The BiG Q is back!

Are you the best quizzer in Goa? Where in the rankings do you stand? Are you getting better from year to year?

These are some of the questions that participating in the BiG Q can answer for you. Of course, the questions you will have to answer will be quite different. There will be 120 of them, to be answered in 90 minutes. Covering all kinds of subjects – current affairs, politics, geography, history, movies, music, sports, business, science, religion... – you name the topic, and there is likely to be a question on it. It's a solo written quiz, so you'll need to bring a pen, a backing board – and a brain full of information.

The BiG Q 2013 – this is the fifth one in the annual series – will be held on Saturday November 9, starting 5pm. There are two venues – for people in the north, the nearest centre will be the International Centre Goa (ICG) in Dona Paula; for those in the south, the Urban Health Centre opposite Hospicio Hospital in Margao.

The quiz is being conducted by the Sunday Evening Quiz Club (SEQC), Goa's only group of its kind. Answers will be revealed immediately after the quiz is done, and corrections carried out on the spot, so you know your score before you leave the venue. There are prizes for the Best Open Quizzer and the Best School Quizzer at each of the two venues, besides the overall BiG Q crown for the 'Best-in-Goa Quizzer'.

To register for the quiz, mail seqcgoa@gmail.com, mentioning a contact number and the centre (Panjim/Margao) at which you wish to take the quiz. For more information, call Anjali Sen Gupta at 9860089733. 

SEQC November

Date: 3rd November 2013
Time: 5.00 pm
QM: Srijit Kumar
Flavour: General
Venue: International Centre Goa, Dona Paula
Participation: Open to all, entry free

ITZ Group Stage match 6 – pix

The amazing setting of the quiz in the main hall at Arco Iris.

Lynn's quizzes are always replete with bells and whistles – this one literally so.

The Psmartypants think they know it; the Ambotik bench seems more alert than the playing four.

The South Goa team with their mascot, the very friendly Fenny.

Photos by Aarina Alphonso

ITZ Group Stage Match 6 – report and results

In a pulsating finale to the group stage of the ITZ tournament, the three-man Panjim Psmartypants won the day, but it wasn't enough to prevent the Aldona Ambotik team from entering the Final of the tournament. The 50-point cushion that the North Goa team carried into the second leg was sufficient to see them through, and send the Panjim team into a Play-off that will see Rajiv D'Silva and Harsh Bhatkuly – otherwise almost unseparable as a team – up against each other.

A highlight of Match 6 was certainly the sublime venue – Arco Iris, the home of Bennita and Ganesh Subramaniam, and home venue of the South Goa Leftovers team – was the latest in the sequence of beautiful settings SEQC has managed to have quizzes in.

Match 6 (Green Group leg 2)
QM: Lynn Barreto Miranda

1st: Panjim Psmartypants (Nitish Wagle*, Harsh Bhatkuly, Soham Gaunekar) – 160 points
2nd: Aldona Ambotik (Aniruddha Sen Gupta*, Anjali Sen Gupta, Delson Roche, K.V. Gouthami, Leroy Veloso, Neha Salgaonkar, Ramchandra Salgaonkar) – 130
3rd: South Goa Leftovers (Mahesh Prabhu*, Bennita Ganesh, Ganesh Subramaniam, Savio Victoria, Tanmay Naik) – 55

Green Group final standings
1st: Aldona Ambotik (270)
2nd: Panjim Psmartypants (250)
3rd: South Goa Leftovers (125)

Through to the finals: Aldona Ambotik
In the play-off: Panjim Psmartypants

Oasis Lone Wolf Quiz - Scores

Set by: ELAS, BITS-Pilani
Proctored by: Kanchan Gatward
Scores:
1. Aniruddha Sen Gupta - 39 (Open winner)
2. Julian D'Costa - 33
3. Rajiv D'Silva - 25.5
4. Paul Gatward - 15
5. Nitish Wagle - 14
6. Sunil Sardessai - 13
7. Suraj Kamat - 13 (College winner)
8. Viola Rodrigues - 11.5
9. Amit Shet - 8
10. Ira Almeida - 7
11. Anant Prabhu - 7
12. Peter Pereira - 2
13. Vishnu Gawas - 0

Doc's Last Quiz - Results

QM: V. R. Muralidharan (Conducted by Deepa Vedartham)

