Weekly Match Reports - Summer 2025
(A big thank you to Jonny Peacock)
Handicap Table Top and Presentation Night - (02nd October)
The sun set on the summer league with the traditional weighted tabletop at the Blackbird. Jonny kept his introductory speech and presentation to only slightly longer than what was needed to fill the time until question-master Frank Dillon arrived from a different time zone. Thanks went out to the Blackbird for hosting, Frank for setting tonight’s questions and Tim Busby for the summer league questions. There was the expected thunderous applause for David Quinn as league organizer, and for Jeff Welch who set the music quiz, and is due to set the winter league questions.
There was a boxful of shiny trophies to present to the tabletop General Knowledge winners the Ploughman’s Bunch! and the Blackbird for Music. The Nomads took the Championship trophy, and the Royal Blenheim both the Premiership and the Blockbuster. Congratulations to them all. Jonny then read out the result of his algorithmic calculations of the handicaps for the night, based on the season opener on 15 May, waved in the general direction of the blockbuster. Amid groans and cheers at this, the quiz started.
Frank had prepared a stimulating and unusual selection of questions, with rounds on Oxford (a first?) and pictures of EGOT winners, some recognised, some not. The handicapping favoured the teams who needed it, as it should be, and the final leaderboard was (full round-by-round table attached too):
Week 18 - (25th September)
That’s all folks! The summer league weekly fixtures are now done, dusted, and answered (or not). It all kicked off in mid-May, with the darling buds and that, and it’s carried us through the glorious summer to the post-equinox dwindling. And the winners are… Premiership Champions the Royal Blenheim preternaturally garlanded with the league title, and top of the pops with the blockbuster, too. Bletchingdon Nomads secured the Championship trophy, congratulations to the winners, commiserations to all others, it’s the taking part. Play up, play up, and play the game!
Royal Blenheim 81 - 64 Masons Arms. Well, Arles be jigger'd ... after the long hegemony of the Plough, the Oxfordshire Quiz league finally has some new champions, the Royal Blenheim. Building on their triumph in the Winter League Championship, the Blenheimistas were effectively champions with two games to spare and so able to enjoy a fruitless climb through the Jura followed by this final cruise through the streets of Paris. It's been a long time since the last yellow jersey and the Blenheim has some way to go before it can emulate the feats of its predecessors, the Chester Arms and the FFtMC, (Far From the Madding Crowd, as if you needed to be told) but it was nonetheless a somewhat surprising triumph in the absence of long-term stalwart, Rev Peter Groves. The absence of star player, Jeff Welch for the last two games did not help much either but the side was bolstered by the surprise appearance of an inspired Dr Tim Reynolds for the final slugfest against a Masonic cabal. The home team raced into a 6-point lead, but the Quarrymen (and ladies) fought back with their knowledge of Hillman H's and benefited from an embarrassing confusion of Herodotus and Heraclitus to close to 20-19 after two rounds. It was nip and tuck for the next two rounds, but the Masons regretted choosing Roads and 1980s TV Series in Round 5 as the new champions surged into a 60-53 lead. Good knowledge of American rivers and states in Round 6 kept the visitors just about in touch but the Blenheimites pulled away again thanks to walnuts and some astute gives. To the winners, the spoils, but a couple of embarrassing slips on the Blockbuster may have ensured that the Plough have at least one triumph to celebrate this season. For an update, see below…
With Bletchingdon Nomads, championship champions champing on the bit with a bye, there was a tussle for the coveted runners-up place, taken by the King’s Arms Woodstock in their inaugural season after winter break following the demise of the lamented Woodstock Social Club. The match ended Blackbird 67 - King's Arms 77, who secured second place silver, that one point from a draw with the Nomads in August making the difference. Rounds two and four were shared, and each team had a two-point victory in rounds one and three, so the scores were even after four rounds. From then on King's Arms slowly pulled away, with the result made certain by an 11-5 score in round 7. Good company as usual, some very good food and the whole evening accompanied by some particularly enthusiastic singing from the main bar.
Castle 64 - White Hart 76. The White Hart made their first trip to this venue and were welcomed into the Boudoir by a somewhat depleted host team. Despite this, the Castle shaded the first round 9-8, before the visitors took the next 2 rounds by more significant margins to establish a decent lead. The remaining rounds were tighter but allowed the White Hart to record a victory that was rather less comfortable than the final margin suggests.
The Ploughman’s Bunch! at home to their stablemate rivals the Plough were hoping to hold on to their premiership second place, but with only the remotest arithmetical possibility of securing the title. Who would blink first? Round one went to the Plough with a single bonus on prehistoric cars (see Q1 below) and a great answer from this week’s captain Tim on Duke Ellington’s country seat (possibly). Full house on round 2, then narrow wins for the Bunch! in rounds 3 and 4 made it all level at 51 each. Then two bonus points for the Plough put them six points ahead, but the Bunch! pulled back to two behind in round six with their own two bonus points, all to play for in the final round, again it was the blink test. It was a tense round, no bonuses and one unanswered question each, so the Plough finished two ahead and Premiership runners-up, final score Ploughman’s Bunch! 79 – Plough 81. The Plough managed to plough their blockbuster exam, failing to identify four of the five famous rugby players to finish one adrift of the Blenheim, who added the Blockbuster trophy to their season’s haul, congratulations!
Thanks to Tim Busby for a whole season of Summer League questions, and as a tribute to his love of all things motoring, a relevant selection from this week below. Thank you, Tim, that’s enough cars and roads!
Q1: Starting with the letter H, which two-door small estate car, having a single hinged rear door, was produced by Hillman from 1954 to 1963?
Q2: Starting with the letter W, which East German motor manufacturer ceased trading in 1991, having started production in 1898?
Q3: Situated close to where he was born, in which English city would you find Reginald Mitchell Way?
A1: Husky.
A2: Wartburg.
A3: Stoke on Trent.
Week 17 - (18th September)
With only the final week of fixtures to play, in the words of Adele, it isn’t over, yet. The Nomads are unassailable at the top of the Championship, congratulations to them, but it’s all to play for in the rest of that division, any one of three teams could run out as runners-up, and either one of two teams could secure sixth place. The Blenheim are on top of the Premiership, and likely to remain there, barring an unlikely arithmetical catastrophe. The other two Premiership sides meet next week to fight it out for the silver medal. Rock n Roll, wild times!
The Plough were hosts to the Blenheim, a return match of the city centre fixture in July where the Plough omitted to win any round. As Professor Brian Cox of D-Ream had it, things could only get better. And in the first round, that felt unlikely to happen as the Blenheim prevailed by a couple of points. The home team waited until the twelfth of never for their Kentucky Derby mint juleps for two bonus points for a five-point round advantage to go into the lead. Two more bonuses from Howard in round three stretched the lead to eleven, then after sharing the pictures the Blenheim retaliated with their own double bonus in the fifth round, Oliver Cromwell and Trump’s mom, not normally seen together. Finishing with a tense, tied final round it all ended Plough 79 – Royal Blenheim 70, under Nancy’s calm correct captaincy.
And on the edge of the Ot Moor the score was Bletchingdon Nomads 74 - Ploughman’s Bunch! 81. It was the first two rounds that did for the Nomads, with bonuses for the Bunch! on Peter and the Wolf and an inspired Buttercup, and an answer on Hell Drivers that we were sure was wrong giving the visitors a six-point margin which a bonus on the Buddha and the home team picking two unanswered questions extended to thirteen points. Then things settled down with a full house in round three (the home team ['I prefer drugs'] picking well while the visitors resisted the temptation to say that the Major in Fawlty Towers was played by Busby Berkeley); and with a draw in the pictures. A Nomads comeback threatened in round five, but that turned into a topsy-turvy affair which again finished level; the first eight questions in round six were then all answered correctly, so the margin was still what it was after the first eight questions of round two. Then the tide really did threaten to turn, with the Nomads securing the last five points of the penultimate round and, with serve, cutting the deficit to four points with four questions left. But the Bunch! held out, If not for Bob Dylan compensating for an Opera failure, to edge an entertaining match amid convivial company and a sea of delicious sandwiches.
In Headington Quarry the Bird were off to a flyer with an eight-point swing in the first round, then the rest of the rounds were very tight and well fought. The Masons gamely tried to claw back the deficit but proved too much and the Bird held on to claim victory. Good evening as always, against jovial opposition, nice to see the local boozer full, although a bit raucous at times, but question master Barbara prevailed, credit to her. Final score: Masons Arms 59 - Blackbird 69.
And finally, the Woodstock fixture ended King's Arms 75 - Castle 71, shades of a chess match going on there. A close result in the end but the King's Arms won six of the seven rounds, only a disastrous round five keeping the scores close. Question reader Marise did her best to be heard over the background noise from a full pub.
Thanks to Tim Busby for the questions, with a selection on advertising slogans from this week below.
Q1: Which company uses the slogan ‘Maybe she’s born with it’?
Q2: Which company used the slogan ‘Good to the last drop’?
Q3: Which chocolate bar was advertised with the strapline ‘Get that Friday feeling every day of the week’?
A1: Maybelline.
A2: Maxwell House.
A3: Crunchie.
Week 16 - (11th September)
As we approach the end game, it’s not all settled, but the Blenheim are looking strong at the top of the Premiership, likewise the Nomads in the Championship. And there are myriad tussles in prospect for runners-up, and indeed all positions, including the coveted last place.
