Thursday Night and the prospects weren't good. Kevster had muttered something about buses and Peterkins wasn't to be shifted from the environs of Croydon. Stll I hadn't been out all week and nothing was going to get in the way of some quiz action.
On my way out of L&G I met some colleagues who were off for a pint at the Mint in Banstead. It didn't seem too much of a diversion so off we all trudged, the usual horseplay in the snow ensued, the main activity being pulling a tree so the snow fell on the person behind. What fun!
The Mint was lovely and welcoming and as it does, one pint became four before I headed off again. Walking through Woodmansterne offered the first chance of public transport and though the 166 was parked at the Midday Sun, we did spot a taxi heading to Purley so I could arrive at the scheduled time.
Knowing we were down on numbers, Daren had arrived in good times and was chatting to Debbie when I got there. She seemed a pleasant enough sort, the main things I remember about her was she had three sisters and an unusual hat with an embroided bear I think plus ears stitched on the side. Prospects of recruiting her were high but then she got dragged away, by one of her sisters I think.
For my part, I had recruited Simon, a fellow runner who was on a marathon walk from Kingswood to back home in South Croydon. So we still had three people to face up to the quiz. Ah, the quiz, well there wasn't one, the bloke who was to run it hadn't turned up. This didn't seem to bother most of the people in the pub and a riot seemed out of place. We chatted away and I amused myself by texting Kevster dummy questions. Come 11 o'clock I made the long walk back to Chipstead, it seemed to fly by, funny that.
Friday, 3 December 2010
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
25th November 2010 - JaegerHound...
Status Report for 25/11/2010
Venue: The Greyhound - Carshalton
Start: 8pm
I phoned Robin at around 7pm. Robson, Kevster and Daren were already roasting their chestnuts by the large, open fire. I was at home and couldn't face the 407 schlep, so I phoned for a cab and arrived at 7.30. As it was so cold, it all felt very festive. I got to the bar and 'Olive' couldn't cater for Robin's 'Special' needs, so we drunk Young's 'Ordinary'. Daren and Kevster drank their usual Kronenbourg and I tried hard to keep up!
Daren paid much attention to the open fire and successfully placed logs in strategic positions to make it look fantastic. Daren's tip of the week:
"Coal is for heat and logs are for flames."
We were informed that the quiz didn't take place last week, as only one team arrived. However, five teams turned up and filled the bar areas, including a beautiful young flibberdy gibbet next to us, sitting with her grandfather. Kevster's eyes were fixed in her direction, happily engaging in answer swapping with her and grandfather for the rest of the evening amongst quiz, fag breaks and Kronenbourg.
This week's quiz contained a picture round in which we had to name English kings and queens and I think we did pretty well. Full marks for the Speed Stars round set us up for rest of the quiz. We also scored well in the music round where we played our joker. Next up was Technology and Industry where Lord Nuffied made cars, Persil were the first makers of detergent, Howard Hughes was famous for his films and William not Edgar Hoover invented the vacuum cleaner. I asked my wife the other day - 'Who invented the skip - it was in fact Bennis Marrell - Ahaa!!
We did consistently well in the next 3 rounds: Pot Luck, TV Times and Board Games. Annoyingly, we couldn't get the manopoly property that has all the letters in the word manopoly.....There was also an argument about the spelling of Tony Blair's son's name - Euan or Ewan. Silly name anyway!
Our performance came out well at the end and we were involved in a tie breaker for first place. Both teams had amassed 57.5 points. The tie breaker question:
What is the total size of all angles in a hexagon? Obviously Robson territory. The other side said 360 degrees and Robson was correct with 720 degrees. £30 food voucher plus return of entrance fees gratefully received. With this Daren purchased jeigermeisters all round.
One of the answers in the games round was 'Tilt' a game I've not played. However, this seemed to attract us to a game on Kevster's phone during our breaks. Chips arrived a little later this week.
All in all, a very good evening, proving that The Greyhound seems to be the quiz venue to be at the moment. Not sure about this week - as weather may have an impact on what we do and where we go?
(Inter-company)Peter(kins)
Venue: The Greyhound - Carshalton
Start: 8pm
I phoned Robin at around 7pm. Robson, Kevster and Daren were already roasting their chestnuts by the large, open fire. I was at home and couldn't face the 407 schlep, so I phoned for a cab and arrived at 7.30. As it was so cold, it all felt very festive. I got to the bar and 'Olive' couldn't cater for Robin's 'Special' needs, so we drunk Young's 'Ordinary'. Daren and Kevster drank their usual Kronenbourg and I tried hard to keep up!
Daren paid much attention to the open fire and successfully placed logs in strategic positions to make it look fantastic. Daren's tip of the week:
"Coal is for heat and logs are for flames."
We were informed that the quiz didn't take place last week, as only one team arrived. However, five teams turned up and filled the bar areas, including a beautiful young flibberdy gibbet next to us, sitting with her grandfather. Kevster's eyes were fixed in her direction, happily engaging in answer swapping with her and grandfather for the rest of the evening amongst quiz, fag breaks and Kronenbourg.
This week's quiz contained a picture round in which we had to name English kings and queens and I think we did pretty well. Full marks for the Speed Stars round set us up for rest of the quiz. We also scored well in the music round where we played our joker. Next up was Technology and Industry where Lord Nuffied made cars, Persil were the first makers of detergent, Howard Hughes was famous for his films and William not Edgar Hoover invented the vacuum cleaner. I asked my wife the other day - 'Who invented the skip - it was in fact Bennis Marrell - Ahaa!!
We did consistently well in the next 3 rounds: Pot Luck, TV Times and Board Games. Annoyingly, we couldn't get the manopoly property that has all the letters in the word manopoly.....There was also an argument about the spelling of Tony Blair's son's name - Euan or Ewan. Silly name anyway!
Our performance came out well at the end and we were involved in a tie breaker for first place. Both teams had amassed 57.5 points. The tie breaker question:
What is the total size of all angles in a hexagon? Obviously Robson territory. The other side said 360 degrees and Robson was correct with 720 degrees. £30 food voucher plus return of entrance fees gratefully received. With this Daren purchased jeigermeisters all round.
One of the answers in the games round was 'Tilt' a game I've not played. However, this seemed to attract us to a game on Kevster's phone during our breaks. Chips arrived a little later this week.
All in all, a very good evening, proving that The Greyhound seems to be the quiz venue to be at the moment. Not sure about this week - as weather may have an impact on what we do and where we go?
(Inter-company)Peter(kins)
Sunday, 21 November 2010
Tony's Coming Home - Hound
It was a trip to the Crown & Sceptre in South Croydon this week as Tony returned to his old manor but hasn't yet got to grips with bus timetables. More squad rotation this week as Daren wasn't considered fit enough for two quizzes in a week but Pete returned to join Kevster and myself.
This was my week at home so with time on my hands, I expected to be first there but Tony and Kevster had already bagged a table, Pete turned up around 8.30 after a marathon day at work. Can't remember what the pre-quiz chat mainly comprised but being the C&S there was time for lots of it as we didn't get going until gone 9pm - Tony's mates Dick and Dom were going to join us but in the end thought better of it. Onto the quiz and the usual mix. It was a charity thing with a "Movember theme" - both the quizmaster and his wife seem to have entered the spirit of it, quite strange.
Pictures we ok, though we failed to spot the close up of a tomato and we manage to unpick the connections round. The key round would be "wipeout" which we mucked up spectacularly last time. Older and wiser we had 8 we were confident on, a strong inkling that Bonnie was the first woman shot by the FBI but no idea whatsoever on who played Doctor Who on film. Our 7 dropped points on this round was roundabout the margin of our defeat as we settled for third.
The C&S is a nice pub, affable clientele and the location is good but yet again, the bar had closed before the quiz finished so no post mortem opportunity. We're not really charity people either, Hounds like winning things and having some tangible reward for the evening. Decent chicken burger though and the beer is always up to the mark.
This was my week at home so with time on my hands, I expected to be first there but Tony and Kevster had already bagged a table, Pete turned up around 8.30 after a marathon day at work. Can't remember what the pre-quiz chat mainly comprised but being the C&S there was time for lots of it as we didn't get going until gone 9pm - Tony's mates Dick and Dom were going to join us but in the end thought better of it. Onto the quiz and the usual mix. It was a charity thing with a "Movember theme" - both the quizmaster and his wife seem to have entered the spirit of it, quite strange.
Pictures we ok, though we failed to spot the close up of a tomato and we manage to unpick the connections round. The key round would be "wipeout" which we mucked up spectacularly last time. Older and wiser we had 8 we were confident on, a strong inkling that Bonnie was the first woman shot by the FBI but no idea whatsoever on who played Doctor Who on film. Our 7 dropped points on this round was roundabout the margin of our defeat as we settled for third.
The C&S is a nice pub, affable clientele and the location is good but yet again, the bar had closed before the quiz finished so no post mortem opportunity. We're not really charity people either, Hounds like winning things and having some tangible reward for the evening. Decent chicken burger though and the beer is always up to the mark.
Friday, 12 November 2010
11th November 2010
In a packed programme tonight;
*Kevster has squirrels in his loft
*Chips, chips, as big as battleships
*Laydee's, lots of lovely laydees (Danny)
*Hound comes second
The evening got off to a strange start when the shemale barmaid came and asked us for ' a strong man' to lend a hand. We offered up Robson and shared a collective shudder as they disappeared into the store cupboard. One can only imagine what horrors befell Robson in there but some things are better left unsaid.
Back in the 'Swan' Bar conversation veered from The Saturdays to the symmetry of clock faces. This may have contributed to Tony choosing to leave us at this point.
So, the ' Remembrance Hounds' team comprised The Mighty Az, Robson, Kevster and myself.
There then followed a quiz with pictures and questions punctuated by several bowls of huge chips. The only round I can recall with any clarity was the 'Pubs of Sutton' photo round which , you may be surprised to hear, Kevster excelled at.
There was 7 teams this week which upped the level of competition somewhat. There were 2 teams of laydees sat directly behind us, cackling and shrieking as women do and singing along to all the music round questions. We didn't want to lose to them! And we didn't. They probably thought that we were great.
When all was said and done, we finished in second place, only 2 points shy of the winning total. So all in all, not a bad effort. We supped our runners up wine (Coke for Az) and pondered next week's quiz, which might be on a Wednesday and might be a different venue. Or not.
*Kevster has squirrels in his loft
*Chips, chips, as big as battleships
*Laydee's, lots of lovely laydees (Danny)
*Hound comes second
The evening got off to a strange start when the shemale barmaid came and asked us for ' a strong man' to lend a hand. We offered up Robson and shared a collective shudder as they disappeared into the store cupboard. One can only imagine what horrors befell Robson in there but some things are better left unsaid.
Back in the 'Swan' Bar conversation veered from The Saturdays to the symmetry of clock faces. This may have contributed to Tony choosing to leave us at this point.
So, the ' Remembrance Hounds' team comprised The Mighty Az, Robson, Kevster and myself.
There then followed a quiz with pictures and questions punctuated by several bowls of huge chips. The only round I can recall with any clarity was the 'Pubs of Sutton' photo round which , you may be surprised to hear, Kevster excelled at.
There was 7 teams this week which upped the level of competition somewhat. There were 2 teams of laydees sat directly behind us, cackling and shrieking as women do and singing along to all the music round questions. We didn't want to lose to them! And we didn't. They probably thought that we were great.
When all was said and done, we finished in second place, only 2 points shy of the winning total. So all in all, not a bad effort. We supped our runners up wine (Coke for Az) and pondered next week's quiz, which might be on a Wednesday and might be a different venue. Or not.
Friday, 5 November 2010
Crazy Az Hounds
A new week and the Hounds chose to "freshen up" the lineup with Az replacing Daren and Tina and joining Kevster and myself. Pre-quiz chat majored on the various employment, health and marital travails of our number, I felt a bit left out at this point but remember the saying, the person who's not laughing is the one the joke's on. My legs ached a bit though.
Onto the quiz and it was to be a straight match between ourselves and The Desperates, a team of three ladies sat next to us. Not wishing to generalise but we suspected "football" might be prove a stronger round for us, while the first round, "Musical Movies" maybe not so.
And so it proved; Peterkins might have improved our score but we struggled to a miserable four. Things picked up after that, the traditional musical joker was ok, The Coral (and in my lonely room ah oo) still don't know what it's called, and our score of six on football proved to be six better than the opposition.
Some nicely worked answers on Geography was the precursor to a good second half, and even the picture round didn't cause any problems. Naturally we swapped papers and despite the poor start no photo-finish was required and the Hounds emerged victorious. Now it was one of the Desperate's birthdays, the most "amusing" present being a shewee. Thankfully no demonstration was given but Kevster suggested the Hound's present should be a swap of prizes. Imagining Tina's fury at this suggestion, I pooh-poohed the idea so we have an incentive for next week, maybe Daren's coming out party!
Onto the quiz and it was to be a straight match between ourselves and The Desperates, a team of three ladies sat next to us. Not wishing to generalise but we suspected "football" might be prove a stronger round for us, while the first round, "Musical Movies" maybe not so.
And so it proved; Peterkins might have improved our score but we struggled to a miserable four. Things picked up after that, the traditional musical joker was ok, The Coral (and in my lonely room ah oo) still don't know what it's called, and our score of six on football proved to be six better than the opposition.
Some nicely worked answers on Geography was the precursor to a good second half, and even the picture round didn't cause any problems. Naturally we swapped papers and despite the poor start no photo-finish was required and the Hounds emerged victorious. Now it was one of the Desperate's birthdays, the most "amusing" present being a shewee. Thankfully no demonstration was given but Kevster suggested the Hound's present should be a swap of prizes. Imagining Tina's fury at this suggestion, I pooh-poohed the idea so we have an incentive for next week, maybe Daren's coming out party!
Thursday, 4 November 2010
28th October 2010 - The Hound plus A Bear
Brief one this (apologies - I wrote it and thought I posted it last weekend but evidently not...)
The regular Hounds were joined briefly by The Long Fingered One, who couldn't actually stay for the quiz, and then by that most female of all the Bears. Who was most welcome and, I'm quite sure, made to feel so...
The winning £30 voucher from a few weeks back was rapidly spent on brain food and we marched, seated, into the picture round - six out of ten was all we were good for, most irritatingly missing the author of the recent bestselling Vampire trilogy (Stephanie Meyer).
First round proper was entitled 'Plant World' which we had steadfastly refused as a possible Joker round but then returned a score of 10/10. We did play our joker on the Halloween Music round (which turned out to be a film round by any other definition) and doubled up for 14 points.
'Children's TV' got us 7 more, 'Soul & Motown' returned a paltry 5, 'Pot Luck' got us 6 more and we could do no better than 6 points on the 'Fictional TV Couple - name the baby' round.
54 points overall - 4 ahead of the team in third but 9 behind the winners.
We had our entry fee returned and a bottle of wine - which disappeared faster then Mrs Bear might have initially thought it would...
Five weeks into The Greyhound experience and it's 2 wins, 2 seconds and a third.
Roll on next week...
The regular Hounds were joined briefly by The Long Fingered One, who couldn't actually stay for the quiz, and then by that most female of all the Bears. Who was most welcome and, I'm quite sure, made to feel so...
The winning £30 voucher from a few weeks back was rapidly spent on brain food and we marched, seated, into the picture round - six out of ten was all we were good for, most irritatingly missing the author of the recent bestselling Vampire trilogy (Stephanie Meyer).
First round proper was entitled 'Plant World' which we had steadfastly refused as a possible Joker round but then returned a score of 10/10. We did play our joker on the Halloween Music round (which turned out to be a film round by any other definition) and doubled up for 14 points.
'Children's TV' got us 7 more, 'Soul & Motown' returned a paltry 5, 'Pot Luck' got us 6 more and we could do no better than 6 points on the 'Fictional TV Couple - name the baby' round.
54 points overall - 4 ahead of the team in third but 9 behind the winners.
We had our entry fee returned and a bottle of wine - which disappeared faster then Mrs Bear might have initially thought it would...
Five weeks into The Greyhound experience and it's 2 wins, 2 seconds and a third.
Roll on next week...
Monday, 25 October 2010
9th September 2010
I was drinking in the Farmers last Thursday night
When my eyes beheld an eerie sight
For Mr Tony from his seat began to rise
And suddenly to my surprise
He did the Quiz
He did the farmers Quiz
The Farmers quiz
It was the Thursday Quiz
He did the quiz
It caught on in a whizz
He did the quiz
He did the farmers quiz
From my House in Cliff End east
To the Kevster’s bedroom where the vampires feast
The Hounds all came from their humble abodes
To get a jolt from Theo’s electrodes
They did the quiz
They did the Farmer’s quiz
The Thursday quiz
It was a Crazy quiz
They did the quiz
It caught on in a whizz
They did the quiz
They did the Farmer’s quiz
The Hounds were having fun
The party had just begun
The guests included Tony Brugnoli
and Daren Gray
The scene was rockin', all were digging the sounds
Peterkins on chains, backed by his baying hounds
The Pickled eggheads were about to arrive
And the Grayhound was placed in the top five"
They played the quiz
They played the farmer’s quiz
The farmer’s quiz
It was a strange quiz
They played the quiz
It caught on in a whizz
They played the quiz
They played the farmer’s quiz
back from his Running, Robson’s voice did ring
Seems he was troubled by just one thing
He drank his Young’s and shouted out loud
And said, "Whatever happened to the music round?"