1st: Aniruddha Sen Gupta, Ciano Fernandes,Kalyani Muralidharan, Kanchan Gatward, Tanmay Naik, Vikram D'Silva, Vinaya M. - 110
2nd: Chantal D'Costa, Julian D'Costa, Lynn Barretto Miranda, Nitish Wagle, Sripriya Vedartham, Tallulah D'Silva, Terrence D'Costa, V. Anuradha - 90
3rd: Ashok Vedartham, Ira Almeida, Janaki Vedartham,Paul Gatward, Rajiv D'Silva, Sanjay Parab, Viola Rodrigues, V. Chaitanya - 70
4th: Anirudh Vedartham, Hailey Godinho, Harshvardhan Bhatkuly, Kalpana Satarkar, Mahesh Prabhu, Prashant Maurya, Soniya Vengurlekar, Srijit Kumar, Suraj Kamat - 60

This quiz also serves as the Margao monthly for October. The next Margao monthly, scheduled for the 30th of November, will be hosted by Sanjay Parab.

ITZ Group Stage Match 6

The final match of the ITZ group stage will be held at Arco Iris in Curtorim on Sunday October 27. Participating will be the three teams of the Green Group.

QM: Lynn Barreto Miranda
Date: Sunday October 27
Time: 5pm

Venue: Arco Iris, Curtorim

Participation: Green Group teams – Aldona Ambotik, Panjim Psmartypants, South Goa Leftovers

Flavour: General, with rounds as described in this post

In The Zone Matches 4 & 5 – content

Oasis Lone Wolf 2013

Organized by: BITS-Pilani
Date: 20th October 2013
Time: 9.30 am. The quiz will begin at 10.00 am sharp.
Format: This is a solo written quiz. The quiz will consist of 120 questions, to be answered in 90 minutes. 
Venue: International Centre Goa, Dona Paula - Panaji.
Participation: Open to all. Participants must register beforehand by sending an email to seqcgoa@gmail.com. Last date for receiving registrations is midnight on 18th October 2013. Spot entries will be accommodated on a first-come first-served basis, depending on availability of question papers and seating.

In Memoriam – Doc's Last Quiz

On the 1st of August this year we lost a friend and fellow-quizzer - Dr. V. R. Muralidharan. When people depart in so sudden and unexpected fashion, they sometimes leave behind unfinished business. Doc was in the process of setting a quiz for SEQC (he always was in the process of setting a quiz), contents of which have been retrieved from his computer by his family. We can think of no more fitting way to celebrate his life than to finish what he started. His daughter Deepa has kindly agreed to put the finishing touches to the quiz and to conduct it for us. Do attend.

Date: 19th October 2013
Time: 5 pm
QM: Dr. V. R. Muralidharan (Conducted by Deepa Vedartham)
Flavour: General
Venue: Urban Health Centre, Margao
Participation: Open to all.

ITZ Matches 3-5 – pix

Match 3 (Oct 5 at Aldona)

The teams

The QM

The Bench and the audience

Matches 4-5 (Oct 13 at ICG)

QM and teams

Quiz in action

Setting for the quiz

Photos are by Tallulah D'Silva (Aldona) and Delson Roche (ICG). 

ITZ Matches 4 & 5 – two finalists identified

Two close-fought matches at ICG on Sunday October 13 culminated in the first two ITZ finalists being identified – the Mad-gaonkars and the Panjim Pastafarians. 

Match 4 (Blue Group)

The first match featured the three teams of the Blue Group – the Mad-gaonkars, the Ponda Ponderers and the Dons of Dona Paula. The seeded Margao team were carrying a 10-point lead over the second-placed Ponda team into the second leg of the tournament. The match saw fortunes ebb and flow, the lead swinging between the two teams, with the Dons never out of it either. In the last couple of rounds, however, the Mad-gaonkars accelerated away, eventually finishing comfortable winners, both on the day and cumulatively. The other two teams, though much closer spaced, also finished in the same sequence as in the first round, putting Ponda through to the play-off.

