Beaten Again

President's Cup: Was it 43-41 to Oxford? I dunno. Summat Like That. Drat.

Oh my word. We completely banjaxed that one up. Or did we? Wholesale changes for the team this week, just because, you know, I felt like it. OKAY? It was in Oxford. Things are different in Oxford.

Here are the wearisome and distressing details: We were behind by five points after the first round, and then we managed to inveigle ourselves into a comfortable lead throughout most of the match, which we completely blew by the final round, climaxing in a two point loss. Pain. Stabbing. Heart. And repeat.

We had half the England senior team, the England B team captain and a Young England member from 2005. Ack. Well, what can I say? The questions just didn't suit us again (the lame-assed old excuse comes out again like a twopenny whore in 1895 Whitechapel). Having said that they were better than last time. We had a bit of a kerfuffle about the exact wording of a Henry V quote, while I completely ballsed up the chance to say Eric Fleming for the question about Gil Favor, the trail boss in Rawhide. I wrote that question for the Liverpool buzzer tourney. I wrote that bloody question for the Liverpool buzzer tourney. I wrote ... you get the idea. Apart from that, I have to credit Oxford for some very good answers. Of course.

I wouldn't be so miffed if it wasn't for the fact that we seem to lose in so many different ways. Losing a huge lead, cutting down a giant gap, losing in last gasp fashion, being whipped into sorry oblivion. The varieties of defeat are so beautifully rubbish in their own individual characteristics. Though they are all linked by my biting my hands and yelping at the end, as I stifle the urge to scream like an extra-screechy banshee.

And hey Nic, don't look so sad! Everything's going to be fine. It's gonna be alright.

(Oh don't you love the contrast between the loser Sundays and victorious Tuesdays - the ying and yang of I don't know what)

Anyway, it was nice for Bayley and Bytheway to turn up. We exchanged much banter about the "bare statistics" and laughed heartily about what Paris might hold. I have a warm glow inside just thinking about it. It remains to be seen whether Mark will take my daftwager on the individual competition. If he finishes above me, I pay a tenner. The opposite vice versa. It all makes the competition that much more colourful doesn't it?

The Friendly
But you know what, the three-man Sussex had their revenge with my friendly (or is it a hostile?). I actually did wince for some of its appalling hardness (see the * unanswered questions) and apologised a couple of times, but you know what? It is all gettable. I swear. Except, maybe, for the last round, which saw SIX questions go unanswered - I shivered when I realised what I had done. Felt the chill wind of understandable ignorance I did. Plus, I've just realised - only this minute - that that is six questions without reply, with such quizzers as Billson, Bayley, Bytheway and Mortimer playing. Perhaps, that takes a special kind of skill or supreme delusion to set a quiz you think is perfectly acceptable, but really is as tough as a diamond pavement.

(Okay, I'll make it easier next time. Surrendering to the rubbishness of the chestnut grove. Where the chestnuts are plentiful and make me gag). Sussex did win 35-22, however. So at least one team got in the 30s (my team ... any coincidence?)

Also: I hate reading out the questions. Too fast, too mumbly, too quiet, too garsshuks. Sometimes, I speak like I've got a wet pilchard stuck in my mouth. Won't someone save me from myself in future?

President's Cup friendly 19/11/06

Round 1
1a Published in 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association, what is said to be the most successful naturalistic constructed language ever?*
Interlingua
1b Once married to Peggy Guggenheim for four years, which German surrealist and dadaist artist caused great controversy with his 1926 painting The Virgin Spanking the Christ Child before Three Witnesses: Andre Breton, Paul Eluard and the Painter?
Max Ernst
2a A member of the Der Blaue Reiter group, which German painter's best known work is probably Tierschicksale, also known as Animal Destinies or Fate of the Animals, which he completed in 1913?
Franz Marc
2b Derived from the Greek for "I rub", what is the science and technology of friction, lubrication and wear?
Tribology
3a Historically, who was the first person to enunciate two laws of friction, observing that frictional resistance was the same for two different objects of the same weight but making contacts over different widths and lengths?*
Leonardo da Vinci
3b Which constructed language was created during 1879 and 1880 by Johann Martin Schleyer, a Roman Catholic priest from Baden, Germany?
Volapük
4a Which bowling all-rounder finished his 86-Test career with 431 wickets at an average of 22.29 runs?
Sir Richard Hadlee
4b Which bowling all-rounder finished his 131-Test career with 434 wickets at an average of 29.64 runs?
Kapil Dev

