Hound, As Leeds Lose. Oh What EvEr Next?

 

Same team as for Saturday's away draw with Bolton. Sombrero Steve's first home match in charge, looking for a home win for the first time in nearly 8 months. Could there really be cause for optim... No!, didn't even notice that they had kicked off and Blackburn are ahead after 17  seconds. Worse news that Rhodes didn't score it, his customary goal yet to come, oh there it is 5 minutes in. Maybe I won't be quite so distracted as I thought from the quiz. Can't hear what the Elland Road crowd are singing, but imagine that both the Italian and the Scot are squirming in their seats. Definitely wouldn't trust the Scot near my pie and chips, and don't trust him near my team either. Surprisingly little abuse for me, decked out like a Christmas tree, from the resident Chelsea contingent. Sadly, they probably find Leeds underperforming (a euphemism if ever there was one) almost as predictable as I do.

First half of the quiz was heavily Halloween themed. We got all of the horror films in the pictures round, except for incorrectly naming 'Child's Play' as 'Chucky'.  Poor Current Affairs round, not knowing the name of a gun toting dog, venue of the Bond premiere, the former occupation of Jimmy Morales now Guatemalan president, or which foul mouthed actress said something or other. Answers were Barbara Windsor, TV comic, Trigger and the Royal Albert Hall, though not necessarily in that order. Missed two in the vaguely Halloween related round, decent effort.

All of 1-9 answered correctly in the connections round, but 3 bewildered faces as we sought to even find a connection for any chosen 3. The answer was staring us in the face, though Robson rather weakly claimed it was more difficult upside down, don't stand on your head I say. We now have to add checking for acronyms to the golden rules of the connections round, after considering that they all have a birthday today, or all relate to some specific kind of flora (we went for daffodils, don't think that this will even enable you to guess one of the answers), etc. See if you can get from the following list (see also Blog title).

Heptagon
Adele
Little Women
Life of Pi
Orang-Utan
When Harry Met Sally
Eagle
Elle McPherson
Norwich City

To be fair, only the young uns with their accompanying elder actually got it right.

Missed Templeton Peck in the 10 pointers, look it up yourself.

Second half (no, we are not still discussing the football). Ten answers starting with 'T', including tenuously 'The Nineties', at least Siobhan apologised for this liberty. An apology regarding the question itself would probably have been appropriate as well, a quick google comes up with the dates of 1887, 1913 and 1848 for Trafalgar Square riots  ahead of any mention of 1990 which to my mind is much better known as the Poll Tax riots and was far more widespread than just Trafalgar Square. We put the 1910's, so surely worth a picture of that year's shenanigans.

 


Bit peeved not to get 'Twelve Oaks' as the Wilkes plantation in 'Gone With The Wind', but bad luck that the other plantation 'Tara' starts with a 'T' as well (or one could argue a well laid bear trap). I would also  question whether Ipswich town are really nicknamed 'The Tractor Boys', but I guess it is in common usage. Ooh Arrrr!

It seems like the Jeopardy round has been beefed up since 3-4 teams nailed it on a couple of occasions. We only answered 5 this week and were still indebted to generous marking after mis-stating 'A Beautiful Mind' as 'A Brilliant Mind' - Daren being the first to point out that this was more closely related to an eighties classic by Furniture, than it was to a book/film about a mathematical genius.

Ones we missed were;

McCarron Airport - Las Vegas
Indy 500 celebration drink - Milk
Alfred Jingle - Pickwick Papers.
Bishop's hooked staff - Crosier.
Louis Reard 1946 invention - Bikini

Disappointed not to get the Dickens Q, but did manage to narrow it down to 4 one of which was the correct answer. Not worth gambling, far too much guesswork required.


Usual story in the music round, only missed P!nk's song and one other by I can't remember who. Hang on, I also have a vague remembrance of Adele being mistaken for Will Young? With a low score of 126 maybe we deserved to lose by 2 points on this occasion. Robson predicted a second place finish very early on, a self-fulfilling prophecy or just not good enough? The latter I fear.     

G-Hound


   

Whispering Hound

Right, good to be almost back up to full strength. Other than Graham who was out in Malta, checking what the flag looks like presumably, the regulars were all present and correct. Daren looked chirpier than he's been for a while and Kevster was approaching the end of his beard cycle, albeit accompanied by the campest ringtone I've ever heard.