The highest aggregate score of the week was Royal Blenheim 76 - 70 Bletchingdon Nomads. It was a noisy night at the Westgate, the quizzers serenaded with a busker's lusty solo rendition of Linkin Park's 'In the End' on arrival, and question-reader Tony struggled valiantly to make himself heard over the racket (that boy definitely has a future in hospice radio). The Royal Blenheim now have one hand on the famous OSQL glitterball trophy after a hard-fought victory over a strong visiting Nomadic tribe. This did not look likely for much of the contest. The home side scored an early bonus with Brutus jeans but gave it back immediately with a shocking inability to compute a suitable approximation of 7/12 of 88 piano keys in the time allowed and went behind with a further failure to appreciate that Martin Luther King's voice could not be heard a mile away at the Washington Monument. Did he not use a Marshall Amp? The Bletchingdonians extended their lead with a bonus on Buddy Rich (what, not Gene Krupa?) and led 28-33 going into the pictures. A couple of points were recouped there but the match really turned in Round 5 when the home team remembered the great Eusebio Pedroza, who defended his world title against 18 different opponents before running into Barry McGuigan, and oofle dust, although I stress there is no evidence that the Clones Cyclone used such illegal substances to achieve that historic win. The last two rounds were nip-and-tuck, without much counter-punching, But Trevor's memory of Glenbogle kept the visitors at arm's length. Both teams, previously in the running for the Blockbuster prize, then dropped off the pace with a score of 0/4 on the lobes of the brain. Not so cerebral, in the end (continues) ... a spinal tap required?
Jonny came back from taking the captain’s armband on a tour of the north to don it ceremonially at the Blackbird. It was a st-st-stuttering start, with stationary (or is it stationery?) traffic on the Cowley Road, and there was also a paper jam with the questions, requiring question-reader Mark to interrupt Tim Busby’s tea to email them to print at home. The extra 45 minutes pre-match drinking-up time was appreciated by all, and eventually the quiz got under way. We solve problems. The home team were sufficiently warmed up to concede three bonus points in the first round, 6-13. There was not much between the teams in the next few rounds, as Paula put out a magnificent buffet (veggies to the left!) to sustain the teams on a stormy September night. The Plough moved up a gear in the final two rounds, with seven more bonuses and a 4-16 scoreline in give-it away for the match to finish just before 11pm: Blackbird 53 – Plough 79.
The Masons travelled to Woodstock, which was nearer for some team members than others and played a quiz that was really close when it was, but was difficult to call a lot of the time. A good working knowledge of Kate Bush lyrics helped the visitors get off to a flying start, but things remained pretty even until after the pictures. Round 5 was a clean sweep for the visitors, and from that point the Headington team cruised to victory. Final score King’s Arms 54-69 Masons Arms. Wow, what a quiz, and the Masons are now third in the Championship after moving up a place for the third consecutive week.
Ploughman’s Bunch! 73-69 White Hart. The Bunch! stumbled out of the blocks, with the questions expertly read by Rebecca, conceding two bonuses to one in the first round to trail 9-12; before a bonus on Five Guys and an unanswered Butler question picked by the visitors gave us a slender lead - which was then obliterated by a 0-6 score on the drummers mini-round, although a home mini-revival cut the deficit to a single point going in to the delicious food. A surprisingly good score in the pictures then saw the home team edge ahead by one. A bonus on Sooty, thanks to David Parr, and one unanswered question each, saw round five end 11-8 to the Bunch!; the close match continued in a topsy-turvy sixth round, the away team moving into the lead overall with bonuses on Harry Crosby and St Neots before the Bunch! took the last five points to go into the give-it-away round three up. Subsequent forensic analysis showed that we knew only about seven of the twelve questions there, but the unlucky visitors gave us five of them; they scored the only bonus in that round, but the steely Beth gave them the only two unanswered questions as the Bunch! squeaked home - before a blockbuster which proved to be right up Charles's street.
Thanks to Tim Busby for the questions, with a TV selection from this week below.
Q1: What is Father Ted’s surname?
Q2: Who was the butler on Noel’s House Party?
Q3: Who hosted the 2013 revived series of Through the Keyhole?
A1: Crilly.
A2: Ronnie Corbett.
A3: Keith Lemon.
Week 15 - (05th September)
There was not much movement in the league standings this week, as the season approaches its conclusion. But all matches were keenly contested, as usual, with the losing teams all scoring in the sixties, and the winners in the seventies, with one notable exception.
And that outlier was the Blackbird, into the eighties, playing away at Championship leaders, the Nomads. It was an enjoyable evening, as always at the Nomads, first three rounds "The Bird" had a slight edge, going into the picture round 7 points to the good. After the pictures the Nomads imploded, with two six points swings in round 5 and 6 in the visitors favour, leaving an 8 point deficit going into the final round, which proved too much for the hosts. The night was rounded off with delicious sandwiches, and the questions were expertly read by jovial Welsh man, John, thanking you. The aggregate score was the highest of the week, and the Blackbird were the top-scoring team, so all respect to both teams. Final score was Bletchingdon Nomads 64 – Blackbird 81.
Plough 75 - Kings Arms 61. Firstly, a thank you to Rupert for reading the questions and generally keeping the quiz moving along and to Amy for filling in whilst Jonny was off in search of Hadrian’s wall and other such points of northern England. Contrary to last week when we hurtled out of the blocks this week was a much more lethargic effort and as a result, we found ourselves 7 points down after round two although we were ahead on bonuses. Cub reporter Tim was informed by one of the opposition at this point that it wouldn’t last - not sure whether this news was sympathetic or prophetic but as it turned out it was the latter. Pulling back four points on the pictures despite missing both of our music experts (both ancient and modern) we found ourselves within touching distance. Round five proved prophetic as the Kings Arms imploded losing the round 15-2 and snatching defeat from a position of potential victory. The remaining two rounds also went the way of the home team who ran out comfortable winners in the end. Particular mention of Nancy (happy to get a specialist science question), Amy for her general all round knowledge and Howard for his captaincy and leadership. Thanks also to the Kings Arms for contributing to an enjoyable evening from which it did look for quite a while that they would depart with the spoils.
The Royal Blenheim are in a strong but not quite unassailable position, and Eynsham's finest welcomed the city-slicking league leaders to the White Hart and entertained them with the usual excellent mix-tape of rock classics. After a couple of tight rounds and an appearance from this correspondent's favourite wine merchant, the watch-owning Joachim von Ribbentrop (he bought the 'von', in fact), the visitors took a commanding lead with a 3rd round score of 4-13, albeit with just the one bonus on Hallmark. The next two rounds were drawn but the Blenheimistas extended their lead to 79-56 half way through the final round before deciding to nod off on the sun-lounger and allow the Eynshameoisie the final 8 points of the contest, including bonuses on the Mysterons (or was it the Myrmidons?) and Hertzsprung Durch Technik diagrams. So it finished White Hart 64 - 79 Royal Blenheim. All in all, a splendid evening, including a fine fingerbobbing repast that may or may not have included pea-aubergine whatnots.
A week on from a quiz where the Masons couldn’t seem to get much right, their fortunes reversed on a visit to the Castle. After a 12-all first round the scores were within a point of each other all the way to give it away. An impressive 14-6 final round from the Headington visitors put the win beyond the home team. Final score Castle 66 – Masons Arms 75. All in all, a great night at a nice venue in the middle of town, and the win takes the Masons up a place in the Championship.
Thanks to Tim Busby for the questions, with a mixed selection from this week below.
Q1: What is plotted on a Hertzsprung Russell diagram?
Q2: What nationality is four times Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar?
Q3: In 1985 which capital city was the first city to be named European capital of culture?
A1: Stars. (showing the relationship between their luminosities and effective temperatures)
A2: Slovenian. (winner in 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025)
A3: Athens.
Week 14 - (28th August)
Another week where the average score was above seventy, and there was a second instance this summer of a drawn match. No dramatic league movements, but the White Hart continue their ascent to the top, or at least away from the bottom of the league.
After winning Round One 14-8, any hopes that the Nomads may have had of a comfortable evening against their visitors, the King’s Arms, were quickly eradicated when the King’s Arms hit straight back taking Round Two 7-13. And that was the pattern for the evening. The Nomads claimed substantial wins in rounds 3 & 7 whilst the Kings Arms achieved equally convincing wins in rounds 5 & 6. And the Picture Round was almost even. So who won I hear you ask? Well, quite fittingly perhaps, no-one did as the last question fell to the Nomads who, at the time, were still two points behind. Fortunately for the home team, Pete Baker, who had already demonstrated his extensive knowledge of English Towns, Pop Music and Horseracing, also knew his 1960s Refuse Collectors and claimed the draw for the home side by correctly identifying “The Dustbinmen”. So the final score was Nomads 76 - 76 King’s Arms. Both teams immediately applauded their counterparts and agreed that it was a very fitting result at the end of a very pleasant evening. And the reason the Picture Round was so close? Well, that was clearly because both teams relaxed at that point and happily concentrated on the vast array of sandwiches, pies and sausage rolls provided by the wonderful Mrs Davies!
A wordless report from the White Hart, no oxygen needed on their ascent, but the score was Blackbird 53 - White Hart 71.