It's now the quiz
It's now the farmer’s quiz
The Farmer’s quiz
And it's a Crazy quiz
It's now the quiz
It's caught on in a whizz
It's now the quiz
It's now the Farmer’s quiz
Now everything's cool, Danny's a part of the band
And my farmer’s quiz is the hit of the land
For you, the living, this quiz was meant too
When you get to the door, tell them Robson sent you
Then you can quiz
Then you can Farmer’s quiz
The Farmer’s quiz
And do my farmer’s quiz
Then you can quiz
You'll catch on in a flash
Then you can quiz
Then you can farmer’s quiz
Saturday, 23 October 2010
Money for nothing, chips for free
A record turnout of hounds this week at the Greyhound with Pete joining Daren, Kevster and myself. Sadly this wasn't reflected in the opposition with only three teams in total participating.
The first round caused a fair bit of head scratching, questions like "Who is the chair of the Osteoporosis charity" and "what is the former profession of Sue Barker's and Penelope Keith's husbands" made us think whether we should get our coats. We stuck with it though and a decent joker round on music and respectability on films steadied the ship.
One of the features of recent quizzes has been the various games on Kevster's HTC or whatever it is. Last week we made elements, this time green pigs, Frogger and a clever little heart rate monitor all featured. Who knows what next?
Two bowls of halftime chips proved a real bonus and fortified us for another strong round for the hounds, The Royals. Bit miffed to not get "Which king's horse did Emily Davison throw herself under" but solid rounds on the Living World and Pot Luck pulled us round.
With there only being three teams we'd marked rounds from all our opposition at some point. Daren's prediction was 2nd place and so it proved. However that was good enough for a refund of the entry fee and a bottle of wine which we promptly guzzled.
All in all the Greyhound is a convivial venue and lets hope there remains enough interest in the quiz to keep it going. Thursday night does seem to be quiz night in Carshalton and maybe there's too much choice. Bit of a hangover the next day, always a good sign.
Answers:
Camilla Parker Bowles
Policemen
George V
The first round caused a fair bit of head scratching, questions like "Who is the chair of the Osteoporosis charity" and "what is the former profession of Sue Barker's and Penelope Keith's husbands" made us think whether we should get our coats. We stuck with it though and a decent joker round on music and respectability on films steadied the ship.
One of the features of recent quizzes has been the various games on Kevster's HTC or whatever it is. Last week we made elements, this time green pigs, Frogger and a clever little heart rate monitor all featured. Who knows what next?
Two bowls of halftime chips proved a real bonus and fortified us for another strong round for the hounds, The Royals. Bit miffed to not get "Which king's horse did Emily Davison throw herself under" but solid rounds on the Living World and Pot Luck pulled us round.
With there only being three teams we'd marked rounds from all our opposition at some point. Daren's prediction was 2nd place and so it proved. However that was good enough for a refund of the entry fee and a bottle of wine which we promptly guzzled.
All in all the Greyhound is a convivial venue and lets hope there remains enough interest in the quiz to keep it going. Thursday night does seem to be quiz night in Carshalton and maybe there's too much choice. Bit of a hangover the next day, always a good sign.
Answers:
Camilla Parker Bowles
Policemen
George V
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
7th October 2010- The 'Grey'Hound pt 2
Following last week's pleasant discovery, and straightforward enough win, of the Greyhound's weekly quiz in Carshalton Robson and Kevster gathered again, joined this time by a becasted and becrutched Daren.
With the £30 food voucher from last week's win burning a hole in the collective pocket the menu was quickly perused and food orders placed.
We were presented with the titles of the rounds, from which to choose which we would play our 'joker' on for double points. We spurned 'Great Britain, 'Invisible', 'Connections' and 'Pot Luck' and plumped, somewhat predictably, for 'Music'. There were also three 'picture rounds' to frustrate us...
The first two of these weren't really 'picture rounds' in the traditional sense, one being a list of 10 boxing weights needing to be placed into ascending order (over to Robson for this one and he duly obliged with 8/10) and the other being a series of 10 'dingbats'. These proved harder than we casually assumed and we only got 6/10 - the one's we missed out on being;
"PePPermint",
"Blu e",
"xmascara" and
"Dr. Cri__en" *
The final picture round was much more traditional and we were traditionally troubled by it. But by that stage we'd already scred heavily on Great Britain, got 9/10 (18/20 with our joker) on Music and an average 5/10 on the Invisible round. Further consistent scoring on 'Connections' and 'Pot Luck' saw us home in first place for the second week running and by a comparably comfortable margin of 9 points.
In the midst of all that Robson enjoyed some Youngs Beer Bangers and Mash, I had a perfectly pleasant Venison burger and very nice relish and we split a somewhat random but nonethless delicious gammon terrine! After all that it was no suprise that the half-time bowl of complimentary chips went largely untroubled.
So, we won again - pocketing enough money to cover the return cab fare and another £30 food voucher. All that remained to be done was for Kevster to forcibly and repeatedly state his opposition to Jose Maria Olazabal's proposed Captaincy of the next European Ryder Cup Team. Obvious really. And then we went home.
*
`,,ǝʇıns ǝɔǝıd ᄐ,,
`,,ǝıʌoɯ ǝnlq,,
puɐ `,,dn ǝʞɐɯ puɐ ssıʞ,,
˙,,pǝʞɔıʍ ǝɥʇ ɹoɟ ǝɔɐǝd ou,,
With the £30 food voucher from last week's win burning a hole in the collective pocket the menu was quickly perused and food orders placed.
We were presented with the titles of the rounds, from which to choose which we would play our 'joker' on for double points. We spurned 'Great Britain, 'Invisible', 'Connections' and 'Pot Luck' and plumped, somewhat predictably, for 'Music'. There were also three 'picture rounds' to frustrate us...
The first two of these weren't really 'picture rounds' in the traditional sense, one being a list of 10 boxing weights needing to be placed into ascending order (over to Robson for this one and he duly obliged with 8/10) and the other being a series of 10 'dingbats'. These proved harder than we casually assumed and we only got 6/10 - the one's we missed out on being;
"PePPermint",
"Blu e",
"xmascara" and
"Dr. Cri__en" *
The final picture round was much more traditional and we were traditionally troubled by it. But by that stage we'd already scred heavily on Great Britain, got 9/10 (18/20 with our joker) on Music and an average 5/10 on the Invisible round. Further consistent scoring on 'Connections' and 'Pot Luck' saw us home in first place for the second week running and by a comparably comfortable margin of 9 points.
In the midst of all that Robson enjoyed some Youngs Beer Bangers and Mash, I had a perfectly pleasant Venison burger and very nice relish and we split a somewhat random but nonethless delicious gammon terrine! After all that it was no suprise that the half-time bowl of complimentary chips went largely untroubled.
So, we won again - pocketing enough money to cover the return cab fare and another £30 food voucher. All that remained to be done was for Kevster to forcibly and repeatedly state his opposition to Jose Maria Olazabal's proposed Captaincy of the next European Ryder Cup Team. Obvious really. And then we went home.
*
`,,ǝʇıns ǝɔǝıd ᄐ,,
`,,ǝıʌoɯ ǝnlq,,
puɐ `,,dn ǝʞɐɯ puɐ ssıʞ,,
˙,,pǝʞɔıʍ ǝɥʇ ɹoɟ ǝɔɐǝd ou,,
16th September 2010 - The Hound @ Crown & Sceptre
All four Hounds gathered in a South Croydon side-street on the eve of my birthday for a first crack at the Crown & Sceptre's quiz.
Too much early fannying around meant we missed out on our table of choice and had to sit immediately opposite the kitchen entrance. Robson caved to the inevitable and ordered a burger and a bowl of chips swiftly followed.
As the quiz kicked off a group of late-comers were seated right next to us - as the evening progressed they transpired to be a group of ex-pat Brits returned here briefly from their now native Canada. Two splendid couples whom it was our pleasure to lord it over throughout the evening.
We started with a picture round - never the Hound's strength, and we returned 6 out of 10. But from then on we picked it right up, 9/10 for each of the second and third rounds and full marks in rounds 4 and 5. The final round was structured such that a full house of correct answers would win 5 bonus points but any incorrect answer given would mean no points for the entire round - better to leave an answer blank than get it wrong. Well the 5 bonus points were never an option as we failed to provide any answer for three questions and got one of our answers completely wrong - nil points.
Total score of 39 points was good enough for 4th place on the night - even with a good last round we'd've been hard pushed to catch the winners.
We supped up and headed out into the South Croydon Badlands in search of one more drink to celebrate that bad old Kevster's birthday. We found a bar, after a bit of a stroll, and ordered our round before realising the time, necking the lot and rushing for last buses.
Crown & Sceptre is a deeceent boozer - food looked nice enough from a fairly bog-standard menu. Bar staff were decent and atmosphere was pleasant enough. Quiz was prefessionally enough run (having been bought from www.redtoothquiz.co.uk) and a return is not out of the question.
Too much early fannying around meant we missed out on our table of choice and had to sit immediately opposite the kitchen entrance. Robson caved to the inevitable and ordered a burger and a bowl of chips swiftly followed.
As the quiz kicked off a group of late-comers were seated right next to us - as the evening progressed they transpired to be a group of ex-pat Brits returned here briefly from their now native Canada. Two splendid couples whom it was our pleasure to lord it over throughout the evening.
We started with a picture round - never the Hound's strength, and we returned 6 out of 10. But from then on we picked it right up, 9/10 for each of the second and third rounds and full marks in rounds 4 and 5. The final round was structured such that a full house of correct answers would win 5 bonus points but any incorrect answer given would mean no points for the entire round - better to leave an answer blank than get it wrong. Well the 5 bonus points were never an option as we failed to provide any answer for three questions and got one of our answers completely wrong - nil points.
Total score of 39 points was good enough for 4th place on the night - even with a good last round we'd've been hard pushed to catch the winners.
We supped up and headed out into the South Croydon Badlands in search of one more drink to celebrate that bad old Kevster's birthday. We found a bar, after a bit of a stroll, and ordered our round before realising the time, necking the lot and rushing for last buses.
Crown & Sceptre is a deeceent boozer - food looked nice enough from a fairly bog-standard menu. Bar staff were decent and atmosphere was pleasant enough. Quiz was prefessionally enough run (having been bought from www.redtoothquiz.co.uk) and a return is not out of the question.
Friday, 1 October 2010
The "Grey"Hound
The end of Q3 took us to Carshalton to continue our road theme. Our requirements were, a quiz that started and finished at a reasonable hour, a convivial atmosphere, acceptable beer and a chance to be competative. Whisper it, but we may have achieved those goals, read on.
We were depleted in number, Daren had bits of his leg removed and Pete was tired from entertaining tradesmen. So it fell to Kevster and myself to fly the flag; we'd warmed up with one in the Coach & Horses (pass on that quiz but good music!) and were ready.
The rather attractive quizlady took a businesslike approach to things, we named our joker round, sport naturally, and we were off! First up was a picture round of guest Simpson stars. Us and pictures don't mix but we muddled 7/10 and were away. Off to "Happy Families", I think we confused our answerers with Mercutio and Brugnoli as the Romeo and Juliet families but otherwise we were away. Literature and Kevster identified Charles and Gerald as Mills and Boon and I identified National Velvet as about Horse Racing and with 9/10 on the key sport round, we gathered ourselves at half time.
Along the way we had some help from the random bloke at the bar but otherwise accumululated steady 7s or 8s/10. Scoring up and excitement developed; we'd actually won by a clear 9 points! The prize was about £30 food token plus £12 cash. Well we'll be back for that, plus it was all very friendly and convivial.
The oddest thing about the whole evening was the rant from some bloke in the C&H about people bringing kids into pubs, I agreed but the delivery was strange. Definitely, definitely worth another visit.
We were depleted in number, Daren had bits of his leg removed and Pete was tired from entertaining tradesmen. So it fell to Kevster and myself to fly the flag; we'd warmed up with one in the Coach & Horses (pass on that quiz but good music!) and were ready.
The rather attractive quizlady took a businesslike approach to things, we named our joker round, sport naturally, and we were off! First up was a picture round of guest Simpson stars. Us and pictures don't mix but we muddled 7/10 and were away. Off to "Happy Families", I think we confused our answerers with Mercutio and Brugnoli as the Romeo and Juliet families but otherwise we were away. Literature and Kevster identified Charles and Gerald as Mills and Boon and I identified National Velvet as about Horse Racing and with 9/10 on the key sport round, we gathered ourselves at half time.
Along the way we had some help from the random bloke at the bar but otherwise accumululated steady 7s or 8s/10. Scoring up and excitement developed; we'd actually won by a clear 9 points! The prize was about £30 food token plus £12 cash. Well we'll be back for that, plus it was all very friendly and convivial.
The oddest thing about the whole evening was the rant from some bloke in the C&H about people bringing kids into pubs, I agreed but the delivery was strange. Definitely, definitely worth another visit.
Friday, 3 September 2010
The Hound on Tour - The Cricketers, 2nd September
We met at the Porter & Sorter for a quick pint where all bottles of wine were half price! Hence, we saw all types of different characters from scruffy looking old men drinking vases of rose and a woman in her 50s/60s who had forgotten to put her dress on. The 'lady' in question was wearing a tight black lace top and tight leggings to below the knee, showing off all her bumps and dents; the wobbly bits were crying to get out! I wanted to tell her that she wouldn't be able to get into Caesars in Streatham tonight as it has closed and is being demolished for redevelopment!
The hound was hungry and so we moved on to our quiz venue just up the road. On our arrival, we noticed that there were some rolls left behind the bar, so Robson duly purchased a corn beef and tomato one and it rapidly disappeared.
We were told by the old girl behind the bar that the quiz wouldn't start until around 9.30. Disappointingly, the televisions weren't working, so we couldn't watch the cricket. So we did the Daily Mail quiz, with the help of the chap at the next table; overall the pub atmosphere was pretty friendly. Various members of staff kept disappearing through a door by the bar in front of us; reminded me of a tardis and Kevster reminded us of Herr Fritzell's cellar activities! They were disappearing to change the music and switch various lights on and off. The music and the pub had a real eighties feel about it. I don't think the carpet had been changed since before I first went in there 27 years ago!
We were given the picture round to look at early and we guessed 3 out of 5 correctly. The photo quality was pretty shoddy, but we managed to guess get most of them including Salman Butt, Stonehenge, Dempsey & Makepeace, don't think anybody got the bird on the rock in the bikini and we thought the half naked tennis player was Andy Murray, but it was Federer (shoddy photo quality!)
Anyway, the saucy old landlady (with husky 20 fags a day voice) gave me a wink, as she came out of the mysterious doorway and she started the quiz. Overall, the quiz format was pretty good, with lots of current affairs questions and there was no messing about with choice answers, Daren! We thought we did pretty well in the first round; although we struggled initially with the popstar in the Walker's advert - Lionel Ritche.
In the break, the landlady introduced us to "Bollocks Bingo". Basically, we paid a fiver for 6 tickets and if your number appears on your card, you have to shout out 'Bollocks' rip up the card and throw it at the landlady - they are crazy people in Croydon. The one who hadn't called out bollocks and, had a clear card won £25!
They also provided us with nibbles, which consisted of pickled onions, cheese and biscuits. Robson announced his hatred of all things with vinegar and we had a detailed conversation about our likes and dislikes - pickled eggs, how to poach an egg and how long it takes to scamble eggs in the microwave, what food is acceptable and unacceptable to cook in a microwave oven. You see we do cover all the subjects; some more interesting than others!
The next round proved to be much tougher and I think the beer was also starting to kick in - we said that the country known as the land of the midnight sun was Finland (Norway); I couldn't remember the theatre where they do ballet in Islington (Sadler's Wells), and we couldn't remember the year in which Elton John married David Furnish (2005).
The scoring was accurate and most of the other teams were of a pretty good standard. We managed 36 out of 45 points, but the winners came out with an excellent score of 43 points. Conveniently, it was now just before 11pm and so Kevster went to catch his 407 and Robson headed back to East Croydon to catch the 11.15. I strolled around the corner to find Mrs B fast asleep; tried to wake her with some of the quiz questions, but she was having none of it. I fell asleep during Family Guy in the usual way.
Not a bad evening all in all - bring back Theo!!
Pete
The hound was hungry and so we moved on to our quiz venue just up the road. On our arrival, we noticed that there were some rolls left behind the bar, so Robson duly purchased a corn beef and tomato one and it rapidly disappeared.
We were told by the old girl behind the bar that the quiz wouldn't start until around 9.30. Disappointingly, the televisions weren't working, so we couldn't watch the cricket. So we did the Daily Mail quiz, with the help of the chap at the next table; overall the pub atmosphere was pretty friendly. Various members of staff kept disappearing through a door by the bar in front of us; reminded me of a tardis and Kevster reminded us of Herr Fritzell's cellar activities! They were disappearing to change the music and switch various lights on and off. The music and the pub had a real eighties feel about it. I don't think the carpet had been changed since before I first went in there 27 years ago!
We were given the picture round to look at early and we guessed 3 out of 5 correctly. The photo quality was pretty shoddy, but we managed to guess get most of them including Salman Butt, Stonehenge, Dempsey & Makepeace, don't think anybody got the bird on the rock in the bikini and we thought the half naked tennis player was Andy Murray, but it was Federer (shoddy photo quality!)
Anyway, the saucy old landlady (with husky 20 fags a day voice) gave me a wink, as she came out of the mysterious doorway and she started the quiz. Overall, the quiz format was pretty good, with lots of current affairs questions and there was no messing about with choice answers, Daren! We thought we did pretty well in the first round; although we struggled initially with the popstar in the Walker's advert - Lionel Ritche.
In the break, the landlady introduced us to "Bollocks Bingo". Basically, we paid a fiver for 6 tickets and if your number appears on your card, you have to shout out 'Bollocks' rip up the card and throw it at the landlady - they are crazy people in Croydon. The one who hadn't called out bollocks and, had a clear card won £25!
