The House of Munificent Hounds

Thursday 16th April
Purley Arms

Apologies for the tardy arrival of this update - it was only yesterday when I found the notes from last week's quiz in my jacket pocket that I realised I had completely forgotten my report responsibility - sorry folks...

In the week that Game of Thrones returned to the screen, House Hound sent four protagonists, Robson, Green, D2 and I, into the latest battle for the control of Iron (Quiz) Throne against such formidable and other-worldly opponents as Johnny of the House Moon-Dog, the Ladies of the House Tramp, the mighty Runners of the House Oooosh and a few random Wildlings and at least one White Walker behind the bar... 

G-Force Hound had sent advance apologies for his absence, preferring as he did to do solo battle for the evening with the beasts of Bellowhead, at The Halls of Fairfield - this prompted the collective Hound to ponder briefly all manner of terrifically amusing word-play around brother Force and 'bellowing' - tiny minds being pleased by tiny things.  Hound Peterkins, Father Of All The Puppies, was fondly remembered once again.

So House Hound answered the rallying cry and trekked from our respective keeps and castles using the traditional routes, by now well worn through the ages - a couple of pre-match meals were declared (Singapore Fried Rice for our Robson whilst D2 smashed back a Thai Red Curry) and pre-battles nerves were assuaged by ale and discussions around recently partaken television (Bear Gryll's latest Island survival thing), a Chevy Chase film called Foul Play and how comes it was that the fatal-car-crash-fellatio scene from Peter Benchley's 'Jaws' novel never made it into Spielberg's film version...

Chief Poser of the Questions for this week was guest Grand Meister Tony - allowing the Lady Siobhan and hubby to take an active part in the week's joustings.


Round One - pictures as usual - name the nine cartoons below (plus the tenth picture of Scooby Doo on the flip side of the paper, which I've scribbled notes all over...) - standard 7/10 for House Hound

 

 

 

Round Two - Food & Drink - another 7/10 (or thereabouts) round from House Hound - most notable though was the tangential discussion thrown up by a question about rhubarb, i.e. what exactly is rhubarb?!  Herb?  Weed?  Fruit?  Flower?  Vegetable?  Salad?  Brassica? *

 

 

Round Three - books - think it was an 8/10 here - one of our mistakes being that we mistook the 'Dragon Tattoo' trilogy for what was actually, apparently, The Hunger Games.

 

Round Four - full house here - 10/10 - trickiest moment being Gavin & Stacey's surname (we eventually dredged up that the two families were 'amusingly/morbidly' named after two of Britain's most prolific serial killers...) **

 

The Three Ten Pointers - Boom, boom, BOOOOOM - got all three...  What do the following three songs have in common, "God Save The Queen", "Relax" and "My Ding-A-Ling"?  Who appeared twice at Live Aid?  What is the largest dolphin?  ***

 

Half-time arrived - one of our number went to replenish refreshments, one scouted the activity and progress of the various Houses immediately surrounding us in battle, our third member used his magic glass window to scout all manner of quiz activity in the wider world whilst I sat and twiddled my thumbs for five full minutes.

 

Round Five - a return to the much disliked 'Top Ten' but, not a bad one this...  Name ten out of the 18 USA States that do NOT have the death penalty...  House Hound was good, once again, for 7/10  ****

 

Round Six - Jeopardy - can't entirely remember but piecing it back together bit by bit I'm pretty sure we either swerved one and got nine correct or got all ten of them - who actually knows...

 

Round Seven - Music - this was split into two rounds of ten questions - ten verbal and ten 'audio' - again, can't be 100% sure from the notes but seems like House Hound was good for 18/20.  In particularly BIG lettering in my notes I have written 'Many of Horror' by Biffy Clyro but quite why is anyone's guess - I like to think some sort of emotive, but brutal, fight scene was being won by House Hound to a Biffy Clyro soundtrack but, to be honest, I don't remember that happening...

 

Box of chocolates question - closest answer wins - How many films did Laurel & Hardy make?  We said 34 and were nowhere close...  *****

 

When battle was concluded, the dead counted and survivor's wounds licked and strapped, it transpired that seven Great Houses had contested this latest battle for the Quiz Throne of Purley but, as ever, there could be only one - and so it was that, at the risk of horribly mixing fantasy fiction franchise tag-lines, House Hound wrestled back control of the Quiz Throne with a body-count of 172 points...