The Plough team travelled across Oxford by a variety of means (bus, car and on foot) to a warm welcome at the Masons Arms. Consternation set in before the start with the realisation that the Captain’s armband was missing but Nancy (captain for the night) managed to lead her troops through adversity due in no small part due to some unique answers and generosity from the opposition. A welcome to Nick who stood in for Jonny at short notice. The aforementioned generosity of the Masons team was apparent from the start losing the first two rounds (round 2 by 16-4) by which time the contest was over barring a spectacular revival in the second half. A mini revival of sorts did occur with the home team winning round 5 and drawing round 7 but sandwiched in between they conspired to lose round 6 14-2. Unique answers from Howard on vintage comedy and fictional manor houses, Nancy on lakes and Australian rivers and Ruth on butterflies and 90s pop contributed to the success for the Plough team. Scores: Masons 57 - Plough 89.
And finally, Bunch! 76-68 Castle. Having been soundly defeated in the away tie by a four-person Castle team, it was with some trepidation that a depleted Bunch! unit fetched up to face questions expertly read by Stuart. Sure enough, failures on some questions that absent friends would have helped with saw the visitors win the first two rounds; but rather than dwell on what might have been, the home foursome eventually knuckled down under Martin's captaincy to take the third round 12-8 and then to edge the pictures; and some good work in round five extended the home lead to seven. Round six was drawn (the Bunch! amazed to get all three points on Juke Box Musicals, but then losing all three on castles), but the Castle hit back at the start of the give-it-away round and, going first, repeatedly cut the margin to two points. Fabulous teamwork between the two Davids on rugby steadied the nerves, before Martin, faced with the last four topics, gave away the two that neither side knew to seal the victory on a convivial evening, with the customary scrummy food.
Thanks to Tim Busby for the questions, with a watery selection from this week below.
Q1: What is the name of the lake created by the building of the Hoover dam?
Q2: By area, what is the largest lake in Italy?
Q3: At 834 Kms long, the Gascoyne River is the longest in which Australian state?
A1: Lake Mead.
A2: Lake Garda.
A3: Western Australia.
Week 13 - (21st August)
Week thirteen, unlucky for some… and the mighty Blenheim stumble in their so-far perfect season to lose to the Bunch! There is now no team unbeaten and no team without a win, it’s a point in the schedule when it all feels fair and even, or at least fairer and evener. Average scores were higher this week, with the average losing score over seventy, so all teams will be reflecting on what may have been.
All good things, and arguably all things, come to an end; but with the Blenheim coming into the quiz with a perfect eleven wins from eleven this season, it would obviously take something special. And this is what the Bunch! managed, with a perfect set of answers all the way from the first question to the last picture, not failing until their first question of round five (Tina Turner, what’s luck got to do with it?). This delivered 14-8 triumphs in each of the first two rounds (with bonuses on Geography, Great Lakes, Sports Sponsors, and Cheddar Gorge (one of a string of solid Charles answers)), before full houses for both teams in rounds three and four saw the home team go into the second half 60-48 up thanks to good teamwork on Broxie Bear, Miles's last-second Buddy Buddy, and inspired guesses on Walter Tell and Walker's. But the Blenheim are not runaway favourites for the title for nothing, and their luck turned as they got the next four bonuses to cut the lead to a squeaky two points going into the give-it-away. But under Beth's steely captaincy the Bunch!'s steely nerve held, with crucial bonuses on Plant World and Enid Blyton, the British universities question seeing them home with two questions to spare. There were only three unanswered questions all night (two of those on Super 12), making for a high-scoring game - the Blenheim losing with a score that was above their average across the season so far. Ploughman’s Bunch! 86 – Royal Blenheim 81.
And unusually, a report from the runners-up: Hats off to the Bunch! for a phenomenal performance in Rounds 1-4 - a 100% perfect record, 60 points, in fact. We only got four wrong but that meant we were twelve behind. Did well to get it back to two down but gave the wrong categories away in R7. We erred on the part-ownership of Cheddar Gorge - Trevor insisted it was Gerry Cottle, otherwise we'd've gone for the obvious guess of the Marquess of Bath. Turns out Cottle owns nearby Wookey Hole caves. A little knowledge, as ever ...
Congratulations to both teams on an unprecedented high aggregate score, and commiserations to the silver medallists.
The White Hart are mining a seam of improved form, two wins in succession, onwards and upwards, although the league standings remain unchanged and static, with no week-on-week movement, neither up nor down. A series of narrowly won early rounds and a rare full house in the pictures gave the White Hart a seemingly comfortable 12-point lead after round five. However, the Kings Arms surged back to halve the deficit with a 12-6 win in round six and took the early points in Give It Away to give their hosts some serious jitters. Home nerves were calmed by a late recovery, before a bizarre final twist when both teams and the quiz master forgot the 'order of giving', leading to some confused expressions among people who really should know how these things work by now. Fortunately, the result was not affected and the White Hart stumbled over the line. White Hart 70 - Kings Arms 67.
The Plough descended below the water line in the Castle (sorry for the mixed metaphor) into the plush luxe confines of the boudoir. Tim donned the snug-fit captain’s armband in the absence of Nancy, away on manoeuvres, and with no subs available it was four against five. The Castle had high hopes of repeating their famous victory in June, especially when they stormed the ramparts to take the first round 11-6. The visitors steadfastly chipped away at that lead, going ahead after an unusual round three win, and subsequently leading by an uncatchable nineteen going in to the last round. It was no consolation for the home side to win that 11-8 to end the match well before 10pm, final score Castle 65 – Plough 81.
And an inaugural report from Nomad Pete Baker (not the celebrated irascible Cream drummer, who is, in a very real sense, dead.) The Nomads welcomed old friends and rivals, The Masons Arms to the Club in Bletchingdon for what was a convivial evening although the hosts could not offer the same extensive ale selection that their opponents do. The first round was very close, the Masons edging it by a single point, then the Nomads found some form and forged ahead, establishing a nine-point lead by the end of the picture round. Sandwiches consumed (thanks Sue) and on to the inevitable Nomads' Round 5 collapse which saw their lead reduced to just two points as the Masons picked up a full house on their own questions plus a bonus. The Nomads' lead was down to just one point going into the final round, but they recovered well, gave away diligently and ended up winning the match. Guest player, Karen, weighed in with some sterling answers on subjects as diverse as Chemical Elements, Plant World and Enid Blyton, helping secure the win for the home team. Bletchingdon Nomads 77 - 71 Masons Arms.
Some designs have been submitted following the suggestion that there should be an official ‘Oxfordshire Quiz League’ logo, for website, merchandise, t-shirts, team kit and so on. A committee led by, and indeed consisting of, David Quinn will be considering next steps…
Thanks to Tim Busby for the questions, with a rock and pop music selection from this week below.
Q1: Sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson are long time members of which band?
Q2: Followill is the surname of all of the members of which band?
Q3: Emma Bunton (née Baby Spice) had a number 2 hit ‘What I am’ in 1999 with which group?
A1: Heart.
A2: Kings of Leon (brothers Caleb, Nathan, and Jared, and their cousin Matthew).
A3: Tin Tin Out. (originally by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians)
Week 12 - (14th August)
Scores were more evenly distributed this week, with one winning team, and all four runners-up, scoring in the sixties. The three premiership teams all won convincingly with high scores so there was no change in their league standings, but there was a swap-around in the lower reaches of the championship.
In bustling downtown Wolvercote “Gateway to Godstow” the Plough welcomed long-time friends and rivals from Bletchingdon, the Nomads. Hoping to bounce back from last week’s defeat by the Bunch! the Plough started as they hoped to go on in round one with two bonuses and a 14-8 win. Their habitual loss in round three, 3x4, was avoided thanks to Ruth’s two bonuses on 90s pop (expected) and the Grand National (applauded). The Nomads’ only laurels came in the picture round, then five more bonus points to the Plough in the second half secured a convincing win, not before time, with the highest team score of the summer season so far: Plough 89 – Bletchingdon Nomads 61.
In the absence of both Beth and Jeremy, stand-in captain and report scribbler Martin got the Bunch! off to a poor start, miserably failing to remember that he has walked round the Botanical Garden on Kitchener’s Island. We went on to lose the first two of the opening three closely fought rounds, going into the pictures one point down. A full house, thanks to Miles’ knowledge of Beatles covers, and a 6-13 win in round five (despite picking the one unanswered question) put us ten up, with narrow wins in the last two rounds for a 66-79 win. We had three total fluke guesses - bowls, (Mo) Butcher, and Henry V - much to Darragh’s ”amusement”! The quiz was excellently read and the food, as always, a veritable banquet. We were graced with the presence of (former question-setter) Mr James Carr, who watched the quiz with interest from the adjacent table. Blackbird 66 - Ploughman’s Bunch! 79.
Masons Arms 61 White Hart 62. Having discussed beforehand how this fixture has a history of producing close results, the hosts seemed intent on ignoring this tradition as they eased to an 8 point lead after 3 rounds. The White Hart edged the pictures and away wins in the next 2 rounds meant that we were back in the familiar territory of a one-point gap heading into the final round. An early bonus for the Masons left the visitors fearing the worst (well, you would, given the results so far this season), but an unexpected slip-up on the Dave Clark Five let them back in, and an inspired guess of Peggy Lee meant that they edged home by, yes, one point.