They also provided us with nibbles, which consisted of pickled onions, cheese and biscuits. Robson announced his hatred of all things with vinegar and we had a detailed conversation about our likes and dislikes - pickled eggs, how to poach an egg and how long it takes to scamble eggs in the microwave, what food is acceptable and unacceptable to cook in a microwave oven. You see we do cover all the subjects; some more interesting than others!
The next round proved to be much tougher and I think the beer was also starting to kick in - we said that the country known as the land of the midnight sun was Finland (Norway); I couldn't remember the theatre where they do ballet in Islington (Sadler's Wells), and we couldn't remember the year in which Elton John married David Furnish (2005).
The scoring was accurate and most of the other teams were of a pretty good standard. We managed 36 out of 45 points, but the winners came out with an excellent score of 43 points. Conveniently, it was now just before 11pm and so Kevster went to catch his 407 and Robson headed back to East Croydon to catch the 11.15. I strolled around the corner to find Mrs B fast asleep; tried to wake her with some of the quiz questions, but she was having none of it. I fell asleep during Family Guy in the usual way.
Not a bad evening all in all - bring back Theo!!
Pete
Saturday, 28 August 2010
The Hound on the road - Windsor Castle 26th August
After the somewhat anti-climactic end of the marathon Jolly Farmers league, The Hound have been kicking their collective paws and doing a number of distinctly untraditional midweek activities in place of the week on week slog of quizzing.
Variously we have been on holiday, had an evening at Epsom races, drunk beer in a number of new boozers and, memorably, won the only actual other quiz we've entered. Although that suggests our victory should have been a collective highlight the quiz (at the Earl of Eldon) was such a farcical shambles that by the time the winners were announced, at way past 11pm, no-one present could actually have cared less.
Slowly but surely our collective appetite for quizzing has been returning though and a (distinctly unergetic) search has been underway for a few weeks to identify a new kennel in which The Hound can rest its quizzing head.
To which end three Hounds out of four pitched up on Thursday evening this week to The Windsor Castle in Carshalton. We were without Daren Hound who was 'celebrating' eight years of marriage (at least I think it's eight) to Mrs Bear - a fact that the remaining three of us toasted continually throughout the evening.*
The Windsor Castle promises an alternating General Knowledge quiz followed the next week by a Pop Quiz and so on. This week was a Pop Quiz. Robson Hound put himself on a leash and walked the 4 miles across country to arrive first, yours truly was dropped off outside the door and Inter-Company Peterkins Hound arrived via the gift of the 407 bus.
The first round was a picture round - traditionally a strong suit for The Hound in the same way that Seb Coe was good at putting the shot and Fatima Whitbread was unbeaten over hurdles. This challenge proved to be no exception. There were 20 photos, each one apparently depicting a 1990's pop band - all fairly straightforward you'd think. Well; we confidently guessed at Blur, Steps (!), New Kids On The Block, Shakespeare's Sister and The Chemical Brothers - punted at most of the rest and had no idea (couldn't even raise a sensible guess) about two of them.
We ended up with 10/20 correct which turned out to be not so bad - from memory that had us two behind the lead in joint second.
Second round was ten musical clips around the theme of 'Up' - point for each artist and another point for each song title - 20 on offer - 40 if we decided to play our joker and double the tally for the round. It transpired that we were good at the 'Ups' - played our joker and ended up with 38 out of 40 points. I think that put us joint top.
Third round was same again but on a 'Dreams' theme. Again we were solid - 17 or 18 out of 20.
Final round was a different kettle of early birds altogether. Good breadth of questions covering current singles and album chart through to giving us two names (which escape me now) and expecting us to identify that they were respectively the original keyboard player in Status Quo and Boston's songwriter! We weren't good - got fewer than half the available points and, of the nine competing teams, finished joint second with one other but 10 or more points behind the winners who took a £22 pot.
There was one final, 'scribble-your-answer-down-and-get-it-to-me-as-quick-as-you-can-for-the-money' question which we didn't have a clue about and was won, somewhat unsuprisingly by the team sitting within arm's reach of the question master.
At that stage we were up against it as far as return bus timetables were concerned so it was a case of rapidly supping up beer, collecting fags and heading off for our own versions of rows in Slough.
Overall an enjoyable evening. The quiz was more than competently produced and it's clear that some effort is put into it - I'd do it again. The guy asking the questions was a tad drawn out but got it finished by 11 and it does seem to be the nature of the beast. He doesn't chair the alternating General Knowledge quiz and I think it would be well worth our collective visit back there for at least one of them. There was football on the tele in the background, Robson and ICP reported that the beer was better than the Farmers - for my money the 1664 was 1664 and the bar-staff were attentive. Which was nice.
* this isn't, strictly speaking, true but he'll never know if we don't tell him...
Variously we have been on holiday, had an evening at Epsom races, drunk beer in a number of new boozers and, memorably, won the only actual other quiz we've entered. Although that suggests our victory should have been a collective highlight the quiz (at the Earl of Eldon) was such a farcical shambles that by the time the winners were announced, at way past 11pm, no-one present could actually have cared less.
Slowly but surely our collective appetite for quizzing has been returning though and a (distinctly unergetic) search has been underway for a few weeks to identify a new kennel in which The Hound can rest its quizzing head.
To which end three Hounds out of four pitched up on Thursday evening this week to The Windsor Castle in Carshalton. We were without Daren Hound who was 'celebrating' eight years of marriage (at least I think it's eight) to Mrs Bear - a fact that the remaining three of us toasted continually throughout the evening.*
The Windsor Castle promises an alternating General Knowledge quiz followed the next week by a Pop Quiz and so on. This week was a Pop Quiz. Robson Hound put himself on a leash and walked the 4 miles across country to arrive first, yours truly was dropped off outside the door and Inter-Company Peterkins Hound arrived via the gift of the 407 bus.
The first round was a picture round - traditionally a strong suit for The Hound in the same way that Seb Coe was good at putting the shot and Fatima Whitbread was unbeaten over hurdles. This challenge proved to be no exception. There were 20 photos, each one apparently depicting a 1990's pop band - all fairly straightforward you'd think. Well; we confidently guessed at Blur, Steps (!), New Kids On The Block, Shakespeare's Sister and The Chemical Brothers - punted at most of the rest and had no idea (couldn't even raise a sensible guess) about two of them.
We ended up with 10/20 correct which turned out to be not so bad - from memory that had us two behind the lead in joint second.
Second round was ten musical clips around the theme of 'Up' - point for each artist and another point for each song title - 20 on offer - 40 if we decided to play our joker and double the tally for the round. It transpired that we were good at the 'Ups' - played our joker and ended up with 38 out of 40 points. I think that put us joint top.
Third round was same again but on a 'Dreams' theme. Again we were solid - 17 or 18 out of 20.
Final round was a different kettle of early birds altogether. Good breadth of questions covering current singles and album chart through to giving us two names (which escape me now) and expecting us to identify that they were respectively the original keyboard player in Status Quo and Boston's songwriter! We weren't good - got fewer than half the available points and, of the nine competing teams, finished joint second with one other but 10 or more points behind the winners who took a £22 pot.
There was one final, 'scribble-your-answer-down-and-get-it-to-me-as-quick-as-you-can-for-the-money' question which we didn't have a clue about and was won, somewhat unsuprisingly by the team sitting within arm's reach of the question master.
At that stage we were up against it as far as return bus timetables were concerned so it was a case of rapidly supping up beer, collecting fags and heading off for our own versions of rows in Slough.
Overall an enjoyable evening. The quiz was more than competently produced and it's clear that some effort is put into it - I'd do it again. The guy asking the questions was a tad drawn out but got it finished by 11 and it does seem to be the nature of the beast. He doesn't chair the alternating General Knowledge quiz and I think it would be well worth our collective visit back there for at least one of them. There was football on the tele in the background, Robson and ICP reported that the beer was better than the Farmers - for my money the 1664 was 1664 and the bar-staff were attentive. Which was nice.
* this isn't, strictly speaking, true but he'll never know if we don't tell him...
Saturday, 3 July 2010
The Crazy Hound (with SPECIAL GUESTS:Magic D&R)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: peter barnett [mailto:peter-barnett@blueyonder.co.uk]
Sent: 02 July 2010 12:14
To: Holmes, Robin
Subject: Hound Report
Hi Robin,
It was another barmy hot and sunny mid-summer's evening and we ventured to our usual airless and smelly pub, where the open doors provide a combination of smoke and exhaust fumes and the occasional waft of male toilet! Daren did not sit at the usual table, as it was covered with a few old glasses and a half eaten sandwich, which had probably been there since lunchtime.
I arrived at around 6.40pm and Daren kindly offered to buy me a drink. He was quite grumpy; he'd not had a great day at the MoJ. Anyway, we both went to the bar and watched 4 people walking around the bar aimlessly whilst we stood there waiting to be served. Daren now getting more grumpy!! I'm sure it must have been about 10 minutes before somebody noticed that we wanted just one pint of beer!! We got back to our seats and found that our usual table had been cleared, so we moved to our usual place.
Emma had phoned me earlier to say that she would be attending, which was good, because we were a little short on numbers - just Daren and I, with Robin turning up later after yet another run at Epsom. Robin was due to arrive at 9pm. Emma texted me to say ask me if I would be MAD if she didn't attend. I said in my usual effusive text style "No". However, she did turn up about 15 minutes later and we prepared ourselves for the evening ahead. Emma was still voiceless and this was mixed with the odd cough, which has been keeping me awake for the last 2 weeks!
Looking around the pub, the usual teams were arriving and we greeted them. The special needs people were at the bar doing their usual rocking backwards and forwards to any particular song that seem to take their fancy; there was no Bob Marley though! In the corner of my eye I had noticed that the mentalists had decided to enter for the quiz, they had the papers and sat down at a table by the toilet. Then, oh my god, they came and sat by us and asked us if they could join our team. Daren's face was an absolute picture!!
We tried all we could to get rid of them politely, but of course, they were having none of it! Our main excuse for them not joining our team was that Robin would be coming later and we wanted to be on our own. This excuse was indeed a feeble one and they moved their chairs around to make room for the late coming "Wobin".
Having a conversation with these guys was becoming a little stressful; we didn't really know whether to laugh or cry, so Daren went out for a cigarette and the big black mamma kept asking Emma if she'd been to see the Doctor. There were lots and lots of questions from them and one word answers from us. Daren returned to start the quiz and we had to complete the first round with the mentalists. Daren helped them through and wrote down the answers for them, often putting in their first answer irrespective of whether it was right or wrong. The other teams looked at us with a mixture of sympathy and confusion. Daren by this time was starting to lose it, but I reckon he did really well and should consider transferring from the Civil Service to Social Services. I particularly remember one question where we were asked to say whether a female or a male duck quacks. We put down a male and Magic D&R put down female. The correct answer: Female!
Then, Robin arrived and the mentalists really did go mad!!! Of course, poor Robson, sweaty and sticky from his race, had no idea of what had happened and was greeted with a chorus from the mentalists of WOBIN, WOBIN, WOBIN, WOBIN. I just could not stop giggling! The look on Robin's face was again an absolute picture, Emma was trying to be serious and Daren was now in total despair.
We managed to persuade Magic D&R to sit at the next table and do the next round themselves and we (Daren) would try and help them through. We waited anxiously for the first round scores. Magic D&R some how cobbled together 22 points and we made 27 points - I don't think either of these scores were correct, but were in line with Theo's scoring policy of having 3 points in it between most of the teams after the first round.
On to the 2nd round and I think, from my faded memory, that we did reasonably well and we were still in with the leading pack. According to Daren, Magic D&R were just writing down anagrams of the same word during the 2nd round and they then disappeared, much to our relief!
We got to the end of the quiz and Robin correctly got the 1 word anagram answer (ensnared) and we got about 2 or 3 right on the true or false - think we did pretty well on everything else as usual, so we were expecting to come in our usual 3rd place! However, Mr Theo decided that this week it was time for a tie break between 5 of the teams all having achieved 105 points. I remember the question vaguely as being how many people died in a major disaster or accident in a town or city in China. I think the answer was around the 2 million mark. We were miles out with our guess anyway.
It was funny how Magic D&R had not even attended the last round, but according to Theo, Magic D&R made 101 points!!!!! How so? This distressed Daren still further and he was in need of some serious counseling at the end!
Our suggested solution to all this mayhem was to change venue and we have provisionally agreed to attend the quiz at the Cricketers in East Croydon, which is at the same time every Thursday. At least they might have better beer, so that I don't have to keep visiting the toilet on Fridays!
From: peter barnett [mailto:peter-barnett@blueyonder.co.uk]
Sent: 02 July 2010 12:14
To: Holmes, Robin
Subject: Hound Report
Hi Robin,
It was another barmy hot and sunny mid-summer's evening and we ventured to our usual airless and smelly pub, where the open doors provide a combination of smoke and exhaust fumes and the occasional waft of male toilet! Daren did not sit at the usual table, as it was covered with a few old glasses and a half eaten sandwich, which had probably been there since lunchtime.
I arrived at around 6.40pm and Daren kindly offered to buy me a drink. He was quite grumpy; he'd not had a great day at the MoJ. Anyway, we both went to the bar and watched 4 people walking around the bar aimlessly whilst we stood there waiting to be served. Daren now getting more grumpy!! I'm sure it must have been about 10 minutes before somebody noticed that we wanted just one pint of beer!! We got back to our seats and found that our usual table had been cleared, so we moved to our usual place.
Emma had phoned me earlier to say that she would be attending, which was good, because we were a little short on numbers - just Daren and I, with Robin turning up later after yet another run at Epsom. Robin was due to arrive at 9pm. Emma texted me to say ask me if I would be MAD if she didn't attend. I said in my usual effusive text style "No". However, she did turn up about 15 minutes later and we prepared ourselves for the evening ahead. Emma was still voiceless and this was mixed with the odd cough, which has been keeping me awake for the last 2 weeks!
Looking around the pub, the usual teams were arriving and we greeted them. The special needs people were at the bar doing their usual rocking backwards and forwards to any particular song that seem to take their fancy; there was no Bob Marley though! In the corner of my eye I had noticed that the mentalists had decided to enter for the quiz, they had the papers and sat down at a table by the toilet. Then, oh my god, they came and sat by us and asked us if they could join our team. Daren's face was an absolute picture!!
We tried all we could to get rid of them politely, but of course, they were having none of it! Our main excuse for them not joining our team was that Robin would be coming later and we wanted to be on our own. This excuse was indeed a feeble one and they moved their chairs around to make room for the late coming "Wobin".
Having a conversation with these guys was becoming a little stressful; we didn't really know whether to laugh or cry, so Daren went out for a cigarette and the big black mamma kept asking Emma if she'd been to see the Doctor. There were lots and lots of questions from them and one word answers from us. Daren returned to start the quiz and we had to complete the first round with the mentalists. Daren helped them through and wrote down the answers for them, often putting in their first answer irrespective of whether it was right or wrong. The other teams looked at us with a mixture of sympathy and confusion. Daren by this time was starting to lose it, but I reckon he did really well and should consider transferring from the Civil Service to Social Services. I particularly remember one question where we were asked to say whether a female or a male duck quacks. We put down a male and Magic D&R put down female. The correct answer: Female!
Then, Robin arrived and the mentalists really did go mad!!! Of course, poor Robson, sweaty and sticky from his race, had no idea of what had happened and was greeted with a chorus from the mentalists of WOBIN, WOBIN, WOBIN, WOBIN. I just could not stop giggling! The look on Robin's face was again an absolute picture, Emma was trying to be serious and Daren was now in total despair.
We managed to persuade Magic D&R to sit at the next table and do the next round themselves and we (Daren) would try and help them through. We waited anxiously for the first round scores. Magic D&R some how cobbled together 22 points and we made 27 points - I don't think either of these scores were correct, but were in line with Theo's scoring policy of having 3 points in it between most of the teams after the first round.
On to the 2nd round and I think, from my faded memory, that we did reasonably well and we were still in with the leading pack. According to Daren, Magic D&R were just writing down anagrams of the same word during the 2nd round and they then disappeared, much to our relief!
We got to the end of the quiz and Robin correctly got the 1 word anagram answer (ensnared) and we got about 2 or 3 right on the true or false - think we did pretty well on everything else as usual, so we were expecting to come in our usual 3rd place! However, Mr Theo decided that this week it was time for a tie break between 5 of the teams all having achieved 105 points. I remember the question vaguely as being how many people died in a major disaster or accident in a town or city in China. I think the answer was around the 2 million mark. We were miles out with our guess anyway.
It was funny how Magic D&R had not even attended the last round, but according to Theo, Magic D&R made 101 points!!!!! How so? This distressed Daren still further and he was in need of some serious counseling at the end!
Our suggested solution to all this mayhem was to change venue and we have provisionally agreed to attend the quiz at the Cricketers in East Croydon, which is at the same time every Thursday. At least they might have better beer, so that I don't have to keep visiting the toilet on Fridays!
Friday, 18 June 2010
The Hound's Jubulanis
Another early start this week, this time we all went to the same place and settled in the Rectory for some cricket and football watching. I had some very fruity cider which proved to be about the best drink of the evening.
Onto the JF and after some musical chairs, the Hound table became free and we pounced. The first pint offered was some very vinegary Pride, the next was an improved Youngs but still not spot on. Pete's certainly felt the worse for wear later and I was forced to switch to Guinness. Anyway, we disgress, onto a generally successful Round 1, we correctly identified it was CK Obsession which attracts big cats and that Meryl Streep played Karen Blixen in Out of Africa and Justin Timberlake kicked things off in N'Sync. Scores ranged from 25 to 28 with us just first.
