Reasons to be cheerful - 1 - 2 - 3

You know, sometimes it really doesn't take a lot to turn you aside, at least for a short while, from the slippery path to grumpy old manhood. Since Sunday alone three things have brought a little unseasonal sunshine to the sometimes wintry corner of my life that is forever Quizdom. So - in order of occurence , here they are : -

One
Last week's "Weaver's Week" gave this very blog a namecheck, and a link to my entry regarding the Mastermind / Brain of Britain Double winners. If you haven't yet sampled the weekly delight that is "Weaver's Week", then do yourself a favour. If you're reading this blog, then you'll absolutely LOVE Weaver's Week. Follow this link
Weaver's Week,
and add it to your bookmarks. Quite simply it is the essential companion to your week's viewing of quizzes and game shows. To the best of my knowledge I haven't met Iain Weaver, but he knows the world of quizzes and game shows inside out, and he writes superbly. So you can imagine that to have been deemed worthy of notice gave me a great thrill.

Two
We won on Monday, handicaps notwithstanding. Too easily if truth be known, and so the win wasn't necessarily quite as satisfying as it might have been. yes, I suppose I am moaning again. Out of interest I hear that the Sunday quiz which John and I abandoned back in July has adopted its own handicap system, although this is the altogether more sensible one whereby the winning team one week gets penalised by the margin of its victory the next week. Bet the team who used to moan about us still moan about it.

Three
This evening I received an email from Jacob Funnell. If you've been watching University Challenge this year you might recognise Jacob as a member of quarter finalists Exeter University. Jacob was decent enough to email me about my comments about Exeter's match against Corpus Christi, Oxford, broadcast on Monday, January 27th. I gather that certain sections of the media have been less than fair about Exeter's performance, and he just wanted to say that he thought my summing up of what happened was a fair one. Thanks Jacob ! It gives me an excuse to say once more that Exeter's performance in getting as far as the quarter final really was an achievement, and their performance on the show itself nothing to be ashamed of. Be honest. We've all been in a quiz when stronger opponents have hit absolute top form against us. You can either go into your shell, or you can go down fighting. That's what happened to Exeter in my view. They could see that the only way they were going to start beating Corpus Christi to the starters was by gamble buzzing. Be honest . Would you have done anything different in their position ?

So thank you Jacob, and thank you Iain. Between the two of you, you have made my week.