Royal Blenheim 78 - 66 Castle. The second Westgate derby of the season was played out inside the city walls but perhaps not so very far away from the original 802 Derby when the pitchfork-armed forces of Wessex and Mercia faced off across the Hogacre stream. The Castle were the team which had come closest to defeating the Blenheimistas this summer, only to lose a 2-point lead in the last four questions, but, even with a 7-person squad, they were not able to run the league leaders so close this time. Kitchener's Island gave the home team a 13-10 lead after a blink-and-you-miss-it Round 1 and the Blenheim edged further ahead in Rounds 2 and 3, with bonuses on Bratislava and that old favourite, the War of Jenkins' Ear, with or without the apostrophe. A full house on the pictures - perhaps the easiest set ever? - made it 51-42 and, after an 8-8 draw on Round five, the home team enjoyed the easier questions in Round 6 to win that 13-6. A bonus on the opening give-it-away question - of course it wasn't Taylor Swift! - made the game mathematically certain and the Blenheim promptly zoned out completely, giving away the wrong categories and forgetting Enoch and poor old Peggy Lee. So the deficit was cut to 12 points and the two teams enjoyed a surprisingly generous array of sandwiches. Here's to another 1200 years of derby matches!
A plethora of designs has not yet flooded in, to the suggestion that there should be an official ‘Oxfordshire Quiz League’ logo, for website, merchandise, t-shirts, team kit and so on. If there is any budding, or experienced graphic designer keen to show, or develop, their skills – what can you come up with?
Thanks to Tim Busby for the questions, with a sports selection from this week below. Fixtures, Weekly Scores, Reports etc. are at: www.oxfordshire-quiz-league.com
Q1: In June 2025, in which city did England beat Germany 3-2 in the UEFA under-21 championship final?
Q2: With headquarters in Mies, Switzerland, FIBA is the international federation for which sport?
Q3: In which sport do men compete for the Leonard Trophy, and women for the Taylor Trophy?
A1: Bratislava (Slovakia).
A2: Basketball.
A3: Bowls (for the best overall teams at the World Outdoor Bowls Championships).
Week 11 - (07th August)
There were some high scoring games this week, in particular from the Blenheim who have now registered the perfect ten out of ten on the opening fixtures. What could possibly go wrong?
The Plough were home to Ploughman’s Bunch! in what used to be called the Clash of the Titans™ but has now become the battle for runners-up place, or to avoid relegation. It was not the accustomed game of two halves, but one topped and tailed by home team round wins, sandwiched by good rounds for the Bunch! The Plough brought in newlywed bride Amy, for Nancy off on summer manoeuvres, and she made a fine contribution, but even so not enough to carry the Plough across the threshold. The Bunch! landed only a couple of bonuses, one on Dudley (your silly accent here), but they did not need that to prevail with consistent scoring elsewhere. Final score Plough 74 – Ploughman’s Bunch! 77.
White Hart 65 - Castle 75. A lovely evening at Eynsham made even better by Carsten turning up unexpectedly, and he very kindly offered to be question master as the White Hart were one player short. The Castle won the first five rounds and lost the last two, but the scores were very close with neither team winning any round by more than two or three points. Whilst we all are getting older we were very happy that none of us knew that the British company in Folkestone was owned by Saga! Neither team got the Film Screenwriters correct and the same with the Fashion Houses (even though the Castle were playing with three women in the team none of us had ever heard of any of those perfumes before!). Nice food and a very happy atmosphere what more could we ask for?
King's Arms 71 - Blackbird 58. The scoreline suggests a decisive victory but this was only made certain by a 13-5 final round. Both teams had semi-disastrous rounds; King's Arms in round three, and Blackbird in rounds five and seven. Both teams struggled with the subjects in round six, and a scoreline of 5-4 proves neither side has any expert knowledge on perfume brands (among other subjects).
The Royal Blenheim headed to the Mason's Arms, hoping to chisel out another couple of points from the rockface of Headington Quarry and raced into a 4-0 lead when both sides failed on the home of the Red Arrows and of Blackberry. Their run of 10-point victories in Round 2 came to an end with a much more modest 11-8 triumph and a similar 3-point gain in the 3x4 increased the lead to a fairly comfortable 36-26, aided by bonuses on Lombardy and Learie Constantine. After a (nearly) even-stevens picture round, a similar pattern applied in Round five with a single bonus on Louise Fletcher preventing a 12-12 draw. With 66 points and still two rounds to go, the Royalists were quietly hoping for a rare 90-point night but some of the pairings in Round six, including screenwriters and fashion houses, proved way too hard for both sides. That was 6-5 to the visitors but they saved their best till last, 15-6 on the Give it Away, with bonuses on malic acid, Argus and Foden. The home team had the misfortune to lose all seven rounds and gain just one bonus all evening but sustained an upbeat mood with some lively banter while some excellent ales and refreshments made it a great night, perhaps not just for the winners, who are now top of the table with ten out of ten. Mason's Arms 63 - 87 Royal Blenheim.
The Nomads had a bye in Bletchingdon – a match they always look forward to because, so far, they’ve never lost a game. Having said that, they’ve never won one either, so there was everything to play for. The match was played according to local bye laws – kicking off just as the Question Master was preparing to watch the football. The Nomads made a disastrous start and were well behind at half time. Unfortunately, Mrs Davies was watching the football so there were no sandwiches (with or without mayonnaise). Understandably the home side spiralled further downwards and yet again encountered the Round five collapse that they thought they’d said “Goodbye” to. There were chants for the Bye Team – leg byes on the big screen (yes – they’d turned the football over to watch the cricket!) and the Bayswater Strollers sang “Bye Bye Baby”.
In the end the Nomads couldn’t find that elusive win but it didn’t cost them anything because they’d agreed a “no win – no fee” game. At the end of a very pleasant evening the Nomads said “Bye, Bye” to the Bye Team and they await their return match – wherever that may be.
There has been a suggestion that there should be an official ‘Oxfordshire Quiz League’ logo, for website, merchandise, t-shirts, team kit… So, if there is any budding graphic designer keen to show, or develop, their skills – what can you come up with?
Thanks to Tim Busby for the questions, with a cinematic selection from this week below.
Q1: Which British Actress played Barbara Castle in the 2010 film ‘Made in Dagenham’?
Q2: Who directed the films ‘Love Actually’, ‘The Boat that Rocked’, and ‘About Time’?
Q3: Starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, which 1999 film was Stanley Kubrick’s last?
A1: Miranda Richardson.
A2: Richard Curtis.
A3: Eyes Wide Shut.
Week 10 - (31st July)
Taking their cue from the cooler weather this week, scores were more temperate across the league. Getting milder, that means cooler in summer, but warmer in winter, and as a native Brummie (so, farewell then and RIP Ozzy) I do enjoy mild. No changes in the league standings this week, but every match is still full-on competitive.
The Ploughman’s Bunch! are getting back to their usual good form, welcoming the King’s Arms from Woodstock to Wolvercote. It was a dramatic evening at the Plough - with a play in progress on the Green outside, its interval timed to produce a big queue at the bar which delayed the start of quiz proceedings. Once the home team had finally got their drinks in, round one 'went with serve', in the words of reader Stuart, finishing 12-12; bonuses on taglines and fruit (a guess, like the Queen Mary) then gave the Bunch! a 12-6 advantage in round two. A similar round three margin (with some good L-answers, and the teams sharing bonuses after answers on the breathalyser and the motorway which were one out) and edging the pictures despite the absence of what would have been specialist knowledge from the injured David Parr produced a 14-point buffer going into the second half. The King's Arms hit back with a 13-7 trouncing in round five, but the Bunch! had all the luck in the penultimate round to win that 12-4 (knowledgeable bonuses on Sinatra and PTFE, a guess on Mel Stride, and the away team having a Man Who Knew Too Much answering Oganesson for the noble gas), before the last round was drawn (the King's Arms with the answer of the night on TV Composers, before Beth's inspired guess on the Austin Hampshire). Neither team distinguished themselves on the blockbuster, but then nobody did. Nice beer and food, affable visitors, and excellent proactive reading combined to produce an enjoyable evening as the theatregoers drifted away and so, eventually, did we. As the curtain fell and the lights went down it all ended Ploughman’s Bunch! 76 - 60 King's Arms.
The Castle’s match against the Nomads was indeed the proverbial ‘game of two halves’. The Castle won the first three rounds and went into the picture round eight points clear. But, just as they’d done in their last match, the Nomads clawed their way back into the game taking rounds four, five and six to go into the final “Give it Away” round two points ahead. Clearly the result could have gone either way and both teams made brilliant choices in terms of which questions they gave away. The Castle only got one of the six questions they’d been given correct and the Nomads only got two of theirs right. However, five bonus points were picked up and so the match went to the very last question. Nail biting stuff! Fortunately for the Nomads, the Castle couldn’t place the Fogerty Brothers in order to claim a draw, but the Nomads could and so won the match …… Castle 60 - 63 Nomads.
The Plough packed on to the team bus, the S1 heading for downtown Carterton, for a jolly evening in the White Hart Eynsham. Trevor took calm control as question-master, as Tim donned the captain’s armband to lead the Plough in a friendly, good-natured match. The visitors took command of the first two rounds to be eight ahead before a lacklustre round three which the White Hart took 6-4. The Plough won the pictures and the next two rounds by four each, leaving the home team eighteen adrift before a drawn last round. Final score, not long after 10pm with the prospect of an earlier bus, was White Hart 54 – Plough 72.