Round 2
1a On this day - November 18 - in 1926, who refused to accept the money for his Nobel Prize, saying: "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize"?
George Bernard Shaw
1b On this day in 1978, Jim Jones led 918 people in a mass murder-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. What was the name of his cult?*
Peoples Temple
2a Joseph Kabila has been declared the winner of the election for the presidency of which African country?
Democratic Republic of Congo
2b Who succeeded Bertie Mee as the manager of Arsenal football club in 1976?
Terry Neill
3a Who succeeded Terry Neill as manager of Tottenham Hotspur in 1976?
Keith Burkinshaw
3b Who voices the characters of Nelson Muntz, Todd Flanders and Ralph Wiggum on The Simpsons?*
Nancy Cartwright
4a The characters of Krusty the Clown, Barney Gumble and Groundskeeper Willie are all voiced by whom on The Simpsons?
Dan Castellaneta
4b The former dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry has been arrested in connection with the 1976 abduction and assassination of two congressmen. Which South American country did he rule?*
Uruguay

Round 3
1a In which field are or were the figures of Glenn Murcutt, Rafael Moneo, Gunnar Asplund and Mary Colter world renowned names?
Architecture
1b Which rhyming verse stanza form was created and first used by Dante in his work The Divine Comedy?
Terza rima
2a Michael Faraday is said to have built the first example of which electrical device that transfers energy from one circuit to another by magnetic coupling with no moving parts?
Transformer
2b Named after a mathematical constant, which Darren Aronofsky film of 1998 tells the story of troubled maths prodigy Maximillian Cohen?
Pi
3a Who was the first English poet to write in terza rima, doing so in his Complaint to His Lady?*
Geoffrey Chaucer
3b In 1891, which scientist invented an eponymous "coil" that was a high-voltage, air-core, dual-tuned resonant transformer for generating very high voltages at high frequency?*
Nikola Tesla
4a Based on a Hubert Selby Jr novel, which Darren Aronofsky film of 2000 tells the story of mother and son Sara and Harry Goldfarb and Harry's girlfriend Marion and best friend Tyrone, and their problems with various drug addictions?*
Requiem for a Dream
4b In which field are or were the figures of Garth Fagan, Daniel Nagrin, Hermes Pan and Hanya Holm world renowned names?
Choreography or dance

Round 4
1a Leader of the Ekistics movement, the Greek architect Konstantinos Apostolos Doxiadis is chiefly remembered as the principal designer of which Asian capital?
Islamabad
1b Founded in 1864, which brewery company brews and sells more than 170 international beers including Cruzcampo, Tiger, Starborno and Murphy's?*
Heineken
2a Also called cranial nerve X or the pneumogastric nerve, what is the only nerve that starts in the brainstem and extends down below the head, to the abdomen?
Vagus nerve
2b Which Cuban athlete became the first man to win both the 400m and 800m at the same Olympics in 1976?
Alberto Juantorena
3a Which international beer company's special brew brands include Lav in Serbia, Falcon in Sweden, Tuborg in Denmark and Koff in Finland?*
Carlsberg
3b The twelfth cranial nerve, which nerve controls most of the tongue muscles and spirals behind the vagus nerve?
Hypoglossal nerve
4a The Soviet athlete Viktor Saneyev won his third consecutive gold medal in which event at the 1976 Olympics?
Triple jump
4b The architect Le Corbusier took over from Albert Mayer and produced a plan for which Indian city in the modernist style, designing many of its government buildings between 1952 and 1959?
Chandigarh

Round 5
1a Which orchestra played its first concert in Croydon on September 15, 1946?
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
1b In 1539, Robert Coppyng leased the Great Place House for the performance of plays, making it the first building in Britain to be used as a public theatre. In which coastal town was it located?*
Great Yarmouth
2a The Englishman George Morgan became the first man to die as a result of what kind of accident in 1899?
Motorcycle accident
2b The span of which English bridge is so great that the towers are 36mm further apart at the top than at the bottom to allow for the curvature of the Earth?
Humber Bridge
3a The poet William Morris, who founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, described which Scottish bridge as "the supremest specimen of all ugliness"?
Forth Bridge or Forth Rail Bridge
3b Which British orchestra played its first concert on June 9, 1904 with Hans Richter conducting?*
London Symphony Orchestra
4a The first theatre to have a permanent proscenium arch, the Teatro Farnese was opened in which Italian city in 1618?*
Parma
4b In 1842, who knocked over a child with his bicycle, thereby committing the world's first cycling offence, for which he was fined five shillings?
Kirkpatrick Macmillan