Onto music and Daren pulled a stormer identifying Sixpence None The Richer. More difficult to identify were "Darlin'", the singer of "Don't Upset The Rhythm" and the usual 70's disco number, we put the Drifters, it was the Tavares. Whatever. Scores ranged from 56 to 64, offering hints of a slightly more objective scoring system with Hounds poised on 62.
Onto the last round and I've forgotten all the questions but we didn't do badly. We bagged all the last ten, four out of five of the true or false and I think only three wrong on the whole round. Not bad and hopes were high but somehow we managed to finish joint 3rd, again. Bah! Anyway, we'd gone long on the raffle with only four keys but unsuccessful there as well, as was the winning ticket though he did get £20 for his trouble. Can't remember what we talked about afterwards but it kept us there until about a quarter to twelve.
Onto the JF and after some musical chairs, the Hound table became free and we pounced. The first pint offered was some very vinegary Pride, the next was an improved Youngs but still not spot on. Pete's certainly felt the worse for wear later and I was forced to switch to Guinness. Anyway, we disgress, onto a generally successful Round 1, we correctly identified it was CK Obsession which attracts big cats and that Meryl Streep played Karen Blixen in Out of Africa and Justin Timberlake kicked things off in N'Sync. Scores ranged from 25 to 28 with us just first.
Onto music and Daren pulled a stormer identifying Sixpence None The Richer. More difficult to identify were "Darlin'", the singer of "Don't Upset The Rhythm" and the usual 70's disco number, we put the Drifters, it was the Tavares. Whatever. Scores ranged from 56 to 64, offering hints of a slightly more objective scoring system with Hounds poised on 62.
Onto the last round and I've forgotten all the questions but we didn't do badly. We bagged all the last ten, four out of five of the true or false and I think only three wrong on the whole round. Not bad and hopes were high but somehow we managed to finish joint 3rd, again. Bah! Anyway, we'd gone long on the raffle with only four keys but unsuccessful there as well, as was the winning ticket though he did get £20 for his trouble. Can't remember what we talked about afterwards but it kept us there until about a quarter to twelve.
Thursday, 17 June 2010
10th June 2010 - Terry & June's Hound
With the World Cup starting the following day The Hound did the obvious thing and turned to a distinctly average late 1970's BBC sitcom for the inspiration for its name this week - thus Terry & June's Hound comprised myself, Daren, Robson and Pete.
Regular readers of this blog could almost write for themselves the report of the actual quiz proceedings...
In the first round scoring we were given an accurate 26 and were joint second one behind the leaders. We had a better than average music round and were out on our own in the lead by one as we started the last round, during which, despite four out of five on the True/False and getting the anagram correct (MATRICIDE) we slipped to equal third, one point behind second and a point behind the winners. We'd bought seven raffle tickets between us and needless to say weren't even close in that either.
As a quiz evening it was a flat affair - as a warm-up to the Hound's World Cup Shenanigans two evenings later it was a success.
Regular readers of this blog could almost write for themselves the report of the actual quiz proceedings...
In the first round scoring we were given an accurate 26 and were joint second one behind the leaders. We had a better than average music round and were out on our own in the lead by one as we started the last round, during which, despite four out of five on the True/False and getting the anagram correct (MATRICIDE) we slipped to equal third, one point behind second and a point behind the winners. We'd bought seven raffle tickets between us and needless to say weren't even close in that either.
As a quiz evening it was a flat affair - as a warm-up to the Hound's World Cup Shenanigans two evenings later it was a success.
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Three Hounds On My Shirt
Bit of an unusual start this week. Pete stipulated a 5.30 meet to "get things going", then overlooked that the pre quiz meet was in the Rectory to catch some cricket at then didn't get there until 7pm. No matter, we were in situ at the usual table in good time for the start. After a brief flirtation with "Hounds On The Rampage" to achieve topicality, we settled on the slightly less controversial name above.
With last year's cash to be handed out it wasn't a normal week. It turned into a bit of a love-in with the pub's gaffer getting on the mike and thanking Theo, Theo thanking us etc. We just wanted the cash.
Given the not entirely scientific nature of the scoring, I was expecting a fairly even distribution of funds, in actual fact the Usual Suspects took £500 and, on our behalf, Daren accepted an envelope with 5 £20 notes inside. I've been reassured it's a sufficient budget for the end of season Hound-do.
Onto the quiz and a middling first round. USA is the largest exporter of wheat (don't they eat it all themselves?) and Usain Bolt only holds two world records, the 4x100m clearly not counting. We were, as usual, in the pack.
Onto music and Theo caught the mood with unleashing all his favourites. So we had Girls Aloud, The Saturdays and Britney. We took all those in our stride but found the Detroit Spinners and Ne-yo less recognisable. Food had also been provided for the quiz teams and, despite my pre-quiz curry, it was very welcome.
Onto the 3rd round and was it John Travolta or Bruce Willis who appeared in both Pulp Fiction and Three Men and a Baby? Daren and myself were divided, Pete had the casting vote and incorrectly went Willis. He made up for it though with the anagram of RANTED. Onto scoring and the, now inevitable co-third ensued. So a low-key start to the new season but something to build on.
With last year's cash to be handed out it wasn't a normal week. It turned into a bit of a love-in with the pub's gaffer getting on the mike and thanking Theo, Theo thanking us etc. We just wanted the cash.
Given the not entirely scientific nature of the scoring, I was expecting a fairly even distribution of funds, in actual fact the Usual Suspects took £500 and, on our behalf, Daren accepted an envelope with 5 £20 notes inside. I've been reassured it's a sufficient budget for the end of season Hound-do.
Onto the quiz and a middling first round. USA is the largest exporter of wheat (don't they eat it all themselves?) and Usain Bolt only holds two world records, the 4x100m clearly not counting. We were, as usual, in the pack.
Onto music and Theo caught the mood with unleashing all his favourites. So we had Girls Aloud, The Saturdays and Britney. We took all those in our stride but found the Detroit Spinners and Ne-yo less recognisable. Food had also been provided for the quiz teams and, despite my pre-quiz curry, it was very welcome.
Onto the 3rd round and was it John Travolta or Bruce Willis who appeared in both Pulp Fiction and Three Men and a Baby? Daren and myself were divided, Pete had the casting vote and incorrectly went Willis. He made up for it though with the anagram of RANTED. Onto scoring and the, now inevitable co-third ensued. So a low-key start to the new season but something to build on.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Boom-bang-a-hound!
We arrived at 7pm for, alas, the last night of the quiz league. We found our usual seats and discussed Robson's trip to Seville. Robson was looking somewhat jaded - complaining that Spain was too hot and he struggled to sleep. Bless! A Eurovision reference seemed appropriate after we had gone through the newspaper and found nothing inspiring in the headlines. There were no discussions about food; but the Young's, Kronenbourg and wine wine and soda were flowing at the usual rate! There were also different bar maids again this week - I think they must rotate between Tescos, the Farmers and Munch!
The team composed of Robson, Kevster, El Barnetto and, Mrs B arrived to provide further strength. She arrived a little later at 7.40pm demanding a large glass of white wine and soda. It turned out that we would need all the help we could get; half way through the first round, Kevster's mobile was ringing furiously. The bad news arrived and poor Kevster's house had been burgled. His father (Mr Hamster) took him home immediately to survey the wreckage.
This event was suitably reflected by the state of the notes, which show 3 different people's handwriting; Kevster's sudden departure left us all in a state of shock. We hounded our way through the first round as best we could.
After Kevster had queried the scoring with Theo last week, I thought that we might be in for a rough ride. Funnily enough, Theo got it spot on this week as we scored 28 out of 30, which agreed with our count. On this occasion, we were outdone by the Pickled Eggheads, who gained the maximum 30 points. Stilton is made in Leicester, but English is the main language in Belize rather than Spanish. Robson started to count the number of bones in the body and of course was accurate with the answer of 206.
We bought some raffle tickets and then proceeded with the music section and this is where we dropped a few marks, however, we did get full marks in the name that tune round. Either Theo was up to his old tricks again or, everyone else struggled a bit. We were only 3 points off the pace and the Pickled Eggheads marched on!
From our final round, we only dropped 3 points and got 3 out of 5 in the true or false, but this wasn't enough and we ended up with 105 points - 4 points off the Pickled Eggheads, who romped home.
The raffle was not won again, which was nice and the team can collect the dosh next week at the final presentation. The quiz will continue as normal next week along with the presentation.
The team composed of Robson, Kevster, El Barnetto and, Mrs B arrived to provide further strength. She arrived a little later at 7.40pm demanding a large glass of white wine and soda. It turned out that we would need all the help we could get; half way through the first round, Kevster's mobile was ringing furiously. The bad news arrived and poor Kevster's house had been burgled. His father (Mr Hamster) took him home immediately to survey the wreckage.
This event was suitably reflected by the state of the notes, which show 3 different people's handwriting; Kevster's sudden departure left us all in a state of shock. We hounded our way through the first round as best we could.
After Kevster had queried the scoring with Theo last week, I thought that we might be in for a rough ride. Funnily enough, Theo got it spot on this week as we scored 28 out of 30, which agreed with our count. On this occasion, we were outdone by the Pickled Eggheads, who gained the maximum 30 points. Stilton is made in Leicester, but English is the main language in Belize rather than Spanish. Robson started to count the number of bones in the body and of course was accurate with the answer of 206.
We bought some raffle tickets and then proceeded with the music section and this is where we dropped a few marks, however, we did get full marks in the name that tune round. Either Theo was up to his old tricks again or, everyone else struggled a bit. We were only 3 points off the pace and the Pickled Eggheads marched on!
From our final round, we only dropped 3 points and got 3 out of 5 in the true or false, but this wasn't enough and we ended up with 105 points - 4 points off the Pickled Eggheads, who romped home.
The raffle was not won again, which was nice and the team can collect the dosh next week at the final presentation. The quiz will continue as normal next week along with the presentation.
Thursday, 27 May 2010
20th May 2010 - Wenlock, Mandevill & Hound
Three Hounds gathered early - Robson Hound was hounding his way around Spain and sent his apologies.
We settled on a name that reflected what we thought was missing from the newly named London Olympic mascots and cracked straight into a disastrous first round. We didn't feel it was going well as we wrote our answers and our fears were confirmed as the answers were read out. Having kept a copy of our first round answers it was depressingly easy to go down putting cross after cross through them. We got 10 wrong for 20 out of 30 - comfortably our worst round for a long time, if not ever.
Theo called for silence and started reading out the scores. There were ten teams competing. He gave out score after score and hadn't mentioned ours - had we done SO badly he'd disqualified us?! Imagine therefore our suprise, indeed our absolute astonishment when ours was the penultimate score read out and we were tied for the lead on 28 out of 30! *
Extraordinary stuff...
A frustrating music round followed - we dropped to joint third on behind the lead. The final round was something of a triumph - we got 5 out of 5 on the True/False and we got the anagram (MISSHAPE) and felt very confident - although accepting of the fact that after the farce of the first round almost literally any score could be given.
We ended up clear second, three points behind the winners (who cannot have got a single last round question wrong given that we were only one behind after round two and only got two wrong ourselves in the final round - although that doesn't factor in The Theo Element!)
So - we were about to content ourselves with the runners' up bottle of wine when all hell broke loose as one of the bar staff only went and blummin' pulled out one of our three raffle tickets! After a rather loud roar, a quick jig and another roar, Daren was up to the bar to try and choose the only envelope containing the key to the safe with the money in from the eight envelopes laying on the bar. Suffice to say he picked the wrong one - but got irritatingly close - going for envelope number one when the key was in number two.
Imagine the drama of it all...
Then Mrs Bear turned up and we all regaled her with various tales of the evening and she had a go at Daren for losing the money!!
Next week sees the return of Robson, the absence of Daren and the very final quiz in the 2009/2010 league.
* As a footnote - when all the raffle furore had died down I did show Theo our marked Round One answer sheet and ask him how the hell he gave us 28 when we only got 20 correct. He mumbled some complete nonsense about there being a minimum score to keep everybody in contention and left extremely quickly. No doubt we'll be marked down next week - tune in to find out...
We settled on a name that reflected what we thought was missing from the newly named London Olympic mascots and cracked straight into a disastrous first round. We didn't feel it was going well as we wrote our answers and our fears were confirmed as the answers were read out. Having kept a copy of our first round answers it was depressingly easy to go down putting cross after cross through them. We got 10 wrong for 20 out of 30 - comfortably our worst round for a long time, if not ever.
Theo called for silence and started reading out the scores. There were ten teams competing. He gave out score after score and hadn't mentioned ours - had we done SO badly he'd disqualified us?! Imagine therefore our suprise, indeed our absolute astonishment when ours was the penultimate score read out and we were tied for the lead on 28 out of 30! *
Extraordinary stuff...
A frustrating music round followed - we dropped to joint third on behind the lead. The final round was something of a triumph - we got 5 out of 5 on the True/False and we got the anagram (MISSHAPE) and felt very confident - although accepting of the fact that after the farce of the first round almost literally any score could be given.
We ended up clear second, three points behind the winners (who cannot have got a single last round question wrong given that we were only one behind after round two and only got two wrong ourselves in the final round - although that doesn't factor in The Theo Element!)
So - we were about to content ourselves with the runners' up bottle of wine when all hell broke loose as one of the bar staff only went and blummin' pulled out one of our three raffle tickets! After a rather loud roar, a quick jig and another roar, Daren was up to the bar to try and choose the only envelope containing the key to the safe with the money in from the eight envelopes laying on the bar. Suffice to say he picked the wrong one - but got irritatingly close - going for envelope number one when the key was in number two.
Imagine the drama of it all...
Then Mrs Bear turned up and we all regaled her with various tales of the evening and she had a go at Daren for losing the money!!
Next week sees the return of Robson, the absence of Daren and the very final quiz in the 2009/2010 league.
* As a footnote - when all the raffle furore had died down I did show Theo our marked Round One answer sheet and ask him how the hell he gave us 28 when we only got 20 correct. He mumbled some complete nonsense about there being a minimum score to keep everybody in contention and left extremely quickly. No doubt we'll be marked down next week - tune in to find out...
Friday, 14 May 2010
13th May 2010 - A Pact Of Hounds
Last night, playing alongside Daren and Robson, ‘Dangerous’ Dave became the 11th person to earn a Hound quiz ‘cap’. Can you name the 10 others?
Sticking with topicality we entered under the name ‘A Pact of Hounds’. Going completely off plan was ‘Stephen Hawkings’ walking, talking Hamster’.
At the end of round 1, Theo’s patented ‘Random Points Allocation Machine’ awarded us a score of 28, putting us in joint first place along with 5 other teams.
Round 2 was all about the music and pretty soon we were heading down a ‘Road to Nowhere’ to a ‘Destination Unknown’. You can imagine my surprise when Robson then suggested ‘Love in an Elevator’ followed by a ‘White Wedding’ and then for us to always be ‘Together (In Electric Dreams).
Moving swiftly along, we found ourselves in the quagmire of the final round. Getting a score of 2 out of 5 for the True or False was always going to leave us ‘up against it’ and despite a strong ‘Final 10’ and correctly solving the anagram we were allocated the position of joint 4th.
The only crumb of comfort was the fact that the Raffle wasn’t won and continues to roll over. Next week it’s down to 8 keys and there’s only 2 weeks left till the end of the season.
(scribed by Daren Hound)
Sticking with topicality we entered under the name ‘A Pact of Hounds’. Going completely off plan was ‘Stephen Hawkings’ walking, talking Hamster’.
At the end of round 1, Theo’s patented ‘Random Points Allocation Machine’ awarded us a score of 28, putting us in joint first place along with 5 other teams.
Round 2 was all about the music and pretty soon we were heading down a ‘Road to Nowhere’ to a ‘Destination Unknown’. You can imagine my surprise when Robson then suggested ‘Love in an Elevator’ followed by a ‘White Wedding’ and then for us to always be ‘Together (In Electric Dreams).
Moving swiftly along, we found ourselves in the quagmire of the final round. Getting a score of 2 out of 5 for the True or False was always going to leave us ‘up against it’ and despite a strong ‘Final 10’ and correctly solving the anagram we were allocated the position of joint 4th.
The only crumb of comfort was the fact that the Raffle wasn’t won and continues to roll over. Next week it’s down to 8 keys and there’s only 2 weeks left till the end of the season.
(scribed by Daren Hound)
Thursday, 13 May 2010
6th May 2010 - Screaming Lord Hound
Five Hounds gathered to quiz as the rest of the nation went to the Polls - Lord Peterkins Hound of Intercompanyshire returned from Brum for his first outing in a while and, as if that were not enough to bouy the spirit of the Hound regulars, he bought with him Mrs Peterkins.
Given what was going on in the country at large we opted for title that reflected our collective ideology 'Screaming Lord Hound'. We then ran through the pre-match ceremony of a couple of crosswords and a quick skip through some tabloid quizes. Pre match meals were a mixed affair - one went gammon and egg, two had sarnies - chicken and salmon & egg respectively, and two resisted the urge altogether. Regular readers may wish to match the meals to the Hounds and maybe like to guess the three Hounds that voted and the two that didn't?
We were confident that the addition of Mrs Peterkins to our ranks would boost our chances of being competitive, given our recent run of poor showings. And so it proved. Joint leaders at the end of the first round with 27 from 30. Joint top still, with two others, after the music round on 60. Interestingly there was one team behind us on 59, three tied on 58, one on 57 and three tied on 56.
I say 'interestingly' because by the time we'd finished the final round, yes - you guessed it, the entire pub was tied on the same score of 101 - meaning that the three teams who'd had the best opening two rounds had the worst third round and the teams that had been a relative mile behind after two rounds outscored all others such that we all finished equal.
