I've become worse than the naughtiest boy at school recently with my excuses for lateness. No canine has eaten my homework, but I have spent several hours in walk-in centres and A&E over the last couple of days. Turns out Boy 2 did indeed have an avulsion fracture to his distal interphalangeal joint, left-hand, ring finger, as he suspected. He wasn't just whinging after all. Footballing injury.
No contest at the PA this week, so Robson and I hit the Crown & Sceptre, South Croydon, early. Taking it on the road. Unusual set-up with contestants spread throughout the pub interspersed with non-participants who nevertheless try to answer questions out loud.
The format was quite familiar in places, a picture round to start for instance. We managed to get Viggo Mortensen between us and only about 4 others. Not a great start, but I don't think anyone got an uglified Alex Best.
Round 2 current affairs, pretty much all based on articles that we had seen. The queen had 8000 at the year's first garden party, Robson guessed Rosanne as the eponymous sitcom making a comeback after 20 years. We only missed a royal marries commoner story, Japan not Denmark.
Cast your mind back, the PA used to do a top ten round, C&S does two top fives. Richest British musicians and highest grossing Julia Roberts films in real terms. We felt we did well to even name 5 of her films, but rued putting Peter Pan not Hook. Not the first time that that film has tripped us (ok me) up. We got 5 or 6, probably a decent effort.
Alpha links round next, not unlike chain letters, but in this version first letter of each answer starts with the letter of the alphabet immediately following that of the previous answer. Ghana, Horology, Iran, Johnny B Goode, Kath & Kim, Lira, Monty Panesaar, Never never land, Out of Africa, Polonium. Kath & Kim came from the very depths of our combined minds, not a place you want to go to too often.
Connections round only consists of 5 questions. A breeze even allowing for the error in the first question. Quizmaster remained adamant that both Kids in America and French Kissin in the USA were performed by Kim Wilde. I don't think so. All famous people following in their father's footsteps. Hilary Benn, Kiefer Sutherland & Charlie Sheen the other 3.
Last round called Wipe Out, but is just Jeopardy in disguise. Only 5 point bonus though for getting them all. The tenth question stumped us completely anyway, not familiar with the plot of the hit musical Hairspray. We erred on the side of caution, leaving out 3 that we would have guessed right. Any one would have given us an outright win, but as it happens three teams are tied on 40 points.
They had anticipated this potential outcome, setting a tie-break question after the last round but before marking. Nearest to the year that the Soviet Union prevented Pasternak from accepting his Nobel Prize. One team never answered, we said 1962. It was 1958, the other tied team were one year further out. Hurrah for Hound!
The team that we swapped papers with won the raffle covered by the entry fee of £1 per person. A bottle of wine. Strangely the quizmaster reduced my score of 31.5 for them to 30. I had been generous on the Kim Wilde/Debbie Harry question, and half marks are apparently not allowed. A bit on the strict side considering that they were out of contention.
After a decent interval during which we were ignored, I enquired politely about the first prize, only to learn that there is no such thing. All a bit of fun for charity. It was explained to me that they do this because the previous first prize of £12 used to attract professional quizzers. I then enquired equally politely "What about a Well Done then?". The response to this was "Oh, did you win, the two of you? I thought it was that other lot around the corner!".
Never mind, a good away win, no me for the coming Thursday, Robson is hoping for some support if possible.
G-Force.
Sunday, 28 May 2017
Friday, 19 May 2017
Hound Of God - Remastered
Different team selection today. For the first time in about a month, Man U didn't have a Thursday game on, instead Tottenham were slicing through Leicester like their eponymous cheese. So we had Daren joining Graham and myself while Kevster railed about the heaviness of Heathrow traffic.
I have notes on the re-quiz chatter but they make no sense so on with the quiz, round 1, pictures of "E's". Elephant, egg-box, emeralds, etc (not actually pictured). For the Hound, they were good.
Emma Thompson, budding national treasure or whinging old harpie, you decide.
Current Affairs was, to continue recent trends, more mainstream than often the case though we went wrong supermarket again with Asda in place of Tesco and for a change, the Greeks and not the French are on strike. You just have to play the percentages in this game.
