Acid Hound

Later than normal start this week. Two of BPA's true stalwarts retire today and Graham and myself wanted to hold something back to celebrate the occasion. As we arrived the Manchester derby was kicking off, no doubt explaining Daren's absence while work commitments claimed the other two. Ah, the memories...

So without much pre quiz chit-chat to report on, straight to it with pictures.

Don't be fooled by that cute looking character as number one; it was one of her sort that bit me the other day in Banstead Woods. Other than that, the only one that vexed us for a while was 5 until Graham identified him, the lack of glasses and a lightning bolt scar fooling no-one.

Onto current affairs and dare I say it, a bit less batty than normal. I was surprised that Boris called this fellow a mutton-headed old mugwump though on research, he did say that's what he wasn't.

Jeremy

Round 3 - questions about music. Fairly steady bowling for us, though that old bear trap of the group that named themselves after their financial situation in 1977 nearly tripped us up, well me anyway.

Note, not UB40!

Connections. Made a bit of a horse's ass out of this. We had Clive Allen, Tiger, Zeus, Buster and Bijou with confidence and a few others but no common thread. Some sort of sexual performance aid wandered through my mind but we settled on frogs and toads. It was neither.

A tiger, grr!

Ten pointers - 2 out of 3, probably about par, we failed to realise that Scrubs is set in Seattle, though on reaearch the internet isn't too sure about that either. Was it any good? Just too many of those medical dramas around.

Here's the Scrubs gang.

Sandwiches were particularly good this week.

Onto the link-ups and we needed to wait for number 10 to realise that the Joshua Tree National Park is in California. Probably the size of Wales. Otherwise "Mortadella" was a good shout and something that would go down great right now.

Jeopardy and the overall feeling was "steady as she goes". However all was going serenely, Graham identified the location of the Peterloo massacre, though I'd question whether around 15 deaths is really a massacre? Which reminds me of the, maybe apocryphal, story about Napoleon. He was complaining about his sore throat when a captain rushed to his quarters asking what do with the 1,200 Turkish prisoners. "Ma sacré toux!" was his response. So they did. Now that's a massacre.

I digress. So who did John Francis try to assassinate in 1842. Well we didn't have a clue but given the date... But we left it.

Music and true to form we didn't have a clue about a Bruno Mars song. So we at least know what he looks like.

Bruno

Well, would our omission prove costly? Well yes, LATT bagged the jeopardy and we needed to do the same to beat them. However we hadn't got the right answer on who played Tinkerbell in Hook. No "if only allowed"

Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell. Kylie would have done a good job though. And it was Queen Victoria he tried to kill, twice actually.

So no success but good to see LATT win, their first for a while. Right, I can go down the pub now.

Hound intrinsically adorable (9)

The blog title has nothing to do with last week's quiz, nor is it a statement of fact. Just a times crossword clue from earlier in the week. Answer at the foot of the post. Apologies for lateness of this blog, we have a man that does, doing at home. The conversion of study to bedroom has affected my onlineness for a few days.

Picture free this week, as I am posting from my iPad and it is a bit fiddly. Normal service will be resumed in due course.

Quick sweep-up re a couple of events. Full pack of Hounds descended on Hastings on Maundy Thursday, good time had by all. Siobhan's sloe gin was finished on the outward journey, palatable and very refreshing. Well done to her. Robson and myself took part in an inbetweener music Quiz with various anoraks, being placed a comfortable second. The impressive winnin team saw us off largely due to their knowledge of female X-Factor winners and the years in which they won. We were 1 year out for 5 of the 6. Nevertheless an enjoyable evening at St Raphael's hospice in Cheam.

Quiz proper started with easy picture round, furry animals. We may have confused our ferrets and weasels but otherwise a breeze. We missed two current affairs q's but my notes are too cryptic at this late stage to say what they were. Weetabix got a mention, as did George Osborne, Chris O'Donnell and Steve Jordan.

Food & drink mostly negotiated in round 3. Our bearnaise sauce knowledge not as good as it perhaps should be, and we were way out on what type of beer was being smuggled into Georgia in the film 'Smokey & the Bandit' (Coors apparently).

We frankly unravelled a bit in the connections round, only getting 6 of the 9 connected answers. Windsor was probably the only one that might have helped us to get knots as the connection, had we got it right. Other connectors include Celtic FC, Savoy hotel, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Albert Pierpoint, and I think Madeline Albright.

Got the ten pointers, Jimmy Purley a bit tricky for some other teams.

The chain letters round included the second mention of absinthe in this week's quiz. A fisherman uses a gaff to land fish that have been hooked, not a griff, otherwise fine.

Uninspired Jeopardy round where we left 4 out. Other, bigger, teams putting some distance between us and them. Nobody in the house knew or could remember the surname of John Lennon's first wife Cynthia, we also had an Archbishop Cantab/York dilemma (which is prelate of All England), no idea who played Vin in ' The Magnificent 7', and swerved a potential bovril/marmite bear trap.

Usual strong music round, especially good get of Alesha Dixon song by Robson. We were 3rd, 10 behind Anoraks who won. Consolation bag of minstrels for being first in with the Queen Mum's age at death.

Jeopardy answers were Powell, Cantab, Steve McQueen, bovril.

Crossword answer is 'persecute'.