Quite remarkable.
The tie breaker question was, 'How many households in China have a TV set?'
Answers submitted ranged from 6.85million to 800m. We went 147 million. The answer was 380 million and there were six teams closer to to that than us.
And we didn't win the raffle - which, on a night when the country drifted slowly towards coalition, was probably the most predictable event of the night.
Given what was going on in the country at large we opted for title that reflected our collective ideology 'Screaming Lord Hound'. We then ran through the pre-match ceremony of a couple of crosswords and a quick skip through some tabloid quizes. Pre match meals were a mixed affair - one went gammon and egg, two had sarnies - chicken and salmon & egg respectively, and two resisted the urge altogether. Regular readers may wish to match the meals to the Hounds and maybe like to guess the three Hounds that voted and the two that didn't?
We were confident that the addition of Mrs Peterkins to our ranks would boost our chances of being competitive, given our recent run of poor showings. And so it proved. Joint leaders at the end of the first round with 27 from 30. Joint top still, with two others, after the music round on 60. Interestingly there was one team behind us on 59, three tied on 58, one on 57 and three tied on 56.
I say 'interestingly' because by the time we'd finished the final round, yes - you guessed it, the entire pub was tied on the same score of 101 - meaning that the three teams who'd had the best opening two rounds had the worst third round and the teams that had been a relative mile behind after two rounds outscored all others such that we all finished equal.
Quite remarkable.
The tie breaker question was, 'How many households in China have a TV set?'
Answers submitted ranged from 6.85million to 800m. We went 147 million. The answer was 380 million and there were six teams closer to to that than us.
And we didn't win the raffle - which, on a night when the country drifted slowly towards coalition, was probably the most predictable event of the night.
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
29th April 2010 - The Bigotted Hound
Following Gordon Brown's careless election PR gaffe the three Hound regulars drew inspiration and gathered to collectively move the light one week closer to the tunnel's end. It has been a long season and recent week's have found The Hound to be showing many more signs of general fatigue than knowledge.
No matter - even if the quiz wasn't to offer success this week then the promise of well in excess of one thousand of your English pounds were available in the roll-over raffle - success in one, if not both, competitions was there for our taking.
Before the quiz could start however the bar-staff quietly announced that with Kronenbourg, Amstel and Heineken all being gone and only Fosters available the pub had effectively run out of consumable lager. The Hound diversified into the juices of apple and grape and hunkered down, pens at the ready.
Unfortunately what followed was not pretty so I'll keep it brief. Four off the lead in joint sixth at the end of round one, worsening slightly to three behind in joint eighth after the musical second round. The change in tipples had failed to bring about a change in success, save to make us, if anything, even worse than recently.
It all got very dark, for me anyway, towards the end of the final round. We got two out of five on the True/False round but did manage the anagram (ANYTIME). Ended up joint third, two behind the victors.
Despite this we were hopelessly optimistic that the raffle would therefore have to be ours... Based on one part inspiration (from Robson Hound's very detailed, formulaic, projection as to how our chances could be maximised) and several parts blind optimism (based on unfamiliar refreshments) we piled in for 25 tickets, spread across a whole range of ticket numbers.
The winning raffle ticket was drawn, hush descended and it was announced as number 167. The Hound had bought numbers 164, 165 and 166 but, somewhat irritatingly, left 167 for someone else. The holder of the winning ticket then had the choice of two envelopes, the key to the safe with the money in it being in one of them. It was only a small consolation, but a consolation nonetheless, that they chose the wrong envelope and the money rolls over to yet another week.
Hey-ho. A month of the quiz league left - can The Hound rally flagging reserves of enthusiasm and knowledge for a final victory or two?
Tune in next week...
No matter - even if the quiz wasn't to offer success this week then the promise of well in excess of one thousand of your English pounds were available in the roll-over raffle - success in one, if not both, competitions was there for our taking.
Before the quiz could start however the bar-staff quietly announced that with Kronenbourg, Amstel and Heineken all being gone and only Fosters available the pub had effectively run out of consumable lager. The Hound diversified into the juices of apple and grape and hunkered down, pens at the ready.
Unfortunately what followed was not pretty so I'll keep it brief. Four off the lead in joint sixth at the end of round one, worsening slightly to three behind in joint eighth after the musical second round. The change in tipples had failed to bring about a change in success, save to make us, if anything, even worse than recently.
It all got very dark, for me anyway, towards the end of the final round. We got two out of five on the True/False round but did manage the anagram (ANYTIME). Ended up joint third, two behind the victors.
Despite this we were hopelessly optimistic that the raffle would therefore have to be ours... Based on one part inspiration (from Robson Hound's very detailed, formulaic, projection as to how our chances could be maximised) and several parts blind optimism (based on unfamiliar refreshments) we piled in for 25 tickets, spread across a whole range of ticket numbers.
The winning raffle ticket was drawn, hush descended and it was announced as number 167. The Hound had bought numbers 164, 165 and 166 but, somewhat irritatingly, left 167 for someone else. The holder of the winning ticket then had the choice of two envelopes, the key to the safe with the money in it being in one of them. It was only a small consolation, but a consolation nonetheless, that they chose the wrong envelope and the money rolls over to yet another week.
Hey-ho. A month of the quiz league left - can The Hound rally flagging reserves of enthusiasm and knowledge for a final victory or two?
Tune in next week...
Saturday, 24 April 2010
Raffle Winning Hounds
Bit of a late start for me this week, I had another social in Gipsy Hill to attend so Theo got to the JF before I did. Conducted the Daily Mail quiz by text on the train on the way up to Purley so got warmed up into quiz form. Kevster and Daren were the other attendees.
Round One went ok. I'd confused the Kensington Oval with the Kennington Oval and suggested Surrey instead of Barbados - thankfully Daren overruled. We also successfully identified Grace Kelly as the first actress to appear on a stamp. Now we've taken to recording our first round score and with a real score of 27 we felt a strong early position was assured. We were somewhat dismayed to score 26 and be in the pack. Dismayed put it mildly in Daren's case and he was on the brink of rioting. Thankfully Theo popped over and having checked our paper confirmed we had actually scored 27 - he didn't seem too bothered about it though. This compared well with the Hamster's real score of 20.
Onto the music and it was one of those rounds with a soul type theme. None of our strong suits and we demonstrated this with picking The Stylistics over the Drifters for "You're More Than A Number..." Still in the pack though. Round three and again steady performances, 4 out of 5 on films, good for us and 4 out of 5 on True or False - exceptional. A remarkably easy anagram - LATITUDE - and we awaited the results. Well, it's not really our turn to win and the expected joint third was achieved behind surprise winners the Hamsters.
Onto the reason we were there and three keys for £800 in the raffle. The ticket went to Quizzards Sleeve and we feared a repeat of the Christmas win. Thankfully Robyn - though we do like her - picked the wrong key and next week it gets really exciting.
Round One went ok. I'd confused the Kensington Oval with the Kennington Oval and suggested Surrey instead of Barbados - thankfully Daren overruled. We also successfully identified Grace Kelly as the first actress to appear on a stamp. Now we've taken to recording our first round score and with a real score of 27 we felt a strong early position was assured. We were somewhat dismayed to score 26 and be in the pack. Dismayed put it mildly in Daren's case and he was on the brink of rioting. Thankfully Theo popped over and having checked our paper confirmed we had actually scored 27 - he didn't seem too bothered about it though. This compared well with the Hamster's real score of 20.
Onto the music and it was one of those rounds with a soul type theme. None of our strong suits and we demonstrated this with picking The Stylistics over the Drifters for "You're More Than A Number..." Still in the pack though. Round three and again steady performances, 4 out of 5 on films, good for us and 4 out of 5 on True or False - exceptional. A remarkably easy anagram - LATITUDE - and we awaited the results. Well, it's not really our turn to win and the expected joint third was achieved behind surprise winners the Hamsters.
Onto the reason we were there and three keys for £800 in the raffle. The ticket went to Quizzards Sleeve and we feared a repeat of the Christmas win. Thankfully Robyn - though we do like her - picked the wrong key and next week it gets really exciting.
Thursday, 15 April 2010
Volcanic Hound
Quality not quantity, ok, there weren't many of us but a plural of Hounds is still a pack. Thankfully the regular Hound table was there for us and Daren and myself were there to represent the good name of all things Hound. Corned beef on toast and ham sandwich were the slightly unusual pre-quiz meals, but frankly, cooking doesn't get any tougher than that, not for me anyway.
Lot's of guesses on round 1; which continent has never hosted the Olympics? Which is the longest running TV quiz show? You see where we're coming from? 26/30 wasn't bad but it put us 2 points behind surprise (not least to them) leaders, Quizzards Sleeve.
Onto music and after a few I was frankly flumoxed. Thankfully songs like Run This Town, Feeling Groovy, Cuba and I Owe You Nothing gave us the chance to show our class (get the reference?) and er, not move clear but stay tucked in behind, still surprise leaders, QS.
Onto the last round and unsurprisingly, on sporting turf, the answers were predictably Don't Push It and Leftie though Wladimir and not Vitali was the one to throw down the gauntlet to David Hayemaker Haye. On true or false, I think we got a par 3/5. On the last round 8/10 but sadly missing an anagram to ROASTING though I still think ORATINGS has merit.
In the final analysis we beat one team. Bah! It was all change up front but not for the Hound. At least the raffle wasn't won and the pub was open.
Lot's of guesses on round 1; which continent has never hosted the Olympics? Which is the longest running TV quiz show? You see where we're coming from? 26/30 wasn't bad but it put us 2 points behind surprise (not least to them) leaders, Quizzards Sleeve.
Onto music and after a few I was frankly flumoxed. Thankfully songs like Run This Town, Feeling Groovy, Cuba and I Owe You Nothing gave us the chance to show our class (get the reference?) and er, not move clear but stay tucked in behind, still surprise leaders, QS.
Onto the last round and unsurprisingly, on sporting turf, the answers were predictably Don't Push It and Leftie though Wladimir and not Vitali was the one to throw down the gauntlet to David Hayemaker Haye. On true or false, I think we got a par 3/5. On the last round 8/10 but sadly missing an anagram to ROASTING though I still think ORATINGS has merit.
In the final analysis we beat one team. Bah! It was all change up front but not for the Hound. At least the raffle wasn't won and the pub was open.
Sunday, 11 April 2010
8th April 2010 - Messi Hound
Taking the inspiration for this week's name from Barcelona's Argentine player Lionel Messi, who had earlier in the week scored four goals to almost single-handedly eliminate Arsenal from the Champions League, we gathered hoping for a similarly impressive result to get The Hound's season back on track and to provide impetus for an energetic head-long dash for the finishing line.
We were denied our usual seat in the pub by a pair of non-participating Dorises who genteely sipped the occasional glass of wine and generally avoided getting into the spirit of things.
No matter - we warmed up with a crack at the day's Times' crossword and chose not to take it as a sign of things to come when we failed to complete it. We clattered through the various traditional Daily Mail warm up quizzes and settled in for the evening.
The first round felt good but scored no better than average - 25 out of 30 to be precise. But what did we care - we always lead at the end of Round Two right?
Wrong. We were again supremely average - joint seventh on 60 points, two behind the lead.
The final round was an increasingly gloomy affair - confidence and frustration were fading and growing in fairly equal measure. A good 'True or False' round though can change everything. And we had a bad one - a mere two from five possible. We stared glumly at the anagram for a while before Robson briefly illuminated proceedings with the answer.
We needed to have the best last round in the pub - we didn't, and thus finished joint third two behind the victorious 'Hamsters'.
Undeterred, or blinded by alcohol - or both I suppose, we nonetheless decided to use this umpteenth successive failure in a low key pub quiz as a platform from which to launch into the world of televised quizardry.
The keenly observant among you will note the absence of the regular, 'what-were-the-pre-match-meals?' and 'who-wore-what?' features. Deal with it.
Happy Hounding.
We were denied our usual seat in the pub by a pair of non-participating Dorises who genteely sipped the occasional glass of wine and generally avoided getting into the spirit of things.
No matter - we warmed up with a crack at the day's Times' crossword and chose not to take it as a sign of things to come when we failed to complete it. We clattered through the various traditional Daily Mail warm up quizzes and settled in for the evening.
The first round felt good but scored no better than average - 25 out of 30 to be precise. But what did we care - we always lead at the end of Round Two right?
Wrong. We were again supremely average - joint seventh on 60 points, two behind the lead.
The final round was an increasingly gloomy affair - confidence and frustration were fading and growing in fairly equal measure. A good 'True or False' round though can change everything. And we had a bad one - a mere two from five possible. We stared glumly at the anagram for a while before Robson briefly illuminated proceedings with the answer.
We needed to have the best last round in the pub - we didn't, and thus finished joint third two behind the victorious 'Hamsters'.
Undeterred, or blinded by alcohol - or both I suppose, we nonetheless decided to use this umpteenth successive failure in a low key pub quiz as a platform from which to launch into the world of televised quizardry.
The keenly observant among you will note the absence of the regular, 'what-were-the-pre-match-meals?' and 'who-wore-what?' features. Deal with it.
Happy Hounding.
Friday, 2 April 2010
Hot Cross Hound
It was the day before Good Friday and with four days to recover, there was no reason to hold back on the boozing, Daren and Kevster were already hard at it when I showed up sometime before six. The first thing to notice was that the new management appear to have embraced all things Hound with a picture of one, quite possibly the same one as the basset on this blogspot on the toilet wall. What effect this would have on the customers it was difficult to tell but I certainly approved. The toilets were a bit cleaner as well.
Not long later and a newly shorn Pete showed up, fresh from spending five hours on the M40 - or rather not as the M40 was shut requiring a detour. Beer of the week was a rather fruity "Flying Dutchman" number - Pete and myself tucked in enthusiastically while the others stuck to numbers.
It was still an hour before the quiz was due to start and most of the group were still hungry. Hence a rather unimaginative list of pre quiz meals, chicken, chicken, cheese sandwich and chicken. Pick the bones out of that lot Danny.
Onto round one and now the impact of the Flying Dutchman is starting to kick in, I remember we correctly identified Beyonce being older than Katie Melua and light travels at 186,000m/s - though I knew that anyway. Oh and it's the 3rd level of the Tower of Pisa that leans, think we said the fourth. Somehow we finished the round on 29/30, not sure how, it can't have been our answers.
Round two and there was music. I think there was Rossini and the James Bond theme and probably something by either Girls Aloud or The Saturdays. We were still thereabouts though at the end.
Round three - maybe three on the true or false. The anagram was INDICATE. I challenge anyone to get this, clue, I did a degree in the relevant subject but still didn't get it and have just googled it to check what it is.
Well we didn't win, not a vintage Hound performance but we gained a point on Quizzards Sleeve who weren't there again and the raffle wasn't won. We move on.
Not long later and a newly shorn Pete showed up, fresh from spending five hours on the M40 - or rather not as the M40 was shut requiring a detour. Beer of the week was a rather fruity "Flying Dutchman" number - Pete and myself tucked in enthusiastically while the others stuck to numbers.
It was still an hour before the quiz was due to start and most of the group were still hungry. Hence a rather unimaginative list of pre quiz meals, chicken, chicken, cheese sandwich and chicken. Pick the bones out of that lot Danny.
Onto round one and now the impact of the Flying Dutchman is starting to kick in, I remember we correctly identified Beyonce being older than Katie Melua and light travels at 186,000m/s - though I knew that anyway. Oh and it's the 3rd level of the Tower of Pisa that leans, think we said the fourth. Somehow we finished the round on 29/30, not sure how, it can't have been our answers.
Round two and there was music. I think there was Rossini and the James Bond theme and probably something by either Girls Aloud or The Saturdays. We were still thereabouts though at the end.
Round three - maybe three on the true or false. The anagram was INDICATE. I challenge anyone to get this, clue, I did a degree in the relevant subject but still didn't get it and have just googled it to check what it is.
Well we didn't win, not a vintage Hound performance but we gained a point on Quizzards Sleeve who weren't there again and the raffle wasn't won. We move on.
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
March 23rd 2010
Right......this week's report is a week late so I'm struggling to remember many salient facts.
There were 4 of us, Nicky, Robson, Kevster and Daren. The team name was The Cider Hound Rules.
We did well in the first round and spent a lot of time counting each other's vertebrae.
We did even better in the music and unsurprisingly flagged in the third round where all the True or False turned out to be falsies, which no-one likes.
We finished 3rd and the only saving grace was the fact that the raffle still wasn't won so it rolls over for another week
There were 4 of us, Nicky, Robson, Kevster and Daren. The team name was The Cider Hound Rules.
We did well in the first round and spent a lot of time counting each other's vertebrae.
We did even better in the music and unsurprisingly flagged in the third round where all the True or False turned out to be falsies, which no-one likes.
We finished 3rd and the only saving grace was the fact that the raffle still wasn't won so it rolls over for another week
The end of season Hound 'prize-up' - an idea is floated...
Hi everyone
Just to put a note in everyone's diary;
We thought that as it's England's opening game of the world cup on Saturday 12th June and tha's fairly close to the end of the quiz league we could combine the 2.
Plan would be to drink all the beer, Cider and wine that we've accumalated by way of quiz winnings, have a bit of a barbie and then repair to the drawing room (yes - we have a room especially for drawing) and cheer on/boo England against the Septics.
Other halves are welcome, of course, but just wanted to get a feel for numbers to see whether this would be a goer.
Let me know if you would be interested.
Daren
Just to put a note in everyone's diary;
We thought that as it's England's opening game of the world cup on Saturday 12th June and tha's fairly close to the end of the quiz league we could combine the 2.