Round 3 would be sport-themed, loosely so. Who was the quote, "He looks as happy as a penguin in a microwave" assigned to? It only really makes sense with a Geordie accent.
Sid Waddell
Connections would be Oscar winners which I think Graham bagged in one with Sean Penn (Dallas Buyers Club?). Daren was looking for hidden demons and took his time to come round but the likes of Elton John and Halle Berry sealed the deal.
On ten pointers I only have the answers written down but I'm sure "Harry Potter", "Ride of the Valkyries" and "Goat" tell you all you need to know.
A goat.
Half-time and disappointingly, no sandwiches or snacks had emerged so we were forced to do our thing. Refreshed we tackled the link-ups, I'll take the rap for Invicibles and not Invictus being the SA rugby film but otherwise plain sailing. Onto jeopardy, first winner of Celebrity Big Brother anyone? These were the days when people watched it but not the three of us I'm afraid. Had we known it, I'd have fought my corner on the month Elvis died but as we were, it was two blanks. Fair play to anyone bagging it. Proved to be Jack Dee.
Music and I do believe Daren identified an Olly Murs track. Whether indeed it proved to be an Olly Murs track is a different matter but still progress in my book. Here's Keane, someone we all know.
Not the biggest field for this week's quiz and when it became clear no-one had bagged the jeopardy, hopes were raised and fears subsided. A confortable Hound win was the order of the day. Ok, a few items of business.
1. Congratulations to Grey(Hound) Round becoming the first blog page to hit 500 views. Thanks to those French and Ruskies, traffic has been mushrooming and we calculate by 2030, the Hound blog will be the only thing read on the internet.
2. No quiz at the PA next week due to a private function. Default fallback will be the Crown & Sceptre in South Croydon but if Steve or Kevster want to show us the mean streets of Reigate or Sutton, then what the hell.
That's all folks.
I have notes on the re-quiz chatter but they make no sense so on with the quiz, round 1, pictures of "E's". Elephant, egg-box, emeralds, etc (not actually pictured). For the Hound, they were good.
Emma Thompson, budding national treasure or whinging old harpie, you decide.
Current Affairs was, to continue recent trends, more mainstream than often the case though we went wrong supermarket again with Asda in place of Tesco and for a change, the Greeks and not the French are on strike. You just have to play the percentages in this game.
Round 3 would be sport-themed, loosely so. Who was the quote, "He looks as happy as a penguin in a microwave" assigned to? It only really makes sense with a Geordie accent.
Sid Waddell
Connections would be Oscar winners which I think Graham bagged in one with Sean Penn (Dallas Buyers Club?). Daren was looking for hidden demons and took his time to come round but the likes of Elton John and Halle Berry sealed the deal.
On ten pointers I only have the answers written down but I'm sure "Harry Potter", "Ride of the Valkyries" and "Goat" tell you all you need to know.
A goat.
Half-time and disappointingly, no sandwiches or snacks had emerged so we were forced to do our thing. Refreshed we tackled the link-ups, I'll take the rap for Invicibles and not Invictus being the SA rugby film but otherwise plain sailing. Onto jeopardy, first winner of Celebrity Big Brother anyone? These were the days when people watched it but not the three of us I'm afraid. Had we known it, I'd have fought my corner on the month Elvis died but as we were, it was two blanks. Fair play to anyone bagging it. Proved to be Jack Dee.
Music and I do believe Daren identified an Olly Murs track. Whether indeed it proved to be an Olly Murs track is a different matter but still progress in my book. Here's Keane, someone we all know.
Not the biggest field for this week's quiz and when it became clear no-one had bagged the jeopardy, hopes were raised and fears subsided. A confortable Hound win was the order of the day. Ok, a few items of business.
1. Congratulations to Grey(Hound) Round becoming the first blog page to hit 500 views. Thanks to those French and Ruskies, traffic has been mushrooming and we calculate by 2030, the Hound blog will be the only thing read on the internet.
2. No quiz at the PA next week due to a private function. Default fallback will be the Crown & Sceptre in South Croydon but if Steve or Kevster want to show us the mean streets of Reigate or Sutton, then what the hell.
That's all folks.
