Adi Dazzling Hound

Thursday 13th November 2014
Purley Arms

Towards the end of your average football season you'll struggle to keep count of the number of times a commentator or pundit ponders aloud as to whether the point(s) from the late snatched draw or win will prove crucial in avoiding relegation and you'll hear almost continual speculation as to whether the goal just scored/conceded could be the goal that wins/loses the Title.  All of which superficial hyperbole is generally taken with suitable amounts of pinched salt and precious little consideration - generally people realise that the equalising goal that earned the point in the third game of the season is just as significant in the season's overall outcome as the penalty save that ensured the win that avoids relegation in the season's last game.

But is it?!  Logically, yes, of course it is.  But can there ever exist circumstances in which the scoring of a specific goal, the achievement of a specific point, are such that its importance becomes of greater significance than logic alone allows?  Hmmmmm...

Towards the end of, what most who were present reported as, another generic week, The Hound gathered to be about its business with sore wounds from last week's most drawn out of sudden death defeats still being collectively nursed.  The Green One's presence was missed and Lord Peterkins was fondly recalled whilst the normal pre match routines were observed.  Regular readers will be aroused to note that pre-quiz conversation topics included;
- D2 being generally out of control on London's tube network and on the floor of a specific tube train, as he wended his sotted way home from Manchester,
- G-Force's young lad being enrolled into The Eagles group within his local Cub Pack (Eagles being deemed preferable to Wolves I think - although I might have remembered that 100% incorrectly...),
- unseemly ablutions being performed decades ago in the back garden of Windsor Davies' house...
- potential songs for inclusion on Robson Hound's latest musical project - a high-tempo, not in anyway 'camp' at all, oh-no-Siree-Bob, Spotify playlist suitable for accompanying him during sweat-soaked, lung-busting, muscle-shredding, gym work-outs...
- the arrival of The Hamsters, foes of old, and ensuing discussions based on Thailand travel
- the brief appearance, as spotted from afar, of a toxic-blue looking drink on the bar *ahem*, AND
- some esoterically fascinating discussion about word oddities - more of which later...***

And then the quiz kicked off.

Round 1 - Dingbats - becoming irritating frankly but nonetheless seen off for a ten out of ten...

Round 2 - Current Affairs - usual frothy tosh - came out of it with 7.5 out of ten which is just about par...

Round 3 - Science & Nature - massively irritating one this - 'the London structure designed as an observancy for the heavens' - at least three of us pondered whether it was the Monument but, having stood at the foot of the Monument only 72 hours earlier - reading the full inscription at its base - I confidently ventured that it was NOT the Monument.  It was.  Of course.  Nine out of ten.

Round 4 - Connection - we knew the answers to the first nine questions - Rita Ora, Gazelle, Franz Beckenbauer, Tobacco, Superstars, Stan Smith, Dragon, Pharrell Williams & Tiger - but what was the connection...?

Round 5 - the three 10 Point questions - we knew who wrote 'The Railway Children' but we didn't know the name of Dustin Hoffman's character in Tootsie OR the country in which Ted Dexter was born...*****

Round 6 - Top Ten - polite words only barely exist to express our collective frustration with this most irritating of rounds.  This week's 'topic' was "Top Ten Car Models of 2014"?!?  As per usual we wrote down more than a dozen options, argued about almost all of them, crossed out at least two that would've eventually scored us points and settled for what we hoped/assumed would be our traditional seven out of ten...  The other frustrating element of this round is the rapidity with which the correct answers are eventually disclosed - they're rattled off and none of us are ever really sure what we got right and what we didn't.  I've Googled around it and it seems like the 'definitive' ten is; Fiesta, Focus, Corsa, Golf, Astra, Qashqui, Polo, (Audi) A3, (Fiat) 500 and (BMW) 3 series.  In D2's defence he had said A3 and 3 Series and, to be similarly fair to myself, I had said Polo and 'that Nissan with the daft name that looks like a small 4x4'...  Pfffff - whatever - we got something around six out of ten.

Round 7 - Jeopardy - we knew that one wrong answer would completely do for us but we also felt that we needed the extra points available for getting them all right - as the individual questions rolled by we were increasingly confident and, rightly or wrongly, we decided to submit answers for all ten...

Round 8 - Music - 'standard' but not quite 'textbook' - lack of familiarity with the works of Sam Smith and Tommy Edwards let us down specifically - things are a bit vague by now but something like 17 out of 20...

The evening's quotient of controversy was then added to with the always strangely important 'first-correct-answer-wins' question for the bag of sweets/chocolates.  This week's was for a bag of Minstrels and the question was 'St. Helier is the capital of which country?'  Robson Hound had positioned himself advantageously for speedy submission of our answer but then we fatally dithered - St Helier is the capital of Jersey but Jersey isn't a country - PANIC - submit the answer 'Jersey' anyway and find that whilst (allegedly) correct we got it in too late...  Pffffffff...

And so to the results...

After last week's dead-heat and subsequent tie-breaker disappointment The Hound was mighty relieved to have won it by one point - we got 148, the runners-up therefore 147.

And so back to my opening theme...

Last week was lost on a tie-breaker question - or was it actually lost on an incorrect answer to a much less superficially significant, earlier, question?  And this week was won by a single point - begging the question, were any of the single points we scored more important than the others?  I still say that logically, nope, none of our answers were more important than the other but, BUT, when the only person in the ENTIRE PUB who knows that the connection to all the answers of round 4 is that they're all Adidas Trainer brands and he (D2) is on your side then, given the absolute obscurity of that knowledge gem, I have to conclude that sometimes some answers/points are more significant than others.


*** - 'word oddities'; (answers to be given in the comments section)
- what are the longest words that can be played on a musical instrument?
- what is the longest word whose letters are arranged in reverse alphabetical order?
- what is the longest word whose letters are alternating consonants and vowels?
- what is the shortest word to feature all five vowels in alphabetical order?
- what is the longest word to feature only one vowel?
- what is the only English word with four consecutive pairs of double letters?
- which two words (18 letters long) are the longest examples of anagrams of each other?!

All the answers to the above, and plenty more, can be found here;
http://www.rinkworks.com/words/oddities.shtml



***** - Dustin Hoffman's character - Dorothy and Ted Dexter was born in Italy

postscript
As ever, the traditional, EPIC, kebab was procured en route home and enjoyed immediately upon arrival...