The Hound of Music

Nothing related to the quiz about this week's title, just my current moniker on quiz up. Isn't that just such a great app? No doubt the ads and subscriptions have to come in soon.

Steve, Graham and myself were there for 7.30. Daren had e-mailed something incoherant to the effect he may be incoherant later so we accepted we were probably going to be a threeball. Pre quiz chat covered a range of subjects, including celebs who've lost it, Felicity Kendal, Yasmine Bleethe and Claire from Steps featuring. The Hound is not image obsessed though, and frankly the 3 of us aren't going to sell many calendars so no pictures of them. What we do get a picture of is:

Who's that militant firebrand at the front stoking up hatred with her anarchist intentions and accurate punctuation? I wonder.

Onto the quiz itself and things kicked off with a bunch of doctors:

Not entirely sure of all their qualifications but there you go.
You'll see we provided answers other than the two redacted ones on the left. I think Graham intended this as a test for Daren's coherance as, against the odds, he'd arrived! Crippen and Holliday were duly supplied and he was allowed to join us.

Next up, current affairs and the ususl mixed bag. We'd didn't know the name of the storm battering the UK but did know Google's UK corporation tax bill and the toy making a comeback 50 years after its release (hint, they were rubbish then as well).

Onto TV & Film and Steve took the lead while the three of us played supporting hands. Next up connections and on those weeks where we try and guess the connection before Q1, ensemble TV shows often feature and fair to say that Dads Army has been suggested a few times. Well with answers like "House of Fraser" and "David Jones" for one and two, we couldn't go anywhere else.

Ten pointers and the Will Rogers Memorial highway  had to be Route 66, Graham must  know Nigeria's flag and who but Princess Anne won Olympic gold then had their wedding seen by millions? We'll come back to that.

Halftime and Daren left the three of us to it. Round 5 and it was link the catchphrase to the gameshow. Now going through them, it occured they nearly all sounded better in either a Yorkshire, or slightly camp accent. Maybe a camp Yorkshire accent would really hit the spot; does that exist? We got most of them.

Now, jeopardy and after last week's, lets go with indiscretions, we needed to tread carefully. There were a few questions there to test us as well viz.

- what does a dendrophobe fear?
- which Asian leader was assassinated two months after returning from exile in 2007?
- which hole at Augusta is Amen Corner?
- What animal characteristic is leporine?
- that does a marigraph measure?

Not really bear traps but, to us anyway, tricky questions. We steered a course through, I think aiming for about 7.

Music was fun and we actually tied the round on the chocolates on the last UK general election not on a Thursday.

Dark rumours were circulating though about the ten pointers. I give you:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Phillips

And also

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne,_Princess_Royal

On the upside, criteria to win SPOTY  have certainly been upped since the 70s. Anne managed it on the basis of winning a European equestrian title; these days you can be heavyweight champion of the world, upset a few minorities and still not make the podium.

Well, we had 10 points to make up from somewhere, no Anoraks these week but the accursed Johnny and the Moondogs weren't going to let that slip and we were second by five. Bah again.

Those Jeopardy answers

Trees - we put it
Benazir Bhutto, we thought it was but weren't sure
Actually 11 through 13, one hole was enough, we put 12.
Harelike, we didn't know
Something to do with the sea, again, we didn't know

'Til next week...

Double Jeopardy Hound

Early arrival at the Arms, but two hounds already in situ. The following is for our growing Russian readership. I have no idea what it means and naturally disclaim anything that might be deemed offensive (in the Russian bit not the rest)....

Зарегистрируйтесь сейчас на Десятую Международную Конференцию по, которая состоится 10-12 марта 1997 года в Майнце в Германии. Конференция соберет широкий круг экспертов по вопросам глобального Интернета и, локализации и интернационализации, воплощению и применению в различных операционных системах и программных приложениях, шрифтах, верстке и многоязычных компьютерных системах.

If by any chance Steve's potentially violent oriental and actuarial neighbour is reading the following is for him (same disclaimer as before)...



To get the obligatory double entendre out of the way early on, the picture round was about lots of Willies (including a few Bills). Full marks achieved, with the best guesses being Gladstone & Withers, followed by The Kid & Bixby.

Better than expected on current affairs with two of our regular newshounds absent. Slipped up on aussie hats withdrawn from M&S because they didn't have Tasmania on the map, though arguably my answer of corks was better, and a 68 lb carp.