Plan would be to drink all the beer, Cider and wine that we've accumalated by way of quiz winnings, have a bit of a barbie and then repair to the drawing room (yes - we have a room especially for drawing) and cheer on/boo England against the Septics.
Other halves are welcome, of course, but just wanted to get a feel for numbers to see whether this would be a goer.
Let me know if you would be interested.
Daren
Friday, 19 March 2010
18th March 2010 - Everything changes but Hound
Well arriving at the JF it was clear that something had changed but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Ah, that was it, everything. All the bar staff were different, a lot of the clientele were new, the place had been painted, as advised by Tina later and even the hot nuts machine had moved. To make matters worse, the regular Hound table was occupied by interlopers.
Hounds are creatures of routine; they don't like change and as such we viewed proceedings with suspicion. Hounds were few in number this week, just Daren and myself but, with fewer opportunities for disagreement, we approached things with optimism.
The first thing to notice about Round 1 was the noise level. One of the new oiks, a lady with much larger breasts than her brain started to shout out some interjections. Thankfully, a few appeals for calm things settled down a bit. Round 1 was a solid affair, actual 27 - credited 29 but still one point behind the Usual Suspects. The main thing I remember was a debate on the position of Uruguay.
Onto the music and this had more of a retro feel, in fact I'm sure some of the songs had featured in previous quizzes, The Promise, Backstabbers etc. I managed to mistake the Searchers for the Seekers but otherwise a decent round. Onto round 3 and the usual mixed bag. Daren came up with a fine effort on the films though and we actually managed 4 out of five on true or false, we went all true. So a decent round and our efforts were rewarded with second place and the wine!
We were 4 behind all the way winners, the Usual Suspects though who suspiciously had managed a perfect score on the first two rounds. Mmm.
It was at this point Tina arrived and, knowing Daren's 0 from 1 record at carrying the wine the 5 minute journey home, swiped it from him and took it for "safekeeping". Much of the rest of the evening was spent debating the various changes taking place in the JF, clearly a result of a new manager taking over from Matt. Initial signs are not promising but the league is entering the home straight and with £1,000 in the pot, we're not going anywhere for now.
(authored by RobsonHound)
Hounds are creatures of routine; they don't like change and as such we viewed proceedings with suspicion. Hounds were few in number this week, just Daren and myself but, with fewer opportunities for disagreement, we approached things with optimism.
The first thing to notice about Round 1 was the noise level. One of the new oiks, a lady with much larger breasts than her brain started to shout out some interjections. Thankfully, a few appeals for calm things settled down a bit. Round 1 was a solid affair, actual 27 - credited 29 but still one point behind the Usual Suspects. The main thing I remember was a debate on the position of Uruguay.
Onto the music and this had more of a retro feel, in fact I'm sure some of the songs had featured in previous quizzes, The Promise, Backstabbers etc. I managed to mistake the Searchers for the Seekers but otherwise a decent round. Onto round 3 and the usual mixed bag. Daren came up with a fine effort on the films though and we actually managed 4 out of five on true or false, we went all true. So a decent round and our efforts were rewarded with second place and the wine!
We were 4 behind all the way winners, the Usual Suspects though who suspiciously had managed a perfect score on the first two rounds. Mmm.
It was at this point Tina arrived and, knowing Daren's 0 from 1 record at carrying the wine the 5 minute journey home, swiped it from him and took it for "safekeeping". Much of the rest of the evening was spent debating the various changes taking place in the JF, clearly a result of a new manager taking over from Matt. Initial signs are not promising but the league is entering the home straight and with £1,000 in the pot, we're not going anywhere for now.
(authored by RobsonHound)
Sunday, 14 March 2010
11th March 2010 - Teenage Hound
In homage to my daughter's birth 13 years ago to the day, we entered this week's quiz at the Jolly Farmers as 'The Teenage Hound'.
Once again it was just the Core Team members in action and readers will be intrigued to learn that two of us wore shirts and one a hoody. Pre-match-meals had consisted a mushroom risotto; chicken drummers, chips and peas; and fusilli pasta with a tomato and chilli sauce. Match the clothing and food to the member at your leisure.
The whole quiz followed a strangely familiar pattern. First round saw us score 27 out of 30 to be joint second. The music round once again saw us improve to be joint first going into the last round. We got four out of five correct on each of the Films, History, Sport and Entertainment sections and then completely blew up on the True or False. We went for T.F.F.T.T. and we should have gone T.T.T.F.F. giving us a lowly one out of five.
After that it barely mattered that we got nine of the final ten correct and it was somewhat fitting that we missed what turned out to be a fairly obvious anagram for the very last question (DISCOUNT = ???).
We ended up in joint third, two point behind the winners. We were closer to Venus than we were to winning the raffle and the general despondency and inevitable boozing led to a slightly fractious end to the evening although, in keeping with the Team's name for the evening we did have some memories of our first teenage year to share - one of us broke our arm, one was having glockenspiel lessons and one was hating everyone and wanting to die!
We need somehow to break this pattern of being second after the first round, joint top after the music round and then falling away badly in the final round - it is highly likely that The Hound would benefit from an injection of fresh perspectives - so, if you can possibly make a guest appearance next week you'd be very warmly welcomed.
Indeed.
*20th March 2010 update*
It was only as I once again went through Purley on a single decker bus, earlier this evening, that I remembered something of my journey home after the above described quiznanigins a week ago.
Far from being the usual, mildly-stressful, thigh-clenchingly tiresome, combat of battle between an ever increasingly full bladder and the need to retain one's seat for another 20 minutes until the 'home-stop' is reached and the final, undignified, sprawl for immediate personal emptying in a bush somewhere near the bus stop is achieved - this bus ride home was slightly different.
Not MUCH different you'll note, but just 'slightly'.
It had started with me buying an egg & bacon sarnie from the local, late-night, post-pub-quiz, convenience to occupy myself as I whiled away the mere 6 minutes until the bus was due. My first bite had me chomp down on some unseen gristle and, for a man with a gag-reflex so weak that the Guinness Book Of Records are in almost constant contact, it was no suprise that I retched the mouthfull, and a pint or so of Numbers, into the communal waste bin that was conveniently placed. Almost as if exactly placed for the purpose, it only subsequently occured to me.
Recovering quickly from the pathetic reaction I'd had to some long gone pig and a bit of unfertilized chicken reproduction, I made it onto the bus and, noting that there were a bevy of mildly attractive but-only-'cos-you're-a-bit-drunk-and-actually-they're-all-about-seventeen-so-grow-up-and-ignore-them type girls at the back of the single decker bus I sat down almost immediately behind the driver.
As I sat I offered a weak 'smile' of recognition and hopeful indifference, inserted the earphones to my lugs and pulled the hood over my head. Gangster style. Naturally. Imagine therefore my state of mind then when one of the previously observed 'dollies' landed in my lap and spoke several words that I could only guess at because all I could actually hear was ....
*a work in progress - it's late - I must sleep*
Once again it was just the Core Team members in action and readers will be intrigued to learn that two of us wore shirts and one a hoody. Pre-match-meals had consisted a mushroom risotto; chicken drummers, chips and peas; and fusilli pasta with a tomato and chilli sauce. Match the clothing and food to the member at your leisure.
The whole quiz followed a strangely familiar pattern. First round saw us score 27 out of 30 to be joint second. The music round once again saw us improve to be joint first going into the last round. We got four out of five correct on each of the Films, History, Sport and Entertainment sections and then completely blew up on the True or False. We went for T.F.F.T.T. and we should have gone T.T.T.F.F. giving us a lowly one out of five.
After that it barely mattered that we got nine of the final ten correct and it was somewhat fitting that we missed what turned out to be a fairly obvious anagram for the very last question (DISCOUNT = ???).
We ended up in joint third, two point behind the winners. We were closer to Venus than we were to winning the raffle and the general despondency and inevitable boozing led to a slightly fractious end to the evening although, in keeping with the Team's name for the evening we did have some memories of our first teenage year to share - one of us broke our arm, one was having glockenspiel lessons and one was hating everyone and wanting to die!
We need somehow to break this pattern of being second after the first round, joint top after the music round and then falling away badly in the final round - it is highly likely that The Hound would benefit from an injection of fresh perspectives - so, if you can possibly make a guest appearance next week you'd be very warmly welcomed.
Indeed.
*20th March 2010 update*
It was only as I once again went through Purley on a single decker bus, earlier this evening, that I remembered something of my journey home after the above described quiznanigins a week ago.
Far from being the usual, mildly-stressful, thigh-clenchingly tiresome, combat of battle between an ever increasingly full bladder and the need to retain one's seat for another 20 minutes until the 'home-stop' is reached and the final, undignified, sprawl for immediate personal emptying in a bush somewhere near the bus stop is achieved - this bus ride home was slightly different.
Not MUCH different you'll note, but just 'slightly'.
It had started with me buying an egg & bacon sarnie from the local, late-night, post-pub-quiz, convenience to occupy myself as I whiled away the mere 6 minutes until the bus was due. My first bite had me chomp down on some unseen gristle and, for a man with a gag-reflex so weak that the Guinness Book Of Records are in almost constant contact, it was no suprise that I retched the mouthfull, and a pint or so of Numbers, into the communal waste bin that was conveniently placed. Almost as if exactly placed for the purpose, it only subsequently occured to me.
Recovering quickly from the pathetic reaction I'd had to some long gone pig and a bit of unfertilized chicken reproduction, I made it onto the bus and, noting that there were a bevy of mildly attractive but-only-'cos-you're-a-bit-drunk-and-actually-they're-all-about-seventeen-so-grow-up-and-ignore-them type girls at the back of the single decker bus I sat down almost immediately behind the driver.
As I sat I offered a weak 'smile' of recognition and hopeful indifference, inserted the earphones to my lugs and pulled the hood over my head. Gangster style. Naturally. Imagine therefore my state of mind then when one of the previously observed 'dollies' landed in my lap and spoke several words that I could only guess at because all I could actually hear was ....
*a work in progress - it's late - I must sleep*
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
4th March 2010 - The Ides of March - two weeks too soon?
It is a widely asserted cliché that something is ‘better late than never’. Well, in the case of this TQSR it certainly qualifies as late – whether it is the better for its tardy delivery, as opposed to not having been delivered at all, is for you to decide.
Last week’s quiz was attended only by the Hound’s core team members – Daren, Robson and yours truly – one wore a green and yellow spotted scarf, one a wind-cheater and one a grey coat – if you can bear the excitement I invite you to match the garment to the wearer. And you can potentially double your points if you match the pre-match meal to its consumer – one of us had chilli and rice, one had a chicken Balti and one a ham and broccoli quiche.
Compared to some previous weeks I don’t remember much conversation around the team name – having just entered the month of March we went under the collective name of ‘The Ides of Hound’ – although having subsequently looked it up to find out what it referred to the ‘Ides of March’ (or May, July or October come to that) was a festive day held on the 15th of that particular month – and thus a name somewhat better suited to deployment in two quizzes’ time. But hey-ho, we peaked too early with the name and thus the pattern was set for the evening.**
For reasons that completely escape me now (not just that I can’t remember but that, even after some considerable thought I cannot begin to fathom what I thought I was doing), I spent the evening pretty much writing out the entire quiz verbatim. I am thus is a position to relay every question that we faced, along with the correct answers and, where they differed, the gibberish we offered instead. I can only think that I was reasoning that this would lead to an interesting report. I am now of the opinion that it won’t!
Traditional first round came and went – we missed the made-up American town name (it was Camel’s Hump – not Stinking Feet or Beersville), and we said Charlie Chaplin was a.k.a ‘The King of Hollywood’. Of course, it was actually Clark Gable. We also missed Stephen King’s first novel (Carrie, not The Shining) and for the mystery actor (born 1960 in Hampshire – starred in Shakespeare in Love) we went with Joseph Fiennes and it should’ve been Colin Firth. 26 out of 30 – joint second place one behind the lead.
The musical round was good to us and we ended it joint leaders – our identification abilities spanning, amongst others, Yes, Soft Cell, Black Eyed Peas, Foreigner, The Nolan Sisters, Mica Paris, Pixie Lott, Elkie Brooks, Dame Joan Sutherland, The Pretenders, Katherine Jenkins, La Roux, Sonny & Cher, The Noisettes, Harold Faltermeyer and Tears For Fears.
The last round saw us get 4 out of 5 on films, 3 out of 5 on history, all 5 sports questions and all 5 on entertainment. On the true/false round we went, TTTFT when we should have gone TFTFF. We got 8 out of the final 10 (including the anagram; MONTAGES = ???)
All in all not bad but at least one other team somewhere had done better and we dropped to joint second*. The lead was shared and the tie-break was, ‘how many symphonies did Mozart compose?’ Why I wrote the question down when we weren’t in the tie-break I have no idea. But I then compounded the pointlessness by not writing down the answer. If anyone really wants to know then Google is your friend.
Ahh well, another attendance point towards our final (Ides of May) total, another few glasses emptied and you’ll all be pleased to know that this week I remembered to visit the little boys’ room before consigning myself to the hour long bus-trip home.
Better late than never?
* in a glass-half-empty world this could also be interpreted as joint last...
** oooops - it transpires that we actually went under the name, 'The Hounds of March', rendering most of that paragraph complete nonsense...
Last week’s quiz was attended only by the Hound’s core team members – Daren, Robson and yours truly – one wore a green and yellow spotted scarf, one a wind-cheater and one a grey coat – if you can bear the excitement I invite you to match the garment to the wearer. And you can potentially double your points if you match the pre-match meal to its consumer – one of us had chilli and rice, one had a chicken Balti and one a ham and broccoli quiche.
Compared to some previous weeks I don’t remember much conversation around the team name – having just entered the month of March we went under the collective name of ‘The Ides of Hound’ – although having subsequently looked it up to find out what it referred to the ‘Ides of March’ (or May, July or October come to that) was a festive day held on the 15th of that particular month – and thus a name somewhat better suited to deployment in two quizzes’ time. But hey-ho, we peaked too early with the name and thus the pattern was set for the evening.**
For reasons that completely escape me now (not just that I can’t remember but that, even after some considerable thought I cannot begin to fathom what I thought I was doing), I spent the evening pretty much writing out the entire quiz verbatim. I am thus is a position to relay every question that we faced, along with the correct answers and, where they differed, the gibberish we offered instead. I can only think that I was reasoning that this would lead to an interesting report. I am now of the opinion that it won’t!
Traditional first round came and went – we missed the made-up American town name (it was Camel’s Hump – not Stinking Feet or Beersville), and we said Charlie Chaplin was a.k.a ‘The King of Hollywood’. Of course, it was actually Clark Gable. We also missed Stephen King’s first novel (Carrie, not The Shining) and for the mystery actor (born 1960 in Hampshire – starred in Shakespeare in Love) we went with Joseph Fiennes and it should’ve been Colin Firth. 26 out of 30 – joint second place one behind the lead.
The musical round was good to us and we ended it joint leaders – our identification abilities spanning, amongst others, Yes, Soft Cell, Black Eyed Peas, Foreigner, The Nolan Sisters, Mica Paris, Pixie Lott, Elkie Brooks, Dame Joan Sutherland, The Pretenders, Katherine Jenkins, La Roux, Sonny & Cher, The Noisettes, Harold Faltermeyer and Tears For Fears.
The last round saw us get 4 out of 5 on films, 3 out of 5 on history, all 5 sports questions and all 5 on entertainment. On the true/false round we went, TTTFT when we should have gone TFTFF. We got 8 out of the final 10 (including the anagram; MONTAGES = ???)
All in all not bad but at least one other team somewhere had done better and we dropped to joint second*. The lead was shared and the tie-break was, ‘how many symphonies did Mozart compose?’ Why I wrote the question down when we weren’t in the tie-break I have no idea. But I then compounded the pointlessness by not writing down the answer. If anyone really wants to know then Google is your friend.
Ahh well, another attendance point towards our final (Ides of May) total, another few glasses emptied and you’ll all be pleased to know that this week I remembered to visit the little boys’ room before consigning myself to the hour long bus-trip home.
Better late than never?
* in a glass-half-empty world this could also be interpreted as joint last...
** oooops - it transpires that we actually went under the name, 'The Hounds of March', rendering most of that paragraph complete nonsense...
Friday, 26 February 2010
February 25th 2010
It was a dark and stormy night as the 3 hounds gathered to do glorious quizzing. Also, I did a bad thing on the way home (more of that later).
'It's raining Cats and Hounds' comprised;
Barnett of Brum ("I had fish and chips - you can stick that in your report")
Robson Hound (2 different sandwiches, 1 is a starter the other is pudding)
and yours truly (2 chicken Kiev and sweetcorn - no chips)
Pre quiz talk was all about the raffle. +/- £600 and only 2 keys to pick from - surely someone would win the cash and maybe even the Hound- Could we dare to dream of such riches?
On with the quiz - we thought the opening round was tougher than usual and were not too surprised with our low score of 25/30. The only surprise was that left us wallowing in joint last place - not a customary position for a hound, having to come from behind, but we felt confident that the music round would restore our fortunes.
Unfortunately the music round proved just as troublesome - we were totally blind-sided by track after track and were dismayed to hear in the break that all the other teams (including the Bob-sleigh hamsters) had found it pretty easy. The Hound was limping home.
So going into the last round it looked as if our only hope lay with the raffle and we hastily procured more and more tickets.
Now, something strange happened in the last round, either; we played a blinder, the other teams had a shocker or Theo's scoring system finally worked in our favour. Whatever it was, we suddenly ended up in second place scooping the bottle of wine as our reward. Totally baffled we awaited the raffle with more tickets than it is wise to shake a stick at.
