Winter Warmer Quiz Competition Winners

MIDDLESEX TILL WE DIE
WINTER QUIZ WITH PRIZE(S) – COMPETITION WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT

(By Ged and Barmy Kev, assisted by an enormous committee of scorers, stewards, referees and umpires)

The original set of answers has been torn to shreds and recompiled correctly. The responses have all been marked against the correct answers. The tie-breaker comments have been assessed. The stewards’ enquiry has taken place. All that remains is to sing praises to the winners and announce the final results of the competition. Read on…..

The Winter Warmer quiz was a very difficult quiz indeed. The standard of responses was superb. The very fact that two contestants scored more than the compiler, Barmy Kev, speaks volumes for the quality of the contest. (It also says a little something about Barmy Kev and Ged of course). In the end, we concluded that Barmy Kev scored 47 in his own quiz. When the other minor errors, omissions, slight wording anomalies and the like are taken into account, we concluded that Barmy Kev had “three slips, a point, a short backward point and a silly point”. He’d better not bowl down the leg side with that field. These fielding positions are all set out in the revised answers, together with a few additional interesting and amusing thoughts on the questions peppered about in red.

http://www.sportnetwork.net/main/s66/st88164.htm

And so to the hall of fame. Seven people scored over 40 out of 50 on this quiz, which we believe is a truly excellent score. In “Miss World” order…………………………………

In 7th place – Doug Mulholland of Hartlepool – 42 points – well done Doug.
In 6th place – Pistol Pete MacCabe of MTWD – 43 points – great effort, Pete.
In 5th place – Sahir Rifat of Prempanix – 43.5 points – well done, Sahir, and no I didn’t deduct any points because you posted your answers on the message board!
In 4th place – Jeff “JC67” Coleman of MTWD – 44 points – terrific effort from one of our most regular readers and posters.
In 3rd place – Varun of ICF – 45.5 points – could easily have been a winning score there, Varun, over 90%, but there were two people ahead of you.
Excitement is at fever pitch as the judges prepare to announce the out and out winner……………………..
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who is
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Sreeram – from VTCB – who scored a perfect 50 (and was one of the first people to make a submission, BTW). Fantastic performance, there, Sreeram, and I can see from some of your stuff on VTCB we might have to ban you or write special quizzes for you in the future (e.g. quizzes about salmon fishing in Alaska). So Sreeram, e-mail Ged your postal details, you have won a copy of the Ashes DVD, which will be dispatched to you in due course.

In 2nd place came Jeff Smith of MTWD, who put in a stupendous effort scoring 49 and not getting a single question wrong. For some reason – perhaps haste to get on with some more difficult questions – Jeff missed out question A6 all together. A careless error we suspect. If it makes you feel better, Jeff, you wouldn’t have won anyway because Sreeram got the tie breaker right and you didn’t. And if it makes everyone else feel better, Jeff said he didn’t want the DVD anyway, as he already has it. Intriguingly, though, Jeff’s answer to the tie breaker: “Bob Willis” provided an excellent foil for Jeff’s reason why Bob might have described the County Championship as a cesspit of mediocrity:

“It was probably the aforementioned onanist RGD Willis, somebody who only watches the County Championship if it is beneficial to his bank account. It's about time he went to a CC match purely as a spectator, but I don't want him sitting next to me droning on about what we have all seen for ourselves as though he was commentating.”

The panel liked this answer so much they almost wish that it had been Bob Willis who had described the CC thus, rather than Steve Rixon.

On the grounds that Jeff Smith was the top MTWD contender, that he so nearly won the whole thing and on the grounds that Jeff seems to have maintained some sense of humour to go along with his vast cricket knowledge: Jeff Smith, you have won a small book of cricket humour. E-mail Ged your address details, Jeff, and that book will be winging its way to you faster than you could say all of Chaminda Vass’s names.

All that remains is the Barmy Kev Pint award for the best reason why Steve Rixon described the County Championship as a cesspit of mediocrity.

KDG, all the way from Californ-i-a via ICF, suggested:
“He may have said it because despite having all the money and resources they could wish for, Surrey whom he coached slid into the second division without much of a fight.”
Expressed with a lawyer’s eye for clarity and accuracy, KDG.

Alan Edgar, a true Middlesex fan but from VTCB, suggested:
“Because he's bitter and twisted about the fact that his own ineptitude, plus that of the team he coached, allied to some ball-tampering that no-one will confess to, resulted in Middlesex having the pleasure of condemning his Runsforcash-captained rabble to relegation to Division 2 of said 'cesspit' in the final match of the season.
Do I win ? ”
Alan then had the audacity to give his tiebreak answer to Sreeram as a present. Earth to Alan – Sreeram does not need help with quizzes – do you understand!!

Jeff Coleman suggested:
“BECAUSE THEY GOT RELEGATED AND HE LOST HIS JOB? NO SURELY NOT. HE MUST GENUINELY BELIEVE THAT SURREY WERE THE BEST TEAM IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP BUT INJURIES, NOT LACK OF TALENT, COST THEM THEIR PLACE IN DIVISION ONE. OR WAS IT SOUR GRAPES AFTER ALL.”
Thanks JC.

We also received a bunn-e-mail from Hippity which read:
“the reason he said it is because he should know a cesspit of mediocrity when he sees one - teams always tended to be a cesspit of mediocrity when he played for them and it takes one to know one”
Thanks Hippity – but I don’t think they do Carrot Juice by the pint – at least not in the sorts of places Kev goes.

Paul Trott, our sole visitor from Grockles for this quiz, had humiliated himself a little being one of the very few contestants who did not know that Jack MacBryan of Somerset is the only wicketless catchless test player who never batted. He suggested:
“cos he'd had to watch Surey all summer”
Ged found this answer pithy, funny and compelling…..if it had been up to Ged alone……………..…but the enormous panel of judges were looking for something a little more laboured.

So the winning entry to this contest is Kwiklimey, a VTCB visitor who actually supports the aforementioned Surey (as it is spelt in Someset). Kwiklimey said:
“Because he's bitter and twisted about the fact that his own ineptitude allied to some ball-tampering that no-one will confess to, resulted in one of the most talented squads in the country going from winning trophies for fun to relegation in both forms of the game”.

And who are we to disagree with that? So Kwiklimey, congratulations, you have won a pint of your choice from Barmy Kev. Not much choice of matches to take him up on that prize in 2006, but we won’t labour the point further. Ged will try to broker the “pint-sized” deal to take place at a mutually agreeable time and place.

Finally, many thanks to everyone who contributed – the questions (mostly Kev), the prizes (mostly Janet) and the responses (loads and loads of you).