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
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
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...
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