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...
Thursday 27 May 2010
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...
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