out by the Belgium question, confounded by the Netherlands one which followed. Some quiz participants were astounded at how short the transition period is. Don’t they keep up with Brexit?? They said not.

In the end, the winners, Bad Losers, scored a full house, 60 out of 60; which another quiz participant declared was reassuring because it meant that the quiz was not entirely impossible. QM haarrumphed.

Very proud: Bad Losers.

On the Podium

1st place: Bad Losers (60 points) 2nd place: Cinque Without Trace (56 points) 3rd place: The Audley’s (sic) (54 points)

You can try the quiz if you like. Apparently it’s doable.

Acknowledgements: mensa.org.uk

[quizmastergc]

“The Quiz Master is Always Right...”

23 January 2020

“...Even When He’s Wrong!” QM was reminded of the adage of our sorely missed former Quiz Master, Mr. Cattley. QM found herself lightly toasted by the crowd at the C&T over three - yes 10% - of the questions.

The capital city of Arkansas was the problematic question; and there was some debate over the difference between rennin and rennet. QM would not allow the former, as it is a part of the latter; depending on which search engine you were using. Search engines should never be used in the Quiz, as everyone knows, even after the event. Such use attracts the punishment of summary disembowelment.

The third issue was that QM was under the impression that the Halifax is a building society. Not so, apparently for some years. As a result, the team that pointed this out answered ‘Shipton’ instead, but this is not in the location specified in the question. It’s a pub quiz. You can overthink these things, you know.

Finally, QM almost declared the runners-up to be the winners, causing further ballyhoo; no sooner given than cruelly snatched away, as one Pluff declared.

Special mention goes to Good Losers, being composed of only one member of Bad Losers plus other pals; said member notching up a worthy 33 points out of 60, mostly on his own.

The ultimate winners, Hobbers Fans, scored one point more than the rennin-answering Pluffs, again causing red faces and much huffing. But QM would not be budged, so some of the adage must have been lurking in the back of her mind.

Very happy to be winners: Hobbers Fans

On the Podium:

1st place: Hobbers Fans (46 points)

2nd place: Pluffs (45 points)

3rd place (joint): Two Non-Blondes + Howard + Charles + Bruce; and GCHQ (44 points each)

A great night was had by all, and was followed by much chummy carousing.

You can try the quiz:

Acknowledgements: www.mensa.org.uk

[Bold wording not bold in the original. No idea where that came from.]

[quizmastergc]

Are we allowed to say that out loud??

16 January 2020

This week was a quieter affair with a total of seven teams at the C&T. All but one teams knew the answer to Question 4. QM and bar staff enjoyed calling out the answer during Answer Shouting time. Question 27 was such an awful question that QM wondered who had written it (she had of course. Ugh).

The winning team, Non-Blondes + Friends, missed out on a full house (60 points) by not knowing when Rugby Union turned professional. Tsk. They look happy if a little surprised.

Non-Blondes + Friends

On the Podium:

1st Place: Non-Blondes + Friends (58 points)

2nd Place: Bad Losers (54 points)

3rd Place: The Pixelated Perms (52 points)

Try the quiz yourself:

Acknowledgements: www.mensa.org.uk

[quizmastergc]

Brie, blue

09 January 2019

The C&T was rammed this week, in stark contrast to last week’s kick-off into 2020. Eleven teams were present, including the Rev Alex’s Men’s Meet Up team, which was so large it had to split off into two, God Squad and 2nd Eleven (of which there were less than eleven!).

QM welcomed back regular teams, including Last Again, Hotspur Trio and GCHQ, among others. Several non-regulars also pitched in. Pluffs were a significant team member down; and GC men’s team [Variable Name] rediscovered that strength does not lie in numbers/oversized teams.

QM was consternated if not ruffled to find that several erudite teams had never heard of blue brie. The mensa question and the dingbat were challenges that occupied teams until well into Collect-Up time. After answers were shouted, 2nd Eleven were declared The Winners and subjected to a round of applause. On her post-triumphal rounds, however, QM discovered that God Squad were unhappy with their final score, and on checking their paper, a Steward’s Enquiry was held. This upheld their complaint and placed them joint first with 2nd Eleven, and a Tie-Breaker was therefore declared. As luck (and inside knowledge about the average distance in miles between the Earth and the Moon) would have it, the Tie-Breaker was won by God Squad, who were, to put it mildly, positively jubilant with many hurrahs and much finger-pointing.

By the time QM got around to digging out her phone for Winner’s picture, however, most of God Squad had absconded, presumably to better offers. The pic therefore shows the (now reunited) Men’s Meet Up, and you can see the Rev still celebrating and positively jubilating.

Winners: God Squad (standing) and 2nd Eleven

On the Podium 1st place: God Squad – 51 points (Tie-break winners) 2nd place: 2nd Eleven – 51 points 3rd place (joint at 49 points each): Hobbers Mascots; Bad Losers; Non-Blondes & Howard.

QM joined her former team-mates, the Pluffs, who were reminiscing about our former Quiz Master, Alan, and how all miss his banter and general happy presence. As each fell into their own thoughts, we inadvertently held a minute’s silence. To Absent Friends.

See you all next week!

Have a go at the Quiz:

Acknowledgements: https://www.mensa.org/; http://www.kensdingbats.co.uk/dingbats