Tie-Break Hound

So it came down to this. The Anoraks 147, The Hound 147. An impasse had been reached after two hard hours of quizzing and it would be decided by one question. The pub had been offered the choice of whether the money should be split but they wanted a tie-break. One question would decide our destiny, one question to rule them all.

Earlier in the evening such an outcome had seemed so unlikely. Daren, Kevster, Graham and myself had assembled and as usual, the weighty topics of the day were under discussion. As such, had anyone actually seen George, the Purley Arms ghost? Why does asparagus make piss smell so bad and are McBusted really the ultimate supergroup? Why, even is there a name for a surely impossible 6 under par on a golf hole (a phoenix) when the far more common, in my experience, two over is a prosaic double-bogey?

We were pondering such imponderables when in walked Pete! Maybe it would be one of those nights?

So the key question was, which was the first band to make 50 TOTP appearances?. The Stones had their supporters but were maybe too global by 1967. Taking the Purley factor into account, we plumped for Status Quo. It was in Siobhan's hands now.

The quiz itself had taken an unfamiliar start, we were initially presented with a sheet of company and organisational logos. Most were simple but we failed on a very odd thing, though we were told we'd probably get the marks anyway. How strange. Round 2, the usual current affairs, we'd done our homework and were only flummoxed by a seemingly extinct fruit found in South America. Round 3 was World War 1. I enjoyed this round and we performed well, failing only to pinpoint a monument in Belgium.

Round 4 and we'd all had a punt at the connection. Maybe lasting longest was Graham with Dickens characters but we got to the end and didn't have a darn clue. The fictional Marty McFly seemed the key but we weren't getting it. Turned out we got two wrong which didn't help at all, it was paper.

Ten pointers are where it can be won and lost and we acquitted ourselves well. Daren proffered "fear of one's self" for auto phobia and Pete confidently provided "Annie Get Your Gun" for the film featuring There's No Business Like Show Business. Always found Pete's encyclopaedic knowledge of musicals a bit odd frankly. The third was a simple question on Canadian provinces and we reached half time in good shape.

So, awaiting the answer and there was good news and bad news. The good news, it was the Quo! Bad, The Anoraks knew it as well and there would be another question, a nearest the pin. Hoping for a mathematical one, we had our wish with "how many sides has an enneadecagon"? Not so good, none of us knew it. Graham offered the only solution, 11 and we awaited our fate.

After the oranges and we were greeted with a top ten of the highest earning women in music. Now being mature quizzers we eschewed the obvious double entendres so comments like "we have to have Rihanna", "there's got to be room for Katy Perry" and "I fancy Nicole Scherzinger" were nowhere to be heard. There were different approaches to strategy though. Kevster favoured mature artists with substantial back catalogues, Madonna, Bush etc. while Graham went more for the teen options, Swift, Trainor and the like. My own preference was for the Latinos, J Lo, Shakira et al, Pete was strangely silent. It made no difference though and the usual 7 resulted.

Jeopardy and a confident start was derailed by which year premium bonds were introduced. All thoughts of going for the max were over but we still collected 8 swerving only the war including the Battle of Edge Hill. Probably English Civil and was English Civil.

Music, can't remember and we won the chocolates but I don't know how, lifts in the Empire State. It would surely take a good score to live with the Hound this week.

And so it proved, we had gone 7 rounds toe to toe with The Anoraks and the judges couldn't split us. The enneadecagon, it had 19 sides and the Anoraks had got it. The Hound had given everything but met it's match.

At this point the tiebreaker had meant we'd missed last orders so I was off.