Bighound Strikes Again...

Purley Arms, Croydon
24th September 2015

Apparently we're on a run of (almost literally) hysterical Hound/Smiths pun blog titles and in my desperate attempt to conform I've gone and given away the result before I've even started - yes, we won - that's two on the trot now and more useful beer tokens to put towards this year's Xmas Xtravaganza.

Speaking of which topic, it formed part of the early discussion before the questions got underway - what is the collective Hound to do for Xmas this year?  I propose initial suggestions be submitted via a comment below for dutiful consideration and subsequent discussion.

Further 'pre-match' discussions included a de-brief on the annual, late summer, outing to the races with all who attended reporting an enjoying trip to Plumpton despite Robson of House Hound doing his level best to jigger the entire outing by forgetting the tickets.  Other discussion highlights included Robson, still of House Hound, declaring that he had played host to a house guest from Whiffenshire, G-Force and the Green one making Focused size comparisons and G-Force attempting to bring up the fact he'd bought a new washing machine for Mrs G-Force only for me to cut him off mid-flow, so to speak, as my washing machine had been, AND STILL IS, on the blink.  Please see the not-at-all-in-any-way-suggestive photo of my washing machine's filter below - an item with which I have spent far more time this last week than is good for anybody...

There was also contemptuous dismissal of the (actually) hysterical (online mostly) reactions to the lurid revelation about the Prime Minister's University initiation ceremony although it does allow me to continue the Smiths theme and link to the only satirical take on the bombshell that actually made me smile - an adapted take on a classic Smiths song, 'Pig's Mouth Strikes Again' by the long established tribute act, The Iain Duncan Smiths - song and lyrics to be heard and read here along with a charitable donation purchase as you see fit...

Onto the quiz then...

1 - Pictures - ten items of food - fortune cookies, Pineapple, Toblerone, Corn on the cob, Dragon Fruit, Artichoke, Terry's Chocolate Orange. bulb of garlic and dried apricots being the nine we got correct - the one we missed was some strange sort of squat, yellow pepper looking kind of thing - can't for the life of me remember what the given answer was...

2 - Current Affairs - more fairly standard stuff although we failed to get the King of Thailand (can't remember the question) and one of us *ahem* was overruled on a Bond theme related question so we ended up incorrectly putting Shirley Bassey and not Adele.  8/10

3 - Sport - I took my chance to immediately get my own back here (ultimately) incorrectly suggesting Fatima Whitbread when it should have been Tessa Sanderson and none of us got that 'Brown' is the belt in Judo awarded before the black belt is gained.  The round did contain a couple we were able to 'work out' so to speak as opposed to know - the actuaries amongst us disdainfully dismissed, 'how many shots would it take to compile a 147 break' with a hasty "36" and G-Force got into full on list mode to determine the most popular suffix for a Football Club...*   8/10

4 Connections - we struggled with a few specific answers but were confident enough of the connection by the end that we went back and filled in our gaps only to get a couple of them wrong!  The nine answers were Bernie Hyde (although we put Frank Bruno), George Michael, Stephen Fry, Lester Piggot, Ricky Tomlinson, Boy George, Ian Wright (although we put Mickey Quinn), Paul McCartney and Cynthia Payne - what connects them all...!? **   8/10

5 - 3 x 10 pointers - Who was Man of the Year in both 1939 and '42?  In which county is Toaster?  And which artist painted the Laughing Cavalier?  We returned a respectable but, with hindsight disappointing 20/30  ***

6 - all began with the letter 'O' - piece of cake with a clue of that significance - 10/10

7 - Jeopardy - a good few here we weren't 100% about so swerved - how many Jenga pieces are there in a box?  Which is the only US President to have served three terms?  And something I can't remember but for which the answer was Tom Collins!  ****   7/10

8 - Music - 18/20 failing completely to get either song or artist for 'Marry You' by Bruno Mars.  The bitterness of missing out on a full house sweetened considerably by the mutual satisfaction of collectively not having a clue about Bruno Mars or his music.

All of that was good enough for 138 points and first place with second place gaining 116.

The only other thing my crumpled sheet of notes reveals is, in very large writing, 'First Premiership Goalscorer?!?' which I vaguely remember was, for some reason that completely escapes me now, contentious.  Anyway, it was Brian Deane although I would've staked ten of your English pence on it being Teddy Sheringham.  Ho-hum...

And so to close with the earlier promised picture of the filter from my washing machine...

... oh, do stop giggling at the back of the class there you lot...




*  most popular Football Club suffix is 'City'

**  they all spent time in prison

***  Joseph Stalin (we said Adolf Hitler!?!), Northants and Frans Hals (special mention there to G-Force for sticking by his Laughing Cavalier artist shaped guns)

****  54 pieces in a box of Jenga and FDR was the 3-term US President apparently...

Hound Punts Update...

Update on our individual prediction punts, using the current cash-out value as the means of gauging progress...

Mr Green's  -  current cash out value, £9.88

D2's  -  current cash out value, £16.61

Mine  -  current cash out value, £9.67

Robson's  -  current cash out value, £7.26

G-Force  -  current cash out value, £11.62

Hound Soon Is Now?

