Weekly Match Reports - Winter 2025/26
(A big thank you to Jonny Peacock)
Week 2 - (6th September)
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You wait ages for a bye, then three come along together. Then to add to the bonfire night general mayhem we had a missing answer, easily resolved, and the gremlins got into an answer. It’s only the second week of the season, and there are but three teams with a 100% winning record. What larks!
After a fallow week with a bye, the Blackbird stormed into contention with a strong performance, going off like a firework. A jovial evening as always at Bletchingdon, the game was played in good spirits, question master John in good form, until the microphone played up, a few Welsh expletives were whispered, anyway he soldiered on. The Bird off to a flyer, and always in control, it just wasn't the Nomads’ night, everything they chose their opponents knew the answers, The Bird couldn't do no wrong, we even guessed the Kegs of dynamite correctly! Good start to the season, but I surmise a few ups and downs to follow. It all finished Bletchingdon Nomads 58 - Blackbird 87.
And the Blenheim bounced back from last week’s draw with a win. Lemmy once told the New/Apollo Theatre (where your correspondent was cowering at the very back of the back, hands over ears): "We are now playing at 118 dB. If we played any louder, the building would fall down." There was no such health and safety announcement at the Blenheim, but the effect was the same. No mere saturnalia, this was full-blown bacchanalia, an all-in-one celebration of Guy Fawkes and his "threescore barrels, laid below" (or was it 36?), Hallowe'en and the finale of Traitors. The acreage of flesh being flaunted was a big challenge to the concentration of the hardy quizzers, but the main problem was that no one could hear Quizzing's Jeff Welch as he gamely attempted to bawl out every single one of his own questions. Professional lip readers had a big advantage but there weren't any of those in attendance The home team got an early bonus with Neil Gaiman and a further one in R2 for remembering the year in which Mary Queen of Scots was executed for exchanging illegal signals with her bridge partner, Anthony Babington (harsh, but fair?) to take a 6-point lead. But a bizarre confusion of Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone pegged them back in Round 3. Who the Dickens knew the great author had those middle names - we certainly didn't. As the din increased, the Masonic brethren (and sisterhood) staged a comeback, winning Rounds 5 and 6 by 9-7 with bonuses on American sport and Lambeth Bridge. So the champions went into the final round, like last week, with a 4-point advantage. At the Castle, it was not enough but this time an early bonus with the Vista operating system settled the nerves and the Blenheim eased home. Jeff was last seen hurrying to the JR for an operation to stitch his vocal cords back together. Final score: Royal Blenheim 75 - Masons Arms 66.
Chequers 78 - King's Arms 49. Always nice to meet up with the King's Arms team. It seemed that the Chequers were unbeatable, even guessed answers turned out correct! We won rounds 1 to 4 14-6, 7-4, 11-6 and 16-13. The King's Arms rallied in round 5 with a 7-8 win but the last 2 went to the Chequers 11-6 and 12-6. And our French correspondent writes: “On a puzzling note, it seems that Jeff might have confused (hopefully not abused!!!) his French wines.... Bordeaux is the capital of Aquitaine, Burgundy is on the other side of the country!!”
Clifden Arms 56 - Castle 72. We had a lovely evening at the Clifden Arms, it is lovely old place with superb food great atmosphere and beautifully warm. The Clifden team won the first round, but then the Castle won all of the remaining rounds. None of us knew the name for a group of eagles or the youngest ages name of the girl guides! We were very impressed that the Clifden got the name of the submarine that sunk the Belgrano correct as most of us didn't have clue, and they were very knowledgeable about anything to do with music.
Plough 88 - White Hart 59. Jonny’s role as captain was made simpler by Howard’s uncanny ability to produce answers he didn’t realise he knew. It was a great team performance from the Plough: after a brief wobble in round two the home team won all the last five rounds by a good margin. The high point for the White Hart was their two bonus answers in round two, but nothing was going their way after that, despite some great pop music knowledge, most impressively the UK Eurovision entrants in 1982, Bardo.
Thanks to Jeff Welch for the questions, and here is a pop music selection from this week below.
Q1: Which singer had a top ten hit with ‘Head Over Feet’ in 1996?
Q2: Which singer had a number 4 hit with ‘Stupid Girls’ in 2006?
Q3: Who had a number one single in 1974 with ‘Everything I Own’?
A1: Alanis Morissette.
A2: Pink.
A3: Ken Boothe.
Week 1 - (30th October)
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As the clocks go back, so the winter league goes forward, same thing happened last year. Tim Busby is rejoining the teams as a competitor, and Jeff Welch is resuming question-setting duties, so it’s all change, continuity, a new start, and back to old routine. Hope that’s clear.
The great thing about the quiz league is that there are always surprises, and this week the Masons of League One overcame the Nomads of the Championship: anything can happen, and it usually does. The first regular fixture of the year for the Masons was at home to the Nomads. Question setter Jeff was reading for the evening. Oddly the first three rounds went the way of the home team with the same score: 9-7 x 3. The home team won the pictures and then it was another 9-7 round to the Masons. The penultimate round went to the visitors, but in the end the Masons won through. A great evening’s quizzing ended Masons Arms 64 – Bletchingdon Nomads 57.