League leaders the Royal Blenheim continued their run with another convincing win with the top score, and highest aggregate score of the week. Fresh from their exciting triumph in the Music Quiz last week, the Blackbird arrived in the city centre having somehow slimmed down their squad to just six players for a match-up with the unbeaten league leaders, the Royal Blenheim. After a two-minute sprint through round one, slowed down only by a collective lack of knowledge of the capital of Mali, the Blenheimites did their usual trick of hypnotising their opponents for the entire duration of round two, winning it 13-3 and building a lead which would make it a challenging evening for the visitors. The leaders failed on the Latin Libani, guessing Libya rather than Lebanon, but still found themselves 36-20 up after three rounds. But the Leysians won the next two rounds to close the gap a little and showed good knowledge of PTFE and Mel Stride in round six, only to trip up on the heaviest noble gas, answering oganesson and refusing all attempts by the Blenheim to give them the points for this. Their luck did not improve much in the Give it Away, jumping the wrong way with Scottish golfers and Doris Day films. So it finished Royal Blenheim 82 - 60 Blackbird. Special thanks to Anna for reading out the questions on one of those nights when the noise from the other punters grew inexorably until it had passed the 100dB mark and good to see the finest of all question readers, Tim Reynolds, on a relatively rare trip into town.
Thanks to Tim Busby for the questions, with a chemical selection from this week below.
Q1: Which is the lightest noble gas?
Q2: How is Deuterium Oxide more commonly known?
Q3: What is the acronym PTFE short for?
A1: Helium.
A2: Heavy Water.
A3: Polytetrafluoroethylene.
Music Table Top - 24th July
As a break from the relentless pressure of weekly league matches eight teams gathered for a raucous night in the cavernous function room at the Masons Arms, Headington Quarry. Jeff Welch had one hundred and four (count them!) music clips in seven rounds, with a fifty-two-question blockbuster simultaneously, at the same time and in tandem.
Forty-eight keen music fans, and a few who knew rather less, from eight teams ducked, as the kiss cam panned round the expectant crowd, seeking out illicit embracing couples, without success. So, it’s Hi Ho Silver Lining, and away we go (one of many classics not featured) with round one, happy families featuring brothers and sisters in the title. There were not quite four and twenty Blackbirds competing, but the full eleven chirped merrily in round one, getting a full set, along with the White Hart, always the music experts.
Lots of lovely links lined round two, something beginning with L. The Nomads were not Beck’s ‘Loser’, winning the round jointly with both first-round winners. The cheers rang out, and Irish eyes were smiling, as Jeff announced round three’s theme – Irish performers, greeted with enthusiasm by Darragh in particular “There’s eleven of us …. …”. And to be sure the eleven scored twelve, another maximum, joined by the King’s Arms. Twenty-four pictures kept the room busy in round four, as the International Bring-and-Share Buffet was laid out. The Nectar points had been redeemed, or was this more of a Tesco Clubcard crowd? There was another change of lead as the Nomads won the identification parade, equalled by home team the Masons Arms, who hit their high-water mark, although not much water was being consumed.
The Royal Blenheim scored their only maximum in round five, the full almanac of Calendar Girls, or at least songs with a month in the title. Let’s get on with round six, songs that suggestively start ‘Let’s…’ – a high scoring round for all but one, who will remain nameless (!). Three teams were tying for first place, the chart-compiler’s nightmare: White Hart, Nomads, and Blackbird.
P.S. – round seven had an initial theme, and one of four teams falling just one short of the post-script was the Plough, having their best round, but too much too little too late to move up the chart. With only the blockbuster to score, the Plough hoped that their eighteen-point cushion over rivals the Bunch! may be enough to save them from hitting rock bottom. The Ploughman’s Bunch! had replicated their habitual music quiz form, coming last in every round, but then a coda in the blockbuster, third place, only two shy of the joint winners. But it was not quite enough to overhaul their stablemates. The Blackbird and the Nomads owned it, scoring the same overall, also on the first tiebreaker the blockbuster, but Jeff had, as ever, denoted round three as the next decider… and as the luck of the Irish would have it, that round favoured the Blackbird, popularly acclaimed winners!
Week 9 - (17th July)
The summer season reached its half-way mark this week, and the Blenheim are owning it, still unbeaten and six points clear of the field. As the Lionesses battled it out, all evening as it turned out, the quiz teams enjoyed the slightly cooler weather and the slightly hotter questions, if the lower scores are any indication.
The Royal Blenheim are the team to beat this summer, but nobody has, yet. They ran out fairly comfortable winners of the monarchy derby, beating the King's Arms and extending their winning summer run to eight games. It was a pleasure to quiz in this spacious and splendidly appointed Woodstock hostelry. One wondered whether the future Queen Elizabeth I managed to escape curfew from Woodstock Manor in 1554 and downed a few foaming flagons of Fursty Ferret here before being grounded once more by Sir Henry Bedingfield? By the time we got to Woodstock, we were six strong, as Joni Mitchell didn't quite write, so Jeff sat out the first half and Trevor the second. Once again, it was round two that did the most damage to the home team's prospects, as a modest 10-12 deficit from round one became 12-26. Rounds three and four were also won by a smaller margin so there wasn't much for the music maestro to do in the second half. The lead stretched to 39-62 after round five but the King's men and women staged something of a rearguard action in the last two rounds to reduce the final margin to 22 points. So it was King's Arms 54 - 76 Royal Blenheim after a most convivial evening.
Masons Arms 57 - Ploughman’s Bunch! 72. It was a difficult match at the Masons. It is always a difficult match at the Masons. The Masons are always a good team and there is always good beer. However, this match was made even more difficult by the TV being directly in the eye line of the Ploughman’s Bunch and it was showing the Lionesses quarter final versus Sweden (one eye on the match, one eye on the screen). And so it started, in the time it took Sweden to take a commanding lead, so did the Ploughman’s Bunch!, winning the first round 14-6 thanks to knowledge about authors and sausages. England’s Lionesses, and the Masons, then steadied the ship and slowly started to exert some pressure winning the next two rounds and the pictures by a single point thanks to their expert knowledge on Marzipan balls, Che Guevara’s hands and Mungo Park. At half-time, Beth, taking a leaf from Sarina Wiegman’s book, had a word, and the Bunch! stepped up their game winning the last three rounds, with some excellent answers on Terence Rattigan (Jeremy’s specialist subject…shame he wasn’t there), San Miguel and Murphy’s stout (obviously a theme there Charles). The Blockbuster was quickly completed so we could watch the penalty shoot-out (Chloe Kelly what a star!) to round off a nerve-jangling but very enjoyable evening.
In Bletchingdon the women’s football was on the big screen and it was perhaps ironic that the Nomads game against the White Hart kicked off at exactly the same time. As in the football, the Nomads had a difficult first half – losing rounds one and three and drawing rounds two and four. So, at half-time, the White Hart hadn’t lost a single round and were leading 38 v 43. Now whether it was the half-time talk, or the massive tray of sandwiches, or the beer break, no-one really knows, but in the second half the Nomads looked like a different team (although no substitutions had been made). They took round five 13 – 5, and then round six 13 – 10, to go into the final round with a lead of six points. Neither team enjoyed Round Seven which the Nomads narrowly edged 7 - 6 to give a final score of …… Nomads 71 – 64 White Hart. A great evening, with good friends, and England are through to the semi-finals.
With guest question reader Jonny flown in by bus, there was a keenly fought battle at the Blackbird, welcoming the Castle from the inner city. The Blackbird conceded two bonuses in the first round, while the Castle added a full house on their own questions to win it 6-14, and the home team faced a struggle to recoup that deficit. In the event, the next five rounds were evenly split, two each and one drawn, so the visitors were still eight points ahead going into the final round. The Blackbird took two more bonuses, with another to come, but it was not quite enough in a round which saw seven questions unanswered by both teams. In the bar it was getting raucous as extra time dragged on at a stalemate, and penalties were in prospect. Who would end it all in Zurich? While many rushed home to the comfort of their own TV, a select group found themselves in the bar to suffer together. Jonny needed explanation and commentary (“I thought there was a goal at each end”) but it all ended well for the plucky ponytailed Lionesses, as we all know by now, and the shoot-out was reminiscent of the final round of the quiz. Final score in the quiz was Blackbird 59 – Castle 64.
Thanks to Tim Busby for the questions, with a selection on marine life from this week below.
Q1: In the genus ‘Mobula’, what is the largest species of ray?
Q2: An octopus has how many hearts?
Q3: With the scientific name ‘Rhincodon Typus’ what is the largest species of shark?
A1: Manta Ray.
A2: Three.
A3: Whale Shark.
Week 8 - (10th July)
The temperature, and the scores, hit a new high this week, with an average score of over 75, and the average losing score only a few behind that at 72. The Nomads reached the peak of the Championship, beating Premier League team the Bunch!, and the Blackbird’s draw against the Masons lifts them of the foot of that table.
Result of the night must be at the Royal Blenheim, where the home team put in a superb performance against fellow premiership side the Plough. In cool air-conditioned comfort the Blenheim won 6½ rounds of the seven, never by more than two points, but it was a steadily accumulated lead, ending Royal Blenheim 83 – Plough 75, the highest aggregate match score of the summer so far. Emceed by Tony Chinn, on top form as ever, the match finished a couple of minutes before ten, pitching the quizzers out into the steaming, streaming town centre. Hot town, summer in the city…
On a sweltering night in Blackbird Leys, the Blackbird and the Masons met to see if they could shake up the order in the championship. The first half of the quiz was a round each and a drawn round. A sign of things to come. The home team lead all the way to the give it away round where the scores were eventually levelled. So no shake up just the most enjoyable of evenings. Mr Conway’s 1960s pop knowledge provided the background to what was possibly the answer of the night. Final score Blackbird 70 - Masons Arms 70.
