You Houndsome Devils

Bit late getting there today, detained on the golf course. Ashleigh was a late replacement for Steve who joined Daren on the injured list. The chocolates she brought along were more than welcome.

Kevster chucked in the Wimbledon 8 as a possible future Hound event, why the hell not? Apparently Ollie Reed managed two laps in one hour forty, we'd struggle to do that as a relay but has to be on the list.

Onto pictures and a bunch of newsreaders to kick us off. Knowing your Kirstys from your Kates would be important here and we kind of failed.

Current affairs and one of the more memorable questions was centred around Jermain Defoe's advert for a PA to water his flowers and grow his global brand. There's a few of us possibly entering the job market soon but somehow that one doesn't quite appeal. Otherwise we did ok, actually we didn't but who'd have known ketchup was rebranded in Israel as tomato seasoning?

Looking at the next round, I guess but don't recall that the theme was 20th century history. Been bashing the history topics in quizup so this was fun. Biafra was a new one for me though and hadn't realised the guillotine was recently abolished ( by Mitterrand ). Here's the pig.

Connections and didn't this prove to be a tricksy round. Frankly reading the answers back myself Barrel, Train, Camel, Dole, Yoke, Army, Wedge, Kindle and Murder it's still not leaping off the page. Collective nouns though was the solution.

Haven't made a note of ten pointers but recall that it was JRR we failed to name. Sure we've had this before, probably will again and still fail. John Ronald Reuel for posterity.

Next round was a list of Ls, think we got them all. Thought, we could revise everything beginning with M for next week? Then again, maybe we won't bother.

Connections and the first question "Name Moe's cat in the Simpsons" kind of put a dampener on things. We didn't know what Grevys or Burchell's was, sounded antelope but proved to be zebra. After Mr Snookhams though, we settled for what we could get and came through unscathed.

Think we got all the music, so it was onto the chocolates question. Now Graham had pre-prepared an answer of 62 so when the question of how many times was Tower Bridge raised in a year, in the absence of anything else, we went with it. Around 1000 apparently, have never seen it.

The results, not an epic Hound performance but one where we'd had to roll up our quizzing sleeves. Cutting to the chase Dave Ja Vu 126, Hound 126 and to add spice, DJV were the team formally known as the Hamsters. So tie-breaker and how many Tolpuddle martyrs were there? We didn't know and went 15, DJV 8, the answer 6. And you know what? They weren't even martyrs. Pathetic.

Well with the senior members of the DJV team about to decamp to Avonwick in Devon, it was all too much. Too young. One more quiz as an L&G employee.

Hound Predictions 2015/16...

Mr Green's

D2's

Mine

Robsons

G-Force

We're on.

I have the table's breaking down the different combination payouts if anyone wants theirs...

配方猎犬

 

Stardate August 6-15 and the away team had landed on a rocky outcrop known as the Purley Arms, frequented by the flotsam and jetsam from all 4 corners of the universe (if the universe indeed does have corners). A ‘wretched hive of scum and villainy’ and that was just our table.

 

Unable to escape we were forced to imbibe some sort of amber liquid, which slowly rendered us senseless, and then subjected to a 2 hour interrogation by the evil empress Sio Bhan.

 

First up was Dingbats. All of which were easily despatched apart from ENTURY *

 

Second round was current affairs, the first of which vexed us no end. Something along the lines of “what have biologists challenged the UK to come up with a top 10 of ?”.

“What madness is this?” I hear you ask 

“Exactly” I reply (I’m not much of a conversationalist)

Biology, as I’m sure you will agree, is a bit of a wide remit ranging as it does from Amoebas to Zebras so we plumped for insects which I believe was right.

 

Round 3, as it’s popularly known, was Cowboys, Indians and Outlaws (I know what I am, but which are you?)

