Wirral Quiz League

In the MQL MIMIR heats, held at Aigburth People's Hall on 16th March 2016, the results were as follows:

(Yellow = qualified in 1st place, silver = qualified in 2nd place)

Semi Finals

Mark Kerr will be unable to play in the final, so his place will be taken by the highest scoring third place finisher, who is Neil Macaskill

The final will be held at the MQL Presentation and Finals night, to be held at The sands Hotel, Ainsdale on May 11th 2016.

The heats of the MQL MIMIR competition will take place at Aigburth People's Hall, Liverpool on Wednesday 16th March, beginning at 8.00pm.  The heats will consist of the following matches, with the Wirral players highlighted in yellow:

The Wirral heats of the Individual MIMIR championships took place at New Brighton Cricket Club on Thursday 18th Feb.

The title was won by Karl Whelan (Hoylake LTC ), with Jim Eccleson (Oxton Cons) finishing second and Rodney Watkins (NBCC) finishing third.  The finalist will go forward into the MQL Mimir competition. The heats of this will take place at a Liverpool venue on March 16th, with the final being held at the MQL presentation night in Southport on May 11th.

A chap called Mark Fraser is looking to join a team in the Wirral League.  He is an experienced quizzer, having played for teams in the Northern and Liverpool Leagues, and previously played for Wayfarers Cricket Club in the Wirral League.  I was formerly a team mate of his and can vouch for his qualities.

To quote Mark himself - "Fairly wide range - chemistry, biology, medicine, not bad on history, geography and the arts. Know a fair bit of rubbish too"​.

He lives in Prenton and has transport.  Please contact him by email on mark@fraser88.co.uk and let me know if you have offered him a place.

Graham Barker of Rainhill Victoria of the Liverpool league appeared on Mastermind on 22nd January,  answering questions on Sir John Gielgud. 

Alan Gibbs of the Ormskirk League will be appearing in the Grand Final of 15 to 1 on Friday 30th October on Channel 4 at 3.00pm.

Given that it's Halloween,  Alan is expected to wear a truly horrifying shirt.

“The Really Tricky Sports Quiz Book” has been compiled by David Jenkins and Ian Starkie, based on questions that were devised for the Stone (Staffordshire) Cricket Club Sports Quiz between 2011 and 2014.  The book has 70 rounds of 10 questions with each round being worth between 10 and 38 marks.  In addition, there are 20 tables of sporting facts to be completed throughout the book.  There are 13 different sports covered, although football and cricket have the lion’s share, and several thematic rounds, including decades, managers, geography, captains and birthdays!

Where possible, questions have been devised to stand the test of time but we have used 31^st March 2015 as the up-to-date point.  The questions have been designed for groups to have a go at so we suggest that you share them with friends and family.

All profits from the sale of the book will go to two charities:-

• Katharine House Hospice, based in mid Staffordshire
• Stroke Association

“The Really Tricky Sports Quiz Book” costs £6.99 or £8.50 including p&p (UK) and is available from The Willows Publishing Co Ltd, 17 The Willows, Stone, Staffordshire ST15 0DE.  Payment can be by cheque or directly into the bank.  For further details contact:-

David Jenkins - jenkins.willows@ntlworld.com Tel 01785 814700

Ian Starkie - ianstarkie@aol.com Tel 01889 271046

They have initially printed 1500 books and we need to sell 400 to cover the printing costs.  To tempt you to buy a copy (or preferably copies!) of “The Really Tricky Sports Quiz Book” here are some sample questions:-

• Which footballer, whose clubs include Chelsea and Stoke City, came on as a substitute to replace his father in an international against Estonia in 1996?
• Three Indians have scored more than 2000 test runs and taken over 200 Test wickets.  Who are they?
• Five golfers have represented Team USA 8 or more times in the Ryder Cup. Two of them made their first appearance in the 60s, one in the 70s and two in the 90s. Name them.
• Since the Second World War, which three Great Britain athletes have won Olympic medals in the Men’s triple jump?
• Who is the only woman to have won 8 grand slam singles titles as a teenager?
• Which circuit has hosted the most Formula 1 grand prix – 64 – missing only one year between 1950 and 2014?

On 24th August, John Stitcher appeared on BBC 2's Only Connect as a member of The Athenians.

The fixtures for September have been posted in the fixtures calendar, and on each team's page.

The full fixture list will be revealed at the Presentation Evening at the end of September when the league handbooks are distributed.

For the new season, Norman and the Noddies have renamed themselves "Not Forthcoming" and will play their matches on a Monday night at The Stork Hotel.

St Laurence's are now called "Nelson's Fifth Column" and will now play at The Heather Brow.

Irby Nomads have changed their venue to Thingwall Recreation Centre.

In the coming weeks, several players from the MQL will be appearing on TV.

On 20th July Liverpool University beat St Peter's, Oxford on University Challenge.  The Liverpool team includes Jack Bennett, who played several matches for Rainhill Victoria last season, and reached the last 6 in the Liverpool pairs competition.

In coming weeks Neil Macaskill , David Knapp, David Smith (all Warrington) and Jon Stitcher (Wirral) will be appearing on Only Connect on BBC2.  Neil will be appearing as a member of the Spaghetti Westerners on 27th July, David Smith as a member of The Railwaymen on 3rd Augusts, David Knapp as a member of The Bookworms team on 17th August, and Jon as a member of the Athenians team on 24th August.

If you know of any other people appearing on the TV, please let me know.