The serious business for the Winter Quiz League season concluded last Thursday night with the joint running of the Trophy and the Supplementary Cups.

The former is designed for the Premier Section clubs together with all the divisional winners and those teams who were successful in an earlier themed tabletop, whilst the latter is reserved for, well, everyone else!

The competitions were staged at two venues. Up in Chipping Norton, hosts, the Blue Boar ‘Bees’ prevailed in the Trophy notching up 122 points in the process. Their stablemate, the Blue Boar ‘A’, emerged victorious in the Supplementary Cup despite posting a rather more modest tally of 106.

The overall winners, however, were to be found in the leg held at the North Oxford Conservative Club (Summertown). Already triumphant in four previous tabletops, Premiership outfit the Plough (Wolvercote) added the Trophy to their impressive collection after ratcheting up 136. They were run mighty close though, with the Royal Sun (Begbroke) finishing just two behind in second, courtesy of a barnstorming last round, with the Green Road Club (Kidlington) a further four back to occupy the one remaining podium spot.

Pre-tournament favourites, and newly-crowned Premiership champions, the Ploughman’s Bunch! (Wolvercote) trailed in fourth; presumably still recovering from the excesses I understand they engaged in seven days before over in Haddenham!

  • Roll of Honour for 2013/14:
  • Premier Section: Ploughman’s Bunch!
  • Oxford Division: The Hatchet (Childrey)
  • North Division: Blue Boar Bees
  • West Division: Royal Sun
  • East Division: Green Dragon (Haddenham)
  • Trophy: Plough
  • Supplementary Cup: Black’s Head
  • Colin Ross Memorial: Ploughman’s Bunch!
  • Mary English Memorial: Plough
  • Dave Jordan Memorial: Green Road Club
  • Rock and Pop: Blue Boar ‘A’
  • Telly – Plough s Round Britain: Ploughman’s Bunch!
  • Sport: Plough
  • 1960s: Plough

No one, not even themselves, would have predicted the outcome in the Supplementary Cup. After winding up plum last in the West, the Black’s Head (Bletchingdon) surely participated with no more of an expectation than to simply avoid a similar fate. Well, what a performance! Their score of 132 would have placed them third in the Trophy, and it was way too good here as they lifted the Supplementary Cup by a healthy margin of seven points from the Gardener’s Arms (North Parade) with the Seacourt Bridge (Botley) taking third on 122.