Tuesday, 9 May 2017
Pants Down Hound
3 Hounds in the house before seven, but few others until the start of the quiz when the place suddenly filled up. Kevster stranded at some airport or we would have been 4.
Pictures were all starting with "B" or would have been if Siobhan hadn't asked for the brand of baked beans. No problem with the Burundi flag.
Decent effort in the current affairs round, another issuance of postage stamps has passed us by (songbirds this time), and who knew that 77 degrees proof Bombay gin had briefly hit the off licence shelf.
Authors for round 3. "A woman is just a woman, but a cigar is a good smoke ". Kipling not Hemingway, but we got the rest.
British islands for the connections round, Rams, Copeland, St Mary's, Muck, Rum, Asparagus (really), Harris, Lewis, Samson.
Sorted out the tenners between us, still in the running.
Nidd was the hardest answer in the chain letters round, but they're all easy if you know them.
Less said about the jeopardy round the better, we flip/flopped between red/orange as the visibly coloured tag on Levi jeans. Not sure why we didn't just leave it out but we ended up flopping for orange.
Solid music round, would have been close but to be honest the other teams are raising their game as well.
No quiz on the 25th. No Robson for the 11th, Portugal is to be arraigned by both him and then Steve in quick succession, will it ever be the same again? Old Petworth Railway station looks nice for a short stay.
G-Force
Pictures were all starting with "B" or would have been if Siobhan hadn't asked for the brand of baked beans. No problem with the Burundi flag.
Decent effort in the current affairs round, another issuance of postage stamps has passed us by (songbirds this time), and who knew that 77 degrees proof Bombay gin had briefly hit the off licence shelf.
Authors for round 3. "A woman is just a woman, but a cigar is a good smoke ". Kipling not Hemingway, but we got the rest.
British islands for the connections round, Rams, Copeland, St Mary's, Muck, Rum, Asparagus (really), Harris, Lewis, Samson.
Sorted out the tenners between us, still in the running.
Nidd was the hardest answer in the chain letters round, but they're all easy if you know them.
Less said about the jeopardy round the better, we flip/flopped between red/orange as the visibly coloured tag on Levi jeans. Not sure why we didn't just leave it out but we ended up flopping for orange.
Solid music round, would have been close but to be honest the other teams are raising their game as well.
No quiz on the 25th. No Robson for the 11th, Portugal is to be arraigned by both him and then Steve in quick succession, will it ever be the same again? Old Petworth Railway station looks nice for a short stay.
G-Force
Friday, 28 April 2017
Acid Hound
Later than normal start this week. Two of BPA's true stalwarts retire today and Graham and myself wanted to hold something back to celebrate the occasion. As we arrived the Manchester derby was kicking off, no doubt explaining Daren's absence while work commitments claimed the other two. Ah, the memories...
So without much pre quiz chit-chat to report on, straight to it with pictures.
Don't be fooled by that cute looking character as number one; it was one of her sort that bit me the other day in Banstead Woods. Other than that, the only one that vexed us for a while was 5 until Graham identified him, the lack of glasses and a lightning bolt scar fooling no-one.
Onto current affairs and dare I say it, a bit less batty than normal. I was surprised that Boris called this fellow a mutton-headed old mugwump though on research, he did say that's what he wasn't.
Jeremy
Round 3 - questions about music. Fairly steady bowling for us, though that old bear trap of the group that named themselves after their financial situation in 1977 nearly tripped us up, well me anyway.
Note, not UB40!
Connections. Made a bit of a horse's ass out of this. We had Clive Allen, Tiger, Zeus, Buster and Bijou with confidence and a few others but no common thread. Some sort of sexual performance aid wandered through my mind but we settled on frogs and toads. It was neither.
A tiger, grr!
Ten pointers - 2 out of 3, probably about par, we failed to realise that Scrubs is set in Seattle, though on reaearch the internet isn't too sure about that either. Was it any good? Just too many of those medical dramas around.
Here's the Scrubs gang.
Sandwiches were particularly good this week.
Onto the link-ups and we needed to wait for number 10 to realise that the Joshua Tree National Park is in California. Probably the size of Wales. Otherwise "Mortadella" was a good shout and something that would go down great right now.
