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