Match 4 (Blue Group leg 2)
QM: Rajiv D'Silva
(represented by Tallulah D'Silva)

1st: Mad-gaonkars (Lynn Barreto Miranda*, Ira Almeida, Julian D'Costa, Sanjay Parab, Suraj Kamat, Viola Rodrigues) – 135 points
2nd: Ponda Ponderers (Ameya Mardolkar*, Anirudh Shirsat, Ashwin Mysore, Raghunandan Mysore) – 100
3rd: Dons of Dona Paula (Veenu Vas*, Ananya Mukherjee, Conrad Fernandes, Pranab Mukhopadhyay, Samyak Rajanala, Taran Mukherjee) – 95

Blue Group final standings
1st: Mad-gaonkars (250)
2nd: Ponda Ponderers (205)
3rd: Dons of Dona Paula (195)

Match 5 (Red Group)

The Red Group leg 2 match was even more of a cliffhanger, with the qualifying place for the play-off match being decided effectively on an unfortunate buzzer call on the last question of the match. One has to feel for the young Patraos of Porvorim who came so close but failed to make it past the seeded Procrastinators. Of course, the Panjim team was missing its star centre-forward Rajiv D'Silva (away on national duty) and things would probably have been quite different with him in the squad. But its city rivals, representing a thin sliver of the Miramar-Caranzalem coastline, made the most of the circumstances, erasing their deficit from the first leg with a vengeance and easily cantering through to occupy the second finalist spot.

Match 5 (Red Group leg 2)
QM: Lynn Barreto Miranda

1st: Panjim Pastafarians (Kunal Naik*, Adish Talwadker, Ajey Patil, Marc Mascarenhas, Mohnish Sardessai, Pranav Khadpe, Rohan Saxena) – 145 points
2nd: Porvorim Patraos (Paul Gatward*, Ashwin Mascarenhas, Roshan Kumar, Srijit Kumar) – 65
3rd: Panjim Procrastinators (Amit Shet*, Anant S. Prabhu, Nitish Fatarpekar, Raunaq Rao, Sunil Sardessai, Tallulah D'Silva, Yash Latkar) – 55

Red Group final standings
1st: Panjim Pastafarians (265)
2nd: Panjim Procrastinators (195)
3rd: Porvorim Patraos (190)

Through to the finals: Mad-gaonkars, Panjim Pastafarians
In the play-off: Ponda Ponderers, Panjim Procrastinators

SEQC October – Results

QM: Aniruddha Sen Gupta

1st: [C. N. Prabhakar, Eesha Tirodkar, Ira Almeida, Leroy Veloso, Mithila Prabhudesai, Rajiv D'Silva, Sunil Sardessai, Veenu Vas, Vishnu Gawas] & [Ajey Patil, Ashwin Kumar, Ashwin Mysore, Paul Gatward, Peter Pereira, Reshama Salelkar, Sanjay Parab, Srijit Kumar] - 145
3rd: Anant Prabhu, Blessie James, Delson Roche, Fatima Kumar, Jatan Rodrigues, Kunal Naik, Nitish Wagle, Moli Garg, Yash Pathak - 130
4th: Anil Rodrigues, Julian D'Costa, Lynn Barretto Miranda, Oswald Pinto, Rohit Ganoo, Soham Kamat, Tallulah D'Silva, Yash Latkar - 125
5th: Abhijeet Virginkar, Adish Talwadker, Aarina Roche, Harshvardhan Bhatkuly, Krithik Vaidya, Raunaq Rao, Suraj Kamat, Tanmay Naik - 120
6th: Anant Tirodkar, Anjali Sen Gupta, Kaira Coelho, Mahesh Prabhu, Marie Coelho,Shwetambari Parab, Soham Gaunekar, Wilma Alvares, Umang Nair, Venita Coelho, Viola Rodrigues - 105

The next Panjim Monthly will be held on the 3rd of November, to be QMed by Srijit Kumar.

ITZ Match 3 – Content

ITZ Group Stage second-leg matches – revised format

Based on feedback from the opening matches, there are a few variations being planned in the quiz format for the second-leg matches of the competition. Here's the revised structure:

-- Round 1. Target Practice: Normal passing round x 2, 12 clockwise, 10/5 points per question, no negatives
-- Round 2. Aim and Shoot: 9 India-specific questions from a grid of topics (each team to choose three), on first strike, +10/-5 points per question on buzzer, 10 points on normal passing (5 clockwise, 4 anti-clockwise), no negatives
-- Round 3. Home and Away: 4 questions each on four subjects, as provided by each team (teams will be asked in advance to provide subject areas). Answers to be written down by all teams. 5 points per question, with a bonus of 10 points for getting all four right. Applies to both Home and Away teams. -5 points to the Home team for getting any answer wrong that any of the Away teams answers correctly.
-- Round 4. Recurve: Normal passing round x 2, 12 anti-clockwise, 10/5 points per question, no negatives
-- Round 5. Bull's Eye: 4 questions with 4 clues to each, on the buzzer. +20/15/10/5 for getting it correct; -10 for wrong answer throughout, except at the end, when there's no negative.