This round’s most vexatious question was what custom did some Indian Tribe introduce? We were torn between scalping and war paint, as is so often the case but it turned out to be Ghost dancing. (For some reason, someone has written ‘Daren Sucks cock’ on the answer paper at this point. I hope it wasn’t me).

 

Round 4 -Loads of various people, Aldrin, Hanks, Murdoch but no obvious connection. Graham postulated, Steve Pontificated, Kevin Conjectured and Robson re-arranged himself, all to no avail. We got it into our heads that they were characters from Toy Story but turns out that they’d all appeared on the Simpsons.

 

10 pointers I think we managed all 3 which, if my maths is correct, equals 30 points (Robson, please confirm). The only one I can remember is Glandular Fever. Another one that I remember is the League of Nations.

 

I have no notes for the second half – the amber liquid was obviously kicking in by that stage.

 

There was a round where every answer started with an I. I think we aced it. Aye, we did.

 

On to the housewives favourite, the Jeopardy round (Jeopardy jepərdē –Noun = danger of loss, harm, or failure: synonyms: in danger · in peril) If I’d known any of this, I wouldn’t have entered, I’m not sure my Insurance covers me for this.

Anyway, enough of such ramblings, we swerved one question on the basis that we had the 3 x 10 pointers in the bag (It is 30 isn’t it Robson?). Much to Steve’s chagrin it turned out that the proposed answer of Hurling was actually right but no matter, onto the music. 

 

I cannot recall any of the music but helpfully at this stage someone has added to the notes “Daren is a Puff”. I know what you’re thinking - but who did the original?

 

Scores ranged from 80 – 154 with the Hound managing one of those.

 

Robson bought me a vodka to celebrate and then I woke up to the alarm telling me it was 6:10. Had it all been some weird dream? Tune into next week’s episode to find out.

* Long time no C

 

2015/16 Hound football predictions/punt...

I understand from recent communications that I'm to organise this year's collective football predictions/punt - therefore...

My thoughts;

• last year's was a shambles!
• the odds were ludicrous and we were almost all out after the first two 'hurdles'
• this year's should be more realistic and structured so as to maximise the chances of some sort of return

 

Accordingly I suggest;

• five predictions
• each prediction to be the winner of a top domestic European league of your choice (see below for the list of all 'premier' leagues covered by Bet365)
• entirely up to the individual which league/winner they choose
• bet to be placed as a 'Super Yankee', i.e. overall bet broken down into 26 individual, smaller, bets covering each of the possible combinations of 'win'
• stake to be decided by each individual according to their means/confidence
• people can choose straightforward 'five-fold' bet if they prefer

The 'Super Yankee' option should maintain interest in our respective punts for pretty much the entire season.  Keep it as straightforward as you want - England, Scotland, Spain, Germany and France - or go as diverse as you want - Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey, Wales and Denmark. 

 

For example;

1 England - Man Utd @ 5/1

2 Spain - Real Madrid @ 13/8

3 German - Bayern Munich @ 1/10

4 Holland - Ajax @ 6/4

5 Wales - TNS @ 4/9

 

As a five fold that returns at 58.43/1 but you get one prediction wrong and you get nothing.

 

As a 'Super Yankee' at £0.10 per stake (£2.60 total outlay) it returns as follows;

Wins         Odds          £££s

1/2           14.75/1       1.57
1/3           5.60/1         0.66
1/4           13.25/1       1.42
1/5           7.66/1         0.86
2/3           1.88/1         0.28
2/4           5.23/1         0.62
2/5           2.79/1         0.37
3/4           1.61/1         0.26
3/5           0.58/1         0.15
4/5           2.43/1         0.34
1/2/3        16.32/1       1.73
1/2/4        36.40/1       3.74
1/2/5        21.75/1       2.27
1/3/4        14.67/1       1.56
1/3/5        8.53/1         0.95
1/4/5        19.58/1       2.05
2/3/4        5.85/1         0.68
2/3/5        3.17/1         0.41
2/4/5        8/1              0.90
3/4/5        2.77/1         0.37
1/2/3/4     40.14/1       4.11
1/2/3/5     24.02/1       2.50
1/2/4/5     53.03/1       5.40
1/3/4/5     21.64/1       2.26
2/3/4/5     8.90/1         0.99
1/2/3/4/5  58.43/1       5.94

