Lost and Hound

My second TQSR blog, and I am acutely aware of my schoolboy error the first time around. I never came up with a catchy title, preferably with some Hound based pun. No danger of that this time and the above tells the story, the Hound returned and we lost. Indeed, it seems inevitable that somebody soon will make a connection between his presence and our collective fortunes. The worrying trend hasn't been bucked since as far back as records began. (see * below). It can only be a matter of time, I wonder who will broach it first? For the record it would have been 'Hounding at the Moon' the first time around, you probably won't recall that we lost that week due to failing to distinguish a Harvest from a Hunters Moon (memo to self, blog after a win next time).

 

We began full of optimism, despite a creeping uncertainty about our scribes failure to turn up, based on certain symptoms described last week . It has to be said though that when news filtered through that it was due to what is usually called a heart event these days spirits were more than dampened. I won't say any more here because I still don't know much detail, but best wishes are sent to Daren from all Hounds and other well wishers from the opposing teams. .   . 

Brief synopsis of questions/answers as follows;

- Picture Round: Only Doris Rooney missed (Wayne's wife). 

- Current Affairs: A poor knowledge of pop celebrity litigation let us down (Adele got thousands because someone photographed her baby, and Duran Duran are suing their own American fan club for approx. $2.34). We were 4 out on the Indian boy's 'teeth' 228 v 232, and also managed to miss hilarious incidents involving a US bank robber who wore a t-shirt with his own name on and a swiss teenager whose kentucky chicken burger already had a bite taken out of it when he unwrapped it.These latter two provoked unpleasant memories of Theo's True/False round, a slow week for news indeed.

- Commonwealth Games: Inspired guesswork almost landed us full marks, but we changed number of host countries from 9 to 10 at the last minute on the grounds that we had probably missed one. We hadn't. 

- Connections Round: the answers all included 2 letter words that can be seen on the periodic table. Robin got it on Q3/4, some other teams never managed it all. We missed a Kevin Costner spy film, but managed to come up with a guess that included 2 elements, worth a point surely.  

- 3 x Ten Pointers: All good. Pipistrelle/bat, Slowhand/Eric Clapton, something to do with South Africa I think.

- Top Ten: Making an unwelcome return. The 10 countries with most Commonwealth Gold Medals over the years would you believe. Didn't really pay attention to the answers, but I expect that we got 7 anyway.

- Jeopardy Round: It has just taken me 90 seconds and 4 tries to spell Jaeorperdy correctly. Erred on the side of the caution this week only answering 6, with only 1 not 100% certain (Frisbee = toy first called Pluto Platter when invented in 1958). We swerved C-wealth Games Men's 100m record holder (Ben Johnson 9.88s), Who hit Achilles heel with an arrow (can't remember but not anyone that we considered), a question where the answer was 'Doctor's Orders', and what gift is traditionally given for a 20th wedding anniversary (China). Me and Mrs O reach 16 next week, which I believe is Watermelon.

- Music Round: 20 out of 20, I'm disappointed you even ask.  

We weren't that close, Johnny & The Moondogs got 8 in the jeopardy and one would assume more Current Affairs than us.

It took me a while to remember why my crib sheet had 'Psyche - Goodbye Horses' written in Kev's fair hand on it, but having checked it out I have to say that the 'Immortality Mix' is my favourite. For my part can I recommend a ska tune called Swing It Easy by the Soul Vendors, Johnny Vaughan uses it for background on his Talk Sport show and it's got right in my head. Dub version is pretty good too.   

*(I began recording this phenomonen three weeks ago). 

posted by kevster on behalf of G-Hound

 

 

Whilst The Hound is away the hounds fiddle as metaphors burn...

The Purley Arms
17th July 2014

In the absence of The actual Hound, the collective Hound gathered once again to uphold his absent end and mount another raid on the prize fund to boost the canine coffers...

One thing that has happened in The Hound's absence and which must, in your correspondent's opinion, be addressed immediately is the changing of our table of choice from a nice roomy oblong one to a piddly little, squashed, round one - by the time we're several rounds and a packet of Wotsits into it there is no room left for anything else - back to the traditional tables asap please...

And it is this justification that I am tenuously clinging to for the relative paucity of this week's report - by the time Dirren had the pen, G-Dog had his notes, and half a dozen glasses were in varying stages of being drained there was simply no room left for me to concentrate on what was going on, let alone take notes that may subsequently help me write something worthwhile...

And so;
- there was a picture round - famous people with July birthdays - we absolutely romped it - 10/10
- there was a current affairs round during which I was mildly upset to learn that apparently Jeremy Kyle is a West Ham United supporter - 6/10
- can't quite recall, even with G-Dog's 'notes', the gist of round three but we were damn good at it - 10/10 (might've been 'food and drink')
- we got most of the individual answers in the connections round but can't for the life of me remember what the connection was or whether we got it...
- and we got all three of the ten point bonus questions, apparently

In the second half;
- we bossed the round on opening lyrics to songs 10/10
- did quite well in whatever was next and
- bossed the music round

I seem to remember that our 'estimate for the box of chocolates' was dreadful - although that could've been the previous week - and when all was said and done we'd got a total of 152 and a comfortable victory.