Quorate by just after 6 pm, 5 hounds joined by two guest hounds, Mr S and Jane, great fun subsequently had by all.

Q: How do you make a Maltese Cross?

A: If you stretch the definition to include other Mediterranean islanders then trip him up on a flags question would seem to do the trick. As any schoolboy knows the whole island of Malta were awarded the George Cross after WWII leading to the medal itself being depicted on the Maltese flag. Well, I must of been off school when they pointed out that the medal has St George and a dragon on it. Daren guessed it to be fair, even if his logic wasn't 100% correct.

Two birthdays to report, Kevster becoming semi-obtuse before our very eyes, and Steve's coming up  at the weekend on the same day as my nephew. My nephew is getting a LEGO ninjago boulder blaster, Steve may have to settle for a pint at Plumpton races on Sunday. Kev was toasted with two rounds of variously coloured shorts, of the kind that one would normally associate with binging teenagers, purchased from our winnings (apologies for the result spoiler).

Being his birthday, Kevin naturally reminisced, regaling us with tales of lucky heather, god-squad dodging, naked protests and (it says here) hamster squeezes. Robson had problems with the size of his data and appeared quite pixilated and irked at one point. Daren visibly winced when mentioning his latest contact with a rubber glove, before reeling off an impressive list of drugs that he is on that would probably have kept even the Happy Mondays quiet for an hour or two. Steve arrived slightly later then the rest of us having come from something called 'work'. Strange times indeed. I merely reassured everyone that the pig continues to be well looked after chez moi.

There were questions too, relating to Coronation Street characters, dragons, things with a size (big, small, long, little etc.) in their title. Things starting with 'N', songs by Elvis/Freda Payne/Dolly & Creedence. The latter spookily being number one on the very day that Kevster was born, it was the one sometimes misheard as 'There's a bathroom on the right'.  We nailed the 10 pointers and got all of the jeopardy answers including the two that we crossed out. A win by a decent margin.

Today I have mostly been listening to Spear of Destiny and the Cure. Both seem to have a good groundswell of support in the Hound, so many classic songs. As well as Plumpton races notice is duly given of another Hope beer festival next weekend.

Hound In Glove

An early start for me this Thursday. With an error that couldn't even be described as schoolboy, I arrived at the gym without any footwear. This curtailed it all somewhat and consequently I was first in.

Having not been sure of a quorum 24 hours before, it was a pleasure to see all the regulars roll in though Graham didn't make it until 9ish. Daren explained that the jam had oozed out of his doughnut, thought that had happened years ago frankly. Kevster then regaled us with a biblical style tale involving 15,000 of the sugary deep fried jammy things and the London to Brighton bike ride.

The pub was filling up and the oestrogen positively wafted over from the table oposite, someone dropped and smashed a glass, everybody cheered, naturally.

"King" Louis would be this week's quizmaster and announced the picture round would be "name the fruit". Expecting the likes of Stephen Fry, Elton John etc. I was mildly disappointed to see this lot.

Being Louis there was one on the other side, a blackberry I think.

Louis is no respector of convention and round two would be the week in television. So we had

- Who's hosting BBQ Champ? The man v food fella, Adam Richman. Is he?
- What century was Ripper St set in? Never seen it but surely Victorian?
- What is the Lotto Quiz. In it to win it was our best shot but has that finished?Something with the tedious Nick Knowles in probably
- What Saturday night favourite is back. Strictly! Squeals from the table opposite.
- Which Atomic Kitten is in CBB? After Heidi Range I had nothing. Fortunately Steve wrestled Natasha Hamilton from the memory bank. Which bank? I didn't ask.
- Who hosts Room 101- we all knew
- Who's back co hosting with Phil Schofield. Liked Daren's answer of Gordon the Gopher but Holly Willoughby was more pragmatic and at the end of the day, more right
- What TV quiz show does Ben Shepherd host. Who?
- Who's got Champions League? BT sport. Might have to get that.
- Who hosts Eggheads? Did he want Dermot or Jeremy? We put both
- Nothing on Uni Challenge or Only Connect. Isn't VC-M massive though?

Next round and another curve ball from Louis with the connections as round 3. Crazee! It was monarchs of England/UK etc. and they're not an imaginative lot, 8 Henrys and 8 Edwards will testify so it wasn't tough.

Next lakes, inland seas and rivers. Cannon fodder for us Oceans, Lakes and Rivers fiends so on to 10 pointers.

Where was the Magna Carta signed - well technically it was sealed but we all knew.
Whose real name is Royston Vasey - standard quiz fare. Is he actually funny?
What's the church in Barca - Sagrada Familia from Daren. Someone should tell Louis van Gaal this as he's just spent £20m on him.

Round 5 and music anagrams. Here's a picture to save me typing.

Jeopardy and cutting to the chase, it emerged that Graham had a tellytubby a gram for his stag party! Just let that one sink in for a while, it was Po by the way. In terms of the actual quiz, what's a place of worship with a spire on an OS map. I'm probably reading more maps than most, but I also get lost more and ultimately wasn't confident enough to go 1 on 4. Along the way we also struggled with the live wire in a plug but ultimately got there, maybe get the electrician in next time.

Music

I like this picture thing.

Would we win? Daren and myself said no and we were the ones proved right. High scoring though.