Cheese Loving Hound

News from the team this week; Daren's picture has arrived from New Zealand, Graham has located the water source in his garden and my mother will be visiting. We don't really get up to much.

Pictures were "G" items, grapes, guitar, you get the idea. Very much a gentle warm up.Again, no current affairs this week on the quite reasonable grounds that there wasn't much. So "name the year" of various events. Those tripping us up were the first National Lottery draw and Concorde's last flight. Both quite recent but not that momentous. We weren't really close.

Concorde. Really is quite a lovely thing.

Next round was science. Pleasing naturally but I stumbled over the first in not recognising Newton's Law of universal gravitation, ah, the shame. We got on track though, recognising the small intestine is longer than the large one and that we should have 32 teeth but failing on the pistil rather than anther being the female part of a flower.

Connections jumped out quite quickly, answers such as Flash Gordon, The Tide is High and Aerial leaving us nowhere else to go. Still didn't get the Death card in a pack of playing cards or Jan & Dean's number one though - although we were close.

The only card you need.

Ten pointers reasonably dispatched and a draw of breath at halfway. Snacks were chicken nuggets and entertainment was from the US Open golf.

Here's the Erin Hills card. Safe to say they'll be off the blacks. 7800 yards! That could well be further than I go on my holidays.

I digress, back to the quiz and those chain letters. Alcatraz was linked with Zloty which followed on to Ypres and it all linked back to consommé. Which was nice.

Jepoardy kicked off in fairly gentle fashion but it took a real team effort to nail Klaus Barbie as the Butcher of Lyon, which is probably what it took in reality. Now we had only one blank, what is a turophile? This could be critical, entomology and etymology were used to their maximum effects but we weren't getting there. It was with a heavy heart that we left it blank.

One gap in the music was followed by a rare Hound win on the nearest the pin round (what is SCRABBLE worth in Scrabble)? We expected a high scoring contest and the lowest score was 123. The highest? Hound with 159! Turophile, well the blog title gave it away didn't it?

Until next week, but apologies from me, out of the area.

Call Us What You Like, Hound!

A few drinks with the boys uptown, and back to the PA during the picture round to join a lonesome Robson...

All pictures beginning with F, we failed to identify a close-up of a flip-flop. A straw poll of 3 at home and they all get it within a few seconds. We got fennel though far from sure.

No written record of Round 2 exists in any known archives, not even sure if we had a current affairs round? We got 7 out of 10 is all I can ascertain.

Rd 3: Politics. 5000 was our only incorrect answer, I think it referred to lost deposits and should have been 500. Father was a trapeze artist, female speaker, first PM, Tory Chelsea fan, that kind of standard quiz question.

Connections  were all terms for prison, we only got it fairly late but considered drugs based on fix and Rock at first. Cage, Nick, Bird etc sorted it out..

2 out of 3 ten pointers but nobody admits to getting Oliver McCall as vanquished by Frank Bruno in 1995 for a world heavyweight title. We proposed Bonecrusher Smith.

A full bag for the chain letters round, working hard to get Ryan's DaughteR (John Mills oscar winning film), and SucculenT (something to do with water absorbing trees).

The first question in the Jeopardy round ensured that we weren't playing for the bonus points. What American Art Nouveau designer was famous for his stained glass works and lamps? We only left one other out but seems unlikely that anyone will get ten.

Music generally well within our comfort zone, think I identified the wrong Ronettes song, and we mistook Eminem for something completely different.

Siobhan reveals that someone has indeed got all 10 for the Jeopardy. The usual reverse order sees all our principal competitors come below us in our creditable second place. Wait a minute, she hasn't mentioned "Call Us What You Like". The young 'uns with two more mature guests, only a couple of weeks married, eschew tradition to top the heap. Surely someone's mum their mystery 4th member will be asked back after this stunning debut. A more than popular result in the house with all teams.

Tiffany was the US designer, yes I have heard of the lamps.

Boisterous Hound

Firstly, all the best to regular quiz-mistress Siobhan, struck down with a yet unknown ailment. In her place, "Brother" Louie brought his own brand of running proceedings to the night. Steve and G-Force were off on European holidays, if they were looking for better weather, they'd have done well to find it as a glorious day. Boost up some of those slacking Euro cousins on the blog stats guys.

