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National Team Quiz Festival
The National Team Quiz Festival goes on as always and 2006 was just as good as the two recorded below.For details, go to the Quiz League of London site using the link below. For question maniacs, there are some good ones lower down this page!
In its fifteen year history, the Team Quiz Festival has taken many forms in many places and its show piece match, the annual North v South Challenge has had many a close call. Nothing however has been as spectacular as this year’s contest for the Don Bisset Cup. This trophy was intended to be contested between the top select sides in the north and south. The representatives are designated to be the winner of the President’s Trophy in the north west and the President’s Cup in the south east. (It will remain that way till somebody comes up with a challenge to the winners’ right!). This year was billed as London versus Wirral, an interesting clash between the first ever winners and the current holders, but things didn’t quite work out that way.
Wontwork Rail, or whoever it is in the fashion of these times, takes millions of pounds of public money without evincing any marked improvement in service to the public, had set an ambush for Team Quiz players. The result was that the London and Merseyside were, in practice, cut off by rail. However, quizzers are nothing if not determined and the cup match went ahead with Dag Griffiths of Southport & Formby and Cambridge’s own Roger Bennett – a Crosby man – making up a combined Merseyside team well capable of taking on the usual suspects from London.
The problem with that line-up was that it included Dag, the designated question setter! However, QLL’s President came to the rescue with “One I prepared earlier” and the match went ahead to the evident satisfaction of an audience of Festival participants comfortably accommodated in the Conference Suite of Islington Thistle Hotel. It became clear that London, who had not had it all their own way in the President’s Cup series, had a battle on their hands. The first three rounds went 7-2, 5-3, 4-3 against them and even though Round Four was a 6-6 tie London were 22-14 down at the halfway point. At this level of quizzing, points are hard to come by and there were some long faces amongst the strong London support. However, “half against half” balance of the set turned in hosts’ favour and they began to hit the 2-point answers that are the key to success. Rounds Five and Six went their way, 7-4, 6-3 but a hiccup in Round Seven meant that the northerners had a three point advantage going into the last round. And Round Eight HAD to be the last round as the improvisation of the day did not allow for a tiebreaker! There was indeed “a breathless hush” but London’s nerve was steady enough (easier to do when you’re a settled side than when you’re a scratch one – however talented!) and 6-3 made it what all were agreed was an honourable share of the trophy.
| LONDON | 36 | Brian Wright 16 |
| NORTH SELECT | 36 | Jim Eccleson 14, Dave Collins 13 |
How would YOUR side have fared at the business end of the Don Bisset Cup? This is what the teams were faced with.
| The balanced questions were in Round One & Round Two | ||
| ROUND SEVEN | ||
| 1a | Robert Willer | Which member of the plover family, with the scientific name Vanellus vanellus, is easily recognised by its long thin crest and uniquely broad rounded wings? |
| 1b | Jim Eccleson | The North American P-51, which very successfully took over the Thunderbolt’s long range escort duties, was known by what name? |
| 2a | John McDonnell | Which fictional gentleman detective may have been modelled on the school master and travel writer, Eric Whelpton, for whom the author admitted an unrequited love whilst she was at Oxford? |
| 2b | Dave Collins | In Celtic mythology, who was the horned god who represented prosperity and fertility? |
| 3a | Mick Lancaster | If, in the rugby union season 2003-4, your club had an away fixture in National Division Three South against Tabard, to which county would you have to travel? |
| 3b | Roger Bennett | What musical term implying a simple self-contained short melody has also been applied to lyrical instrumental pieces such as in Beethoven’s String Quartet Opus 130? |
| 4a | Brian Wright | In British Armed Services slang, who or what is a “Rupert”? |
| 4b | Dag Griffiths | What is the name of the fictional industrial city in the West Midlands created by David Lodge and the setting for his novels Small World and Nice Work? |
| ROUND EIGHT | ||
| 1a | Robert Willer | The English cathedral city of St Albans stands on which river? |
| 1b | Jim Eccleson | In the TV series Last of the Summer Wine what is Clegg’s first name? |
| 2a | John McDonnell | Which Spanish composer, born in 1901 and notable for his guitar compositions, was blind from the age of three? |
| 2b | Dave Collins | What is the English version of the name of the saint to whom a chapel is dedicated according to the Welsh place name: Llanbedr? |
| 3a | Mick Lancaster | What sort of hand-held woodworking tool may be further identified as being a jack or a block or a smoothing? |
| 3b | Roger Bennett | The attack on Mametz Wood on 7th July 1916 was part of which Allied offensive? |
| 4a | Brian Wright | In Contract Bridge, what term is given to the pair who lead a rubber by one game to nil? |
| 4b | Dag Griffiths | Atlas, Prometheus and Pandora are some of the inner satellites of which planet? |
Answers follow the history bit.
