Confessions of a Teenage Hound

Thursday night and the Europa league claimed its share of victims. Daren was up in Manchester to see if Man U could turn it around and Steve was observing maybe a tougher task for Tottenham. Maybe next year West Ham are going to join the party and there'll be a whole team out. Little danger of Leeds Utd or Mansfield Town getting there any time soon so Graham and myself should keep a free diary.

Left to ourselves, there was naturally a bit of Quiz Up to be done and we pondered my current moniker "Prepose a la rubriques des chiens ecrases" - plus a few accents I can't type on this. The best we could do on Google translator was "Worker crushed under dogs"? Right in more ways than you could imagine. Daren, this tally with your French knowledge?

Now also Julie of TLATT confirmed the Scout Saturday Quiz will be 14th May so how about launching the 6 in 6 then? Graham had it blocked out in his diary for the Eurovision Song Contest but maybe could be persuaded to watch on catch-up. We're also recommended the Railway in Carshalton for a Monday venue, now we know what happened last time but at least Duncan can't be in two pubs in one night.

OK, the quiz.

We were pleased to bag Bob Beamon without a clue of what he actually looked like. Number 7 eluded us though.

Current affairs and the usual nonsense. Who's adopting the Bitcoin? We thought Norway but actually Japan and which flamboyant singer will get a blue plaque at his house in Feltham? A toss up as it were between John and Mercury; think we actually bagged that one.

Next round and two answers required per question. We did OK, mindful of previous comments, we didn't query the ambiguity in "name England's two longest rivers" and were rewarded with the points.

Connections and about half way in we recognised WW II aircraft, or at least planes. Two out of three on the ten pointers, not a clue on the name of the patient in the game Operation. Anyone?

Refreshed and another round of connections. With a bit of back solving, we got them all but we're foxed by a Japanese gangster, Y.....A. Sadly Yakuza and not Yokazuna proved to be right, I guess wrestlers can be gangsters?.

So the jeopardy. With a team of two, we knew that we were outnumbered so we probably couldn't be too conservative.

We did swerve
- London statue built by Sir Alfred Gilbert
- Ardal O'Hanlan's superhero in My Hero

We should have swerved
- country, other than England with London on the River Thames.

So zero. Answers to follow.

Music, think we got 17.

Hopes weren't high and justifiably so. Even an optimal jeopardy strategy wouldn't have done it. Evidence, if it were needed, that numbers do matter. Still, despondency was short-lived and the red wine end to an evening was resurrected with a lot more success.

Those jeopardy answers:

- Eros
- Thermo Man
- Canada

To next week.

The Year of the Hound

Another Thursday and in the tradition of Cream, Nirvana, The Police, A-ha, ZZ Top and Bros, we were once again a tight threesome. On drums we had Graham, holding things together while Daren took lead vocals and guitar. I just played the bass and did my best not to get noticed.

Straight in there and we had two handfuls of Alans.

The names written down give a clue to how well we did. Very much a name of its time in Alan, already out of fashion by the time we were born, I suspect you won't find many under 60, what possessed the parents of #2 I don't know and as for #4? Similar to Gary in a way, couldn't move for Garys when I was a youngster but for some reason you just don't get them any more. Maybe it's Neville, no doubt Alans and Garys will rise again.

Current Affairs next, I sometimes wonder what role this round actually has, doesn't really reflect the mainstream news, e.g. in the scheme of things, how significant is it that Asda are going to start selling wonky vegetables at reduced prices? What we did learn though is that Zalec (apologies for lack of accents) is to introduce a public beer fountain. Bravo! Surely a Hound destination if we could find it.

Next up and sporting firsts and some debate was created. We incorrectly over-ruled Graham on Gavaskar being the first to 10,000 test runs going for Tendulkar but correctly went for Nigel Martyn over Chris Woods being the first £1m goalkeeper. A good round.

Next up and my answer of Snake Plisken was all Daren needed to plump confidently for Chinese years and subsequent answers of Rooster Cogburn and Tony the Tiger weren't going to send us anywhere else. With the ten pointers bagged, it was a strong finish to the first half after an unconvincing start.