 

Shameful omission in the geography round by yours truly, tripping up on the capital of Grenada, and even worse remembering it late on but not changing the answer. Rest were ok. In keeping with the linguistic theme, the following is my favourite Swahili song, with helpful translation.

 Malaika, nakupenda Malaika
 Angel, I love you angel
Malaika, nakupenda Malaika
 Angel, I love you angel
Nami nifanyeje, kijana mwenzio
 and I, what should I do, your young friend
Nashindwa na mali sina, we,
 I am defeated by the bride price that I don't have
Ningekuoa Malaika
 I would marry you, angel
Nashindwa na mali sina, we,
 I am defeated by the bride price that I don't have
Ningekuoa Malaika
 I would marry you, angel

Kidege, hukuwaza kidege
 Little bird, I think of you little bird
Kidege, hukuwaza kidege
 Little bird, I think of you little bird
Nami nifanyeje, kijana mwenzio
 and I, what should I do, your young friend
Nashindwa na mali sina, we,
 I am defeated by the bride price that I don't have
Ningekuoa Malaika
 I would marry you, angel
Nashindwa na mali sina, we,
 I am defeated by the bride price that I don't have
Ningekuoa, Malaika
 I would marry you, angel

Pesa zasumbua roho yangu
 The money (which I do not have) depresses my soul
Pesa zasumbua roho yangu
 the money (which I do not have) depresses my soul
Nami nifanyeje, kijana mwenzio
 and I, what should I do, your young friend
Ningekuoa Malaika
 I would marry you, angel
Nashindwa na mali sina, we
 I am defeated by the bride price that I don't have
Ningekuoa Malaika
 I would marry you, angel

Wrong stabs at the connection this week included islands, bags, puddings and others, turned out to be apples, the key clue for us being the one that we didn't get, Gin, Grenadine & Egg Whites is a 'Pink Lady'.

3 ten-pointers not easy, but successfully negotiated.

Part 2 started with another instalment of last week's popular originally known as round. We did better this week, missing out on Mrs Beeton (Isabella Mary Mason), Bo Derek (Mary Kathleen Collins) and Kiki Dee (Pauline Matthews).

All good so far, but as so often the Jeopardy round was prove our downfall, with two big errors meaning Double Jeopardy. Jerry Springer was mayor of Cincinnati not Chicago, and the corti is in the ear not the brain. Our compliance procedures still don't deal effectively with this round.

Full marks on music for the second week running were not enough to prevent the Anoraks winning by six points (they only answered 4 or so jeopardy q's).

2015/16 Football Punt update...

All in all this update doesn't bear the best tidings so to cover individual shame and bear the embarrassing burden collectively I'll give the current cash out amounts anonymously...

£7.56

£9.47

£3.91

and

£7.08

... plenty of games left to be played though eh?

Two And A Half Hounds

The team arrived in good spirits this week around 7.30. We'd all been doing the things we enjoy which for Graham was taking the family to the carvery up the road. Daren had been for a beer with "Caspar", one of the London Reds; not his real name but his friendliness and ghostly complexion left very few alternatives. For my part I'd enjoyed 50 minutes of German techno on my new wireless headphones on the cross trainer. Each to their own as they say.

The first round came up before we knew it and it was dingbats. Usual story, up to 8 quite quickly then a lot of fruitless wrestling with the remainder. Last week's defeat still rankled a bit and with a while since the last win it was fair to say the Hound was "up for it" this week.

Not so up for it as to do any obvious prep for the current affairs round and we struggled with who's just sold an LA mansion for $200m, which comedy was doing a one off 2 hour comeback special and SE trains latest excuse for late running. I think everyone found it tough though.

The Hound was on safer ground though in round 3 which was history. Mainly through Graham we nailed some exact years, only falling the wrong side of the fence in a Vasco de Gama/Ferdinand Magellen debate. How many people can claim that as their Thursday night activity?

Connections and it was one of those baffling ones. We had Jane Seymour, Michael Flatley, Alexander the Great, Dan Ackroyd, Benedict Cumberbatch and Kiefer Sutherland. Clutching at the most flimsy of straws we came up with Last Of The Summer Wine characters, any answer being better than a blank.