 

And so it was, again (!), that House Hound added 50 more gold widgets to the collective coffers although, during a parlez with representatives of another participating House it was decided their need was greater than our own and this week's prize was donated to their London Marathon requiring cause. ******

 

We supped up, bade brotherly farewells and trekked out across the hinterlands, ever watchful for Wildlings, White Walkers and Bus Drivers.

 

 

 

* Hilariously (?!) Rhubarb seems to be more than one thing depending on your sanity/nationality - most of the world considers it a vegetable whilst the USA classifies it as a fruit which may, or may not have, something to do with the difference in importation taxes on the two classifications...

 

** Gavin & Stacey Shipman

***  All three songs were banned by the BBC, Phil Collins, the Killer Whale

**** USA States with/without the Death Penalty

*****  It's either 107, or 106...

******  Support the lads London Marathon fund-raising activities here - on Facebook - Fund raising donation page...

The Sound of the Hound

Another week, it sort of was and it wasn't. Memories from last week were so murky we'd have needed very little persuading that the quiz didn't really happen at all. So much so that a few of us felt the need to slot in an inbetweener of which more later.

Graham was away doing football things but the rest of us were all in situ early. Politics is hard to avoid at present and I took some online "alignment" test. Now it'll surprise no-one that UKIP and Tory had the best match but I was strangely around 30% aligned to Labour. Have they adopted some decent policies or have I gone all pinko liberal? Neither seems likely.

That dispatched, more of our favourite pre-quiz activity and Quizup (slight contradiction there). While I moved smoothly towards world domination, Kevster, aided by the rest of the gang was hellbent on catching some character known only as "Agozza" (playing from UK). I think they got there.

First round pictures, look I've tried to insert a picture but it hasn't worked, alright?  (*edit - now fixed*)

 

Anyhow, they were all Spitting Image type caricatures; most were effortlessly dispatched other than one foxy older bird that vexed us. Steve did successfully tag her as Helen Mirren but we were less successful with foxy younger bird Angelina Jolie who we confused with Michael Jackson. Other than race, gender and age, good job.

Current affairs and I've got questions down but no answers. Plastic Jesus, the new 6th largest supermarket in the Uk and the best student experience in the UK featured large, Bath apparently.

Famous firsts next, so none of the Hound collective likely to feature, Desmonds all round I'd wager. Flag to be planted at the South Pole, person to see Jesus after crucifixion and red card for England did though. Norway, Mary Magdalen* and Alan Mullery.

* Luke disagrees on this, presumably Siobhan went with the other three fellas.

Connections, and answers like Candlestick, Rolling Stone and James Dean pointed us the way of American Pie references. This left some backsolving to do, but answers of Lenin for the Good Life cockerel and Chevy (Chase) for some 1978 film we hadn't heard of were too obscure to dig out.

10 pointers and a nice bit of entomology got us "Vestiphobia", the Red Dwarf cat we knew plus digitalis were a confident three. Half time snacks ensued, Spieth went 8 under and no doubt more Agozza chasing plus lie of the land establishing followed.

The "firsts" theme continued in the second half with first lines of songs. Now Daren must have upped his solution strength on the vaping as for the first half he was really nowhere. Thankfully one of us was top ten in the world on music (odd one out) plus Steve bagging "Living La Vida Loca" ensured we saw it through. They weren't really that tough.

Jeopardy and we got 9 from 9, not with 100% confidence but reasonably so until we were faced with what type of creature is a drongo? Three of us weren't much help, Daren's best shot was bird but we weren't solid enough and passed - it proved to be bird.

Music - we tend to get 17 here and probably did thereabouts. Riders On The Storm and Solsbury Hill were highlights.

Last question for the Starburst was the lengths of the Thames in miles. Childs play for someone in the top 10 in the UK on Oceans, Lakes and Rivers* and a flood of starbursts resulted. I discovered speaking while holding one in your mouth makes you sound, and I should choose the word carefully here, a bit remedial - that's the best I can do.

* Only UK, I know, barely seems worth mentioning.

On to scores and the Jeopardy had cost us, losing by twenty points. We've won our share and funds are hardly low so no problem. Now, some feedback from the Tuesday quiz, I'll keep it brief as running low on room:

- a marvellous pint and roll in the Hope beforehand

- a boxer, a fighter by his trade, licking a girl's arse

- these pictures (crosses fingers)



 

That didn't work either did it? (*edit - image fixed again*)  Anyway on the all important sum we went too high on Stones top 20 hits and finished around 4th. Always good fun though.