Jeopardy and the overall feeling was "steady as she goes". However all was going serenely, Graham identified the location of the Peterloo massacre, though I'd question whether around 15 deaths is really a massacre? Which reminds me of the, maybe apocryphal, story about Napoleon. He was complaining about his sore throat when a captain rushed to his quarters asking what do with the 1,200 Turkish prisoners. "Ma sacré toux!" was his response. So they did. Now that's a massacre.
I digress. So who did John Francis try to assassinate in 1842. Well we didn't have a clue but given the date... But we left it.
Music and true to form we didn't have a clue about a Bruno Mars song. So we at least know what he looks like.
Bruno
Well, would our omission prove costly? Well yes, LATT bagged the jeopardy and we needed to do the same to beat them. However we hadn't got the right answer on who played Tinkerbell in Hook. No "if only allowed"
Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell. Kylie would have done a good job though. And it was Queen Victoria he tried to kill, twice actually.
So no success but good to see LATT win, their first for a while. Right, I can go down the pub now.
So without much pre quiz chit-chat to report on, straight to it with pictures.
Don't be fooled by that cute looking character as number one; it was one of her sort that bit me the other day in Banstead Woods. Other than that, the only one that vexed us for a while was 5 until Graham identified him, the lack of glasses and a lightning bolt scar fooling no-one.
Onto current affairs and dare I say it, a bit less batty than normal. I was surprised that Boris called this fellow a mutton-headed old mugwump though on research, he did say that's what he wasn't.
Jeremy
Round 3 - questions about music. Fairly steady bowling for us, though that old bear trap of the group that named themselves after their financial situation in 1977 nearly tripped us up, well me anyway.
Note, not UB40!
Connections. Made a bit of a horse's ass out of this. We had Clive Allen, Tiger, Zeus, Buster and Bijou with confidence and a few others but no common thread. Some sort of sexual performance aid wandered through my mind but we settled on frogs and toads. It was neither.
A tiger, grr!
Ten pointers - 2 out of 3, probably about par, we failed to realise that Scrubs is set in Seattle, though on reaearch the internet isn't too sure about that either. Was it any good? Just too many of those medical dramas around.
Here's the Scrubs gang.
Sandwiches were particularly good this week.
Onto the link-ups and we needed to wait for number 10 to realise that the Joshua Tree National Park is in California. Probably the size of Wales. Otherwise "Mortadella" was a good shout and something that would go down great right now.
Jeopardy and the overall feeling was "steady as she goes". However all was going serenely, Graham identified the location of the Peterloo massacre, though I'd question whether around 15 deaths is really a massacre? Which reminds me of the, maybe apocryphal, story about Napoleon. He was complaining about his sore throat when a captain rushed to his quarters asking what do with the 1,200 Turkish prisoners. "Ma sacré toux!" was his response. So they did. Now that's a massacre.
I digress. So who did John Francis try to assassinate in 1842. Well we didn't have a clue but given the date... But we left it.
Music and true to form we didn't have a clue about a Bruno Mars song. So we at least know what he looks like.
Bruno
Well, would our omission prove costly? Well yes, LATT bagged the jeopardy and we needed to do the same to beat them. However we hadn't got the right answer on who played Tinkerbell in Hook. No "if only allowed"
Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell. Kylie would have done a good job though. And it was Queen Victoria he tried to kill, twice actually.
So no success but good to see LATT win, their first for a while. Right, I can go down the pub now.
Thursday, 27 April 2017
Hound intrinsically adorable (9)
The blog title has nothing to do with last week's quiz, nor is it a statement of fact. Just a times crossword clue from earlier in the week. Answer at the foot of the post. Apologies for lateness of this blog, we have a man that does, doing at home. The conversion of study to bedroom has affected my onlineness for a few days.
Picture free this week, as I am posting from my iPad and it is a bit fiddly. Normal service will be resumed in due course.
Quick sweep-up re a couple of events. Full pack of Hounds descended on Hastings on Maundy Thursday, good time had by all. Siobhan's sloe gin was finished on the outward journey, palatable and very refreshing. Well done to her. Robson and myself took part in an inbetweener music Quiz with various anoraks, being placed a comfortable second. The impressive winnin team saw us off largely due to their knowledge of female X-Factor winners and the years in which they won. We were 1 year out for 5 of the 6. Nevertheless an enjoyable evening at St Raphael's hospice in Cheam.