Unfortunately we didn't hold the winning ticket - but more bizarrely, the winner wasn't able to identify the right key so it rolls onto next week - but now with 10 keys.
Finally, the bad thing. On my way home and struggling with Robson's forgotten umbrella and trying to check my pockets for my mobile I dropped and shattered the bottle of wine outside Purley Kitchens and bathrooms. oh dear.
Special Caveat received from Robson -
'It's raining Cats and Hounds' comprised;
Barnett of Brum ("I had fish and chips - you can stick that in your report")
Robson Hound (2 different sandwiches, 1 is a starter the other is pudding)
and yours truly (2 chicken Kiev and sweetcorn - no chips)
Pre quiz talk was all about the raffle. +/- £600 and only 2 keys to pick from - surely someone would win the cash and maybe even the Hound- Could we dare to dream of such riches?
On with the quiz - we thought the opening round was tougher than usual and were not too surprised with our low score of 25/30. The only surprise was that left us wallowing in joint last place - not a customary position for a hound, having to come from behind, but we felt confident that the music round would restore our fortunes.
Unfortunately the music round proved just as troublesome - we were totally blind-sided by track after track and were dismayed to hear in the break that all the other teams (including the Bob-sleigh hamsters) had found it pretty easy. The Hound was limping home.
So going into the last round it looked as if our only hope lay with the raffle and we hastily procured more and more tickets.
Now, something strange happened in the last round, either; we played a blinder, the other teams had a shocker or Theo's scoring system finally worked in our favour. Whatever it was, we suddenly ended up in second place scooping the bottle of wine as our reward. Totally baffled we awaited the raffle with more tickets than it is wise to shake a stick at.
Unfortunately we didn't hold the winning ticket - but more bizarrely, the winner wasn't able to identify the right key so it rolls onto next week - but now with 10 keys.
Finally, the bad thing. On my way home and struggling with Robson's forgotten umbrella and trying to check my pockets for my mobile I dropped and shattered the bottle of wine outside Purley Kitchens and bathrooms. oh dear.
Special Caveat received from Robson -
At risk of coming across as slightly defensive £47,000pw on £56m =
around 4.35%.
You can't get that anywhere on a deposit basis, maybe in a fixed term
bond.
Best you can do is 3% = £32,000 and that's with tin pot companies
I doubt you could rock up with £56m and stick down.
And you can stick that in your status report.
Friday, 19 February 2010
February 18th 2010
It was a tense finish. 90 minutes of stubborn resistance and
occasional flashes of brilliance had passed and 'The Year of The Hound'
were deadlocked with, well just about everybody else in fact. How on
earth it can be that around a dozen teams can enter a quiz, answer 90
odd questions and find themselves all on the same final score I shall
never know, but that is what happened - and The Hound prides itself on
its collective ability to be able to deal with any situation. Theo set
the tie-breaker question in motion and a dozen team representatives
scrambled from all quarters of the pub to submit their various
guestimates within the 30 permitted seconds - The Hound bated its
breath and drained its glasses...
It hadn't started spectacularly well - El Barnetto of Brum was still
'ooop north' being literally snowed into a second floor flat. Our
recent tradition of enjoying a 'special guest' to supplement the core
team was not observed this week, although there was the threat of being
joined around the halfway mark by one of the all-time sporting greats -
none other than cricketing legend Lord Tony of Bunghole, who was in the
area having the first net of the season (in February?!) and thought he
might as well pop in on his way home. Which was nice. The first round
had yielded a return of 26 (?) points from 30 questions and left us in
joint second. We had Robin to thank for the chemical symbol for
Methane (CH4 apparently) and the processes of elimination which led us
to deduce that the 'hypocentre' of an earthquake is below it and not
above it and the earth's human population in 1900 was 1.3 billion not
3.1 billion.
To borrow a legendary commentating Colemanball, the second round saw
The Hound 'open its legs and show its class' as we answered all 21
musical questions completely correctly and gained maximum pointage -
our knowledge variously covering all colours of the musical spectrum,
from Jedward and Helen Shapiro to Bizet. Joint leaders, by a point,
with one other team going into the last round.
Glasses were refreshed with Numbers and Pride and numbers were swollen
with the arrival of His Holiness the Bung. I can't remember any of the
questions we were asked (not even the anagram I'm afraid although, once
again, Robson Hound got it with alarming speed) nor how many of them we
may have got correct (although we went T.F.F.F.T in the True/False
round and we should have gone T.T.T.T.T) but given that we led going
into the round and it ended with a mass tie-break it is fair to
conclude that pretty much everyone else had a better final round than
we did.
Some readers, i.e. Danny, might be intrigued at this stage to know that
two pairs of white trainers were in evidence, along with a pair of
black shoes and a literally enormous pair of sliver trainers. Pre
match meals for the starting trio had variously included toast, bacon &
lentil soup and a plate of gammon, rice and peas. Make of that
whatever the hell you will.
... Theo announced the tie-breaker answers in no particular order - the
question had been fairly straightforward, 'how many legs does the
world's largest millipede have?', but the range of answers was quite
spectacular. The literally hilariously (?!) named team of 'Ashley Cole
has joined John Terry sleeping on the sofa' went with 1.4 million legs
(I kid you not) whilst some other bunch of soft in the heads had gone
with '80 legs'! Daren had immediately said, '272', I said it was lower
but couldn't quite get it together to come up with an actual lower
number and Robson, well I can't actually remember what Robson said to
be honest. But 'two hundred and seventy two legs' was our answer.
Theo's answer, the answer that actually mattters in such circumstances,
was '256' and nobody could get closer to that than us and so it was
that The Year of the Hound collected another crate of lager and cocked
its metaphorical leg over the competition once more.
The Year of the Hound is over - long live The Hound.
Saturday, 13 February 2010
Thursday 11th February
It was early doors for Team Hound on Thursday (consisting of That Daren, That Robson, That Kevster and That No Longer Anymore A Special Guest, But Still Special Nicky) and, with this additional time advantage, Kevster donned Theo's hat and led us through various quizettes from various newspapers which were breeding on our table.
During this brain-training there was much kerfuffle at the table beside us. Daren realised he should have kept his visage frontwards facing after he turned and was affronted by the same beauty that Kevster and Nicky had been subjected to for some fair few minutes.
As a result, whilst we wouldn't normally discuss the colour of our underwear, but foud ourselves doing so, today's quizette is who was wearing what colour underwear:
Mid-Blue, Black, BLack with lacy edges, Stripey Blue and Grey.
If you have cleverly noticed that there are 5 pieces of underwear to match to their owner, we have also included those belonging to Very Hairy Man With Bottom Protruding From His Jeans.
It was an evening for 'earlies'.. there were even early hot nuts and we speedily decided upon the team name (thank the Lord for small mercies) and assigned ourselves as The Dirty Hound. Whether this was a Freudian thought process related to the exposure of Very Hairy Man With Bottom Protruding From His Jeans, I'm not sure.
Onto the usual mixed bag of round 1. Etymology is important here as there's often words you don't know but with a bit of language knowledge,can get to the answer. Hence I was confident that selenophobia, closely linked to the element selenium named after the sun, was fear of the sun.Incorrect, helium was the sun. Worse was to come though. At the start of the question, which country's Formula 1 circuit... 3 of the 4 of us switched off, took a drink, scratched our ar$es etc, leaving this one to Daren. Imagine our shock, nay horror when Imola turned out to be San Marino, not Italy. Not an easy one to live down. We had a sweep on the points we'd get, it was after the round but that's not really important,Kevster won with 26 - enough for joint top.
*takes baton from Robin*
So, joint second going into the music round, The Hound were tucked into the pack letting the pacemakers (hopefully) exhaust themselves and planning to use Round Two to get into position to kick for home at the bell and romp to another crate of winner's beer. The questions came thick and fast - and The Hound met them head on - thick and fast'ish. Amongst others we got Showaddywaddy, Cream, Rod Stewart, Moody Blues, Gene Kelly, Frankie Vallie, The Jam, Avril Lavigne, Adelle, Kylie, All Saints, Rick Astley, Jason Donovan, The Searchers and The Mamas & Pappas - we missed out on Amy McDonald, Hot Chip, The Hoosiers and a couple of others that I forgot to write down! We went through the bell still in second although the field around us had thinned a little - the joint leaders were a point ahead of us on 62 as we gathered our thoughts, filled our glasses and hunkered down for the final chukka.
*hands baton to Daren*
As predicted, we found ourselves in the 'final' round which as always was a mixture, a melange, a potpourri and dare I say, a veritable hodgepodge of subjects.
Theo (Quizmaster) enlivened the action with the comment that "each team will be awarded a 'joker' subject where the points they score will be doubled. They won't know which subject the joker is being played in but the points will be added to their final score". Absolutely bonkers and in no way a strategy to ensure that the scores could be manipulated so that the majority ended up in a tie break.
sample questions.......
Films Which film opens with the words 'My name is Lester Burnham. This is my neighborhood. This is my street. This... is my life. I'm forty-two years old. In less than a year, I'll be dead'. (It doesn't actually)
History - When was the BBC founded
Sport - Name one of the 2 teams in last weeks superbowl
Entertainment- Which 'soap' currently features a character called Rabbit
True or False They were all true apart from the 'elephant in the room' which was about an elephant doing two laps of a circus riding a bicycle - clearly false
The Last 10 - Cant remember the anagram as i've lost my 'notes' - it had an X in it though and Robson got it almost instantaneously.
To our astonishment we ended up in a tie-break with 8 other teams.
How many floors in the Empire State Building? We said 110, Theo said 102, as did 'John Terry Is sleeping on the couch' and to those victors went the spoils.
During this brain-training there was much kerfuffle at the table beside us. Daren realised he should have kept his visage frontwards facing after he turned and was affronted by the same beauty that Kevster and Nicky had been subjected to for some fair few minutes.
As a result, whilst we wouldn't normally discuss the colour of our underwear, but foud ourselves doing so, today's quizette is who was wearing what colour underwear:
Mid-Blue, Black, BLack with lacy edges, Stripey Blue and Grey.
If you have cleverly noticed that there are 5 pieces of underwear to match to their owner, we have also included those belonging to Very Hairy Man With Bottom Protruding From His Jeans.
It was an evening for 'earlies'.. there were even early hot nuts and we speedily decided upon the team name (thank the Lord for small mercies) and assigned ourselves as The Dirty Hound. Whether this was a Freudian thought process related to the exposure of Very Hairy Man With Bottom Protruding From His Jeans, I'm not sure.
Onto the usual mixed bag of round 1. Etymology is important here as there's often words you don't know but with a bit of language knowledge,can get to the answer. Hence I was confident that selenophobia, closely linked to the element selenium named after the sun, was fear of the sun.Incorrect, helium was the sun. Worse was to come though. At the start of the question, which country's Formula 1 circuit... 3 of the 4 of us switched off, took a drink, scratched our ar$es etc, leaving this one to Daren. Imagine our shock, nay horror when Imola turned out to be San Marino, not Italy. Not an easy one to live down. We had a sweep on the points we'd get, it was after the round but that's not really important,Kevster won with 26 - enough for joint top.
*takes baton from Robin*
So, joint second going into the music round, The Hound were tucked into the pack letting the pacemakers (hopefully) exhaust themselves and planning to use Round Two to get into position to kick for home at the bell and romp to another crate of winner's beer. The questions came thick and fast - and The Hound met them head on - thick and fast'ish. Amongst others we got Showaddywaddy, Cream, Rod Stewart, Moody Blues, Gene Kelly, Frankie Vallie, The Jam, Avril Lavigne, Adelle, Kylie, All Saints, Rick Astley, Jason Donovan, The Searchers and The Mamas & Pappas - we missed out on Amy McDonald, Hot Chip, The Hoosiers and a couple of others that I forgot to write down! We went through the bell still in second although the field around us had thinned a little - the joint leaders were a point ahead of us on 62 as we gathered our thoughts, filled our glasses and hunkered down for the final chukka.
*hands baton to Daren*
As predicted, we found ourselves in the 'final' round which as always was a mixture, a melange, a potpourri and dare I say, a veritable hodgepodge of subjects.
Theo (Quizmaster) enlivened the action with the comment that "each team will be awarded a 'joker' subject where the points they score will be doubled. They won't know which subject the joker is being played in but the points will be added to their final score". Absolutely bonkers and in no way a strategy to ensure that the scores could be manipulated so that the majority ended up in a tie break.
sample questions.......
Films Which film opens with the words 'My name is Lester Burnham. This is my neighborhood. This is my street. This... is my life. I'm forty-two years old. In less than a year, I'll be dead'. (It doesn't actually)
History - When was the BBC founded
Sport - Name one of the 2 teams in last weeks superbowl
Entertainment- Which 'soap' currently features a character called Rabbit
True or False They were all true apart from the 'elephant in the room' which was about an elephant doing two laps of a circus riding a bicycle - clearly false
The Last 10 - Cant remember the anagram as i've lost my 'notes' - it had an X in it though and Robson got it almost instantaneously.
To our astonishment we ended up in a tie-break with 8 other teams.
How many floors in the Empire State Building? We said 110, Theo said 102, as did 'John Terry Is sleeping on the couch' and to those victors went the spoils.
Friday, 5 February 2010
4th February 2010
Right, given the new "on-line" format with the status report being available to millions, I started with the intention of a detailed report, including lots of factual content. However, given an earlier than normal start, and I think slightly stronger beer than usual, it all turned into even more of an alcoholic fug than typical and I can remember next to nothing, and can't even read my notes.
It started well enough, Kevster was off to That London to demonstrate sizes of fish or whatever it is they do at these places but managed to stay for about half of the first round.
That proved to be our best; we were given 29 points, and actually scored 28, failing on the location of Rawalpindi and where the Yakusa are based and were joint top. The music round, so often the Hound's strong suit, proved to be our undoing. Maybe the alcohol was starting to kick in but several questions we just didn't have a clue on. That said we were only one point off the lead. Regular text updates were being provided at this point to Pete who was up the Junction, I don't think that's a metaphor, and Kevster who correctly identified the singer of "Let's Here It For The Boy" - maybe they were playing it in the club. Sometime around here I dropped my phone in the urinal, it was starting to unravel.
On the mix of questions that is the final round, entertainment we just about muddled through, Daren managed to identify that Samuel L Jackson did not do any voice over on some film or other, Madagascar? We got one out of five on the True or False, they were all false. We did get the anagram though - SMOKIER.
Bizarrely after all that we were in a tie break, though to be fair, all the teams in the pub but one were. The tie-break question was - What is the largest number of children ever recorded as having been born to one woman in her lifetime. Around 5 minutes after the answer was given, I remembered reading this in the Guinness Book of Records as a youngster - no use then though. More interesting than the real answer though is our guess, supplied by Daren.
Suffice to say we didn't win, or were second.
It started well enough, Kevster was off to That London to demonstrate sizes of fish or whatever it is they do at these places but managed to stay for about half of the first round.
That proved to be our best; we were given 29 points, and actually scored 28, failing on the location of Rawalpindi and where the Yakusa are based and were joint top. The music round, so often the Hound's strong suit, proved to be our undoing. Maybe the alcohol was starting to kick in but several questions we just didn't have a clue on. That said we were only one point off the lead. Regular text updates were being provided at this point to Pete who was up the Junction, I don't think that's a metaphor, and Kevster who correctly identified the singer of "Let's Here It For The Boy" - maybe they were playing it in the club. Sometime around here I dropped my phone in the urinal, it was starting to unravel.
On the mix of questions that is the final round, entertainment we just about muddled through, Daren managed to identify that Samuel L Jackson did not do any voice over on some film or other, Madagascar? We got one out of five on the True or False, they were all false. We did get the anagram though - SMOKIER.
Bizarrely after all that we were in a tie break, though to be fair, all the teams in the pub but one were. The tie-break question was - What is the largest number of children ever recorded as having been born to one woman in her lifetime. Around 5 minutes after the answer was given, I remembered reading this in the Guinness Book of Records as a youngster - no use then though. More interesting than the real answer though is our guess, supplied by Daren.
Suffice to say we didn't win, or were second.
Sunday, 31 January 2010
15th October 2009
Tony, Danny, Tina, Daren, Robson Hound, El barnetto, Alistair, Kevster and Nicky did not go to the Jolly Farmers last night.
They did not enter a team with an amusing twist on the theme of hounds and they did not drink copious amounts of alcohol.
Theo may have turned up on time or he may have been late - we just dont know.
The opening round probably contained 30 questions on random themes, some of which we would have got right, others not.
A Team that didn't contain the word Hound in it's title was in the lead at this point (Lead - geddit? Hound, Lead !!)
There were 2 more rounds and Theo was probably relieved at not having to artificially massage the Hound's score down to keep all the other teams happy.
Strangely Kevster's family team won and proceeded to bombard him with texts about how we were too scared to take them on.
There was no rioting and then the raffle was drawn and none of us won - again!!
Hoorah for The Hound - Transmission ends..................
They did not enter a team with an amusing twist on the theme of hounds and they did not drink copious amounts of alcohol.
Theo may have turned up on time or he may have been late - we just dont know.
The opening round probably contained 30 questions on random themes, some of which we would have got right, others not.
A Team that didn't contain the word Hound in it's title was in the lead at this point (Lead - geddit? Hound, Lead !!)
There were 2 more rounds and Theo was probably relieved at not having to artificially massage the Hound's score down to keep all the other teams happy.
Strangely Kevster's family team won and proceeded to bombard him with texts about how we were too scared to take them on.
There was no rioting and then the raffle was drawn and none of us won - again!!
Hoorah for The Hound - Transmission ends..................
