A Few Good Hounds

Relatively thin on the ground this week but then we were bolstered by Pete's second in a row and with Daren and myself, officially quorate. Pre quiz yap included a bit of a prolonged rant about the BBC. Shooting fish I know but no reason not to do it. High time I think to abolish the licence fee and fund the thing from taxation. A vote winner before the next election and enraging the luvvies at the same time? Come on Theresa, that one's for free.

Onto the quiz and in a change from the norm, we kicked off with a "word ladder". Change one letter to fit the clue, e.g. LATCH LARCH PARCH etc. After a bit of head scratching it came together.

Current Affairs seemed even more weird than normal. Apparently a five stone pearl has been found and noodles are the new standard currency in US prisons? Maybe it's the time of year.

Next up, a weather theme, Toby Flood, Hurricane Higgins, that sort of thing. Only tripped up by the film where Nicole Kidman plays a brain surgeon.

Connections and four in I postulated "I'm too sexy". Not for the quiz but to link answers like car, Milan, catwalk. Fun then to see the penny drop with other teams around the pub. The last answer was Bernard Cribbins which foxed me at the time but is of course from where RSF got their name.

Ten pointers were comfortably despatched and it was a good first half. This was to come undone, I think for the first time, on the link ups round. It went wrong on question 3, Daren tried to get us back on track but I think I took us away again. It did circle back, but we'd long lost where we were by then.

Onto Jeopardy. What is a Purple Heart awarded for? This had more than a whiff of Bear Trap, turns out it's for being killed or wounded in action. The decade Mahatma Ghandi was assassinated and rows of stars in the US flag were also too tricksy, lacking our normal flag and Asia expert.

Music and it was Pete's time to shine picking out these fellas.

The rest were fairly standard stuff, all that remained was the number of flavours of Ice cream Baskin & Robbins have produced. Around 1,100 for the record.

Onto the scores, most of the field scrunched up close but runaway winners by 15, Hound! Flattered maybe by a couple of Jeopardy fails but that's the name of the game. £50 to kick things off in Dorking next week. Sayonara.

Of Hounds and Hamsters

 

 

 

 

We were regaled early doors by a very loud young Alf Garnett, though nowhere near as funny. 3 Hounds in situ, no make that 4 as Kevster turns up with 2 hamsters and 1 honorary Hound in tow. The latter having duly passed her 'A' levels and with an exciting new job starting next Monday. Congratulations were due and given. Too many for one team, so two teams created. 7 out of ten for Hound in the picture round, need I say more.

Only half marks for the current affairs round, shoddy airport knowledge, lockdown for suspected terrorist action was at JFK, and Gatwick is the worst British airport for delays. 37 new vineyards opened in UK during 2015, not really one that you can guess. Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper are in a remake of 'A Star is Born' and we couldn't remember the name of the multi-medallist US gymnast. Are you having this though, half way through the round in swans Peterkins, a near full pack of Hounds, albeit one in another team. Great to see the Petemeister, and an end to the who's turn is it to pay for the taxi home debate for another week.

Only one slip in the women in films round, Dakota Johnson stars in '50 Shades of Grey'. Big-up for Daren getting the two times 'Thomas Crown Affair' actress, Faye Dunaway. The rest pretty straightforward.

Full marks on connections round, Robson clicking that all are theme tune singers only after the 9th answer. Dennis Waterman clearly left to last for obvious reasons.



Missed 10 points for not knowing that Lancashire Spinners and Essex Leopards are basketball teams. Don't think that anyone got it though.

The best circular effort in the chain letters to date, as Amoco CadiZ links back to Zippo. We missed one despite having the end letters S____E. Andouille, Glamorgan and one other are all sausages. If nothing else, our answer of Swede will have given someone a chuckle.

Not feeling like our night, only answered 5 jeopardy questions, clueless on 2 and unsure on the other 3. Even with 2 or 3 of these we would still have been second behind a full strength and in form Anoraks. 14 points the final margin.

19 out of 20 on music round, Bay City Rollers song was 'Summerlove Sensation' not 'Shang-a-Lang'.

Did I ever mention that a mate of mine once had a fight at The Spotted Dog in Dorking, with a tiger in the car park? Anyway the statute of limitations, and what the intervening years has done to my hairstyle and general appearance, means that it is now deemed safe to return. Robson proposes that a jaunt round Dorking's pubs should take place on Friday, 2 September. Clearly if those in employment can't or don't want to take time off then this is fully understood. I get back from Malta the day before and hope to make it along. As a further reminder, Plumpton is Sunday, 18 September.

G-Force

Ladies, Tramps and Hound

Short one this week. I was left to my own devices and showed up about 8.15pm. Only team there was TLATT so joined them, thankfully 3 more teams showed up and we were off.

First up, a map of the USA and name 10 states. Around 5 were simple enough but large swathes of it looked pretty much the same. My main contribution was to suggest Montana for North Dakota and it was the usual 7 or 8.

Current Affairs and one Japanese gymnast has run up a £4,000 phone bill, but on what? Time was you actually got to talk to someone for that.

Next, food and drink and lots of drink, what tastes of almond, aniseed etc. The ladies came through here.

