Another early start this week. Daren made it an early one with myself and special guest Lee at the White Hart in Chipstead. After some cab trouble we made it down to the PA. Daren was unimpressed with the decor, the pub laid out in red and blue ready for South London's number one taking on Man U. We were both going so various chat to be had on predictions, logistics etc.
The first joiner would be Kevster. He wouldn't be staying for the quiz, having spent much of the day ferrying plastic Scousers back on airport runs, a fun task if ever there was one. Next up would be Graham, reducing out the average pints per team member by about two.
Let's declared strengths were food and drink, not just consumption thereof and pictures, but not names. Another thing he also bought was an unprecedented level of spelling accuracy from the scribe, though possibly not subject to the usual forensic levels of scrutiny on position of apostrophes etc.
So the rounds, usual first two and then a Tom, Dick and Harry round. Connections ok then the ten pointers, smallest two Euro countries? Fairly clearly Vatican and Monaco, only number spelt with letters in order, bit of working yielded FORTY. Last all English FA Cup final team; well Graham had the last such winners as West Ham so that was our bet. Sadly as a plastic Eagle, I'd not read Gerry's clever link to the last time Palace made the final.
Still though, we felt in the game and before long, jeopardy would arrive. A couple of fine answers from Graham kept us in the hunt, but then "how many verses in the National Anthem" was less a bear trap than darn difficult. Even with the internet in front of you, it ain't easy to pin down and it was a justified swerve. Lee filled in the Mars/Murs/Bubble gap and the paper was in.
Some generous marking and another Hound win! Must be on quite a decent trot now, pretty strongly correlated to the number of team members. What's to come? Well the little matter of that Cup Final tomorrow and two of the next three quizzes missed for me. Good luck to all involved.
Friday 20 May 2016
Monday 16 May 2016
Hound Cricket
Right, I've been asked to look at some options for watching cricket this summer. What I'll do is present some options by way of venue, fanning out from the Hound centre as it were:
Surrey
Lots at the Oval. Only other option is Guildford which has a one day game 14th June and four day game 2-5 July.
Middlesex
Again Lords the main ground. They do take it away from there with
27.5 T20 at Uxbridge
29.5 4 day game at Merchant Taylor School
2.6 T20 game at MTS
7.6 One day game at Radlett
8.7 T20 at Richmond
Sussex
Outside of Hove it's Arundel who have a 4 day game 22-25 June and T20 on 26.6.
Kent
Canterbury main ground with other options being
3.6 T20 at Beckenham
5.6 One day game at Beckenham
15.7 T20 at Tunbridge Wells
17.7 to 20.7 4 day game at Tunbridge Wells
6.9 to 9.9 4 day game at Beckenham
In terms of other options, have looked on the trainline.com for typical journey times and day return prices from Purley. Prices won't be the cheapest but they need advance booking then weather becomes a gamble. Also factor in time to ground
Canterbury £30 and two hours
Hove £20 and one hour
Southampton £30 and two hours
Leicester £40 and 2.5 hours
Chelmsford £25 and 1.667 hours
This give a flavour. To be discussed.
In other news Graham and myself represented the Hound at the Scout quiz on Saturday. A creditable performance but weight of numbers counted against us and we took second, with a prize to be shared this Thursday.
Surrey
Lots at the Oval. Only other option is Guildford which has a one day game 14th June and four day game 2-5 July.
Middlesex
Again Lords the main ground. They do take it away from there with
27.5 T20 at Uxbridge
29.5 4 day game at Merchant Taylor School
2.6 T20 game at MTS
7.6 One day game at Radlett
8.7 T20 at Richmond
Sussex
Outside of Hove it's Arundel who have a 4 day game 22-25 June and T20 on 26.6.
