The Highs And Lows Of The Hound

The Hounds gathered, as they do, sometime after 7pm. Fears of bus strikes proved unfounded and we were happily quorate. First thing to notice, Julie was quiz-mistress this week. No comment on the usual delivery but the change wasn't unpopular.

Pre quiz conversation covered the usual fluff; naturally more Quiz Up and we discovered Mrs Sullivan snr was a new kid on the block. Already top ten on "New Testament" and bubbling under on "Dogs", she'd be a formidable opponent on either subject. Kevster though had discovered his own speciality, namely "Jokes" where he effortlessly picked up a hat-trick of wins, handing out a particular beating to Keith from Wisconsin. For my own part, I was fronting up against top 10s from various States on The Big Bang Theory, with some success but mainly failures. Most noted though was a prestigious scalp on 70s music, i.e. Graham.

Onto the quiz and we were aware, with the 5 in 5 looming, this was a mere Prologue to the central feature, an amuse bouche before the main course. Have I played it down enough yet? Anyhow, with no Daren, Julie correctly decided to ditch current affairs, all depressing stuff anyway, in favour of general knowledge. Highlights? Well, Graham actually got the question before Julie once, related to Prometheous, what is the difference between a buffalo and bison? Also what does a Rocky Road consist of?

Just realised, forgot the pictures. Oh well, next up, connections and who starred in "A town like Alice" and "The Trials Of Oscar Wilde"? Subsequent answers, Clarice Starling, Robin Williams, Jack Sparrow etc. convinced us Gregory Peck was right. It wasn't but at least the fairly obvious connection was secured. Somewhere in there was a Food And Drink round. Champagne and Creme Cassis anyone? That'll be a .....

Ten pointers, well, we butchered those with Steve's absence felt on the film featuring " Discovery" and Carrie's surname. At least we weren't feeling too Moby with Harold Melvin coming through for us, though might have got that slightly wrong.

Half time featured Wotsits and Quavers and soon enough we were back on it. Julie made another popular move and abandoned the top ten for Literature. Graham loved this and authors for "Metamorphosis" and "The Life of Pi soon followed.

Rather, it would have been nice if they had have done and we hit Jeopardy very much behind the 8 ball. Any sniff and we were going to go for the max. And so we did, but sadly Blue Mountain coffee comes from Jamaica rather than Kenya, and somehow Warminster replaced Warmington (on Sea). So, on a rather strange evening, it all finished up with a verbal music round and Julie reading out the questions, rather than any actual audio. They were easy enough. So, on hearing the answers, boom followed boom as Hound answers bit the dust. Expectations were about as high as they deserved to be, i.e. lower than a snake's arse, and for once tonight, they were met in full. Had we nailed the jeopardy round, our defeat might have been respectable, as it was, well.

Still, we have bigger fish to fry and soon, it'll all be under way. Yet more features follow with March 7 and March 21 offering up the Shirrt and Anorak quizzes respectively. It really doesn't stop.