Ten pointers were dispatched in a flash and we arrived at halfway. At this point, Daren had given all he had for the team and peeled off to make his own way home leaving Graham and myself to battle on up the mountain fending off the attacks from all sides. Would he be missed? I give you some examples from the following round:

Correct Answer       Hound Answer

Pol Pot                        Sammy Davis Jnr
Pope Francis             Tony Bennett
The Dalai Lama        Sophia Loren

Who says we're all getting a bit celebrity obsessed.

In our defence, the questions weren't, for example, who led the Khmer Rouge and was responsible for genocide in Cambodia. No, siree Bob. Of course, we might still have made the same guesses, who knows. The question was actually who was born Saloth Sar in 1925. A fun round.

Next up, jeopardy and what would happen this week? Well it all seemed a bit more straightforward. Bronco and steer wrestling had to be part of a rodeo and Dorset Blue Vinny couldn't be anything but cheese. You shouldn't be able to spot a good bear trap but there were no blanks on the sheet.

Music and I think it was 20/20. To be fair, Siobhan hadn't thrown in any Ed/Bruno/Justin/Olly so we were very much on home turf. Answers in and we'd gone for the jeopardy, but so had the Anoraks. The answers came through, we'd bagged the ten pointers, we'd aced the jeopardy. It would come down to who had basically got most questions right, usually the area we win but this week there were 5 Anoraks and we were outnumbered 2:1. The scores, came through, Anoraks 156, Hound 158! We'd done it by the equivalent of half a wheel!. We zipped up our shirts, made sure the sponsors' logos were visible and punched the air. Our first addition to the pot for a while and one that definitely meant something. Cue large glasses of red all round, except for Graham who was driving.

Certainly some redemption for last week.

The connection was that they all had two eyes that were different colours or heterochromia. Cleverly topical in that David Bowie was commonly assumed to have this but had one discoloured from a fight.

Hound In Cleveland

All questions are equal, but some questions are more equal than others.

It was the best of questions, it was the worst of questions.

And so we found ourselves on another Thursday evening, this time licking our wounds (not each others' mind) in third place. To get there, we need to rewind back to Round 6 - Jeopardy - Question 1

"In which county is Middlesbrough?"

Now, regular readers will know that Siobhan is prone to the odd slightly tricksy question in the jeopardy round and counties, almost as much as birthplaces, provide a rich seam of such questions ready to be mined. Politicians have a habit of creating and removing them and changing county boundaries to suit their ends; plus when is it a county?, or a Unitary Authority, a Metropolitan Borough?

Middlesbrough to us seemed right in the middle of such machinations. A tentative "Cleveland" was uttered by Graham and myself. Daren eyed us suspiciously, then left the answer blank. No-one disputed this, see how the rest of the round unfolds and return.

The rest of the round went well, confident on 8 with only material doubt on "Which is the most common blood group"? We were 90% on O. So it was back to Middlesbrough.

By now Graham's tentativeness (is that even a word?) had firmed up, the answer was Cleveland. However 'Boro fans were prone to claiming the game with Leeds as a Yorkshire derby, clearly it used to be in Yorkshire prior to the creation of those poxy new-fangled things in the 70s. It wasn't in Durham, Tyne & Wear or anything like that. It had to be Cleveland.

Yet we still smelt rat. We'd done well on the ten pointers and felt in the box seat. We've tossed away quizzes before being aggressive on the jeopardy round and if someone else was good enough to bag all ten then fair play to them was our attitude. Passing 'Boro there was no need/point gambling on the blood group. Music done, chocolates narrowly missed, the answers were in now. Cue removals of phones, tablets and various other devices and lots of tapping ensued.

Well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/middlesbrough certainly opened our eyes. Basically Cleveland doesn't exist any more, the answer was North Yorkshire. Surely our caution had paid off and for once, a banana skin averted.

However rumblings were going on around the pub around the veracity of the answer. It seemed Siobhan was looking for the answer of Cleveland and also the Anoraks had checked this with her before submitting their answer. How would she deal with this and more significantly how would Daren react? I predicted a riot.

Well, the first five rounds' answers were provided then Siobhan announced the jeopardy would be out of nine with Question 1 effectively omitted. Naturally our blood group answer was correct so we had 8 out of 9, placing us third with the Anoraks first.

Well we fumed, we seethed. Naturally if we'd known of this approach we'd have answered O and as the scoring went, won the quiz. Yet to our credit, we didn't riot. There were times I thought we might and maybe in retrospect, it was the right course of action.

Very much a pyrrhic victory for the Anoraks. We fumed and seethed some more, debated the rights and wrongs of it all and made our ways home. Grr.