Kent
Canterbury main ground with other options being
3.6 T20 at Beckenham
5.6 One day game at Beckenham
15.7 T20 at Tunbridge Wells
17.7 to 20.7 4 day game at Tunbridge Wells
6.9 to 9.9 4 day game at Beckenham
In terms of other options, have looked on the trainline.com for typical journey times and day return prices from Purley. Prices won't be the cheapest but they need advance booking then weather becomes a gamble. Also factor in time to ground
Canterbury £30 and two hours
Hove £20 and one hour
Southampton £30 and two hours
Leicester £40 and 2.5 hours
Chelmsford £25 and 1.667 hours
This give a flavour. To be discussed.
In other news Graham and myself represented the Hound at the Scout quiz on Saturday. A creditable performance but weight of numbers counted against us and we took second, with a prize to be shared this Thursday.
Friday 13 May 2016
Intelligentsia Puppet Hound
Drinking Strongbow in the pub garden
Paint-splattered walls and the cry of a G-Force
That's Entertainment
Pre quiz discussions centred on the filthy state of Robsons sack and whether it would fall apart if he were to wash it. Kevster couldn't join us as he claimed that he would be on the job until 21:00.
Graham predicted that the Eurovision camp fest would figure highly and so it proved to be true. Round 1 was name the act,
We went for it big time and I believe in the end got 9/10 only missing out on number 8
On to the Current Affairs; BAFTA winner Wolf Hall, the transit of Mercury, Jesse Jackson discovering that Jean-Marie Le Pen is a bit right of centre followings lunch in Paris, yadda, yadda, yadda!
Next up was Books. A very loose title given that one of the questions was 'what colour are the 'dummy's guide to.....books?'
One of the answers was 'The Satanic Verses' which very much put me in mind of the Hound Blog.
Steve gave an interesting discourse on the origins of Prometheus, a tale of eternal punishment where one's liver is attacked daily. Sound familiar to anyone?
Connections proved to be a bit of a bugger's muddle. 2 lots of 4 with a connection.
We got Wham, Brittania, John Smiths and Brittania and spectacularly went for Roy Lichstenstein.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Roy_Lichtenstein_Whaam.jpg
Turns out we over thunk it and the simple answer was Football stadia.
For the second lot we missed the name of Hitler's favourite dog (Blondie) but having corrected the name of Rodin's masterpiece from the Thinker to the Kiss we were able to discern the link as being band names.
10 Pointers were dispatched following a long discussion concerning the routes of Roman roads. We finally agreed by a process of elimination that the Fosse Way runs from Exeter to Lincolm.
Feeling confident we'd bagged the 30 points we relaxed into the second half. Link ups were dispatched with nothing of note to mention.
Jeopardy was played conservatively. We didn't know what creature is kept in a skep and guessed that no one else would (bees allegedly) and that made the task easier. We managed to step our way through without setting off any bear traps.
So then it was just the music round. Shine was by Aswad. Apart from that I think we were all ok.
Bonus question was ' how many sticks are there in Kerplunk?' I think it turned out to be 30 and was won by LATT.
Scores were in and The Hound triumphed by some 30 points. We supped up our beers and collected our vaporisers and that, ladies and gentlemen, is yer lot.
Paint-splattered walls and the cry of a G-Force
That's Entertainment
Pre quiz discussions centred on the filthy state of Robsons sack and whether it would fall apart if he were to wash it. Kevster couldn't join us as he claimed that he would be on the job until 21:00.
Graham predicted that the Eurovision camp fest would figure highly and so it proved to be true. Round 1 was name the act,
We went for it big time and I believe in the end got 9/10 only missing out on number 8
On to the Current Affairs; BAFTA winner Wolf Hall, the transit of Mercury, Jesse Jackson discovering that Jean-Marie Le Pen is a bit right of centre followings lunch in Paris, yadda, yadda, yadda!
Next up was Books. A very loose title given that one of the questions was 'what colour are the 'dummy's guide to.....books?'
One of the answers was 'The Satanic Verses' which very much put me in mind of the Hound Blog.
Steve gave an interesting discourse on the origins of Prometheus, a tale of eternal punishment where one's liver is attacked daily. Sound familiar to anyone?
Connections proved to be a bit of a bugger's muddle. 2 lots of 4 with a connection.
