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.