Yay for the collective Hound and thrice times yay again - The actual Hound is now back amongst us and so we continue...

Hound of the Butler –Sloss’

 

No Robson, Pete or Steve this week due to various encumbrances so it was down to a bare 3 of me, Graham and Kevster.

 

Pre match ruminations centred on the World Cup and David Luis in particular with agreement that he plays football ‘like a puppy chasing a paper bag on a windy day’.

 

When trying to identify possible current affairs questions Kevster came up with “and of course don’t forget Baroness Butler-Sloss”

 

There then followed the opening round of pictures of Tom’s in films. Well, 6 Tom Hanks and 4 Tom Cruise, which was a bit random but fairly routine.

 

Then, onto the aforementioned ‘Current Affairs’ round which contained questions about aeroplane near misses in Barcelona, Justin Bieber being naughty with eggs and Duncan Bannantyne leaving Dragon’s Den.

 

Then the question of “who is due to lead the Parliamentary inquiry into Paedophiles?” dropped into our laps

 

“Schloss –Brown?”

“Saxe Coburg?”

“Blox Schloss?”

“I don’t think she was a Baroness you know”

 

Despite it being less than an hour since Kevster clearly instructed us not to forget her name – we had!

 

Round 3 was on Europe and the bone of contention in this round was which City, before London, has hosted the modern Olympics 3 times. This made Graham so mad he determined there and then to write out all the host cities since 1896. What we didn’t know was that there was an unofficial Olympic games held in Athens in 1906. Remember that, it will make a good quiz question.

 

The connections round was, amongst others, Arthur Lowe, Mrs Beeton, Gerry Adams and Craig David giving the somewhat surprising answer of ‘Darts players’, which we recognised.

 

The 3 Ten pointers this week were fairly easy; St Swithin’s day is in July, Baldrick from Blackadder and a London Bridge that is also a make of car being Vauxhall.

 

The second half of the quiz is more of a blur but I remember we got 9 out of 10 for the Jeopardy round and doing well to avoid the bear trap on the question of ‘what is the longest river in Europe?’ The answer is the Volga. We also got near perfect marks for the last lines of books only failing to recognise '"Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." *

 

The music was fine and for once we were fairly confident that we’d be up there, having only slipped up on the Butler Sloss, a couple of Tom Films, 1 Book, the Volga and Athens questions, so it was a surprise to be beaten into second place 161 – 155.

 

Oh well, onto next week

 

* Catcher in the Rye

 

 

Dark and stormy hound

Well, as they say, if the mountain won't come to Muhammed, Muhammad must go to the mountain. In other words, do something about it. To place things, I'd watched a German annihilation of Brazil only marginally less complete than the fixture against Poland in 1939, the night was still young, and an exiled Hound on a small island far far away needed action. There had been precious few status reports since my departure, various excuses had been presented, the most ludicrous being the need to preserve Kevster's sanity. Well, you hardly need me to say it but that ship has long since sailed sister. So, in the absence of news, create your own.

As such, I took myself off to the weekly Tuesday night quiz at the Robin Hood, you all know it. I entered there tout seule, uncharacteristically though for a quiz in my experience, it all started on time. A team of 3 near me were doing the quiz, I tossed over a couple of answers, e.g. what event did the Duke of Kent (to later becomes George VI) take part in 1926 (answer at the end). Luckily it was right and their confidence was won. So welcome Hounds for the night Judy, David and David. The resulting team comprising two pharmacists and two actuaries. A potion for success? We would see.

I didn't take notes as such, so my memory might be fading but the blog must go on. It was general knowledge evening and all fairly routine by way of quiz format, no audio, no jeopardy, no pictures. What we did get though is a fair few USA themed things though so I give you, the name of the "Show Me" state, 2014 Stanley Cup winners, who plays in "The Game", what is a very dextrous omnivore and which president was offered terms for the Chicago Penguins, or something like that. Thankfully David knew all these, must have been like shelling peas for him. There were plenty of questions I could contribute on though, and the trans atlantic knowledge bases slotted in well. An inspired last round where we nailed all ten sealed it and "Brazil Nuts" - I couldn't persuade them to change their name for the night, romped home by 5.

Thing is as well, they're a bit like us and accumulate cash from their occasional wins for the odd night out together. I refused any share, grateful to be part of the glory. Hope to take them on with a work team and no football distractions next week otherwise they may have to put up with me again.

Answers

Wimbledon - think he played in The King's Speech?
Maryland - I asked David why, can't remember the response
LA Kings - hockey apparently
Harvard v Yale, equivalent of ou Boat Race I guess
Raccoon - well, well
Gerald Ford - about the only thing he's remembered for

Also 7-1. Did that really happen?