It’s always a good evening at the Plough and this match was no exception. The Nomads took a two-point lead in round one - only for the Bunch! to draw level in round two. Then disaster struck the home team when they lost round three 6-13. So, a seven-point lead for the Nomads at the end of the round. With rounds 4 & 5 drawn, the Nomads still had their seven-point lead going into round six, but then it was their turn to falter – losing that 12-8. So now the Nomads were only three points ahead and the stage was set for a nail-biting final round. However, the Nomads gave away wisely and answered well, to take the round 6-12 and, therefore, the match. Ploughman’s Bunch! 74 - 83 Nomads. The answer of the night had to go to the Nomads’ Pete Baker who was the only one in the room to know that the elusive singer/songwriter Bob Lind’s highest placed single was the “Elusive Butterfly”. A great quiz, with great company, on a lovely summer’s evening.
Castle 68 – King’s Arms 80. A very pleasant evening in the cool of the boudoir, away from the heat. Castle took the first round, Kings Arms the next two, and Castle then retook the lead after the pictures. However, that was as good as it got for the Castle as Kings Arms won the final three rounds.
Thanks to Tim Busby for the questions, with a selection on parent companies from this week below. F
Q1: Who is the parent company of Facebook?
Q2: Who is the parent company of Premier Inn, Beefeater, and Brewer’s Fayre?
Q3: Who is the parent company of Google?
A1: Meta.
A2: Whitbread.
A3: Alphabet.
Week 7 - (03rd July)
This week was another one of high scores, with all eight teams, winners and runners-up, scoring in the sixties and seventies, and an average of more than three score and ten. The White Hart landed the accolade no team wants – highest-scoring losing team – for the third time, so they get to keep the trophy, or would if there was one. Sluggish midsummer doldrums in the league positions, but the Masons move up to third in the championship with their third win.
The Masons are enjoying a run of home games, and they welcomed the King’s Arms this week. Starting badly, the home team only won one of the three early rounds, but after the pictures managed to build a lead that was helped by the visitors faltering in round six. Final score Masons Arms 69 - King’s Arms 61. Contenders for answer of the night were birthday boy Chris Potter’s hole in the ozone layer, and Dave “Mr C” Cowlett’s Bejams. A great night in one of Oxfords finest pubs.
It was a beautiful summer's evening in Bletchingdon with a game of boys' cricket in progress and the sun listing gently in the western sky - the Nomads, on a rare losing streak, entertained the unbeaten city slickers, the Royal Blenheim. The home team claimed to have no hope of victory, and it seemed to be a self-fulfilling prophecy as the visitors raced into a 6-14 lead with bonuses on National Trust properties and Slade lyrics. After a tighter (8-10) second round, it was 14-29 after the first four questions of Round three and the match was effectively gone. A full house on the Pictures took the score to 40-55 as a huge platter of sandwiches and sausage rolls was wolfed down. Perhaps the post-prandial monarchists took their eye of the ball because they lost Round five 10-5, scoring no points at all in the second half of the round, picking all the categories where no one had a clue. Could the Wanderers stage an epic comeback? Round six was a more even affair until the Blenheim nabbed all the points on the Dickensian opening lines to restore a 14-point gap. it was just as well they did because the Give-it-Away was another shocker for the away team, the familiar mix of offloading the wrong categories and simply not knowing the answers, which is often a cause of quizzing disappointment. Still, despite the 13-5 margin in the last round, it was Nomads 71 - 77 Royal Blenheim as the sun finally set behind the yard-arm and theological discussion continued until closing time - was it Samson or Samuel who was the last judge? RIP Diogo Jota, YNWA.
White Hart 72 - 76 Ploughman’s Bunch! This was one of those games where you take the lead in the first round but say 'a long way to go' but then going into, and coming out of, the last round your lead stays more or less the same, and with only slight variations in between. So we had the apparently easier Camberwick Green question and got a bonus on Lilibet to lead by five and take the first round 13-8; and began the give-it-away round 66-61 - and although the White Hart got a rhinoceros bonus, Beth, captaining coolly throughout, gave them card games, which neither side knew, and four points was the final margin. In between the White Hart won rounds two and six, and we edged the others and the pictures (thanks to a late surge on dog breeds). We were not convinced that Samson, as opposed to Samuel, was the last judge, but as jovial question-master Trevor pointed out, he probably did wear a wig. The final result was close, on a very pleasant evening of nice beer and malt whisky and food and company.
The Plough hosted the Blackbird at home in Wolvercote, for a good-natured match played in a friendly spirit of beer, banter and bonuses. The home team got off to a good start with three in the first round to take it 13-6, consolidating their position in the next two rounds before a strong picture round where both teams only missed one each, identifying a full house together. The summer special food was very welcome, including tasty pakora, with sandwiches for the more traditional diners. The Blackbird found their best form in round five to narrow the gap to half a dozen points, only for the home side to recoup most of those in the next round. Two final bonuses for the hosts in the final round, and the match finished Plough 79 – Blackbird 64.
Thanks to Tim Busby for the questions, with a Food and Drink selection from this week below.
Q1: Which large, coiled South African sausage is made from ground meat with coriander, cloves, and nutmeg?
Q2: In which country did the Bagel originate?
Q3: Which cocktail is made with 1 oz Gin, 4 dashes Grenadine, an egg white, and a cherry garnish?
A1: Boerewors.
A2: Poland (in 1610).
A3: Pink Lady.
Week 6 - (26th June)
Six weeks into the summer league, and past the solstice, there is now no team without a win, that’s always a good point to reach. There were some high winning scores, and due to some player absences there were also some lower losing scores. We all keep at it, though, and Tim Busby continues to set questions that produce interesting results.
The Royal Blenheim maintained their status as the only unbeaten team - the Boys (and Girls) of Summer? - with a surprisingly comfortable win over a depleted White Hart. The goodly folk of Eynsham had one of those evenings. In Round one, they were landed with the only two questions (on 2.4 Children and Polly in Fawlty Towers) that no one knew the answer to, so that was 12-8 to the home side, but much worse was to follow. The dreaded bagel! The Blenheim won Round Two 13-0 with no less than five 1-point bonuses to compensate for failures on Flags and Autobiographies. Things got worse for the visitors in a cockwombling Round three as, despite a bonus on Rosa Parks, they ended the round 37-13 down and in some danger of being lapped. The league-leaders won the Pictures 19-15 and the next two rounds 12-6 and 11-6 to extend their advantage. The 90 mark was in sight but the Royalists' knowledge of Ralph Boston and the Variola virus proved deficient, and it finished a mere Royal Blenheim 88 - 48 White Hart. Overall, it was a chastening experience for the visitors, but they stuck at it and had their best round at the end.
A very nice evening at the Masons with good choice of beers and delicious food. The Masons lead for the first 2 rounds 8-4,11-7, and round 4 18-15. Round 5 was a 10-10 draw. The Castle won round 3 6-9, round 6 4-13 and round 7 5-9. So a very close match start to finish. We were all absolutely baffled by the question about the Cock womble which none of us had ever heard of before! Whilst we had all heard of the 2 songs from the musical nobody had any recollection of the title Promises, Promises! Final score: Masons Arms 62 - Castle 67, which takes the Castle to the top of the championship.
The Plough have had an unconvincing (that is, losing matches) start to the season, and they took the north road to Woodstock in some trepidation of a humiliation hat-trick. Any nerves were steadied in round one, where the hapless home team conceded five bonuses on their first five questions to go nine-nil adrift before securing their first points on their final question. The visitors took round two, before the King’s Arms regrouped in the third round to win it. The match was beyond their reach, twenty-one points behind, going into the final round, which saw six bonuses, two the home team and four to the visitors, is this a record? The final score, as the welcome rain set in for the journey home, was King’s Arms 54 – Plough 81.
And the Blackbird finally secured a win after some narrow defeats, against a strong team, too. Lovely evening, against a very jovial opposition, game played in proper spirit. Out of the seven rounds, three finished all square, the Nomads fate was sealed with a disastrous second round, with a nine-point deficit, it was an upwards battle from there. Highlight of the night was the Kerryman's battle with a bout of uncontrollable hiccups, very comical, sorry Frank! Blackbird 79 - Nomads 66.
Thanks to Tim Busby for the questions, with a sports selection from this week below.
Q1: Which Louisville racecourse hosts the Kentucky Derby?
Q2: Which South American country has won the World Polo Championship a record five times?
Q3: Who, in 1960, broke Jesse Owens’ 25-year-old world record Long Jump distance?
A1: Churchill Downs.
A2: Argentina.
A3: Ralph Boston.
Week 5 - (19th June)
More crafty questions from Tim Busby this week, producing some turvy-topsy results to keep us all on our toes, or on our knees. With premiership leaders the Royal Blenheim having a bye week off, the other two premiership sides both lost, both for the second consecutive week, is this a record? In the championship the Castle are gaining ground impressively, rising to second place after beating the Wolvercote Two from the Premiership in past two weeks, great form.
The Castle have done the double!!! Very pleasant night was had, and everyone managed the stairs ok. The first round was very odd as questions 8-12 all resulted in 0-0 scores, but the hosts won round one 7-5, round two 12-6 round four 15-14, round five12-6, and round six 8-3. The Bunch! won round three 8-10 and round seven 4-10. Final score: Castle 66 – Ploughman’s Bunch! 54.
The fixture between the Plough and the Masons is always a great social evening, with a predictable outcome. Mostly. The Masons journeyed to the edge of Port Meadow, and made something of a shaky start, but by the pictures were level. And after, thanks to Ford Madox Brown were ahead. A particularly strong round six (1-8) saw the visitors build a lead they never relinquished. A low scoring quiz where sixteen questions went unanswered by both teams. A great evening with the great food we’ve come to expect in Wolvercote. And the score was Plough 63 – Masons Arms 66, an impressive result.
