Questions v. Pictures take 2 : CIU Semi Finals

I asked the question a couple of weeks ago – is it better to have the highest score in the questions, but lose the overall quiz because of the picture handout, or to have a lower score in the questions but win the overall quiz because of the picture handout. Well, I know now. It’s the former. How do I know? Since we lost the questions but won on the handout on Thursday evening. It wasn’t quite the usual handout we have in the rugby club, which is normally 25 – 30 faces to identify. This one consisted of 2 sheets, and the first of these showed 20 car badges. I’m sure that you’ve played something like this before – I know I have. In fact I’ve even made a handout like this before. So the full marks that we earned on this sheet put us well on the way to winning the handout. The three point advantage we gained on this was enough to offset the two point deficit we had on the questions.

Wins over Lemurs in the club are rare enough that I should have been cock a hoop going home on Thursday evening, but the fact was that all I could do was dwell on the one round where we completely got the wrong end of the stick, and conceded three points to them. Still, it was a good quiz, a Brian special. Let me share his last connection set with you : -

1: What is the more common word for an anthropophagus?
2: Which of Rupert Bear’s friends has the initials B.B.?
3: Which plane was made by Mikoyan and Gurevich?
4: What is the connection between your last three answers?

We had all three answers – cannibal – Bill Badger – Mig, but couldn’t see any connection at all. Then suddenly I had a lightbulb moment. Cannibal was the nickname of Eddie Merckx – Badger of Bernard Hinault – and Big Mig of Miguel Indurain. Each of them won the Tour de France five times. As it happened Brian was giving the mark for just for winners. Great connection

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Last Monday saw the Wales and West of England CIU semi final. It’s been a few years since we last won this, and for a couple of rounds it just looked as if we might be in with a chance. We had full marks in the first round, and full marks in the first handout, where we were asked to name 10 chemical elements whose name in English begins with a different letter from their symbol – fo0r example Tin – Sn and Antimony – Sb. In fact we did well on both handouts, for a change, but our chances nosedived when we had a mare on TV and Films, which has so often been a banker subject for us in the past. Then we had another one on sport, and before we knew it Maesglas A – former national champions – were over the event horizon, and we were even under pressure for third place.

We were a point behind second place, and a point and a half above fourth when we had the Who Am I? – question. We actually always had the right answer on the table, but played safety first to guarantee qualification, and held on to third. It was another good quiz, although frankly it wasn’t the finest performance we’ve ever put in, but it was enough, and if you too have qualified for the finals, we’ll see you in Derby in September.