Steve was also in fine fettle and gave us the reason behind his non-attendence a few weeks back. For a while now he's been a single man and while enjoying the freedoms that brings, we all have needs and had decided to dip a toe into the shark-infested waters of internet dating. He'd struck up a conversation with Roisin (Gaelic for Rose folks) on match.com who was, pausing for dramatic effect, a trainee dog whisperer.

This instantly threw up more questions than it answered. We did wonder whether Steve was having his chain yanked and this was a ruse to attract blokes but it had only come up in subsequent chat. During training she was working as a dog walker, presumably whispering to stop them fouling pavements, attacking people etc.

So how did the date go? Well it didn't, due to meet at the White Horse in Reigate, sadly one of Roisin's own dogs had a stroke and she had to stay in to look after the poor fella. Will they meet up? Keep reading the blog for more updates.

The quiz, well it was going to be an anticlimax after all that. First up:

Comments have been made that my pictures aren't that good. So here's allegedly a better one.

Doesn't even have colour.

The first picture is more relevant to the quiz, dingbat type things, twelve up there, think we got the ten we needed.

Given most of us were actually there this week I'll just provide highlights:

- Kidderminster has the most expensive pies in football
- By contrast, the most expensive cheese is a Serbian goats cheese
- Troika, Creme Anglaise, Millie and Aloha are all roses
- 10 pointers were pretty easy
- The Sri Lankan flag has a lion holding a sword
- We really weren't close on the Jeopardy and only submitted about four answers, one of which was wrong
- We actually recognised Ed Sheeran in the music, and almost got the track!

So the results, now busting the jeopardy we weren't confident.

102- BLTN - a couple of whom looked well up to the job if Roisin proves elusive
119 - The Lady and the Tramp. Plus the rest of the world and his wife. Barely room for them all round the table.
128 - Hound
137 - The Busters

No complaints, we were where we were. Kevster's in the Lake District next week, Daren's back at work and Graham should be back in the UK. Plus ca change for me I expect.

Miniature Hound

A late start today and low-key was the only way to describe it. Getting there just before 8 we were still the first there and the rowdy lot round the corner were fewer in number and less rowdy. Under the Hound Articles of Association, we weren't even quorate, owing to a variety of reasons we numbered just two. But you know how it is, gets to Thursday after long days at work, not had chance for a beer, no time to relax etc...

Of course none of this applied to me. But Steve had some justification so we fronted up. We'd thought of maybe joining another team but with only 3 other teams there it was hardly appropriate, Siobhan didn't even bother with the microphone.

First up was this lot:

Not me you understand, just providing context.

We excelled with our boy/girl band knowldge with Steve bagging Jo O'Meara from S Club and myself Simon Webbe from Blue (with prompting you understand). 3,7 and 10 were more elusive. 7/10

Current affairs was a make do job. However if you find a pizza in Finland for under 6 euros, there's probably tax evasion going on, Graham, you went recently so presumably can confirm. 7/10

Now, the Art & Literature, actually just literature, actually really just books, was devised specifically for Graham. So he would have known how long the Owl & Pussycat were at sea, who Valentine & Proteus were and what Thomas Keneally wrote. We didn't. 7/10.

Connections and Steve bagged it after answers of Quentin Crisp, Jose Carreras and Salvador Dali. Anyone? They are of course preceded by "San". This led to the usual question spotting but Miguel proved elusive. Not surprisingly though, a Spanish theme continued and we tucked them all away. 10/10.

10 pointers and now it gets serious. So where's Batman? Not the fictional caped crusader but the town in Europe? Not a clue. Thankfully though the smell of hydrogen sulphide was more familiar, particularly after a few pints and I think it was Kevster who supplied the 2012 Olympic mascots at a previous quiz which were still in the archives. 20/30.

