Ormskirk Quiz League

John Wilson (Greyhound) was in a team that beat the Eggheads winning a share of £13000. They had all four in the final against Pat Gibson winning in sudden death.

Jim passed away at the end of last week after a spell in hospital. He played for Bispham Eagles in the early weeks of the season until he had a fall and suffered fractured ribs.

He was regularly amongst the highest scorers in Division Two in recent seasons and was team secretary from 1990 when the team was known as Windmill.

Team secretaries have details of the funeral.

I thought of Jim last night when Clive Gregory, the secretary of Bispham Eagles, won the Pairs Competition.

We welcomed fifty players and guests, including three MQL officers, President, General Secretary and Treasurer, to Aughton Institute for a different style evening. 
Forty, representing thirteen of our sixteen teams, chose to enter a Pairs Competition. After a first Round of 40 questions answered on paper, six pairs with scores of 35 and higher out of 40 qualified for the semi-final.

They were Alan Gibbs (Unison) and Gareth Flynn (Newburgh Lions), Darren Martin (Unison) and Danny Fearns (Hayfield Gang), Charles Johnson (Unison) and Peter Gateley (formerly Greyhound), John Wilson (Greyhound) and Clive Gregory(Bispham Eagles), Brian Thompson (MQL General Secretary) and Tony Robinson (Rugby Hounds), and Angela Doyle (MQL President) and Clive Walton (Turks Head Saints) who answered in turn and gave spoken answers. 

After 75 questions three pairs  Darren and Danny, Brian and Tony, and John and Clive qualified for the final.

Congratulations to John Wilson and Clive Gregory who won after 33 questions were asked.

Our charity Age Concern (Lancashire) will benefit by £110 from a raffle.

Photographs of all trophy winning teams are available here.

Six Ormskirk players took part, three of whom Alan Gibbs (Unison), Paul McAteer (Robin Hood) and Bill Gerrard (Turks Head Sinners) qualified for the second round. Only Alan made it to the semi-final, but unfortunately did not qualify for the final. Full details here.

In the cup final Hayfield Gang began with a lead of ten over Scarecrows and held their own throughout winning in the end by 11 points. High scorers were Barry Marshall (15) and Janet Crompton (14) for Scarecrows and Rob Jones (12) for Hayfield.

The Plate final was a much tighter affair; Turks Head Saints and Ormskirk Tennis Club began level on handicap and the Tennis Club led for five rounds but the Saints caught them in the sixth and after eight rounds the scores were level so a 9th round had to be played with the Saints winning it 6-5. Top scorers were Paul Prior (21) for the Tennis Club and Barbara Flaherty (15) and Kevin Walton (13) for the Saints.

Congratulations to the winners of both competitions.