Second half and time to re-engage.

Alternatively, try and work out what the Anoraks had written. First up was one of those linking the answers, last letter of one being first of the next etc. The format saved us from two wrong answers and with two questions on African capitals, we just loved it.

Onto jeopardy and quite a toughy this week, looking through the answers, we could only claim 100% certainty on four of them. What was interesting though was our collective abilities to lead each other up blind alleys. I give you the last British Monarch not to have a regnal number. Now Graham postulated Queen Anne but she was succeeded by George I, while we know him as that, wouldn't he actually have been just King George? So we all missed Victoria, at least we swerved that one. Bit of finger crossing, we needed to take something from this round.

Music, can't remember any but we bagged them all and yet again, we didn't get to open the chocolates. Usual post match analysis, we'd blown the jeopardy but so had the Anoraks. WD was water dispersent not displacing and our debate on 633 Squadron vs 636 Squadron was another red herring as the Dambusters was 617, the power of film eh? I'll take the rap for that one.

Maybe we'd done enough? Er, we could have aced the jeopardy and not done enough, it was one of those weeks the Busters call on an extra team member with a wealth of knowledge. Until next time then.

Hound For Glory

About time we had a Woody Guthrie reference in the title, actually a very good biography/biopic. Apology for the late posting of the blog, I have forgotten anything that wasn't noted down.

Pre match banter included but was not limited to, Gary Neville's evident incompetence, persian and kazakh rugs, the geography of Edinburgh, and autochthonous languages (well done spell check). Also, I manage to allow myself to become intimidated by an apparent new team at the next table. They came in dressed just like professional quizzers (you all know what I mean), and proceeded to pontificate loudly on a wide range of trivia and probably dungeons and dragons. Anyway, to cut a long short, come the start of the quiz they got up and walked out with no intention of taking part. I haven't ruled out it only being a recce mission, they may return with their full force at some future date or they just wanted a swift pint, you decide.

Picture round was all Julia's this week, we got 8, sadly my notes cover neither who we got wrong or indeed which fabulous guesses if any we made.

Good coverage on the current affairs, only two regarding traffic slowing measures and piscatorial digits missed. Correct answers included Lord Lucan, the Milk Tray man,  Boots, Liverpool, Frank Bruno and Matt le Blanc.

Science & Nature was up next, the round was most notable for a heated debate between myself and Daren as to which is the only bird with it's nostrils on the end of it's beak. He favoured flamingo, which I wasn't having, offering swan instead though without full conviction. It was of course a kiwi. Daren had distinguished himself earlier in the round getting ophidiophobia to be the fear of snakes. I had planned a witty anecdote at this stage but again can't recall it. The punchline was "Daren I like your snake, but not your  pink thing".  18 points collected, kiwi notwithstanding.

We got the connection on the 3rd question, we must have guessed 'Dad's Army' umpteen times before, this time it was right. Admittedly, I had briefly proposed 'Wombles', but I don't think that was really too far out. Nothing taxing in the 10 pointers and well placed for the second half.

The first round of the second half has caused consternation in the past (who could forget the UK airport codes debacle, and various crap top tens). Another to add to the could have been better category, 1st lines of plays! To be fair we only had to choose from 3 alternatives each time.  Daren proved that his Shakespeare is stronger than the rest of us, and I was pleased to spot an Ibsen work. Apparently we got 6 right.

All still to play for in the Connections round, made easier for us by knowing 9 with almost 100% assurance, but having no clue as to which fashion designer first designed a tuxedo for women. Nothing was really put forward for the tenth question, just a timid whispered suggestion that it could be Coco Chanel, so we left it blank. It wasn't, and even better the Anoraks went big putting Coco in the frame and losing all points on the round. Turned out to be Yves St Laurent. With a further 22 points they would have pipped us.

Steered the usual steady course through the music round, only missing the title of a Barry White track. No shame there, in fact quite the reverse.

50 notes bagged, and good to see Daren much perkier. Only need to tempt Kevster back now, looking forward to it already. 

G-Force