Small Note

Dunno if everyone has seen this but Anand has a comphrehensive review of the March Open that he and Vibhendu did up on his blog. He has detailed numerical analysis and personal opinions about each teams showing. Excellent, detailed and precise. Do see.

April Open Quiz - Results

Details:
* April BCQC Open Quiz on 23 April, 2006
* Set by Sarika Chuni and Gaurav Sabnis; conducted by Gaurav
* Scoring: Infinite Rebounds (2 pts); Pole Position bonuses (3/2/1)

Results (54 questions in the Final):

1st: Dhoomketu and Naveen Unni (17 pts)
Jt. 2nd: B.V. Harishkumar and Samrat Sengupta (16)
Jt. 2nd: Salil Bijur and J. Ramanand (16)
4th: Shivaji Marella and Ganesh Hegde (14)
5th: Arnold D'Souza and Shamanth Rao (super-sub for Kunal S :-)) (13)
6th: Kunal Thakar and Anupam Akolkar (12)

Elims results (35 questions):

1st: Harish and Samrat (18*)
2nd: Salil and Ramanand (18)
3rd: Dhoomketu and Naveen(?)
Cutoff: 14.5

Comments/Criticisms:

* Participation numbers seem to be going up - many more new faces this time. More visitors from Bombay, two of whom won the quiz!
* Personally felt that the questions weren't completely upto the usual standards of the quiz-setters. Close to half the questions were entertainment related. Fewer connects (was expecting some of Gaurav's patented bizarro connects, but none materialised :-)) and very little sports. Uncharacteristic pitch. A lot more history and politics this time.
* Also felt that though some of the questions had some interesting trivia as their basis, the framing did not do justice to it. For instance, the questions on "What was Operation Wrath of God?" or on Norman, the NZ athlete were like Alicia Silverstone i.e. clueless.
* A slightly rushed affair which led to some questions not being done justice too; one of the more tougher elims I have taken.
* Couple of rough decisions going against H & S :-)
* Another super-sub: Shamanth replaced Kunal S for the finals as the latter is in the middle of exams.
* Since this is likely to be Gaurav's last formal quiz in Pune for a while - taking the opportunity to wish him well and thank him for the entertainment in the past.
* Next quiz: Niranjan's in May

Unseeded quiz results
For the first time, we held an unseeded 25 questions-written quiz for some of the lesser experienced quizzers. About 20 of them took part. Conducted by Shamanth, here are the results:

1st: Chinmay
2nd: Aniket Khasgiwale
3rd: Akshat Vyas
4th: Mithun Srivatsa, Arun Mirpuri, Gaurav Singh (Tied)

Please leave comments on this post if you have anything to say about yesterday's quiz. Also note that from this time, due to initiatives from Salil and Abhishek, we're recording more info about the quizzes in our report. I don't have my notes, so have left some info blank. Please do help complete

April Open Quiz

Sarika and Gaurav will be conducting an Open Quiz in Pune this weekend. Details:

Date - 23rd April 2006 (Sunday)
Time - 10:00 a.m. (finals will end at approx 3 p.m.)
Team Size 2 members
Venue - Dewang Mehta Auditorium, Bhageerath, Persistent Systems Pvt. Ltd, Behind Domino's Pizza, Senapati Bapat Road, Pune
Flavour: General
Contact for more info: gaurav(dot)sabnis(at)gmail...

Update: On the side, an "unseeded quiz" will also be conducted. This is meant for all rookie participants.

The Sahara Aamby Valley City Brand Equity Quiz 06

Conducted by : Derek O' Brien
Date : 9th April, Sun.
Location: Sahara Aamby Valley City

Results : 1st Place - Goldman Sachs (Bangalore)
2nd Place - UTI Bank (Mumbai)
3rd Place - KPMG (Chennai)

Comments: Derek sprung a big surprise by having IR. This itself, added to the fact that he was in full form implementing the 'militaristic' theme fully as General RAMDI(RAMSKI?), parodies and usual leg-pulling made it a fun experience overall.

There were of course bad questions(esp. the AVs, which mostly involved muted/beeped out brand names in various unrelated movies/songs) However some questions were nice, and overall the surroundings did help lift up the mood of the average spectator.

The drive up to Amby Valley (to use a now obselte term) is quite spectacular to say the least, and it does quite help to have a member of a co-quizzer's family to drive you till there ;-)

Also to mention that Dhammo and Dhananjay narrowly missed out on the grand prize, and note, for future reference how Tamilian(South-Indian?) pronounciations can rob you of some considerable richess. (Note : Detailed teams to be put up later)