It is kind of outrageous

I only hope this behaviour is not contagious

So a few weeks ago I was doing my 6th annual ransack of the Southport and Formby Quiz League question archives and was collecting my 1300-odd haul into a nice little file that I will look at when I'm really bored or when I do Brain of Britain again or finally leap into the deep blue sea of Mastermind, when I came across "Last month's quiz and answers".

As I was scanning the first round, a feeling of familiarity stirred in my memory...

ROUND 1
1a Which French actor published 'My Cookbook' in 2005? GERARD DEPARDIEU
1b What fruit would you pick from a Mirabelle tree? A PLUM
2a Which planet shares its name with Mozart's last symphony? JUPITER
2b In which sport do Great Britain and the USA play for the Westchester Cup? POLO
3a Which is the so-called first Pythagorean 'real' number, considered the first genre of 'perfect' number? 3
3b In science, what is the S.I. unit of capacitance? FARAD
4a Which former Cabinet member is European Commissioner for Trade? PETER MANDELSON
4b In the Bible, how many books constitute the New Testament? 27

Hmm, what could it be? Hmm...

Then I went through the second round...

ROUND 2
1a Eleanora Gough Harris became famous as which jazz singer? BILLIE HOLIDAY
1b 'The Road Back' was the sequel to which classic anti-war novel? ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
2a Brian Trubshaw was the first test pilot for which aircraft? CONCORDE
2b What value coin was a tester? SIXPENCE
3a Which 1948 film thriller starring James Stewart was director Alfred Hitchcock's first colour picture? ROPE
3b Who broke the land speed record in Bluebird in 1964? DONALD CAMPBELL
4a Which king ruled England from 1154 to 1189? HENRY II
4b Dr William Beatty reported whose famous last words? HORATIO NELSON

...and an overwhelming feeling of deja vu overcame me.

I had written most, if not all of the questions above (I would check but you know... I'm lazy).

Yep, the dudes or dudettes from The Wirral had lifted my daily newspaper questions wholesale and used them for the MQL Cup & Plate matches on March 8.

What about the people who read the daily quiz every day and used such knowledge to get ahead in the cup games? It would be a skewed and false result. By lifting so many questions from another source, you destroy the integrity of the competition and of your own question-setting capabilities.

Now, having thought about it for nigh on three weeks, I have to say I don't care a jot. It's actually nice to know that someone is reading my questions and copying them down. Kudos to you sirs and madams, you truly have great taste in trivia.

So in all truth it stops here and I will make no effort to get in contact and have a good old moan. These words will suffice.

I would care if they made money from such chicanery, however. As it is I believe it is all done on a voluntary business. Therefore, my feelings are overcome by a note known as "Meh". Let the sleeping dogs lie (having given them the odd poke with a stick).

But make no mistake, the internet may be a very big place but it is also one huge trap for plagiarists. People who look for trivia and quiz questions find everything in the end. And the transgressors will be exposed in silly blog posts like this one.

Because if the blogosphere ain't good for creating an atmosphere redolent of a witch-hunt and for tracking down those who have done naughty, naughty things, then it ain't good for nothing. Nowt and diddly squat. We will find you in the end.

Here endeth the finger pointing; I'm off to hospital tomorrow for more surgery. And yes, I've been keeping it quiet. After a while you think you just bore people with such relentless, grim detail and when people want to talk about it and you spell it out, they recoil with a disgust that is magnified by lager. Okay, silence be upon me.