We won our second match against Quizlings by 84 - 69. Rather surprisingly, a little animosity crept in. Unfortunately, this tends to happen sometimes in First Division matches where there's a great deal of kudos at stake. The lower divisions don't take things quite so seriously - and neither do we. {g} The format of the quiz is as follows:
Two teams of four sit facing each other. The quizmaster is from a team in a different division. His team has previously compiled eighty questions for the match - ten rounds x eight players. With the teams alternating, each player in turn picks a number from 1 to 8, and is asked the question corresponding to that number. He has twenty seconds in which to come up with an answer. If it's correct, he scores three points, and a player on the opposing team picks a number.
If the answer given is wrong or inadequate, the whole team has another twenty seconds to confer and come up with a second answer. If this is correct, the team scores two points. If it's incorrect, the opposing team has a further twenty seconds in which to confer. If their conferred answer is correct, they score one bonus point.
The bone of contention concerned a question on the comic book character, Dan Dare and how he was described. Pete on our team went for 'Space Pilot of the Future', the correct answer being just 'Pilot of the Future'. A generous question master would have given him three points for it as he had given more than required rather than less.
I think this question master was new to the Quiz League. He hum and ha-ed a bit then said he'd give Pete two points for being very close, instead of letting us confer. As we had the right answer anyway, we accepted the two points without a fuss. However, one of the opposition, who - to give the benefit of the doubt, may not have followed this (or was suffering from indigestion or something) - carried on as if the question master had given us three points for a wrong answer and deprived him of a bonus point because he knew the right answer. Huh????
He chuntered on about it again a little later on, at which point I enquired chirpily if he'd been auditioning for a First Division team well known for its habit of quibbling over any tiny detail that some of its members disagree with in a question or answer. He shut up after that. 8-) As we won by an eighteen point margin, it really didn't affect the game one way or another.
A footnote to this is that, when the super-hero Dan Dare was created, he was originally going to be called 'Dan Dare -
Vicar of the Future'! LOL!
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And now, the 'Writing Science Fiction' Course... {g}
I arrived in good time at Franklin College (named after a town councillor who was, I am told, barely literate and opposed the whole idea of a sixth form college. LOL!) There was no information about which room we would be using, so I asked a random person milling around in the foyer if he knew where Philip Craggs' class was being held. He pointed to a guy kneeling at my feet who looked up and said, "That's me."
"Ah, the Doctor Who fan," I remarked with a twinkling smile. Think I scared the bejabers out of him, judging by the stunned look on his face. LOL! He asked how I knew. Perhaps he thought I was a mind reader? I'm afraid there's no way I'll ever be a woman of mystery though, as I'm incapable of withholding the truth...
"Well, there's a little thing on the Internet called Google..." I said, so now he thinks I'm Scary Stalker Lady! ROFL!
Anyway, the only nerdy thing about him is the centre parting - and if his hair is parted anywhere else next week, I'll know he's been Googling me! Hi, Phil, if you're reading this! 8-) {waves}
Yes, he's young, but he has an M.A., so not entirely stupid then. ;-) On the shallow side, he's also very good-looking and charming, and I'm expecting very good marks for my assignments! {g} One big negative is that he thinks
A Clockwork Orange is good. 8-O Oh well, nobody's perfect. That apart, I'm very favourably impressed. So far. 8-)
We had an interesting discussion on why science fiction is looked down upon by those who've never really read any and think it's just about space ships and robots. This is despite the fact that it requires the same writing abilities as any other genre, plus it requires the imagination to create whole different worlds, and the scientific research - yes, RESEARCH, Lindsey 'Falco' Davis! - to extrapolate how things may develop in the future. I doubt Kim Stanley Robinson could've written the
Red Mars,
Green Mars, and
Blue Mars series without doing a great deal of research in a number of scientific disciplines.
I'd never really thought about it before, but Phil pointed out that between 1895 and 1901, H.G. Wells - cited by most, if not all, members of the class as a leading influence in our interest - wrote books in five separate and different sub-genres of science fiction. Furthermore, this was without the benefit of having other books to read in those fields as an inspiration because there was precious little around at that time:
1895:
The Time Machine - time travel, and one of my all-time favourites
1896:
The Island Of Dr. Moreau - animal experimentation, a pre-cursor of genetics and cloning.
1897:
The Invisible Man - invisibility as a result of science, not magic.
1898:
The War of the Worlds - alien invasion
1901:
The First Men in the Moon - space travel
Quite a creative achievement!
P.S. And the room number is 69 so I'll not be forgetting that in a hurry... ;-)
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A week ago Thursday, the new season of The Grimsby and District Quiz League began. Rod and I have been members for over twenty years with our team, Imps. I'm team captain, by the way, but only because no one else would do it... 8-(
We were relegated at the end of last season, principally because you have to have a team of at least three players. Four is the norm. On a couple of occasions, only Rod and I were available so we had two two point penalties on top of no points for the matches. It was enough.
Before the season started, the Grimsby Telegraph did its usual pre-season report with tips for the champions in each division. For Division 2, the comment was "The relegated Imps with the Mitchell man and wife stars look to be favourites here." So we're *stars*, Dahlings! {BG}
We did indeed win our first match over Harry Buck's Bux Kwiz by 99 to 81, so at least we got off to a good start. 8-) Pete, who had to miss several matches last year owing to his duties as a school governor, should be available this year as he's given up 'governoring'. I, on the other hand, may have to miss a couple of matches.
This is because I've signed up for a Hull University Creative Writing course on'Writing Science Fiction'. However, I Googled the name of the lecturer yesterday. Unless there are two of them, it seems he's about 22 years old and a Doctor Who fan... What have I let myself in for?! Well, I'll find out tomorrow. (D.V.)
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