White Hart 59 - Blackbird 54. The White Hart edged a low-scoring encounter with their genial visitors to register their first win of the season. A dominant 14-4 in the second round helped give the hosts a seven-point cushion after the pictures but then came what has become the inevitable round five collapse, which saw the lead eroded to a mere two points, and various comments to the tune of 'here we go again'. However, a late rally enabled them to stumble over the line, this time to the tune of Whistling Jack Smith.
The King's Arms took an early two-point lead, at home to the Nomads, in round one, but it was round two that proved decisive, as an 11-2 scoreline meant Nomads were left with a massive deficit to try and recover. This they then proceeded to do, winning the next three rounds to reduce the deficit to just two points. Round six was a low-scoring affair, neither team having any knowledge of best sellers of 2024, or the minor works of Penelope Keith. King's Arms edged the final two rounds to make the result safe: King's Arms 63 – Bletchingdon Nomads 58
Q1: Which group had a top five hit in 1965 with ‘Poor Man’s Son’?
Q2: Who had a novelty hit in 1967 with ‘I was Kaiser Bill’s Batman’?
Q3: Which singer had a number 2 hit in 1967 with ‘The Son of Hickory Holler’s Tramp’?
A1: The Rockin’ Berries.
A2: Whistling Jack Smith.
A3: O C Smith.
Week 4 - (12th June)
Team scores were very consistent this week, with very little variance around the mean, or a high kurtosis, for those interested in these things. Average scores were in the low seventies, like some of the music questions, and the highest scores never reached the dizzy heights of other weeks. Respect, as ever, to Tim Busby for setting a firm, fair and fun quiz.
Something had to give when two of Oxfordshire's unbeaten teams met in the City Centre. But for most of the contest you couldn't get a cigarette paper between the Blenheim and the Bunch. The away team took a 13-10 lead when the Royalists got their Orkneys and their Shetlands mixed up, but the scores were levelled in Round two when, for the Robbie Burns memorial, the Bunch guessed Ayr (just as the home team would have done and where there are indeed several Burns memorials), leaving their opponents to grab a bonus with Dumfries (where there are fewer). The Bunch's three-point lead was restored by Crowdstrike in Round three but wiped out again on a surprisingly tough picture round. 47-47 became 57-57 and 66-66 after Rounds five and six - could anything separate these two behemoths of Oxon quizzing? Yes! In the Give-it-Away, the Wolvercote maestros gave away six categories that the Blenheimistas knew the answers to, while the home team offloaded three questions - 2025 Superbowl, Vegetables and A Year in the Life - to which nobody knew the answer. Them's the breaks. But a good, tough match, played out in sporting fashion amid the Westgate din. The high-scoring fixture finished Royal Blenheim 78 – Ploughman’s Bunch! 72.
From two teams dreading their first defeat to two eagerly anticipating their first victory, and it went to the King's Arms, leaving the White Hart still waiting. Although it ended up a close finish, the individual rounds tell a different story. King's Arms started with a 13-8 round one but lost round two by a point and then a further six points in round three. White Hart then took the picture round 15 - 12 so that at this stage White Hart led by five. However, King's Arms then won rounds six and seven by a total of eleven points to lead by six going into the last round. With both teams keen to keep the 70s rock questions, this meant they were the last two questions to be asked. King's Arms correctly identified the first artist on Stiff records, as otherwise White Hart would have gained a bonus to draw the match. A close game finished King's Arms 73 - White Hart 70.
The Nomads made the trip the Masons for as always, a very enjoyable evening. It was a seesaw first half, firstly to the home team then to the visitors. Going into round five it was 43-44, but then instead of the Nomads' customary collapse it was the Masons that faltered. From there, like Clive of India, the Nomads continued their conquest until ultimately triumphing Masons Arms 62 – Bletchingdon Nomads 72.
And the Plough were in another top quality, close match, losing at home to the Castle. The hosts got off to a good start, leading by five points after two rounds. It all started to go wrong for the Plough, and right for the Castle, in round three and the picture round, levelling the scores at 47 each, the same as last week against the Nomads. But it was a different story in the second half as it was the Plough that had the round five collapse, slipping three behind which they could not find a way to recoup. One bonus in each of the last two rounds only made up two of the three-point deficit, so the Castle ended with a deserved victory. The Castle were on confident form throughout the match, picking their topics well and answering without hesitation or argument, whereas the Plough, perhaps influenced by the Vietnamese soup question could not avoid the “Pho pas” (yes, ok pedants, it’s not pronounced like that). The home team had the traditional extended post-match (post mortem?) analysis, but nothing could detract from a great performance by the Castle in a match that ended Plough 73 – Castle 74.
Thanks to Tim Busby for the questions, with an island selection from this week below.
Q1: West Burra and Trondra are part of which island group?
Q2: One hour by boat from Rhodes, and which Greek island did Michael Mosely die in June 2024?
Q3: Roseau is the capital of which Caribbean Island?
A1: The Shetlands.
A2: Symi.
A3: Dominica.
Week 3 - (5th June)
Higher scores all round this week, but it’s still close and competitive with all to play for.
The highest aggregate, and individual score this week was at a stonking match in Bletchingdon, against the Plough. While the bullocks (no balls) circled the cricket pitch (no balls) the teams were looking for a steer from their respective captains. The away team gained two points on each of the first two rounds, but the Nomads landed the first bonus in round three to gain ground, then draw level, 47 each, after the pictures which were accompanied by super silver salvers of sandwiches and snacks. Would the round five curse hit the Nomads? Silly question, of course it did, the Nomads’ habitual round five collapse kicked in on their last two questions, going from a round score of eight-all to an eight-thirteen loss. The hosts recovered slightly in round six with their second and final bonus, to go into give-it-away a recoverable four adrift. The question on ‘sporting traditions’ (boat race tossers), infected the Nomads (but they did not pitch their cox into the river) to repeat the sporting tradition of their round five collapse with no points on the final four questions, while the Plough picked up the two bonuses to win Nomads 72 – Plough 83. The combined scores, 14-26, in those two one-sided rounds accounted for the difference in the scores. As ever, it was a great night played in a friendly, competitive spirit.
From East and West, the Masons converged on the White Hart in Eynsham, for a nailbiter of a match. The visitors built a healthy lead in the first half of the quiz, which they squandered in round five, 13-2. They rebuilt the lead to finish the engagement White Hart 66 – Masons Arms 69. The Fort Sumter and Joely Richardson were stand out answers!
Tis but a short trip through the west gate from the Blenheim to the Castle but it was a memorable foray across the boundary lines, as if the Wessex and Mercian forces were facing off against each other, just as they did across the Hogacre stream. Down in the dungeons of the Castle, we thought of Queen Matilda wishing she had a river to skate away on. Must focus on the quiz... after six questions, the score was 3-2 to the Castle and it felt like we were back to the difficulty standards of the first week, but then things got a little easier and there was no more than one point between the two teams on any of the first four rounds. The Blenheim were suckered into thinking that the Carry On with the tagline 'A Great Guy with his Chopper' was Don't Lose Your Head. And when they at last got the chance to pick first in Round five, the Blenheim made some disastrous choices and found themselves 52-49 down. Round six was a 10-10 draw and the home team went five points clear at the start of the give-it-away. Surely there was no way back now? One or two useful bonuses helped the Royalists close the gap to just two points with four questions to go, the two teams having chosen to keep Ray Davies, 2025, Assassinations and Autobiographies. Suddenly with the finishing line in sight, the castilians went on gardeners' leave and the game disappeared for them. The stress of trying to work out the middle date in 2025 under time pressure was a little too much and, with the game lost, Abraham Lincoln was murdered in the wrong city. So somewhat to the lucky visitors' surprise, it was Castle Tavern 67 - 71 Royal Blenheim. And on a summer night, there was no skating to be done.
The Bunch! (or at least David Parr) stormed out of the blocks with answers on Friends and Louis Prima to take an early lead; with other team members eventually joining in to build a seven-point advantage by the end of round one. Charles just about managed to steal the Horse-Racing answer that the visitors were no doubt eyeing, retrieving I Am Maximus at the last second; before a bonus on Dan Snow saw the home team win round two by three; and they took round three by the same margin - in fact the first of our questions that we got wrong came right before the break. That first-half performance accounted for the entire difference between the teams on the night, the Blackbird cheerfully sticking to their task (helped by excellent pop answers all night) and getting their reward in a dominant 13-8 in round six, the Bunch! edging rounds five and a low-scoring seven (both teams too fuddled by that time of the evening to work out the middle day of 2025). Opting for Southend over Kidlington secured a rare Bunch! full house on the blockbuster, the Blackbird close behind, to close out a convivial evening (quiz-wise at least, with the drinking continuing for a fair while afterwards). The questions were excellently read by Martin, and the food excellently cooked (not least the deep-fried prawns). Final score: Ploughman’s Bunch! 82 - Blackbird 69.
Thanks to Tim Busby for the questions, with a selection of famous American men from this week below.
Q1: Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 in which city?
Q2: At 35, who is the youngest American to win the Nobel Peace Prize?
Q3: Jim Lovell and which other astronaut were due to walk on the moon in the failed Apollo 13 mission?
A1: Washington D.C. (Ford’s Theatre, for Our American Cousin)
A2: Martin Luther King. (1964 "for his non-violent struggle for civil rights for the Afro-American population.")