The Maundy Hounds of Borough...

Various pubs in Borough but culminating in the usual Purley Arms, Croydon
2nd April 2015

The collective Hound is a curiously contrived beast - several parts relentless tradition and virtually equal measures of 'innovation' and the breaking of new ground.  And so this last Maundy Thursday the Hound was to be found in fine and full force - ALL core hounds present and correct - making good on this year's traditional chapter of Maundy Thursday extended quizzing escapade.  Strict observance was honoured by the midday start and the (almost entirely pointless) participation in a quiz at the end of it and 'adventure' was provided by a tour of new pubs in a new area.

I say 'new pubs in a new area' but the truth is that the Borough area outside of London Bridge station is not exactly 'new' and for anyone who's ever had any sort of business in our fine capital the multitude of drinking establishments in and around the place are very probably very well known.  But, no matter - the Hound hadn't done collective business here before and so it was deemed high time that it did...

We convened via our various routes in what is possibly the area's biggest and most frequented pub - the Barrow Boy & Banker - a personal favourite of mine and the one in the area I've probably spent most time/money in but today, and rightly so, it was serving merely as an initial staging post.  We arrived over the space of 20 minutes or so, quaffed a pint with varying rapidity and moved on...

Next up The Globe - another traditional boozer of similar age but it struggled against the fact that Hound thirsts were high - both for liquid and exploration - we lasted a relatively rapidly downed pint and moved swiftly to The Market Porter, bigger than The Globe and more spread out and rambling than The Barrow Boy, the Hound filled it's glasses with Gloucester Gold (Robson), Amber Ale (Lord Peterkins) a Guinness for G-Force and 3 x 'numbers' for D2, Green and yours.  Three pubs in and we were clearly settling to our task - conversation was becoming more earnest and by the time we finished our pints and moved on we all agreed that 'Politics' had been thoroughly covered and wouldn't need revisiting...

Shortly before departing The Market Porter...

Next stop was a literal stone's throw away, The Wheatsheaf - in the absolute heart of the food market for which Borough is most famously known.  Cracking pub seemingly specialising in local brews - even The Hound's usually hopelessly unadventurous lager drinkers were tempted to experiment and went for pints of Camden Pils and Camden Hell - both of which were lovely.  We settled in a covered courtyard kind of area and supped well.  Lord Peterkins had detoured into the market itself en-route (for a handsome looking Malaysian chicken curry) and provided the inspiration for a quick trolley-dash expedition round the market whilst the second round of beers was procured.  The shopping resulted in a selection of bread, brie and saucisson to be literally torn into and shared around - D2 also chose this at the venue to unleash the day's only 'piece-de-resistance' in the form of some impressively, but not fatally, hot chilli chocolate...

Dig in - focaccia, truffle-brie, venison saucisson and chilli chocolate...

 

With all comestibles rapidly going the same way as the tipples we vacated and headed for The Southwark Tavern where the main topics of discussion were how good that brie had been and what a lovely backdrop the Shard would make if only someone could get a photo of it...

 

 

Some Hounds in silhouetted relief against the Shard, as spotted earlier...

 

After one pint we were up and off again to The George Inn which is found down a side road off the approach to London Bridge in a courtyard setting.  Several of us had been here before together so we quickly settled in, to the extent that a deck of cards was quickly cracked out and, as during last year's Maundy Odyssey, we did joue-au-tete-de-merde...  G-Force was unfamiliar with the game but picked it up quickly and we stayed for a couple of pints worth of games.  D2 received a phone call which necessitated his departure but the rest of us supped it up, sucked it up and stumbled off in the direction of whichever London Bridge platform could deliver us directly to Purley Oaks.

 

Despite the proximity and our alleged intelligence we pretty much all managed to lose each other on the stroll to and through London Bridge - some bought food, some didn't, some bought booze for the journey, some didn't, some managed to sit together for the journey, some didn't.  Never the less we all coalesced on the platform at Purley Oaks and yomped avec plus vitesse to the Purley Arms for the day's lengthy denouement.