We got Wham, Brittania, John Smiths and Brittania and spectacularly went for Roy Lichstenstein.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Roy_Lichtenstein_Whaam.jpg
Turns out we over thunk it and the simple answer was Football stadia.
For the second lot we missed the name of Hitler's favourite dog (Blondie) but having corrected the name of Rodin's masterpiece from the Thinker to the Kiss we were able to discern the link as being band names.
10 Pointers were dispatched following a long discussion concerning the routes of Roman roads. We finally agreed by a process of elimination that the Fosse Way runs from Exeter to Lincolm.
Feeling confident we'd bagged the 30 points we relaxed into the second half. Link ups were dispatched with nothing of note to mention.
Jeopardy was played conservatively. We didn't know what creature is kept in a skep and guessed that no one else would (bees allegedly) and that made the task easier. We managed to step our way through without setting off any bear traps.
So then it was just the music round. Shine was by Aswad. Apart from that I think we were all ok.
Bonus question was ' how many sticks are there in Kerplunk?' I think it turned out to be 30 and was won by LATT.
Scores were in and The Hound triumphed by some 30 points. We supped up our beers and collected our vaporisers and that, ladies and gentlemen, is yer lot.
Friday 6 May 2016
The Hound Funbus Rides Again
Where to start tonight? Well for me it started around 5pm with a phone call from Kevster on his way to collect Daren. Heading down to the gate I was somewhat surprised to see, not your everyday taxi, but something more like a nine seater beast, which frankly makes the local footballer's Range Rover sport look like a Smart car.
Parking this monster would be no easy task, so having collected Daren and Graham it was up to the White Lion in Warlingham to take in some early evening sunshine. It proves that this vehicle is essential for the task in hand, namely taking 6 kids plus escort to and from school on a daily basis. It seems that Kevster's driving a style is proving a hit for youngsters and parents alike, with none of the gutteral language, constant road rage and enforced Classic FM provided by regular driver Terry. Let's hope so as I feel Steve's feeling a bit isolated as the only worker with 4 Hounds to support.
So it was a pleasant early evening, Kevster showed great skill manoeuvring in and out of the car park and dropped the three of us off to commence the quiz. Daren headed off to "the shop" and we were ready.
Now trashy celeb culture hits none of our sweet spots. I think we got two of them and can't really say we hit the crossbar with any others.
This kind of set the tone for the whole quiz. Whether it was the pre match pints or just the rounds as they fell, it was never really going to be our night. Current affairs generally baffled us, British sitcoms provided some relief but the connections might as well have been in Sanskrit. Three ten pointers at least kept us in the game at halfway but there was clearly ground to make up.
Cutting to the chase, Q1 of the Jeopardy, who had a quickie marriage to Lisa Marie Presley in approx. 2003. A good bear trap does not reveal its nature, the three of us were unanimous on Jacko and we moved to question 2.
Well, she may be younger than me, but it turns out LMP has had enough weddings to make a film about and when they come along at that frequency, none of the marriages are going to last that long, including one to noted Elvis fan, Nick Cage which fitted the time a lot better.
Frankly we didn't deserve better, the only surprise being a better jeopardy could have seen us tied first. Until next week. Quick reminder of Hound events to follow:
14th May - Scout quiz - Hearty refreshments, dodgy maths and the potential for some tasty interruptions
21st May- FA Cup final, not really a Hound event but looks like most of us are going.
3rd June - The Oaks, what else is there to say
16th June - England v Wales at Hound Towers
Watch this space as well for some Hound cricket.
Parking this monster would be no easy task, so having collected Daren and Graham it was up to the White Lion in Warlingham to take in some early evening sunshine. It proves that this vehicle is essential for the task in hand, namely taking 6 kids plus escort to and from school on a daily basis. It seems that Kevster's driving a style is proving a hit for youngsters and parents alike, with none of the gutteral language, constant road rage and enforced Classic FM provided by regular driver Terry. Let's hope so as I feel Steve's feeling a bit isolated as the only worker with 4 Hounds to support.
