AFTER a fortnight break at the end of their summer equivalent, the Oxford Mail-sponsored Oxfordshire Winter Quiz Leagues began last Thursday.

As is customary, a new season is heralded with the staging of a collective ‘Tabletop’, principally to allow the fixtures secretary (me) breathing space to compile the schedule for the next six months.

What is not conventional is that the campaign begins with two competitions, last week and this – the reason being that the Oxfordshire Cricket Association fixtures secretary (also me!) has fallen behind with his tasks!

To accommodate geographical considerations, the opening event was staged in three locations around the county.

Most combatants met at the Green Road Club (Kidlington) with smaller numbers at the Woodman (North Leigh) and the Black Swan (East Oxford).

Uncharacteristically in the sedate world of quizzing, there was a kerfuffle at the Green Road Club when female participants took exception to a remark made by a gentleman seated nearby who, upon being told the evening’s theme was ‘Famous Women’, said: “This isn’t going to take too long’!

With peace restored, compere Diddly Dee steered us through an incident-free night.

The Royal Sun (Begbroke) were quickest out of the traps, establishing an early outright lead and by half-time shared first place with a leviathan of ‘Quizland’, the Ploughman’s Bunch! (Wolvercote) with another, the Plough (also Wolvercote), a point behind.

Sadly for Dot – resembling a small, proud schoolboy who has just opened his birthday present and looking resplendent in the pristine Oxford United kit it contained – and his Begbroke posse, this was as good as it got.

Despite the smorgasbord of chillies and curries served in the break, perhaps an over-indulgence in this or maybe the demon drink (except Maurice who only drinks milk) contributed to a drop off in performance and with it hope of the ‘Big Boys’ being overturned.

In a thrilling climax, the Bunch! and the Plough tied, the former being awarded the spoils on the basis of having scored heavier in the final round.

Elsewhere, it appears that the rehabilitation of ‘Burkey’ into Captain Conway’s Black Swan outfit is almost complete. He was entrusted with reading the questions but given that his erstwhile teammates finished next to bottom perhaps he should have been answering them.

Anyway, ‘Ben Stokes’ and his Royal Blenheim (Oxford City) buddies took this leg scoring enough to take third place overall, while in North Leigh the Blue Boar Bees (Chipping Norton) took the honours with the hosts, sadly, propping up the rest of the field.

Congratulations to the Ploughman’s Bunch! but as ‘The Doc’ observed, they won the opener last time and then nothing else!

JAMES CARR'S QUESTIONS

1. Who, in May 2015, was named the most powerful woman in the world for a record ninth time by Forbes Magazine?

2. Who is currently the longest continuously-serving female MP in the House of Commons?

3. Whose last words at her execution were: ‘Must I wear that blindfold’ (she didn’t) (1917)?

4. Who famously said, when asked by an Irish farm hand: ‘Have you flown far?’ replied: ‘From America’.

Answers: 1 Angela Merkel, 2 Harriet Harman, 3 Mata Hari, 4 Amelia Earhart.