Round 6
1a Name either of the only unseeded players to have won the Wimbledon men's singles title.
Goran Ivanisevic or Boris Becker
1b Often referred to as "Number One", the character William T Riker appeared in which TV series?
Star Trek: The Next Generation
2a What kind of call was first made by Mrs Beard in 1937, as a result of which Thomas Duffy was arrested for attempted burglary?
999 emergency telephone call
2b No unseeded player has captured the Ladies' singles title at Wimbledon, but who was the lowest seeded player to do so as a fourteenth seed in 2005?
Venus Williams
3a Recently unveiled as one of Time magazine's 100 greatest ever albums, The College Dropout was released by which rapper in 2004?*
Kanye West
3b What first was inaugurated by the French Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications in 1933, using the voice of popular broadcaster Marcel Laporte?
Speaking clock
4a In which TV series was the unknown leader of The Village simply called "Number One"?
The Prisoner
4b Another of Time's 100 greatest ever albums, Stankonia was released by which rap duo in 2000?*
Outkast

Round 7
1a Invented by Erno Rubik, which mechanical puzzle consists of eight black square tiles arranged in a 2x4 triangle with diagonal grooves on the tiles holding the wires that connect them?*
Rubik's Magic
1b Rubik's Magic shares characteristics with which folk toy with a Biblically-derived name that consists of blocks of wood held together by strings and ribbons, and is called "tableta magica" in Spanish?*
Jacob's Ladder
2a Who was the Roman god of smithing?
Vulcan
2b Khalid Islambouli arranged and carried out the assassination of which political leader during his country's annual "6th October 1973 victory" parade?
Anwar Sadat
3a In 1997, who became the first German to win the Tour de France?
Jan Ullrich
3b Who was the Roman goddess of the earth?*
Ceres
4a Yakov Yurovsky is best known as the chief executioner or assassin of which major figure of the early 20th century?*
Tsar Nicholas II
4b Nicknamed "the Eagle from Herning", which Danish cyclist won the 1996 Tour de France?
Bjarne Riis

Round 8
1a The common variety of which bushy perennial herb is also known as blue sailors, succory and coffeeweed?*
Chicory
1b Democratic Party member Harry Reid will take up which political post in January 2007?
Senate Majority Leader
2a Mount Smolikas is the highest peak in which European mountain range?*
Pindus Mountains
2b Belonging to the genus Typha, what name is given to the flowering plants that are also called cattail in the US and reedmace in older British texts?*
Bulrush
3a Which Democratic Party member is expected to become the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives when Congress reconvenes in January 2007?
Nancy Pelosi
3b Which service organisation, whose mission is "Serving the Children of the World", was founded on January 21, 1915 in Detroit by the tailor Joseph C Prance and professional events organiser Allen S Browne?*
Kiwanis International
4a The world's largest service club organisation, which organisation was founded in the US in 1917 by Melvin Jones and became truly "International" in 1920 when the first club was established in Windsor, Ontario?*
Lions Clubs International
4b The mountain Torre de Cerredo is the highest peak in which European range?*
Cantabrian Mountains (accept Picos de Europa)

Spares
1 In materials science, what term describes the erosion of material from a solid surface by the action of another solid?
Wear
2 On which island is the spirit Zivania traditionally produced?
Cyprus
3 In which newspaper was the satirical obituary published that gave rise to the Ashes following the 1882 Australia-England Oval Test?
The Sporting Times
4 To which England captain was the small terracotta Ashes urn presented to by a group of Melbourne women during the 1882-3 tour?
Ivo Bligh
5 Jupiter, Apollo and Mars are all characters in which Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, first performed on Boxing Day in 1871?
Thespis
6 Established in 1850 by the Robert Morris, a lawyer and educator from Boston, Massachusetts, what is the largest fraternal organisation in the world that both men and women can join?
The Order of the Eastern Star