Changes made from previous stage

Round 1. Instead of 6 questions clockwise, 6 anti-clockwise, all 12 questions will pass clockwise.
Round 2. Instead of the buzzer and pounce system, this round will be on first strike.
Round 3. No change.
One aspect that needs clarification here is when all the teams' specialised subjects are revealed. This will be done prior to the teams' changeover between rounds. That is, first all the three specialised subjects will be announced, then the teams can decide their onstage four.
Round 4. New round introduced, same as Round 1, but going the other way.
Round 5. Points system changed.

In addition, each team will have four 'BenchMarks', which they will be able to play at any time during Rounds 1 and 4. The BenchMark will allow the team to get an answer from the Bench for a given question. The Bench member(s) should simply raise their arm if they think they know an answer, and it is up to the onstage four to decide whether or not to play their BenchMark on that particular question.

The team gets the standard 10 points if the Bench answers correctly, -5 if it's wrong.

ITZ Group Stage Matches 4 and 5

The second-leg matches of the ITZ group stage will commence with two back-to-back encounters at the International Centre Goa (ICG) in Dona Paula on October 13. The Blue Group and the Red Group will be involved in the two matches.

ITZ Group Stage Match 4
QM: Rajiv D'Silva
(to be hosted on the day by a QM nominated by Rajiv)
Date: Sunday October 13
Time: 4pm

Venue: ICG

Participation: Blue Group teams – Dons of Dona Paula, Mad-gaonkars, Ponda Ponderers

Flavour: General

ITZ Group Stage Match 5
QM: Lynn Barreto Miranda
Date: Sunday October 13
Time: 6pm

Venue: ICG

Participation: Red Group teams – Panjim Pastafarians, Panjim Procrastinators, Porvorim Patraos

Flavour: General

SEQC October 2013 monthly – content

German Open 2013 – results

The German Open quiz 2013 was held on Sunday October 6 at the International Centre Goa. Here are the full results:

1. Aniruddha Sen Gupta – 98 points
2. Julian D'Costa – 85
3. Rajiv D'Silva – 74
4. Ajey Patil – 55
5. Viola Rodrigues – 52
6. Nitish Wagle – 50
7. Paul Gatward – 46
8. Delson Roche – 40
9. Sunil Sardessai – 39
10. Anjali Dar Sen Gupta – 36
11. Leroy Veloso – 35
12. Suraj Kamat – 32
13. Raunaq Rao – 27
14. Peter Pereira – 7
15. C.N. Prabhakar – 4
16. Abhijit Borkar – 3

A big thank-you to Ira Almeida for proctoring the event!

ITZ Group Stage Match 3 – results

The third match of the ITZ championship ended with a scoreline that looks quite skewed, but the match itself was anything but one-sided. Aldona Ambotik began with a flurry, racing ahead in the first round, but Panjim Psmartypants quickly caught up with the home team and was even ahead for a short while. The two teams went into the final buzzer round neck-and-neck, with the South Goa Leftovers barely a nose behind. But in the final round, the Ambotik proved too spicy.

A highlight of the match was the lovely home venue provided by one of SEQC's First Families, the Figueiredos. The Green Zone will have its next match also in a picturesque setting, at Arco Iris in Curtorim, the home venue of the South Goa Leftovers team. That match is scheduled for November 2, to be QMed by Lynn Barreto Miranda.

Results:

Match 3 (Green Group)
Held at the Figueiredo House, Aldona on Sat Oct 5
QM: Rajiv D'Silva
1st: Aldona Ambotik (Aniruddha Sen Gupta*, Anjali Sen Gupta, Leroy Veloso, Lucano Alvares, Savio Figueiredo) – 140 points
2nd: Panjim Psmartypants (Nitish Wagle*, Anant Lawande, Anil Rodrigues, Harsh Bhatkuly, Neil Nunes, Soham Gaunekar) – 90 points
3rd: South Goa Leftovers (Mahesh Prabhu*, Bennita Ganesh, Ganesh Subramaniam, Tanmay Naik, Zibane Paes) – 70 points

SEQC October

Date: 6th October 2013
Time: 5.00 pm
QM: Aniruddha Sen Gupta
Flavour: General
Venue: International Centre Goa, Dona Paula
Participation: Open to all, entry free