Thursday 2 November 2017

Weekly Roundup, W/E 06/10/2017

So to week 3 of my 5 week backlog, and this one started unusually because I was away in Llandudno for my first "Quiz in the North" experience. That's a true competitive quiz, and I'd like to do a proper review of the experience from a newbie's perspective, but in another post. So for now I'll skip over that and return to the normal reviews. The Sunday quiz didn't happen because the host was away, but this was still a 4 quiz week, so I'd best get to it...

Quiz #172 - Monday 2nd October, Kings Arms, Dalbeattie (P)


Strategic Overview

With P hosting in Dalbeattie, I had an immediate team lined up in the form of his own, No Kan Do. His was sure to be a list based quiz, and it's not one I have a copy of unfortunately. The usual suspects were present, with the notable exception of BTAS.

The Quiz

Not having the quiz with me means I'll probably be keeping this pretty short. We started with GK and started strongly on 16.5/20. Round 2 was the inevitable map-based geography round, this time being the British isles. Sea areas and shipping forecast areas...I really need to learn the latter, as it's a total black hole for me. Rivers too...we got 14/21 here.

Round 3 was much better for me, though that's surprising as it was sport. F1 specifically though. It was the last 10 unique drivers to win the world championship, and the 10 British ones. We got 9 of each for a very good score of 18. Round 4 was spelling...cue much hair-pulling, but we got 15/20. Moving swiftly on, I can't remember what specifically the books round was about, but I think some of it was Dickens based. We got 14 anyway, for 77.5 in total.

Outcome

As is often the case at this quiz, the scores were tight. In fact, we came 4th despite being just 1 point behind the winners! 78.5, two teams on 78 and then us. True Blue were 5th, I think the Muppets and Tourists were above us, the Has Beens too, though I could be wrong. It's always a little disappointing to fall so agonisingly short, as that kind of margin means there's going to be a question or two we should have gotten right but didn't, but fair play to the winners, and a close quiz means the difficulty level is about right.

Result: 77.5/101 (76.73%), 4th/unknown

Quiz #175 - Tuesday 3rd October, Ship Inn, Dumfries

Strategic Overview

I returned to the Ship Inn on Tuesday despite knowing that my normal team wouldn't be there. Well, I had to, the specialist subject was James Bond! I was fortunately able to join the NCP, who had enough present for two teams. I was with a version of the team containing R & P, the latter of whom has been absent a fair while. Their man J had his daughter and sister with him so they formed their own team and took two others with them, M among them. The Pharmacists were also back,.allaying my previous suggestion that they weren't going to come so often. That clearly makes no sense at all, so let's get on with this...

The Quiz

The quiz started in typical fashion with a brutal GK round, but this was a strong team and we rose to it, taking the lead with 8. Geography followed and I maintain it's a strong subject for me (need to get those stats updated to prove it though!) and yet 3 points escaped us for 7, with an increased lead of 6.5 over the 2nd placed team. To be fair, we were given just 1 point for all 7 countries bordering Saudi Arabia, and 1 for 3 Welsh National Parks. Supposedly round 3 was TV & Film, but as there were only 2 film questions it was basically just TV. We had 6 and the lead crept higher, to 8 points. A useful cushion at the half way point!

The picture round was Dingbats, which promised much but ultimately delivered little. it was disappointing to only get 7, but we just didn't see them and some of them looked very tenuous. Still, our lead remained the same. So to the Bond round and I took immediate issue with a question being wrong: Sean Connery took a break after You Only Live Twice, not Thunderball. Unfortunately it wasn't the only mistake made in the round, though there is a chance we misheard one or two of the questions. I really don't think so though, which is a shame as the questions were tough but fair otherwise. We got 5, which is admittedly awful for me on the subject, but our 8 point lead was unchanged. A useful cushion going into the last round, since we lacked M. That round started off very well, but we fell away and barely got anything in the 2nd half of the round, finishing on 12/30.