Refreshed with wotsits are we're up to R - cue inane piratical noises from TLATT. You know we did ok here. The famous first line "Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley" eluded us though. No doubt Daren or Graham would have known. A thoroughly respectable 9/10

Jeopardy and with only two, we had to tread carefully. However Steve knew the place Joan of Arc was burned (not, the stake obviously) while I knew who Shawn Carter is (doesn't that just say it all) and we were off. Three questions vexed us, Bert and Ernie were characters in a film, what was the codename for the D Day landing and what does the C stand for in Unicef? I had Operation Overlord as a large WW2 operation somewhere and children seemed logical but we didn't know the whole acronym. 1 escaped us completely though so we opted out of guessing. 7/10 - surely not enough based on recent weeks.

Music and we knew them all except for the most recent two, something by Bieber and something by Pink. So, probably did the rest of the pub. 8/10

How many nights in Arabian nights? Our speed to the answer was only matched by its inaccuracy, no double tonight that's for sure.

Onto results and it wasn't going to take long. My private prediction was 3rd. So:

108 - The Busters

124 - TLATT

126 - Anoraks

132 - Hound!

We'd won. We naturally basked in the glory, the rest of the team are passengers, that sort of thing but it was with a score that wouldn't make the podium most weeks on a quiz that really didn't feel much different. Odd. Pleasing as it was, hope we're up to full strength next week.

Missing answers:

Ollie Reed, Kym Marsh, Marlon Brando

A year and a day, Two gentlemen of Verona, Schindler's Ark

Turkey

Rebecca

A wonderful life

1001

Hound Fever

4 hounds congregated, myself, Steve, Kevster & Robson. Plenty of concern from other teams re Daren's continuing absence, best wishes to be passed on.

Early doors Robson regaled us with a tale (tail?) from a recent run, involving a pitiful creature somewhat disorientated not knowing whether it was coming or going, and a small white terrier. Mugswell has rarely seen such goings on, and set me wondering if there is an official record marathon time for somebody carrying someone else's dog or other pet, I think that we should be told?

First round was pictures of TV comedies, all successfully named with 'Scrubs' and 'My Name is Earl' being the only ones to stretch our collective knowledge, and then not much.

Two gaps in the current affairs round, Stevie Wonder has recently divorced in LA and been told to pay £25,000 pcm for maintenance of his child from the marriage in question.' Sufragette' premiered in Leicester Square this week to a background of female protestors. Little did we know but this was more points than we would drop in the remainder of the quiz!

Round 3: Stephen King books/movies. Our Steve would have come close to a clean sweep on his own here, even being selected as an adjudicator for one of Siobhan's answers that was challenged, the rest of us managed to make the sweep clean. All the old favourites were covered, Shining, Misery, Carrie, Shawshank Redemption, Cujo, Running Man etc., except no room for the masterly suspenseful 'Duel'.

Round 4: Connection was celebrities not necessarily known for singing who had UK hit singles. We got it around half way through which is I guess par for the course. Another full house.

Ten-pointers all negotiated safely, guessing that the Big Savoy 5 (formed in 1926) became the Harlem Globetrotters was as far we had to stick our collective necks out here.

Two televised fiercely contested Euro qualifiers came to a close during our interval, with at least one Irishman present seemingly hitting the ceiling if his scream was anything to go by.

The format for the first round of the second half of the quiz is by now encouraging familiar. A little game to guess answers starting with Q before hearing the questions was won by either Quisling or Quantam depending on your viewpoint. My viewpoint favours the Norwegian traitor. Steve again on fire with Quinzy for a complication of tonsillitis, only an extinct zebra like animal escaping our ken. Still can't remember what it was called. We also learned about Kevin's Quantocks during the course of this round, not a pretty thought.

For the second week running, there were multiple Jeopardy completists. The first question about macaques calls for a picture of said animals. As I recall, and let it be a matter of record, nothing controversial was said at this stage. Moving on swiftly.....



   

Questions 2 and 3 less than encouraging, the old Gorbachev/Yeltsin dilemma for the first president of the Soviet union reared it's ugly head, and a clear Bear Trap regarding the US film adaption of Nick Hornby's 'Fever Pitch'. Clearly not going to be about soccer, but is it American Football or Baseball?

After this we picked up with 7 certs, and managed to come to a majority verdict in favour of Gorby with no dissenters. On to the music round with still the one 50/50 decision outstanding. All songs nailed except the Rihanna song title. Steve then took it upon himself to go with baseball for the 'Fever Pitch' question with no time for anyone to dissent, and the rest is history, a storming 183 points from a possible 190.