The Sun 60 - The Chequers 74. The opening game of the season saw two local sides playing each other. The Chequers got off to a good start winning all 3 first half rounds, 6-10, 8-11 and 3-11. The picture round was just edged by The Chequers 16-15. Sausage and Chips at Half Time was well received by all being washed down with lots of delicious Hooky Bitter. Round 5 was much the same as the first half with The Chequers winning 7-10 but then came the late rally from The Sun winning Round 6, 13-8. No excitement in the final round which was drawn 8-8. A special mention to the two young players in the Chequers team, Charlotte and Connor who came up with some excellent answers. The answer of the night though which had the room in fits of laughter came from The Sun, when asked “What `G` word name is given to a hollow, often spherical rock cavity lined with crystals formed when water seeps into a cavity” Their answer was… ‘A Gloryhole’..!! A very enjoyable night was had by all.
White Hart 71 - Windrush Club 64. Having discussed beforehand the history of close matches between these teams, the early rounds showed a repeat of this history. The score was 25 each after 3 rounds, then 50 apiece after round 5. The hosts eked out a 3-point lead in the penultimate round, which was the largest lead of the match at this point, only for the Windrush to score the first points of the final round and level things up again. The closing questions favoured the White Hart, however, who somehow then eased away to a 7-point victory that had seemed unlikely until the very end.
As the Chandos bow out before Dr Who style regeneration as the Clifden Arms, they were in a state of transformation for the match in Woodstock. The match ended King's Arms 64 – Chandos Arms (now Clifden Arms) 63. A result on a par with England's progress to retaining the Euro title earlier this year (word of the day - "hyperbole"). King's Arms took a slight two-point lead after round one but that seemed to be as good as it would get for the home side. A six-point reversal in round two set the template for (almost) the rest of the match, so that after six rounds Chandos had built up an eight-point lead. And then round seven.... King’s Arms managed to pick almost exclusively questions that Chandos didn't know, and in return Chandos managed to pick almost all questions that King's Arms did know. With the result decided on the home team remembering what was at either end of the M27, an 11-2 score meant King's Arms had stolen victory.
Now that rare beast, a draw: Castle 70 - Royal Blenheim 70, and the summer champions start by dropping a point. As can see a very closely fought game all the way through, 3 rounds were drawn and we each won 2! We were all baffled by the I.O.W festival being garlic question but were very impressed with the Blenheim getting the 2024 Olympics answer of Raygun. So not a bad start to the season.
In Wolvercote there was an all-premiership fixture, a repeat of final match of the summer league five weeks previously: Bunch! v Plough clash of the titans, before other tighter titans emerged. Both teams missed one answer in a drawn first round, then Ruth’s garlic festival knowledge won a bonus for the Plough. Round three was another 10-10 draw but the “visitors” took the picture round by four to go a slim seven points ahead. Round five saw a bonus each, but the Bunch! were unlucky to pick the two questions neither team knew, to slip a perilous seven points behind. Fuelled by tasty pizza and chips, there was much hilarity at the condom question, where the team consensus was to “go with Jonny”! The Plough won the final two rounds by one point thanks to one bonus in each, but with further chuckles at the bellringing question – sally – ‘that rings a bell’. A good-natured, high-spirited night ended Ploughman’s Bunch! 70 – Plough 83, the highest score, aggregate score, and no consolation the highest losing score.
Thanks to Tim Busby for the season of Summer League questions, and to welcome Jeff Welch back for the winter season, here is an American selection from this week below.
Q1: Which American Revolution battle, 28 Sept – 19 Oct 1781, led to the eventual British surrender?
Q2: At which Air Force base is Air Force One based?
Q3: Which was the last contiguous US state to be admitted to the Union, in February 1912?
A1: Yorktown. (Virginia)
A2: Andrews. (Maryland)
A3: Arizona.
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Table Top - (23rd October)
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Back to the Blackbird, Back to the Future, it’s the winter league! Eleven keen quiz teams packed into the convivial back room of the celebrated Leys hostelry to kick of the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, enough clichés already. Question-master Chris Potter made good use of his experience of herding cats to call the room to order. Six rounds and a simultaneous blockbuster kept the quizzers busy while the smart super-synchronised ordering system (write your order on a piece of paper, pay cash, then Yorkie will bring the drinks through) launched without any technical glitches. Why can’t everything be that simple?
Chris cooked up 159 questions to separate the winners from the pack, and after a night of cerebral entertainment.
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Q1: What is the neurological condition where one sense is experienced through another?
Q2: Which term describes animals active at twilight, both dawn and dusk?
Q3: What type of building takes its name from the nine goddesses of the Arts and Science?
A1: Synaesthesia.
A2: Crepuscular.
A3: Museum.
Thanks to the Blackbird team: Glen, Yorkie the barman and especially Paula and the crew for the expansive, delicious buffet, with separate zones for veggie and vegan delights. An orderly queue snaked round (or was it an orderly snake queueing?) with facial recognition software identifying those who returned for seconds and more.
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