Outcome

That was very obviously not going to be the highest score in the room, and with teams who are strong on music capable of completely changing the scoreboard on it, we were nervous. Fortunately, our 8 point cushion proved exactly enough, as we scraped a win by a single point! That was a fantastic result, and having led start to finish, we definitely earned it. I'm not a huge fan of the music round being 30 points and so to lose it in such a way would have been unfortunate. I've got to say, this was a really good quiz!

Result: 45/85 (52.94%), 1st/9

Quiz #176 - Wednesday 4th October, Granary, Dumfries

Strategic Overview

L was unusually absent this week, so I joined a different team - the Roof Rax! M from them has been joining us and so the favour was returned. It wasn't actually my suggestion, but the hosts, who basically asked them and they didn't feel they could refuse. Though they clearly wanted to. I'm not going to air dirty laundry here but my presence clearly made the others uncomfortable, due to M's recent split loyalties. I also felt uncomfortable, and thus I felt obliged to try and impose myself upon the quiz itself and thus prove what I could do. Among the othe regulars, the only note I have is that SQ were absent, so there's that.

The Quiz

It's been a while since i've seen a "5 rounds of 10" quiz here, and this was no different, being 2 of 20 and 1 of 10. The first was 90s films, which very much suited me. We got the first 10 right, and 7 of the other 10, for 17 and an extremely good start. This already looked good. Round 2 was words beginning witth "red". Didn't sound too bad, but there were a couple of answers we couldn't agree on and that ultimately almost every team in the room got wrong, so we only got 7. Still, 23/30 always means your score is respectable at least here, though you ideally need to be pusihing above 40 for a win.

We attempted that on the final 20, GK, and again we did very well with 16, though again there was a disputed answer or two with one of the team. Ultimately I think this comes down to a bog-standard personality clash, though fortunately I was getting enough right to justify myself. Admittedly I didn't get them all right, but I'm improving, which is good to see ahead of the upcoming return of the Anchor quiz.

Outcome

Our 16 left us in a very strong position on 39, but that proved only enough for 2nd. The winning score? 47. Nothing whatsoever anyone can do about that, and I've no regrets at all. I will say that I don't intend joining the Roof Rax in future; I suspect Sporting Quizbon would gladly take me if the need comes up again, elsewise I'd rather just do it myself. Still, the result was excellent and I'm very happy with that.

Result: 39/50 (78%), 2nd/13

Quiz #177 - Friday 6th October, Laurie Arms, Haugh of Urr

Strategic Overview

I missed last month's quiz because of a work night out, and my usual team came 2nd in my absence. All four were back again tonight, and I with them as we attempted to regain our title. It seemed quiet at first, but the place filled up by the (late) start. A few youth teams were there, which is good to see, though to be honest I wasn't expecting them to challenge us. I'd have loved to see it happen, though!

The Quiz

We decided that our varied demographic coverage meant we should go for Entertainment for our joker round, but first we had GK, our 2nd choice. I know, I hate going that way, but it is sometimes easier here so a common choice. That said, the hosts know that and so have been making it harder. We got 7, which was a good score while leaving us room to improve on our joker round.

"The Natural World" saw us equal that score, and we went one better on Sport. The latter was admittedly almost all one of the team, but it's helpful to have a specialist! It was time for our joker and we vindicated our choice with a superb 9 - or rather, 18! Our best round of the night, though we didn't know it yet as the marking is all done at the end. The last round changes every month, and this time around, it was Food & Drink. Not my best round, but I did know a few and the team knew more, as we got 7 again.

Outcome

It wasn't our best score, but 47 was still extremely good, and still enough for 2nd place! There were a lot of teams and it was a close quiz so I'm very happy with that, especially given we chose our joker correctly. Couldn't ask for much more, really!

Result: 47/60 (78.33%), 2nd/15

Week in Summation

I can't really remember how it went off the top of my head so I'll need to look back at what I've written! 1 victory, two second places and a very close 4th - a fantastic week! Some very strong performances at great quizzes, the only real blip being the personality clash on the Wednesday. Other than that, yeah, more of the same please!

Total Result: 208.5/296 (70.44%)

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