So it was a pleasant early evening, Kevster showed great skill manoeuvring in and out of the car park and dropped the three of us off to commence the quiz. Daren headed off to "the shop" and we were ready.
Now trashy celeb culture hits none of our sweet spots. I think we got two of them and can't really say we hit the crossbar with any others.
This kind of set the tone for the whole quiz. Whether it was the pre match pints or just the rounds as they fell, it was never really going to be our night. Current affairs generally baffled us, British sitcoms provided some relief but the connections might as well have been in Sanskrit. Three ten pointers at least kept us in the game at halfway but there was clearly ground to make up.
Cutting to the chase, Q1 of the Jeopardy, who had a quickie marriage to Lisa Marie Presley in approx. 2003. A good bear trap does not reveal its nature, the three of us were unanimous on Jacko and we moved to question 2.
Well, she may be younger than me, but it turns out LMP has had enough weddings to make a film about and when they come along at that frequency, none of the marriages are going to last that long, including one to noted Elvis fan, Nick Cage which fitted the time a lot better.
Frankly we didn't deserve better, the only surprise being a better jeopardy could have seen us tied first. Until next week. Quick reminder of Hound events to follow:
14th May - Scout quiz - Hearty refreshments, dodgy maths and the potential for some tasty interruptions
21st May- FA Cup final, not really a Hound event but looks like most of us are going.
3rd June - The Oaks, what else is there to say
16th June - England v Wales at Hound Towers
Watch this space as well for some Hound cricket.
Wednesday 4 May 2016
Chilli-ding chilli-dong...
My Chilli farming sideline is gathering pace - get your orders in early to avoid disappointment...
*** UPDATE 26th July ***
Two dozen or more at this stage - I'm led to believe that the longer I leave them the yellower and then redder they'll go - along with sweetening slightly in flavour - get your orders in now...
*** UPDATE 26th July ***
Two dozen or more at this stage - I'm led to believe that the longer I leave them the yellower and then redder they'll go - along with sweetening slightly in flavour - get your orders in now...
Tuesday 3 May 2016
Dilly-Ding Dilly-Dong Hound
Early start at 6.00 p.m. for two of three Hounds, however any link between this and our collective performance tailing off towards the end of the quiz remains unsubstantiated.
The same two out of three Hounds both look set to be attending this year's F.A. Cup final, to be referreed by Mark Clattenberg who made such a good job of the Chelsea-Spurs debacle yesterday. Much reminiscing about the last time the two teams met at Wembley by me, but why take my word for it when Attila the Stockbroker said it all so much better (check out 'Roll Up for the Donkey Derby' on Spotify), excerpt as follows;
'EEyore - EEyore, the Palace got to Wembley, they've never been there before,
EEyore-EEyore, roll up for the Donkey Derby, there's room for plenty more.
There's old Gary O'Reilly, what's he doing here?
He should be giving rides to little kids on Blackpool Pier.
Pemberton and Pardew, one roll for them I'd say,
And that's the leading animal in the school nativity play.
And as for Man United they hardly raised the tone, with Gary Crystal Pallister, a donkey of their own
The final was a comedy, the replay was a bore.
The crowd were shouting 'Eagles', but it should have been EEyore'.
In other news,
- world Snooker semi-finalist Marco Fu is apparently playing out of Frames Bar in Coulsdon currently, where Jimmy White is also a regular.
- Kevster could be back hounding soon, he has finally been deemed roadworthy.
- no Blue Badge for Daren yet, the paperwork is extremely unwieldy.
- something about 'bladder awareness', what the hell was that?
First round was pictures of puppets (andy pandy, pinky/perky, orville, spit the dog, sooty etc.), pretty easy for those of a certain age. Daren managed to recall 'Cuddles' the monkey, Keith Harris' lesser known stooge, meaning full marks.
Ok on current affairs, none of us had heard of Dr Who's new female sidekick. Famous women for Round 3, we fell into an Ella Fitzgerald/Billie Holiday related bear trap, forgot that Katherine Hepburn has more best actress Oscars than Meryl Streep, and fell short on Oedipus' mother Jocasta.
