Hound and Away

In an unusual turn of events, the majority of Hounds, for various reasons, could not make the usual Thursday night slot and so it was decided to revisit one of the 5 in 5 venues. Tuesday, the popular option, settled us all on the Windsor Castle in Carshalton.

Daren and myself were to get the bus from Purley station, however in this current weather of unusual clemency, the wait at the bus stop was subjected to a deluge, which can only be described as "localised" and "severe". Once onboard, like the children we are, top deck and front seats for the trip to the venue.

A pre-cursory drink at one of the finest pubs in the south east prevailed and we met with Robson at The Hope. Daren, feeling frisky, ordered a light starter of Bee Sting and Moonshine ciders for both him and Robson respectively. When I say light, that was just the colour, the ABV hitting a potentially volatile 7.5%!

Moving on to the Windsor, sense prevailed and the usual tipples went forth.

So on to the quiz itself:

A sheet of "Celebrity" pictures was thrust under our collective hooters. Much deliberation over the various obviously and vaguely familiar faces ensued. A personal regret was not to have the courage of my convictions and insist we put Heather Watson for the final picture. Which it was, by the way! As always though majority rules.

In true Wimbledon fashion, without the aid of Hawkeye, a challenge of the photo, for which the answer was given as Kelly Clarkson, ensued as G-Force shouted no fair. After a bit of Googling, everyone's best friend (hopefully post answers being revealed) ratified the quiz setters. Mumbled apologies for the challenge were barely heard.

9 from 15 - not a bad start.

First round - General Trivia

An eclectic mix of questions we knew the answer to and those we needed to give our best guess. Examples of those being "distance of Greyhound Derby", "Which country produces the largest Harvest of strawberries" and "The nearest tube stop to the British Museum".   (1)

A reasonable 9 from 15 (again) and onto:

Second round - Crackpot round which  consists of Missing links, Box clever and Guess the year

The missing links was made up of former PMs, Eurovision winners, Chinese years of.., Batman actors and French PMs. Only one missed was the year of the Ox sandwiched between Rat and Tiger.
Box Clever was to cross out 4 boxes from 9 of countries which had not hosted the Eurovision. G-Force on typical song, an ace on that.

Guess the year and I decided, given the two life references I had from the clues (year XBox introduced to US and Gladiator Best Picture) to take the lead. Toying between 2000 and 2001 and with persuasion of the rest of the team, plumped for 2001. The other clues seemed to fit that time frame so 2001 it was. Nailed the year.
14 from 15 a great round.

3rd and final round - Music

Usually a strong round from the Hound with Graham's gaps in knowledge usually being filled by the remainder of the team. An absolutely shocking lack of recognition of the "intros" played by the quiz master meaning a score of 8.5 from a possible 15.

There was a guess the exact number round based on three questions, but we were dismally short of coming close.

1st place had a good score of 61 (Last Resort) and the Hound a fairly mediocre 46.5 and 5th.

I know the scores above don't add up to that but then I'm not overly concerned.

Back to the Arms on Thursday.

(1) 480m, USA and Russell Square