Connections started off cryptic enough, Kurt Cobain, rats? Answers like Major Tom and Manuel Pellegrini clarified things and just to make sure, Basil, Sybil and Polly all followed.

Two of three on 10 pointers, Greek god of war anyone? At halftime, I made a donation to Louis's "brave the shave" fund on behalf of the Hound. We don't like to talk about it though.

Onto link ups, we did well though not sure they circled back. Lots of Olympic stuff happening now.

Onto Jeopardy and the team have an expression of Jeopardy Confident. I went on my own with what RAM meant, other than male sheep and we had an uncontentious 7.

Got all the music other than an Eighties soul thing I've forgotten already and in a rare show of strength, we bagged the minstrels with nearest the pin on London to Rio distance.

Results, a win for the aforementioned with a LATT contribution to the charity fund! Let's hope for a full team next up. I disappeared into the night looking for somewhere to watch the sevens final. That was worth it.

Crooked Hound

Pre match talk centred on a proposed visit to Amberley on the 19th of some whenever. A beautiful idyll of typical English countryside with thatched cottages and Tudor pubs. They deserve a visit from the Hound but can they handle it?
There were photos of the hound tent shown and forwarded but due to the sick predilections of some of our readership, I'm not allowed to share. Suffice to say the vicar had done a sterling job of inscribing a name plate to ensure the Hound goes down (in posterity).

Now,  before we kick off - 9 or 10 teams, the Arms were literally kicking (!). The youngsters had arrived but were playing darts only. It was rammed.

Round 1 - Olympians. Only problem was some double barrelled boxer.
Round 2 - Current affairs. Some question about a Nigerian Pasta which I refused to answer on the basis that it was both racist and sexist.
Round 3 - more Olympian gonads; who wore golden shoes?, what colour are the bottom 2 Olympian rings? What do Waterford crystal and Ben Johnson have in common? (You'll have to look that one up).
Round 4 - connections took us from Beckham to Rowling. Apparently they are all Blue Peter Gold badge holders - a theme was developing here.

10 pointers - referring to my notes I only have 'Daren takes it up the a**e' and John Laurie.
We got all 3 so who knows what the questions were.

Half time interviews:
"Not too bad, 10 pointers ok, all comes down to jeopardy"
"No pussies - but I'm sober"
"good jeopardy needed but (the hound needs to) up its game in all departments - no badminton debacles"
"Daren is gay"

Second half was a bit crazy.... All I remember was discussing which symbol was the most redundant:
¥,},^ or ]

Final interviews timed at 22:37
"We had fun and it was up there"
"Let's just hope we got the f&&king jeopardy"

We'd actually been fairly confident on 8 out of 10 on the jeopardy and absolutely sure we didn't know the other 2 so we'd done all that we could.

Sooooooo- it's a long countdown from 10 to 1 but Ladies and the tramp, then Anoraks
and all of our other nemeses came out before Hound was named ebullient and triumphant.

I think a few tears were shed, either that or I had splash back from the toilets. Anyway folks, keep it frosty till next time.

Crooked Hound

Crooked Hound
Pre match talk centred on a proposed visit to Amberley on the 19th of some whenever. A beautiful idyll of typical English countryside with thatched cottages and Tudor pubs. They deserve a visit from the Hound but can they handle it?
There were photos of the hound tent shown and forwarded but due to the sick predilections of some of our readership, I'm not allowed to share. Suffice to say the vicar had done a sterling job of inscribing a name plate to ensure the Hound goes down (in posterity).
Now,  before we kick off - 9 or 10 teams, the Arms were literally kicking (!). The youngsters had arrived but were playing darts only. It was rammed.

Round 1 - Olympians. Only problem was some double barrelled boxer.
Round 2 - Current affairs. Some question about a Nigerian Pasta which I refused to answer on the basis that it was both racist and sexist.
Round 3 - more Olympian gonads; who wore golden shoes?, what colour are the bottom 2 Olympian rings? What do Waterford crystal and Ben Johnson have in common? (You'll have to look that one up).
Round 4 - connections took us from Beckham to Rowling. Apparently they are all Blue Peter Gold badge holders - a theme was developing here.

10 pointers - referring to my notes I only have 'Daren takes it up the a**e' and John Laurie.
We got all 3 so who knows what the questions were.

Half time interviews:
"Not too bad, 10 pointers ok, all comes down to jeopardy"
"No pussies - but I'm sober"
"good jeopardy but (the hound needs to) up its game in all departments - no badminton debacles"
"Daren is gay"

Second half was a bit crazy.... All I remember was discussing which symbol was the most redundant:
¥,},^ or ]

Final interviews timed at 22:37
"We had fun and it was up there"
"Let's just hope we got the f&&king jeopardy"

We'd actually been fairly confident on 8 out of 10 on the jeopardy and absolutely sure we didn't know the other 2 so we'd done all that we could.

Sooooooo- it's a long countdown from 10 to 1 but Ladies and the tramp, then Anoraks
and all of our other nemeses came out before Hound was named ebullient and triumphant.

I think a few tears were shed, either that or I had splash back from the toilets. Anyway folks, keep it frosty till next time.