A3: Fred Haise. (born 1933, Biloxi Mississippi)
Week 2 - (29th May)
Question master Tim Busby was a little kinder this week after the rigours of the opening week, with scores back in their usual area. No, not Oxfordshire, nearer the seventy mark, and it was great to see some close, high-scoring matches.
The highest individual and aggregate scores were at the Blackbird, hosting the Royal Blenheim. The Blackbird were convivial hosts at a venue which remains cash-only, albeit perhaps without the block capitals and the exclamation marks these days. The question difficulty-level seemed to have been ratcheted back down a little, but the challenges remained interesting. The visitors edged ahead in Round one, but it was Round three that really made the difference. The RR and 2015 questions proved a disaster for the Leysians, both in terms of selection and outcomes. They were particularly unlucky with Rod Laver as the Roehampton Rocket - no doubt, the Queenslander served a few aces at the famous tennis facility near Wimbledon, but that was not quite what was required. That put the Blenheim fourteen points ahead, more than their eventual margin of victory. An enormous spread of food, both hot and cold, was gratefully enjoyed. The remaining four post-prandial rounds were a much closer affair. All the players enjoyed the cheeky inclusion of OJ Simpson in the photos of "people we sadly lost". The give-it-away was a 13-10 win for the home team with the Blenheim just failing on the Breweries question.
After a bye last week, the Plough kicked off their summer campaign with a win against strong opponents, the White Hart Eynsham, who (spoiler alert!) were highest-scoring losers again. Plough’s usual slow start gifting a bonus to the White Hart with the very first question but recovering due to Nancy’s knowledge of French cuisine and Flemish artists to end round one with parity. The White Hart then edged rounds two and three due to their knowledge of football, both real and fantasy, to lead by six going into the pictures. The home team then won three of the remaining rounds with round six being tied due to Amy’s knowledge of political journals, Nancy’s knowledge of fruit production in Wisconsin, and Howard’s knowledge of David Essex. A close match played in a friendly and knowledgeable atmosphere. Final score: Plough 75 – White Hart 70.
King's Arms 67-68 Ploughman’s Bunch! The King's Arms foursome, in the opening match in their handsome new home, can count themselves very unlucky not to have pulled off the win against a full-strength Bunch! that their overall performance deserved, falling at the penultimate Herschel. Sandwiches and chips were greedily attacked by one particular member of the away side, but earlier none of them could come up with ratatouille - giving the King's Arms an early advantage, before the Bunch! took the last five points of round one, with good work by Charles on the Civil War, to edge ahead. That three-point lead was wiped out by away failures on Bash Street School and Amazon, to leave the scores equal after two rounds: the home team then took a two-point lead into and a one-point lead out of the pictures, and seemed destined to prevail when a round five bonus on the monarch visiting the USA saw them triumph 13-10; the Bunch! clawed three points back thanks to David Parr on US Football at the start of round six, but conceded a bonus on the last 1980s Pop question to leave the King's Arms two up going into an extremely tense give-it-away round. The Bunch! blinked first, failing on Politics; but the King's Arms couldn't get the bonus, which the Bunch! then did on Gangsters. The Bunch! went a point up, but with three subjects left the home team had a question in hand; Beth's inspired give of Planetary Discoveries proved the final turning point, both teams missing out, and our correct answer on TV Sitcoms clinching the improbable win in a hard-fought and good-natured contest. Other teams will enjoy visiting this new venue, but by no means all of them will come away with the points.
Following on from their Week one win in Eynsham, despite losing the first round 11-4, the Nomads decided to employ the same tactics for their first home match against fellow ‘nomads’ - The Castle. At the end of Round one everything was going to plan with the Nomads 2-11 down. So, just nine points behind, the Nomads then pulled back one point in Round two, and three points in both Rounds three and four. There was no round five collapse for the Nomads (this has now moved to Round one) although a drawn round meant that The Castle still had a two-point lead going into Round six. However, The Castle didn’t like either the American Football or the Rugby Union questions, and the Nomads picked up valuable bonus points on both (they even knew their French scrum halves) to win the round 11-5. This meant that the Nomads now had a four-point lead going into the final round. What could possibly go wrong! Well, what could possibly go wrong is that the first three questions given away by the Nomads were lapped up by The Castle and, all of a sudden, it was neck and neck. It stayed that way until the last question upon which the whole game now rested. Fortunately for the Nomads, they were left with a question about Schitts Creek which they all knew before the question master had finished reading it. And so the Nomads clinched victory 64-61. And as Captain Davies put it: “well, if we hadn’t got that one, we’d have all been up there”. It was a great night with much laughter and the return match is eagerly awaited.
Q1: With the scientific name ‘Oxycoccos’, over half of the world's production of which fruit is produced in the US state of Wisconsin?
Q2: English actor Tim Roth played which character in the film ‘Reservoir Dogs’?
Q3: Which superhero’s alter ego ‘Eric Twinge’ lives at 29 Acacia Avenue, Nuttytown?
A1: Cranberries.
A2: Mr. Orange.
A3: Bananaman.
Week 1 - (22nd May)
So, the summer league begins, through to early October. Jeff Welch gets a well-earned and well-deserved break after setting the winter league questions, and it’s welcome back to Tim Busby as our question-setter for the summer. But what a tough quiz it was! Average scores (51) were the lowest since records began, or since I started keeping them, back in the distant pre-lockdown days of 2018. Still, they are the same questions for every team, nothing impossible, just difficult, and that’s fair.
A new season, and a new venue – the Castle, a fine old half-timbered antique. And guest question master Jonny, a fine old half-timbered antique himself, stepped in to read the questions. The teams were ushered downstairs below the sea-line to the boudoir, a dimly lit basement in red, where the match played out. The home team have haunted several premises in past years, searching for a home, probably best remembered as the Gardeners Arms. And the visitors the Blackbird were keen to arrive early to sample the excellent Hook Norton Ales. The first two rounds were very low scoring (4-6 and 4-2, is this a record?) but higher scores on the picture round perked it up. Round five was taken seven-nil by the Blackbird to draw level, but the Castle pulled ahead in round six to set up a decisive final round, another low score (2-6) but just sufficient for the home team to inaugurate their new home with a team victory: Castle 46 – Blackbird 45.
Consistent high scorers the Ploughman’s Bunch! were ahead of the pack with the highest score of the week: Bunch! 73-30 Masons Arms. Despite Beth being absent drinking gin, and the Masons missing a number of regulars, the teams were in confident mood after acing the first pair of questions. Whereupon the visitors struck out on their next nine, losing the first round 15-2 (amid some inspired answers from David Quinn); but they got their next two, which was enough to win the second round as the Bunch! only got two points out of a possible fourteen. The home team then won the third round 7-0 (a pleasing symmetry to conclude the first half, with neither team knowing any of the last six answers), before the pictures restored a degree of normality with a 16-12 scoreline which trebled the Masons points tally over delicious food. The Bunch! edged the last round 7-6 but had taken both of the previous rounds convincingly (with excellent guesses by David Parr, who later claimed a full house on Captain Scarlet’s angels, on Gearhead and slowhand Clapton). Stand-in home captain Martin, and reader Stuart, both put in assured performances in front of admiring onlookers including Plough stalwarts on their bye-week, who could often be glimpsed nodding sagely at missed answers that they surely knew.
As always there was a great atmosphere in the White Hart and Trevor the question master was in good form. The Nomads however did not start in good form losing the first round 11-4. The next two rounds were drawn, and the White Hart edged the pictures by two, giving them a nine-point lead at the turn around. It was not looking good for the Nomads. It was then that the home team did something straight out of the Nomads' play book, the "round five collapse", losing by six points. Round six and the Nomads clawed back two more, setting up a one-point game for the final round. Nomads kicked it up a gear picking up four bonuses to finish up victors Nomads 52 – White Hart 58. Not a high scoring game but most enjoyable and we look forward to welcoming the White Hart to Bletchingdon.
The royalist derby was a close-run low-scoring affair as the break between seasons had clearly drained the players' minds of ROM and RAM (replaced by rum and REM?). The Blenheimites were strengthened by the return of erstwhile question-master, Jeff ... except that someone had to read the questions. Step forward ... Jeff! The quiz was proper hard. Fair and interesting, but hard. It's rare for a team to win without reaching the 60-point mark. Round one was gentle enough, with the KA taking an 11-10 lead, but Round two produced the lowest combined score that this correspondent can remember over the last 40 years. 5-1 to the home-team with just the one 2-pointer on the very first choice (The Smiths). Shocking ignorance of such stars as Beauden Barrett, Steve Wright, Gene Kelly and, er, Oliver Dowden meant the old scoreboard ground to a halt. Round five, a 5-5 draw, wasn't much more impressive with lacunae including Eric Clapton, Sarah Storey and Sir Thomas Beecham. As for the price of a 1st class stamp? Was that to the nearest pound? Alas, not. After Round six was also drawn (8-8), the Blenhemists had a four-point lead to defend on the give-it-away. A lucky bonus on the first give (codeine) did not herald a barnstorming finish (Cy Endfield and Henry Ireton, anyone?) but the Blenheim did just enough to win the round 7-4 and the contest Royal Blenheim 57 - 50 King's Arms.
Q1: Which English author wrote the graphic novel series ‘The Sandman’?
Q2: The 1973 film ‘Don’t Look Now’ was based on a 1971 short story by which English author?
Q3: Which 19th century novel is subtitled ‘Life Among the Lowly’?
A1: Neil Gaiman.
A2: Daphne du Maurier (1907 – 1989).
A3: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852, by Harriet Beecher Stowe).