Crowned Hound

I've become worse than the naughtiest boy at school recently with my excuses for lateness. No canine has eaten my homework, but I have spent several hours in walk-in centres and A&E over the last couple of days. Turns out Boy 2 did indeed have an avulsion fracture to his distal interphalangeal joint, left-hand, ring finger, as he suspected. He wasn't just whinging after all. Footballing injury.

No contest at the PA this week, so Robson and I hit the Crown & Sceptre, South Croydon, early. Taking it on the road. Unusual set-up with contestants spread throughout the pub interspersed with non-participants who nevertheless try to answer questions out loud.

The format was quite familiar in places, a picture round to start for instance. We managed to get Viggo Mortensen between us and only about 4 others. Not a great start, but I don't think anyone got an uglified Alex Best.

Round 2 current affairs, pretty much all based on articles that we had seen. The queen had 8000 at the year's first garden party, Robson guessed Rosanne as the eponymous sitcom making a comeback after 20 years. We only missed a royal marries commoner story, Japan not Denmark.

Cast your mind back, the PA used to do a top ten round, C&S does two top fives. Richest British musicians and highest grossing Julia Roberts films in real terms. We felt we did well to even name 5 of her films, but rued putting Peter Pan not Hook. Not the first time that that film has tripped us (ok me) up. We got 5 or 6, probably a decent effort.

Alpha links round next, not unlike chain letters, but in this version first letter of each answer starts with the letter of the alphabet immediately following that of the previous answer. Ghana, Horology, Iran, Johnny B Goode, Kath & Kim, Lira, Monty Panesaar, Never never land, Out of Africa, Polonium. Kath & Kim came from the very depths of our combined minds, not a place you want to go to too often.

Connections round only consists of 5 questions. A breeze even allowing for the error in the first question. Quizmaster remained adamant that both Kids in America and French Kissin in the USA were performed by Kim Wilde. I don't think so. All famous people following in their father's footsteps. Hilary Benn, Kiefer Sutherland & Charlie Sheen the other 3.

Last round called Wipe Out, but is just Jeopardy in disguise. Only 5 point bonus though for getting them all. The tenth question stumped us completely anyway, not familiar with the plot of the hit musical Hairspray. We erred on the side of caution, leaving out 3 that we would have guessed right. Any one would have given us an outright win, but as it happens three teams are tied on 40 points.

They had anticipated this potential outcome, setting a tie-break question after the last round but before marking. Nearest to the year that the Soviet Union prevented Pasternak from accepting his Nobel Prize. One team never answered, we said 1962. It was 1958, the other tied team were one year further out. Hurrah for Hound!

The team that we swapped papers with won the raffle covered by the entry fee of £1 per person. A bottle of wine. Strangely the quizmaster reduced my score of 31.5 for them to 30. I had been generous on the Kim Wilde/Debbie Harry question, and half marks are apparently not allowed. A bit on the strict side considering that they were out of contention.

After a decent interval during which we were ignored, I enquired politely about the first prize, only to learn that there is no such thing. All a bit of fun for charity. It was explained to me that they do this because the previous first prize of £12 used to attract professional quizzers. I then enquired equally politely "What about a Well Done then?". The response to this was "Oh, did you win, the two of you? I thought it was that other lot around the corner!".

Never mind, a good away win, no me for the coming Thursday, Robson is hoping for some support if possible.

G-Force.