Double connections round again this week. We correctly identified Snooker for the first bit, despite only getting 1 of 4 questions right! The second part on Elevators was much easier.
We missed one ten pointer, Bassenthwaite Lake is the only body of water in the Lake District that actually has the word 'Lake' in it's official title. We went for Lake Windermere, which is apparently just called 'Windermere'. Pretty much everybody missed this one, so no need to panic yet.
I learnt something new on the chain letters round, I had hitherto thought that Swarfega was a tropical disease of some sort, but apparently it is a green, gelatinous all-purpose cleaning product invented in Derbyshire. T'internet tells me that it once had an orange rival called 'Dirty Paws'.
We made the right choices for the Jeopardy round, leaving out the two that we got wrong. Much debate as to Blur's second no. 1 single. It was 'Beetlebum', we had 'Charmless Man'. We also avoided a bear trap concerning 'The Big One' at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. 18 points followed on the music round.
No matter anyhow, the Moonhounds aced the jeopardy and beat us convincingly.
Such fun.
G-Force.
The same two out of three Hounds both look set to be attending this year's F.A. Cup final, to be referreed by Mark Clattenberg who made such a good job of the Chelsea-Spurs debacle yesterday. Much reminiscing about the last time the two teams met at Wembley by me, but why take my word for it when Attila the Stockbroker said it all so much better (check out 'Roll Up for the Donkey Derby' on Spotify), excerpt as follows;
'EEyore - EEyore, the Palace got to Wembley, they've never been there before,
EEyore-EEyore, roll up for the Donkey Derby, there's room for plenty more.
There's old Gary O'Reilly, what's he doing here?
He should be giving rides to little kids on Blackpool Pier.
Pemberton and Pardew, one roll for them I'd say,
And that's the leading animal in the school nativity play.
And as for Man United they hardly raised the tone, with Gary Crystal Pallister, a donkey of their own
The final was a comedy, the replay was a bore.
The crowd were shouting 'Eagles', but it should have been EEyore'.
In other news,
- world Snooker semi-finalist Marco Fu is apparently playing out of Frames Bar in Coulsdon currently, where Jimmy White is also a regular.
- Kevster could be back hounding soon, he has finally been deemed roadworthy.
- no Blue Badge for Daren yet, the paperwork is extremely unwieldy.
- something about 'bladder awareness', what the hell was that?
First round was pictures of puppets (andy pandy, pinky/perky, orville, spit the dog, sooty etc.), pretty easy for those of a certain age. Daren managed to recall 'Cuddles' the monkey, Keith Harris' lesser known stooge, meaning full marks.
Ok on current affairs, none of us had heard of Dr Who's new female sidekick. Famous women for Round 3, we fell into an Ella Fitzgerald/Billie Holiday related bear trap, forgot that Katherine Hepburn has more best actress Oscars than Meryl Streep, and fell short on Oedipus' mother Jocasta.
Double connections round again this week. We correctly identified Snooker for the first bit, despite only getting 1 of 4 questions right! The second part on Elevators was much easier.
We missed one ten pointer, Bassenthwaite Lake is the only body of water in the Lake District that actually has the word 'Lake' in it's official title. We went for Lake Windermere, which is apparently just called 'Windermere'. Pretty much everybody missed this one, so no need to panic yet.
I learnt something new on the chain letters round, I had hitherto thought that Swarfega was a tropical disease of some sort, but apparently it is a green, gelatinous all-purpose cleaning product invented in Derbyshire. T'internet tells me that it once had an orange rival called 'Dirty Paws'.
We made the right choices for the Jeopardy round, leaving out the two that we got wrong. Much debate as to Blur's second no. 1 single. It was 'Beetlebum', we had 'Charmless Man'. We also avoided a bear trap concerning 'The Big One' at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. 18 points followed on the music round.
No matter anyhow, the Moonhounds aced the jeopardy and beat us convincingly.
Such fun.
G-Force.
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