On Tuesday 28th July 1959 a meeting was held at the Mount Hotel Bootle, Merseyside which founded what was to become the Merseyside Quiz Leagues. In 1990, a party of MQL players ventured south to the Manor Arms and gave the best that London could offer in those days such a thrashing at Team Quizzing that the Londoners were spurred into forming what became the Quiz League of London. Since then, it has been players from these two organisations who have brought about this annual occasion which lived up to its “festival” billing at Thistle Islington Hotel on Saturday 5th June 2004.
| ROUND SEVEN | |
| 1a | LAPWING/ peewit/ green plover |
| 1b | MUSTANG |
| 2a | Lord Peter WIMSEY |
| 2b | CERNUNNOS |
| 3a | HERTFORDSHIRE (Radlett) |
| 3b | CAVATINA |
| 4a | An Army OFFICER (esp. Public School educated |
| 4b | RUMMIDGE |
| ROUND EIGHT | |
| 1a | VER |
| 1b | NORMAN |
| 2a | Joaquin RODRIGO |
| 2b | St PETER |
| 3a | PLANE |
| 3b | Battle of the SOMME |
| 4a | VULNERABLE |
| 4b | SATURN |
When everbody had recovered their breath from the nail-biting tension of the headline match, the real business of the day began. (Of course, some people may consider that it had begun earlier over lunch in the restaurant when old acquaintances were renewed and new friendships struck up.)There followed round on round of team quiz matches when the scores mattered but the results tended to be forgotten in the general festival fellowship where Stuart Solomons provided the highlight of the afternoon by confusing Georgia USA with the one in the Caucasus. Eventually, the participants reached a "quizzed out" state and the happy band drifted off to all corners. A dedicated band were to be seen in a pub by Euston Station as the shades of night fell, having agreed that this was one of the best Festivals ever and giving a unanimous vote of thanks to all those who had set questions for the rounds.*
The Festival day had begun with a three-course buffet lunch for the competitors and the official launch of Donald Yule’s book on Team Quizzing “Playing From Memory”. A full round of games was played after the Cup match, when the SFQL squad got their own back on southern opposition and London player, Brian Wright, provided the highlight of the afternoon with one of his answers, inventing an economist called Milton Keynes! Hardy souls stayed on for dinner and considerable stamina was exhibited by the group who were still partying at a local hostelry at closing time!
London 45 (Gavin Fuller 17, Rober Willer 14, Mike Lancaster 10)
SFQL 31 (Dag Griffiths 13)
Well, that was last year!
*To go back to this year, the thanks for sets of questions go to Robert Willer and Phil Smith of Atletico, Donald Yule and Roger Robinson of Barbican, the Broken Hearts team and Jim Eccleson, of Oxton Cons and Wirral QL for bringing down some spare sets.
The National Team Quiz Festival is sponsored by The Quiz League of London which was founded in 1990 as “The South London Quiz League” and is a not-for-profit association owned and run by its member teams.
The Festival is open to ALL keen quiz players throughout UK. Both individuals and groups are very welcome. If YOU would like to take part in 2007 in London then click here to email Donald Yule
Come on Scotland -where are you?
Quiz League of London
Donald Yule's website
Southport & Formby Quiz League
extract from Donald Yule's book
Donald's quiz diary
Send E-Mail to: donyule@the-pres.org.uk
Copyright © 2006 Donald Yule. All Rights Reserved