Spooky Hound

Three of us this week. Although Kevster and I arrived first, Daren clearly had a head-start on us elsewhere and wasn't to be trusted as scribe so Kevin took the honours. Also a change of scenery, Halloween celebrations required a 7 foot dummy next to our normal table which made annoying noises around every 30 seconds so we moved elsewhere. The next team just unplugged the darn thing. I don't known, grown men dressing up in "scary" costumes. Not always a fan of Americanisms but "lame" sums this all up quite nicely.

So the quiz, this fella anyone?

Not exactly mainstream. Think we got the other nine but "celebrity" chef is pushing it with this bloke. In this country anyway. Wolfgang Puck in case you were wondering. The current affairs, well more on this later but there were a few punts where we did back the wrong horse. So soap and not toilet paper was said by Ryanair to be non-essential and it was the Canvey Island not the Isle of Sheppey who declared independence. Or something.

Round 3 was triple words, so Wet Wet Wet, Spend Spend Spend and the like. Think we managed her to get the right answer for the wrong question, not knowing that 69 Paradise Passage (really) referenced Gimme Gimme Gimme the TV show and the Abba song in question was actually Money Money Money. Spot a pattern?

Bonus round here, as we didn't go last week Siobhan gave us that picture round for our amusement, so away go go.

Connections and a fairly tame link of hats, "balmoral", "sun", "halo" and the like. On the ten pointers, credit for whoever said that Dandy Horse was the forerunner name to the bicycle, know if wasn't me.

Onto link ups and somewhere along the line, we had credible answers and they did link-up but a few of them were wrong. So Tonto's horse was actually called Scout and indeed cocoa is mainly grown in the Ivory Coast and Ghana. But there were some good answers as well. Onto jeopardy and this was one we didn't know.

Handsome chap I thought. Goes by the name of a caracal, think bird was the only answer postulated. And Eric the Eel, knew he was central African and with a gun to my head would have correctly gone Equatorial Guinea but no confidence. Ah, Marge Simpson, another picture I think.

Now I've seen the Simpsons quite a lot but didn't know she wears a green dress. At least I knew I didn't know it but there we are. Music, I think we got nine songs and artists and had gone to the gents by the time the Maltesers question came.

Well, we din't win. And frankly we wouldn't have won with an optimised jeopardy round either, one for the Busters.

Much of the rest of the evening was spent debating whether UHNW (ultra high new worth) was better than CNW (colossal net worth). Yep, it had come to that; in the words of Siobhan, we were horrendous at the current affairs.

Just Call Us Hound

Right, pre quiz activity had a few chunk of putting the world to rights this week. So in no particular order:

- Works bashes once you've left, pop in but they've moved on, so have you
- EU - a good idea at one point, all went a bit far
- Bitcoin - we missed the boat on that one

Plus we're all doomed, but at least we have the Hound blog.

First an update from the Scout quiz last Saturday in two part pictorial form. Exhibit A:

Half time and in fourth, allowing for jokers, just about disputing the lead.

Onto this week and it kicked off with a bunch of chanteuses.

It was the lovely Alesha who vexed us the most, well done Kevster there. And just to prove we're not racist, she came in at Number 2.

Current affairs stuff and given the team's proclivities, I suggest high-tailing down to Morrisons for some of this:

I can't wait.

Next round was nicknames, aka if you like. This time we were foxed by Jacob Gerschovitz and felt if this was George Gerschwin trying to sound less Jewish, he wasn't making a very good job of it. So we went for Liberace, Władziu Valentino Liberace as it happens. It was indeed George.

Onto the connections and the answers "Oven" and "Disposable" led me to the rather unimaginative theme of "gloves", later to be confirmed by the no more cryptic answers of "rubber" and "gardening". We still managed to confuse ourselves on the role of Parker in Thunderbirds, who apparently doubles as a butler and chauffeur, butler gloves being akin to those worn by a snooker referee.

Well done to Graham for bagging Little Jimmy Osmond as the youngest number one singles artist in the UK on the ten pointers, the other two didn't trouble us. Oldest equivalent anyone?

Right, back to last Saturday.

A rip-roaring second half saw us storm to victory, but notice the first and second columns. although credited for the correction that the brown is indeed worth 4 in snooker (3 really?), it wasn't felt appropriate to adjust our total. We really do have to watch that lot. Felt the sausage and mash let them down as well.

Connections looped around the way they should, Olivander's wands linking back to Espana with Butch Cassidy in between (Last lime - Oh, good. For a moment there I thought we were in trouble). So as ever, the Jeopardy was going to matter. No amount of time would tell us what musical "Gypsies in the Wood" came from. Where's Pete when you need him. We had credible but not much better than 50/50 answers for Prince Phillip's birth island (Corfu) and what a Brannoch device does (measures shoe size). So we settled for 7.

Onto the nearest the pin and either Graham's maths or US Presidents knowledge let him down and we shared someone else's minstrels. So final orders of business:

- Hound win by 3, hurrah! I have the £50.
- There's another Anorak charity quiz near Tattenham Corner on the 21st, suspect I'm unlikely for that.
- We were behind at half time, don't underestimate the importance of music and getting those extra answers these days.

Thunderous applause....

Open All Hounds

A bit late again, working long hours at the mo. No, none of your sympathy thanks. Lost the pictures, various comedians as I recall, we mistook a Scottish one for another Scottish one. Good effort Hound.

Couldn’t remember the offending rugby star missing the Grand Final - Zak Hardaker, not sure he would have bridged the rather large gap between Leeds and Cas had he played. Just a shame that the really loud Cas fan from the last play-off wasn’t around when I was watching that, given his size I wouldn’t have said anything but I could have at least smirked.

Round 3 was ‘Top Row’. Not gentleman’s leisure reading as I originally thought but ten answers starting QWERTYUIOP. Rotten Row, the glorified horse track in Hyde Park probably the hardest get.

The connection this week eluded us and everyone else. I think I was tantalisingly close when this fella came up...

... but Status Quo and Tim Burton switching the Blackpool illuminations on, who’d have guessed it.

Meissen might have been the European pottery in the chain letters round, or maybe we put that and it was something else. Ecclesiastic caused some trouble but fit in the end.

Did I mention that we got the ten pointers? I did not, but I am now.

So, not necessarily flat out in The JPD round, but going well after 7. ‘Hushabye  Mountain’ is from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Petticoat Lane the market in Middlesex Street, and the 13th amendment abolished slavery. Then this fella came up...

...just what is the characters Christian name? Daren, did Tina get it because Clare and Jane both did? Turned out to be Albert. Daren had the initial sorted. 9 right plus a solid music round felt good enough and so it proved. Lady & The Tramp apparently let Henry VIII’s last wife scupper them talking themselves out of the right answer. A close one with 5 points covering the top 4.

Next up would be the cub quiz in Bynes Rd, read about that elsewhere.