Well to lighten the mood :

An impala from a golf course in SA.

Hounds in attendance, Steve, Daren, Graham and myself

App of the night, usually Kevster's domain but the newly tabletted Graham suggested Akinator Free

Blogger, see below

It is better to have quizzed and lost than never to have quizzed at all.

betwHOUNDeener

.... it's raining cats and dogs as I step off a 412 in Central Croydon. Might have been a good idea to check before boarding the bus, as it turns out that Daren and Robson are comfortably ensconced in the Foxley Hatch. A quick phone call and a rendezvous at the Oval Tavern is agreed.

After trudging through the ever increasing puddles, I uphold my part of the bargain by finding a table before the other two arrive by taxi. A particularly small table with no accompanying seatage,but a table nevertheless. The pub is surprisingly full of both diners and quizzers. A kind couple close by offer a spare stool, and two fold up chairs more suitable for outdoors are eventually found. Just in time for the start of the quiz, a table of diners gets up to leave and we are in there like Flint (remember him?).  




Played by James Coburn, but never really rivalled Bond in the popularity or longevity stakes.

Our only previous experience of this quiz was very positive, and despite the lack of birthday celebrating lovelies this proved to be the case again. They get through the questions quickly for a start, leaving plenty of time for chat and general carousing.

Round 1 didn't tax anyone much, general knowledge with the ten answers starting with the respective letters of "Oval Tavern". We avoided the Henry VIII bear trap and scored a full house.

Round 2 is sport and the first hint of controversy. We went for Jochen Rindt as the first german to win the F1 championship (and btw the first to win it posthumously), but turns out he was born in Germany but represented Austria. Everybody else just put Schumacher, and they got it right according to the answer given. 9 out of 10 still a great return, including two ice hockey questions and to my approval 3 Scottish ones.

Round3 was guess/name the Year with 3 choices each time. Hound has excelled at ths kind of thing in the past, and it was once more thus, 9 out of 10. We fell down on the year that included the banning of CFCs by the EU/the freeing of the Guildford 4 and certain films released (can't recall which ones). We put 1990 but it was 1992. I think we all know which CFC I wold like to ban, 

The mid-quiz break was taken up by Round 4: 20 dingbats to solve for a point each (see also blog title). Turned out that the second page was much harder than the first which made me look good for a moment that soon passed. The worst one that we didn't get was

ROSE
DAFFODIL
TULIP
DAISY

which was merely a bunch of flowers, doesn't work for me, no suggestion of 'a bunch' anywhere.

The one that we almost got and quite a good one was..

BUV-1LL which was abominable (a bomb in a bull). We couldn't get past V-1 being a rocket.

Hardest one was BOY (right facing arrow) YOB which is apparently 'Altar Boy'.

There were two other q's where our answers were 'good but not right' making 15 out of 20.

.... ok time for a picture of a festive pig...

Round 5 was a wipeout round (aka jeopardy round in Hound parlance) with a cats/dogs theme. We left out 4 answers, at least two of which we would have got wrong. We didn't know that a puggle is a cross between a beagle and a pug, but there was a dog lover somewhere in the house.

Round 6: Song intros, we got 7 out of 10 (14 points) which I think was pretty good, annoyed personally at missing The Ramones - 'I wanna be sedated', but there you go. A grand total of 63 points for Hound (papers switched with another team to mark, again saves time).

The reading of the results in reverse order was as suspenseful as it has ever been. Starting in 13th place with 39 points. There were actually 15 teams as those level on points were given equal billing, without adjusting the places.  4th place - 59 points, 3rd place - 62 points and realisation that it was second place for us. The winners.... the kindly couple who had earlier offered me their spare stool (that now sounds bad), they nailed the cats/dogs round earning the extra 10 points to give then 73. in other words we would have won if there had just been 1 q in that round that they didn't know. But they knew them all - so well done them. Most teams had 6 or so players, so quite amusing that a pair and a trio took up the first two places.

Plenty of time then remained for various virtual parlour games, with both Robson and I now tableted up.  This include a crushing victory against the Eggheads where all 5 hounds made the final before crushing Judith Keppel, oh what might have been! A few more drinks and booted out at 11.30 on the dot.

Definitely one for the occasional future trip, though if we were to make it our regular quiz funds in hand might suffer. Here's to Hound in 2016. For info see our full answer sheet below, the 15 points are the separate dingbats.

G-Force