25th September 2009
Jolly Farmers, Purley – Thursday 25th September 2009
Those attending: Tina Bear, El Barnetto, Robson Hound, SmithD2 and That Kevster
I’ve never been too sure what it takes to establish ‘a tradition’ but I would suggest that several, consecutive, Thursday evenings spent quaffing beer and being baffled by a Pub’s Quiz scoring system pretty much constitute one. Thus the generally knowledgeable collective, loosely referred to as ‘The Hound’, gathered for its latest, traditional, shenanigans.
The positioning of the ‘pre-match meal sub-report’ in these writings is always a potential minefield – I am choosing to address the matter earl y doors and thus leave room for some ‘post-match munchies’ reporting later on. I have it from the various horses’ mouths that they individually enjoyed a multi-filling baguette from Upper Crust, an omelette, a Mr Wimpy meal and a ham, egg & chips dish. At the risk of propagating another tradition I shall invite those readers not present to match the diners to the dishes. In terms of my own pre-match prep I fell from last weeks’ standard of fine-dining, but poisoned, scallops to a lowly, post-gym, vaguely chocolate flavoured, protein-shake. Nowhere near as nice on the palate but it stayed inside me for a bit longer – for which I’m grateful.
And so to the quiz. If indeed what followed can be called ‘A Quiz’.
Initial suspicions were quickly confirmed when an irksome little prole announced that our tradit ional Question Master was away and that, in the tradition of the totally pointless Supply Teacher, he would be standing in his stead and demanding answers from us. At this stage it’s fair to say we were already unhappy. The winds of change had begun to blow.
So as not to baffle The Irksome Little Prole, we decided not to continue our hilarious series of ‘variation-on-The-Hound’ themed team names and just plumped for ‘The Hound’. Plain and simple.
And so to the first round. The usual fare – SmithD2 complained of fewer than usual, ‘… is it A)… or is it B)…’ type questions – but Robson Hound declared himself pleased it was so. As if to emphasise D2’s point the evening’s real stinker reared its open-ended head here. The question was, ‘In cockney rhyming slang wha t does Steffi Graff mean?’ We said ‘laugh’. The Prole later, absurdly, gave the answer as ‘bath’. I could give all sorts of proof for the accuracy of our answer (http://www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk/slang/steffi_graf; http://www.thornton-cleveleys.co.uk/cockney.htm; http://www.londonslang.com/db/s/) but The Prole was having none of it. And so to Andre Agassi – when he’s ‘having a Steffi’ do you imagine him to be, a) bathing or, b) chuckling gently to himself?!
The Irksome Little Prole then ran through the Round 1 scores – all of which were a good 30% down on what we have, traditionally, become accustomed to under the Traditional Question Master. We were somewhere around last.
And so to (the music) round two. And Mrs Bear falling victim to the rapidly spreading, and highly contagious, Rioting Fever. The Hound had done well – we thought we got all but maybe two right. The Irksome Little Prole gave us a new total score that was almost lower than our Round One mark. Mrs Bear rioted. I welled up with a strange mixture of pride and redundancy. Again. No matter. Mrs Bear returned from haranguing The Irksome Little Prole and assured us that all would be taken care of.
And so to the last round. We were mostly good, occasionally unsure and on at least one occasion (what is LANCASTER* an anagram of?) found significantly wanting. Still, to hell with it – The Irksome Little Prole seemed to be making it up on the spur of the moment so we figured we could be in with a chance, depending on those changeable winds. And thus it was we came 4th. At least that’s what I think because there were two teams in joint 3rd. But then 2 minutes later The Irksome Little Prole announced that actually there’d been a tie for 2nd as well. So who knows where we actually came? Vaguely interesting to note that the wining score would, in a traditional week, have come last.
And to cap off a splendid evening some absolute Berk (see what I did there – more rhyming slang) won the £500+ raffle that’s been building up for the last couple of months. Grrrrrrrrrrr. Thereafter the evening took on an ‘end-of-term’ feeling and the air was thick with scrunched up bits of paper being hurled from one disgruntled team20to another – the Quizzard’s Sleeve possibly being the worst culprits. Despite SmithD2’s best efforts when Mrs Bear wasn’t looking.
All that is left is my post-match meal report which consisted of a £1 bag of Yellow Monster Munch and a can of Uri Geller. The very hautest of Haute Cuisine. And the fact that Halle Berry has got fantastic Brad Pitts (Die Another Day is playing in the background as I type this). Fantastic.
Those attending: Tina Bear, El Barnetto, Robson Hound, SmithD2 and That Kevster
I’ve never been too sure what it takes to establish ‘a tradition’ but I would suggest that several, consecutive, Thursday evenings spent quaffing beer and being baffled by a Pub’s Quiz scoring system pretty much constitute one. Thus the generally knowledgeable collective, loosely referred to as ‘The Hound’, gathered for its latest, traditional, shenanigans.
The positioning of the ‘pre-match meal sub-report’ in these writings is always a potential minefield – I am choosing to address the matter earl y doors and thus leave room for some ‘post-match munchies’ reporting later on. I have it from the various horses’ mouths that they individually enjoyed a multi-filling baguette from Upper Crust, an omelette, a Mr Wimpy meal and a ham, egg & chips dish. At the risk of propagating another tradition I shall invite those readers not present to match the diners to the dishes. In terms of my own pre-match prep I fell from last weeks’ standard of fine-dining, but poisoned, scallops to a lowly, post-gym, vaguely chocolate flavoured, protein-shake. Nowhere near as nice on the palate but it stayed inside me for a bit longer – for which I’m grateful.
And so to the quiz. If indeed what followed can be called ‘A Quiz’.
Initial suspicions were quickly confirmed when an irksome little prole announced that our tradit ional Question Master was away and that, in the tradition of the totally pointless Supply Teacher, he would be standing in his stead and demanding answers from us. At this stage it’s fair to say we were already unhappy. The winds of change had begun to blow.
So as not to baffle The Irksome Little Prole, we decided not to continue our hilarious series of ‘variation-on-The-Hound’ themed team names and just plumped for ‘The Hound’. Plain and simple.
And so to the first round. The usual fare – SmithD2 complained of fewer than usual, ‘… is it A)… or is it B)…’ type questions – but Robson Hound declared himself pleased it was so. As if to emphasise D2’s point the evening’s real stinker reared its open-ended head here. The question was, ‘In cockney rhyming slang wha t does Steffi Graff mean?’ We said ‘laugh’. The Prole later, absurdly, gave the answer as ‘bath’. I could give all sorts of proof for the accuracy of our answer (http://www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk/slang/steffi_graf; http://www.thornton-cleveleys.co.uk/cockney.htm; http://www.londonslang.com/db/s/) but The Prole was having none of it. And so to Andre Agassi – when he’s ‘having a Steffi’ do you imagine him to be, a) bathing or, b) chuckling gently to himself?!
The Irksome Little Prole then ran through the Round 1 scores – all of which were a good 30% down on what we have, traditionally, become accustomed to under the Traditional Question Master. We were somewhere around last.
And so to (the music) round two. And Mrs Bear falling victim to the rapidly spreading, and highly contagious, Rioting Fever. The Hound had done well – we thought we got all but maybe two right. The Irksome Little Prole gave us a new total score that was almost lower than our Round One mark. Mrs Bear rioted. I welled up with a strange mixture of pride and redundancy. Again. No matter. Mrs Bear returned from haranguing The Irksome Little Prole and assured us that all would be taken care of.
And so to the last round. We were mostly good, occasionally unsure and on at least one occasion (what is LANCASTER* an anagram of?) found significantly wanting. Still, to hell with it – The Irksome Little Prole seemed to be making it up on the spur of the moment so we figured we could be in with a chance, depending on those changeable winds. And thus it was we came 4th. At least that’s what I think because there were two teams in joint 3rd. But then 2 minutes later The Irksome Little Prole announced that actually there’d been a tie for 2nd as well. So who knows where we actually came? Vaguely interesting to note that the wining score would, in a traditional week, have come last.
And to cap off a splendid evening some absolute Berk (see what I did there – more rhyming slang) won the £500+ raffle that’s been building up for the last couple of months. Grrrrrrrrrrr. Thereafter the evening took on an ‘end-of-term’ feeling and the air was thick with scrunched up bits of paper being hurled from one disgruntled team20to another – the Quizzard’s Sleeve possibly being the worst culprits. Despite SmithD2’s best efforts when Mrs Bear wasn’t looking.
All that is left is my post-match meal report which consisted of a £1 bag of Yellow Monster Munch and a can of Uri Geller. The very hautest of Haute Cuisine. And the fact that Halle Berry has got fantastic Brad Pitts (Die Another Day is playing in the background as I type this). Fantastic.
3rd September 2009
'You'll never win anything with kids' is how the old adage goes and bearing this in mind we fielded a team of 3, all in their 'roaring' forties.
Pre match meals consisted of 1) A pork Pie 2) A Chicken fillet burger 3) two pieces of chicken and chips (Just for fun, see if you can match the meal with the player!! It's an on-line, interactive type of thing)
Using the Dail Mail headlines to come up with our team name, Robin's illegible handwriting lead to the Quiz master mistakenly naming us 'Give me 'BARK' my hound' or possibly 'Give me BACH my Hound'.
A strong opening round was marred only by the failure to spot the made up US town from the list;
Short and round
rough and ready
Monkey's elbow
Virgin's town
We continued to shine in the music round, although Robson seemed intent on answering 'Girls Aloud' to every question, whilst Pete just shouted 'Chubby Checker' at anyone that passed our table.
The final round was the usual mayhem and flurry of torn strips of paper and unsurprisingly we found ourselves in yet another play off.
The tie breaker was - 'What is the square mileage of Wales?'.
Crazily some of the answers given were 17, 243 and 400,000 !!!- We were close with 14,000 (Arrived at using the cunning formula of 100w x 100L + 'some more'). Unfortunately the actual answer was 8,900 ish.
We cried into our collective bears and Pete 'arrivederci' for his holiday. That is all
Pre match meals consisted of 1) A pork Pie 2) A Chicken fillet burger 3) two pieces of chicken and chips (Just for fun, see if you can match the meal with the player!! It's an on-line, interactive type of thing)
Using the Dail Mail headlines to come up with our team name, Robin's illegible handwriting lead to the Quiz master mistakenly naming us 'Give me 'BARK' my hound' or possibly 'Give me BACH my Hound'.
A strong opening round was marred only by the failure to spot the made up US town from the list;
Short and round
rough and ready
Monkey's elbow
Virgin's town
We continued to shine in the music round, although Robson seemed intent on answering 'Girls Aloud' to every question, whilst Pete just shouted 'Chubby Checker' at anyone that passed our table.
The final round was the usual mayhem and flurry of torn strips of paper and unsurprisingly we found ourselves in yet another play off.
The tie breaker was - 'What is the square mileage of Wales?'.
Crazily some of the answers given were 17, 243 and 400,000 !!!- We were close with 14,000 (Arrived at using the cunning formula of 100w x 100L + 'some more'). Unfortunately the actual answer was 8,900 ish.
We cried into our collective bears and Pete 'arrivederci' for his holiday. That is all
13th August 2009
As Pete's obviously not going to get round to it.....
'A sixpack of Hounds' won the quiz aagain last night, coming from behind (Danny)to claim the first prize of a crate of Bulmer's Cider,with no need for a tie break this week.
Mrs El Barnetto made her debut and specialised in films
I'm afraid I was very, very drunk
Hot nuts were the only food on offer.
That just about wraps it up I believe
'A sixpack of Hounds' won the quiz aagain last night, coming from behind (Danny)to claim the first prize of a crate of Bulmer's Cider,with no need for a tie break this week.
Mrs El Barnetto made her debut and specialised in films
I'm afraid I was very, very drunk
Hot nuts were the only food on offer.
That just about wraps it up I believe
6th August 2009
At the start of the 09/10 season the Hound fielded a new looking team. Well, the team looked new but the team members certainly didn't.
Playing under the moniker of 'The return of the hound' and due to a spate of last minute withdrawals and injuries, quiz debuts were handed to Tina and Alistair.
Robin's pre match briefing to Tina was;
"basically we need you to take Kevster's role and if there's anything we see, that we don't like, you riot". This was a role that Tina fulfilled admirably, successfully arguing with the quiz master that Thailand is actually further south than Cambodia and thus winning us an extra point.
The first round kicked things off, which is the norm and, as is the norm, we struggled with the early pace in a round that was quite frankly, eclectic.
However, the second round found us settling down and playing some quite attractive quizzing. This saw us entering the final round in first place. Some particularly pleasing answers were; Maroon5, Beetroot, The Truman Show and Richard III
However, the pace and the pressure started to tell and some tired minds started to make elementary mistakes especially in the True or false round (is it true? Or is it false?)
Unsurprisingly, when the final scores were read out, we found ourselves in a play off with all the other teams.
The tie break question was along the lines of 'What is the highest number of credited actors in a British film' and much to our amazement our answer of 243 turned out to be the closest.
So the Hound claimed the crate of beer and 3 points and Tina and Alistair go away with stats of played 1 won 1.
On to next week then.
Playing under the moniker of 'The return of the hound' and due to a spate of last minute withdrawals and injuries, quiz debuts were handed to Tina and Alistair.
Robin's pre match briefing to Tina was;
"basically we need you to take Kevster's role and if there's anything we see, that we don't like, you riot". This was a role that Tina fulfilled admirably, successfully arguing with the quiz master that Thailand is actually further south than Cambodia and thus winning us an extra point.
The first round kicked things off, which is the norm and, as is the norm, we struggled with the early pace in a round that was quite frankly, eclectic.
However, the second round found us settling down and playing some quite attractive quizzing. This saw us entering the final round in first place. Some particularly pleasing answers were; Maroon5, Beetroot, The Truman Show and Richard III
However, the pace and the pressure started to tell and some tired minds started to make elementary mistakes especially in the True or false round (is it true? Or is it false?)
Unsurprisingly, when the final scores were read out, we found ourselves in a play off with all the other teams.
The tie break question was along the lines of 'What is the highest number of credited actors in a British film' and much to our amazement our answer of 243 turned out to be the closest.
So the Hound claimed the crate of beer and 3 points and Tina and Alistair go away with stats of played 1 won 1.
On to next week then.
21st August 2009
Daren, Tina, Pete, Mrs Pete and myself took to the blocks as Usain Hound
at the Farmers last night. And like our namesake, we got a fast start,
built through the "drive phase" and cantered clear, showboating to the
crowd as we took the prize.
It didn't quite work that way though. We received an early boost as Pete
had cunningly hid Mrs B's house keys, forcing her to either roam the
streets of Croydon or join us, must have been a close decision. The quiz
normally has a number of multi choice questions and it seemed to be one
of those nights where we got more of the line decisions wrong than
right, whoever heard of an American town called Elephant for example?
That said we did enough to stay in contention and surprise, surprise, it
came down to a nine-way playoff on "What is the population of India".
Our 1.1bn estimate seemed to be based on later statistics than the
actual answer and it was not to be.
http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/indiapopulation.htm
For those food addicts, none was consumed although Pete's pre-quiz meal
was apparently a very satisfying chicken kebab.
The one disappointing note to the evening, was Daren's failure, I think
for the first time, to get the anagram question.
MEGATONS anyone?
at the Farmers last night. And like our namesake, we got a fast start,
built through the "drive phase" and cantered clear, showboating to the
crowd as we took the prize.
It didn't quite work that way though. We received an early boost as Pete
had cunningly hid Mrs B's house keys, forcing her to either roam the
streets of Croydon or join us, must have been a close decision. The quiz
normally has a number of multi choice questions and it seemed to be one
of those nights where we got more of the line decisions wrong than
right, whoever heard of an American town called Elephant for example?
That said we did enough to stay in contention and surprise, surprise, it
came down to a nine-way playoff on "What is the population of India".
Our 1.1bn estimate seemed to be based on later statistics than the
actual answer and it was not to be.
http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/indiapopulation.htm
For those food addicts, none was consumed although Pete's pre-quiz meal
was apparently a very satisfying chicken kebab.
The one disappointing note to the evening, was Daren's failure, I think
for the first time, to get the anagram question.
MEGATONS anyone?
27th August 2009
It was Kevster, Daren, Tina and myself who made up the team and we
arrived at the JF with our hopes high. The first task was selecting the
team name and scanning the paper for topical themes, it was clearly a
slow news week so we settled on "Revenge Of The Cyber Hound". Onto the
quiz and probably fair to say, a bit easier than some but that's no
consolation as it only means that those 50/50 decisions are that much
more important. One such that vexed us was "At Which London Tourist
Attraction do visitors spend the most per head?". Well in true Hound
fashion we got the right answer (Madame Tussauds) and talked ourselves
into the wrong one(O2 Arena). There were some good answers though,
Rihanna, 11, and False to name but a few.
Early on I got the impression that it was one of those nights that the
quizmaster couldn't be bothered with a tiebreak round and so it proved,
we were just off the pace the whole way and finished third to the
Pickled Eggheads. A good night had by all though.
arrived at the JF with our hopes high. The first task was selecting the
team name and scanning the paper for topical themes, it was clearly a
slow news week so we settled on "Revenge Of The Cyber Hound". Onto the
quiz and probably fair to say, a bit easier than some but that's no
consolation as it only means that those 50/50 decisions are that much
more important. One such that vexed us was "At Which London Tourist
Attraction do visitors spend the most per head?". Well in true Hound
fashion we got the right answer (Madame Tussauds) and talked ourselves
into the wrong one(O2 Arena). There were some good answers though,
Rihanna, 11, and False to name but a few.
Early on I got the impression that it was one of those nights that the
quizmaster couldn't be bothered with a tiebreak round and so it proved,
we were just off the pace the whole way and finished third to the
Pickled Eggheads. A good night had by all though.
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