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Light Speed Individual Open Buzzer Quiz: News 003: 30th June 2003
THE RAINHILL TRIALS: WAS THIS THE BEST QUIZ EVER?
WE'RE OFF TO VILLA PARK FOR THE NEXT ROUND
PAT GIBSON WINS THE RAINHILL TRIALS
Click here for photo album
Our second event held at the Victoria Hotel, Rainhill, Merseyside saw ten serious competitors participate in what can only be described as the most intense, fascinating and compelling competition. In retrospect, one must ask, was the last game the most exciting ever? I was so caught up in it (asking questions) that it was only when I finished I realised how close it had all been.
The results and standings can be found here, but bald statistics can not explain the nuance. Ten games were played between four competitors a time, first to 25 as usual, two for a correct answer, -1 for a mis-signal. Four points were awarded to each winner, three for second etc. It was like watching magicians pulling answers out of thin air. Between them the contestants had several Masterminders, 15 to 1ers, University Challenge, Masterteam, Brain of Britain and many games shows contestants and champions (see here) Right from the first game Lee Warburton put the cat among the pigeons with a victory in a line up including the mighty Graham Barker. The second match saw Steve Kidd (for it is me) humilated with a Lancastrian backlash restricting the current champion to an all-time low of one point, whilst mighty Mark Kerr managed to squeeze the closest of wins against Darren Martin 26-24. Game three brought on the gladatorial champions of Merseyside Alan Gibbs and Pat Gibson to battle out the first of two epic tussells between them, Pat winning by four questions. Steve, Graham and Alan all followed first game losses with victories, therefore by game seven no person had won two games.
(At the half way point Darren Martin sat for a dress rehersal for his Mastermind second round specialist subject, 'Alfred Hitchcock'. With seventeen out of tewenty I'm tipping he will be just as impressive as he was in his first game)
Pat, Alan, then Graham went on to make it two wins each in the next three games leaving the last match in this situation.
If Pat or Alan won they would get the crown
If Mark won and Lee came second, Mark would win
The first question went like this
Me: "GSK..
(Loud Beep)
Alan: "Glaxo Smith Klein?"
Me: "err yes"
The pace of the game didn't let up. Oh how unlucky was Alan on the three primiary colours...of light. How did Pat get Mariah Carey? How did Alan manage to work the odds of picking a dominoe with more than nine spots before I could say "premature ejaculation"? Within a second of me asking "Give any interrogative number one song title of the 60s" Mark whipped back "Why?"
Mark had got 25 correct answers first but horrors. As a rookie he carried a 0.4 handicap, putting him on 24.6. The other two rookies, Alan and pat caught up so all three of them needed just one answer to win. The question was
"Brookside: Who is Ron's sometime partner and mother of his grandchild?"
(Loud Beep)
Pat: ". . . Bev."
He was right of course. He won. A true champion, Pat Gibson is the most genteel and affable person. He, along with his rivals today, is some kind of genius.
What kind of poor deal did Mark Kerr get? He did get to 25 first. If he had not been handicapped he would have won. On reflection it can also be seen that by virtue of Mark's handicap he conceded second place outright to Darren in his second game, meaning that after Alan in second place, Mark, Darren and Graham all share the bronze. This was not apparent at the time, but Steve Kidd paid for his error by giving Mark the £10 third prize, on top of Alan's £30 and Pat's £70. A Total of £110.. D'oh! (Mark did give Steve the wonderful White Stripes album)
Bob, Gillian, Martin - You were great guys. Send me your surnames and emails and I hope to write more about you next time, which will be:-
VILLA PARK, SATURDAY 26TH JULY.
Yes, yes, yes! Jane at quizzing.co.uk has invited us to have our next competition in conjunction with their event, and the boys from t'north are going to kick some soft southern ass. I am sure it will be a massive jackpot. Bailey and Stainer look out, here we come and we are going to have Pearson (I hope)
WATCH THIS SPACE
Future Competitions
The search is still on for future venues. The provisional dates for future games will the last Sunday of every month, so Email me if you have any good ideas. If you know a landlord who wants to sell a load of meals and gallons of alcohol it might be the kind of thing they want.
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