 

By way of another example;

Austria - Rapid Vienna @ 7/4, Denmark - FC Copenhagen @ 7/10, Ireland -  Dundalk @ 1/6, Portugal - Benfica @ 6/4 and Turkey - Galatasaray @ 7/4 comes in at 36.49/1

 

List of 'premier' domestic leagues covered on Bet365;

England, Scotland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Holland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Russian, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey & Wales

Those who were interested could possibly choose to add a sixth variable into the mix - I would suggest the winner of Euro 2016 - but to cover all the options as per the 'Super Yankee' idea above means 57 smaller, constituent bets - giving rise to the name the 'Heinz' - meaning the minimum stake would be £0.10 x 57 = £5.70

Any questions/suggestions then comment below for a response...

 

Gone Big Hound!

4 hounds present, exhaustion of weekly of carousing budget having forced Kevster to a night of confinement chez lui waiting for the results to come in. Not sure if he was more anxious about the quiz result or West Ham's latest 'let's make it as difficult for ourselves as we possibly can' Europa League exploits.

Food/drink dingbats were a welcome change to the usual celebrity mug-shots, especially as I have to confess that all 10 were included in a much larger list that I encountered a few weeks ago in a quiz at the Village Hall. The best/corniest ones that work here were...

h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o = h to o = water
Key & T = Chianti
007 Baltic = Spy Sea = Spicy
Mother may = Ma might = Marmite

I think that you get the picture. All correct.

Full marks for the current affairs round as well, including the bombshell for me that Tesco will no longer stock Capri Suns and Ribena due to their excessive sugar content. I set out on a mission on Saturday morning to clear Purley Tesco of the last few dozen boxes that they have, who doesn't love a bit of panic buying. As Robson sagely pointed out that it seems that they will continue to stock sugar though.

A fairly routine Film & TV round followed, we failed to get the year of launch for Channel 4, and who played Stella Bridger in the remake of 'The Italian Job'. 1982 and Charlize Theron respectively.

An even more routine weather based connections round followed, although we did do well to get full points with a couple of fairly obscure answers. However, we only managed 2 of the 3 10 pointers, being unable to connect the ancient roman festival of 'Hiliario' with the modern day 'April Fool's Day'.

Second half kicked off with 10 H-commencing answers. Great shout by Steve for 'Hamish Macbeth', only setback was not getting Havering as the mostly easterly London borough. I thought that this was something that the Proclaimers did whilst yomping great distances to prove their love.

After an initial Jeopardy round period  of walking the fine line that we usually create between over-prudence and throwing caution to the wind, it gradually became clear that we were indeed 'Going Big' this week. Worth saying that no other teams even contemplated it, quite a few quite difficult questions. We took an age to establish conclusively that Prince Andrew was the royal baby dropped in 1960. It seemed that only Daren knew that the word Vinegar is derived from the French for sour wine, and I solely identified Hansen's disease as leprosy. Not to mention the round the houses way that we got to a Pony is slang for £25. 660 feet in a furlong, Deep Blue beat Gary Kasparov, 4 players in a polo team, 'My Lovely Horse' as the Father Ted irish Eurovision entry, and a recognition of the real names of Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers, along with one other answer that is frankly scribble gave us one of our better Full Houses.

All except for a Rita Ora song were then correctly identified in the music round. Siobhan then broke one of the golden rules of announcing the scores in reverse order by stating first that one team had aced the jeopardy round. 172 scored for a 42 point winning margin, i.e. we would have won even if we had blown the jpdy round.

Good business was also discussed in the aim of getting the Hound social calendar agreed, see separate communication for details.