Quiz proper started with easy picture round, furry animals. We may have confused our ferrets and weasels but otherwise a breeze. We missed two current affairs q's but my notes are too cryptic at this late stage to say what they were. Weetabix got a mention, as did George Osborne, Chris O'Donnell and Steve Jordan.
Food & drink mostly negotiated in round 3. Our bearnaise sauce knowledge not as good as it perhaps should be, and we were way out on what type of beer was being smuggled into Georgia in the film 'Smokey & the Bandit' (Coors apparently).
We frankly unravelled a bit in the connections round, only getting 6 of the 9 connected answers. Windsor was probably the only one that might have helped us to get knots as the connection, had we got it right. Other connectors include Celtic FC, Savoy hotel, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Albert Pierpoint, and I think Madeline Albright.
Got the ten pointers, Jimmy Purley a bit tricky for some other teams.
The chain letters round included the second mention of absinthe in this week's quiz. A fisherman uses a gaff to land fish that have been hooked, not a griff, otherwise fine.
Uninspired Jeopardy round where we left 4 out. Other, bigger, teams putting some distance between us and them. Nobody in the house knew or could remember the surname of John Lennon's first wife Cynthia, we also had an Archbishop Cantab/York dilemma (which is prelate of All England), no idea who played Vin in ' The Magnificent 7', and swerved a potential bovril/marmite bear trap.
Usual strong music round, especially good get of Alesha Dixon song by Robson. We were 3rd, 10 behind Anoraks who won. Consolation bag of minstrels for being first in with the Queen Mum's age at death.
Jeopardy answers were Powell, Cantab, Steve McQueen, bovril.
Crossword answer is 'persecute'.
G-Force
Picture free this week, as I am posting from my iPad and it is a bit fiddly. Normal service will be resumed in due course.
Quick sweep-up re a couple of events. Full pack of Hounds descended on Hastings on Maundy Thursday, good time had by all. Siobhan's sloe gin was finished on the outward journey, palatable and very refreshing. Well done to her. Robson and myself took part in an inbetweener music Quiz with various anoraks, being placed a comfortable second. The impressive winnin team saw us off largely due to their knowledge of female X-Factor winners and the years in which they won. We were 1 year out for 5 of the 6. Nevertheless an enjoyable evening at St Raphael's hospice in Cheam.
Quiz proper started with easy picture round, furry animals. We may have confused our ferrets and weasels but otherwise a breeze. We missed two current affairs q's but my notes are too cryptic at this late stage to say what they were. Weetabix got a mention, as did George Osborne, Chris O'Donnell and Steve Jordan.
Food & drink mostly negotiated in round 3. Our bearnaise sauce knowledge not as good as it perhaps should be, and we were way out on what type of beer was being smuggled into Georgia in the film 'Smokey & the Bandit' (Coors apparently).
We frankly unravelled a bit in the connections round, only getting 6 of the 9 connected answers. Windsor was probably the only one that might have helped us to get knots as the connection, had we got it right. Other connectors include Celtic FC, Savoy hotel, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Albert Pierpoint, and I think Madeline Albright.
Got the ten pointers, Jimmy Purley a bit tricky for some other teams.
The chain letters round included the second mention of absinthe in this week's quiz. A fisherman uses a gaff to land fish that have been hooked, not a griff, otherwise fine.
Uninspired Jeopardy round where we left 4 out. Other, bigger, teams putting some distance between us and them. Nobody in the house knew or could remember the surname of John Lennon's first wife Cynthia, we also had an Archbishop Cantab/York dilemma (which is prelate of All England), no idea who played Vin in ' The Magnificent 7', and swerved a potential bovril/marmite bear trap.
Usual strong music round, especially good get of Alesha Dixon song by Robson. We were 3rd, 10 behind Anoraks who won. Consolation bag of minstrels for being first in with the Queen Mum's age at death.
Jeopardy answers were Powell, Cantab, Steve McQueen, bovril.
Crossword answer is 'persecute'.
G-Force
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