 

As a creature of habit The Hound is usually in situ for the Purley Arms quiz by shortly after 7pm - favourite table, favourite seats - sad but true.  After all the nonsense detailed above we were somewhat later than 7pm and nowhere near being able to secure our preferred vantage point, so we perched on high stools around a small round table and tried to tell each other that we weren't already eight pints into it and this was just another normal Thursday quiz.  That didn't last long though 'cos the first round of pictures was handed out - all images of popular (board) games from the 70s/80s/90s - despite them all looking familiar we were untypically but totally understandably hazy on the details and only managed 6/10.

 

My notes tell me that round 2 was on 'TVs, Pubs & Bars' but I've nothing more written down than that.  To be honest, as per last year, there isn't really sufficient to build any sort of worthwhile narrative on - the connections round was drinks related - it looks like we got the three ten point questions - the jeopardy round was not to our liking, all themed around Disney songs - and the Top Ten round was highest paid footballers - music round seemed bang-on-average with us missing one entirely and not recognising which Duffy song it was we'd heard twice.

 

No mention of the chocolate-box question so who knows what happened there.

 

At the end of a very long day The Hound was good for 140 points which, to be fair, is not a bad effort - but on the day there were three scores better than that with the winners clocking up 172 - probably somewhere around the number of collective units the Hound had knocked off in the previous ten hours...

 

Another messy Maundy marathon - back to normal with a couple of straightforward quizzes next week and then looking onwards to The Oaks...

 

 

Fourth and Hound

So usual Thursday night ritual of settling into the Purley Arms with an aim of 7pm. Green Hound and Daren met at Purley station with D2 muttering something about you can tell it’s the end of financial year whilst fielding a call from a work colleague. Surely that counts as O/T?

In situ at the Arms the usual pre-amble conversations of speculation, ridiculous news stories and the general attempt to become suitably lubricated to attempt this week’s quiz, only interrupted by the seemingly regular bellowing outbursts of G-Force’s Quiz Up progress. On the subject of lubrication, Robson, having finished a meeting in London early and not wanting to head home only to come out again was leading the line already “3 in”. As a result, as the rest of the Hound supped their 2^nd, decided to announce that he had “a horse tip for the weekend” (sic). General hilarity ensued with shouts that he should make sure that he washes it thoroughly before he returns it!

Anyway, on to the quiz:

Round one: Pictures

Possibly the easiest in a long time, as it was cartoon characters and 10 were settled upon within mere seconds.

Round 2 – Current affairs

A fair show this week with answers, the usual 6 to 7 giving way to 8! The failures being Clydesdales Bank’s issue of what to celebrate the Forth Bridge (I forget which) anniversary and the Royal Mail “best” postcode.*
Round 3 – Geography

As William Pitt the younger said in Blackadder there should be tougher sentences for Geography teachers! However, 7 out of 10 with one that annoyed G-Force being the Capital City that was bordered by 2 countries, Bratislava being the answer.
Round 4 – Connections

8 out of 10 only missing Voltaire and the connection which was they were all veggies. Actually looking back over the list including Joanna Lumley, Damon Albarn, George Harrison, Ghandi and Martina Navratalova, no big surprise.

10 pointers – All nailed, the only discussion was around the UK name for a “bellhop” which we settled upon Porter.

Round 5 – Female characters which film?

8 out 10! All fairly easy, stumbling blocks were Alex Forrest and Annie Wilkes, (Fatal Attraction and Misery respectively)

Round 6 – Jeopardy

Quite possibly the easiest jeopardy round forever, 3 teams nailed this round which is new territory. Questions ranged from Fergie’s (Sarah not Stacy) books helicopter’s name, highest city above sea level to Corrie’s Manchester suburb name.

Round 7 & 8 – Music

A usual Hound show of around 80 to 85%. Apologies due to lateness and imbibing the notes seem to be fairly sketchy here. Although I have written down that there was an altercation about Michael Buble, with, seemingly, shouts of “There’s always a Buble!”. I'm not sure if there was or not!

So to the scores, in 4^th with 136 points The Busters, in 3^rd with 168 points Ladies and the Tramp, in 2^nd with  171 points King Kong Balls and winning the quiz, for the 4^th time on the bounce, with 173 points. The Hound!

And so the Hound having hit hard, faded away into the night like a collection of quiz Ninjas to their respective places of slumber or whatever fast food outlets were still available at the late hour. No doubt, whatever, it would have been "epic",
No chance of a repeat performance on Thursday the 2^nd April as the Hound has its annual Maundy Thursday Hound do which involves early doors in Borough Market’s environ’s drinking establishments.  More to follow in this respect.

 *Plastic fiver and Bebington apparently