Lastly, but certainly not leastly, the Hound blog pays tribute to the Lighthouse Family. Vocalist par excellence Tunde Baeyiwu, and keyboard player Paul Tucker. 'High' an Australian number one no less, and the 'Ocean Drive' album surely defining the nineties for some (see Gemma below). 

Big up to Gemma Gould, an uber fan who persuaded the guys to reform in 2010 for a UK & Ireland tour finishing triumphantly at Morley Town Hall in Gemma's home town. Gone (hopefully this time) but never forgotten.


  
G-Hound

Towering Infernal Hound

A slightly odd one this week. Having arrived first at the pub I was ostracised for the first twenty minutes or so. Hopefully this was because the usual Hound table was occupied, thankfully at around 8pm it was freed up and normal service resumed. The same could not be said of the table behind us, The Lady and the Tramp and The Anoraks arrived at around the same time and an almighty fight broke out. Missing Debbie though, TLATT were disadvantaged and skulked off to a dark corner.

Onto the quiz then, missing Kevster, carousing with brother, and Daren, dead from the waist down (an improvement on last time frankly), we were a tight threesome. Pictures were sports personalities:

We got all those, question answering being stronger than photography.

Round 2 - current affairs. Despite two of us having as much time and we'd like to keep abreast of things we didn't know an RAF uniform would cause offense in hospital, Hugh Jackman fancies George Clooney, Jaywick is a sh**hole and the Palestinian flag was just raised over the UN building ( 0 for 2 on flag questions.)

However what the heck we did know about was numbers or rather numerical answers. Actually, not quite true, the psalm number of "Lord is my Shepherd", wives of Charlie Chaplin, number of "gentle breeze" on Beaufort scale and Clinton's auguration year also escaped us (see below). We more than made up for it though by demonstrating the cube root of 8 is not a single number and has 3 solutions, albeit 2 of them imaginary.

Connections and no excuses from the individual questions as we bagged them all. We completely failed to string them into types of "ant", the absence of "army" as an answer eliminating any hope I had.

10 pointers and we wrestled with the film Heaven 17 had taken their name from. An answer was dashed in, along with Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt's claim to fame and the Margaret Mitchell novel.

Steve played the D2 role at halftime and established there was no clear water and Jeopardy would have to played on its merits. First would be the "P" round ( yes, Graham did say it). Other than a baffling mix up between North Korean and Cambodian capitals, we arrived relatively unscathed, maybe one day we'll arrive scathed?.

Seven answers were more or less 100% (coughs), leaving us with the birthplace of Stollen, location of the largest malt whisky distillery in the world and components of bronze. We surveyed the room, we had plausible answers for all 3 but none were 100%. What to do?

Solution - defer the decision and let the music play, which was one of the song titles we didn't get, along with some One Direction thing. Graham though was ready for Bruno, shame it didn't come up this week.

Right, answers of Germany, Japan, copper and tin and a pathetic effort at the steps on the Leaning Tower of Pisa were handed in and the Hound crossed its paws.

Rather what we actually did was google those answers we weren't sure of and the afore mentioned 3 were all correct! Being cautious sorts though, we checked others, yes, John Lowe was Stoneface, yes Monet did paint the Water Lilies, no, Paul Newman wasn't the fire chief in the Towering Inferno.

Disaster and we awaited the results with dread. Apparently 4 teams had bagged the Jeopardy so at least our decision to go for it was right. The scores climbed, 145, 147 but no Hound? 153, 158, still no Hound, what was going on? Then Siobhan announced, winners on 166, Hound!

This couldn't be right. We looked at each other, we couldn't be having this and asked Siobhan to check our jeopardy round. Quick recalculation, winners on 158, The Busters! Blushes spared and collective sighs. The Busters generously bought Graham and myself a pint each and we talked the evening events over. Until next time.

Appendices

24, 4, 3 and 1993

A Clockwork Orange, the last men to walk on the moon and Gone With The Wind

Possible trips to Wimbledon dogs, 7th November and 5th December. Check diaries and report back.

Vast quantities of sloes near Warlingham RFC. Unless our vast readership gets there first.