G-Force

Nap Hound

It was just like Liverpool in that Champions League final, except it didn't go to penalties. Daren's probably going to log off now.

Well, participants were Steve, Graham and myself and the PA was buzzing more than normal. Payday? Easter Hols? All the same these days to me. First up was dingbats, we got nine, probably should have got ten but our lame attempt at the last one actually proved to be right. So now, I'm trying to do the blog, want the windows open but some fellow is making a noise cutting the grass outside. Problems, problems.

Back to it and current affairs. Ah, Man Down.

Sales in the opening weekend in the UK, £7! Straight to download apparently but released in one cinema in Burnley where one student ticket was sold. What does that say about the film? Or Burnley? Or students?

Round two and the theme would be "Greats". Well we didn't have Catherine, Expectations or Balls of Fire but we did have Bears, Escapes and Ormes?

Virgil Hilts

Connections would be Greek gods; as if having three in our team wasn't enough.

And ten pointers, these would be:

1. What fruit or vegetable is only ever sold fresh?
2. Who was the youngest Walton?
3. What type of animal is a falabella?

Tricksy eh? A bit of research indicated we had twenty odd points less than the Anoraks at this point, virtually needing snookers already.

No question about it, we needed to hitch up both our pants and our game. So link-ups, we were mildly stumped at the only English city beginning with "R", which was actually the question, bit a brain fade from Siobhan there, and this fellow linked Gandhi to sloth.

Icarus, just in case.

So the note I have on Jeopardy is "Gung Ho!". It needed to be, but almost wasn't until, against all odds, this chappie turned it round.

What's he doing now? Well http://www.stevebrookstein.com/forgotten-man shows he at least retains a sense of humour. But of course, he wasn't. The rest of the Jeopardy was almost routine.

Onto music and our hot streak continued, the only one requiring a second listen being these ladies:

Sister Sledge - Thinking of Kevster

Well to recap, the answers to those ten pointers were lettuce, Elizabeth and horse. We had one of them which surely wasn't enough. But the Anoraks had bottled the Jeopardy and two teams had it. With a scorching second half display, Hound had prevailed by around five points.

Glory be, well at least we can't win next week. Happy Easter.

Synchronised Hounding

Apologies for lateness of bloggage. Laptop malfunction to blame. My respect for PC World's Knowhow guys reached a whole new level. Even lower than the previous one. Still it is working for now.

No show from Steve, but 4 of us in the house, plus our now regular hanger on. Sorry about orientation of airline logos, new scanner as well. We missed the last two. Turkish not Singapore airlines, and the last one is an Arabian Oryx, not a Dik Dik.

Current Affairs are not so current now, we missed 4, Beauty & The Beast mugs are moving fast in Primark due to staff buying them, some old codger thinks that the Queen looks miserable, Kit Kat's have had a microscopic calorie reduction and Pee Wee Pumps are a new line of high heels for babies.

Science & Nature for Round 3. Usual confusion over alloys, pewter primarily consist of Tin not Lead. Didn't know the Hubble launch year - 1990, or at least somebody did but wrote something else. Got our neap and spring tides mixed up as well.

Nobody got the connection this week, they had all had animals named after them. I managed to mix up the prison numbers of Oscar Wilde and Nelson Mandella, an easy mistake to make. These and the  remainder were a mix of celebrities and public figures who could plausibly have many links, we went for charitable foundations.

 

First ten pointer related to a couple of sporting terms including eggbeater. Kevster was straight onto it as synchronised swimming. I had seen the question in a recent Chase episode but only remembered kayaking which was one of the wrong answers. Later transpired that only Hound got this correct.

Almost effortless chain letters round. Good botanical knowledge from Daren. Feathered Peacock as a yoga term was new to me, but I did recognise the name of Ebay's founder.



Cautious approach for the Jeopardy Round. Mickey Mouse was a shoe-in for first animated character honoured on the Hollywood walk of Fame in 1978, but we decided not to risk. Furthest Eastern EU capital was Nicosia, we were fairly sure but considered Tallin & Sofia. (Turns out I was born in the most Eastern town in the EU). We might have gone for both if it was not for our dithering over who was the first American to orbit the earth in 1962, returning to space in 1998. Daren suggested Alan Shepherd and I plumped for Buzz Aldrin. The only thing either of us really knew for sure was that the other was wrong. Moments after handing in our answers Daren came up with John Glenn which I am pretty sure I could have agreed on if it had been said it earlier. Beer googles probably. So we potentially had them all, but no harm done, 19 out of 20 for the Music Round (great shout of Cee Lo Green from Robson), and first place of only 5 teams, 14 points the winning margin. This fellow came up as well...




In other news, I let slip that all that is needed to keep me quiet is a bottle of Delrosa, local shops may not be able to cope with the increased demand. More than one Hound is fond of very expensive watches. Louie is doing the Maundy Thursday quiz, but we will be comatose in the Hastings arear by then. Mars is certain to be colonised by 2030, and I'm fairly sure that Kevster called Debbie, Doris. May have misheard. Over to the panel for any reason as to why I may have written 'Brown Ring Plaice' in my notes.

Last round of the Masters at Robson Towers this coming Sunday and Inbetweener music quiz in Cheam confirmed for R & G on 19th.