Right, almost inevitably with Louie we kick off with something Disney like or that sort of thing. This week, cartoon characters e.g.

Green Lantern. Daren picked up this particular ball and took it pretty much to the end zone.

Next up, a not too challenging general knowledge round. No point looking for hidden demons here, the first commercial monorail was indeed Japan and the J in JRR Tolkien stands for John. Next up, names of dogs. Names note, rather than breeds so the dogs in Oliver Twist, Blue Peter, Famous 5 etc. We wouldn't really be doing justice to the team name if we didn't get ten here.

Timmy the dog. I've always pictured him as a golden lab but how wrong can you be?

Louie continued to mess with our heads by making Food and Drink round 4. Not too much around the ears here and I think another ten, our old friend the Harvey Wallbanger making an appearance. He did stick to form with the ten pointers though, the only one really vexing us being the Queen's job in WWII. We'd put ambulance driver, t'internet says truck driver but I think this is pretty conclusive. Think any sort of driver got the points.

HRH

The next round was the connections. Well, they were clearly all films but what links Blade, Austin Powers, Alien, Naked Gun.... They all spawned trilogies, credit again to D2 for that one.

The jeopardy required some careful treading and that's what it got from us. 41 in Roman Numerals, the official language of Iran and a definition of conchology? I think with a gun to our collective heads we get them all but enough doubt existed for discretion to prevail.

Can't remember much of the music, oh, I'll throw this picture in for Graham to try and name?

And that gents, was that. Outcome? A win by a cosy ten points or so, the jeopardy proving beyond everybody (Note to all, I picked up the £50 and will probably spend it at the races today so don't let me get away with that).

Those answers? XLI, Persian and the study of shells. But you knew that.

Adios

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.

Hound Of God - Remastered

Different team selection today. For the first time in about a month, Man U didn't have a Thursday game on, instead Tottenham were slicing through Leicester like their eponymous cheese. So we had Daren joining Graham and myself while Kevster railed about the heaviness of Heathrow traffic.

I have notes on the re-quiz chatter but they make no sense so on with the quiz, round 1, pictures of "E's". Elephant, egg-box, emeralds, etc (not actually pictured). For the Hound, they were good.

Emma Thompson, budding national treasure or whinging old harpie, you decide.

Current Affairs was, to continue recent trends, more mainstream than often the case though we went wrong supermarket again with Asda in place of Tesco and for a change, the Greeks and not the French are on strike. You just have to play the percentages in this game.

Round 3 would be sport-themed, loosely so. Who was the quote, "He looks as happy as a penguin in a microwave" assigned to? It only really makes sense with a Geordie accent.

Sid Waddell

Connections would be Oscar winners which I think Graham bagged in one with Sean Penn (Dallas Buyers Club?). Daren was looking for hidden demons and took his time to come round but the likes of Elton John and Halle Berry sealed the deal.

On ten pointers I only have the answers written down but I'm sure "Harry Potter", "Ride of the Valkyries" and "Goat" tell you all you need to know.

A goat.

Half-time and disappointingly, no sandwiches or snacks had emerged so we were forced to do our thing. Refreshed we tackled the link-ups, I'll take the rap for Invicibles and not Invictus being the SA rugby film but otherwise plain sailing. Onto jeopardy, first winner of Celebrity Big Brother anyone? These were the days when people watched it but not the three of us I'm afraid. Had we known it, I'd have fought my corner on the month Elvis died but as we were, it was two blanks. Fair play to anyone bagging it. Proved to be Jack Dee.

Music and I do believe Daren identified an Olly Murs track. Whether indeed it proved to be an Olly Murs track is a different matter but still progress in my book. Here's Keane, someone we all know.

Not the biggest field for this week's quiz and when it became clear no-one had bagged the jeopardy, hopes were raised and fears subsided. A confortable Hound win was the order of the day. Ok, a few items of business.

1. Congratulations to Grey(Hound) Round becoming the first blog page to hit 500 views. Thanks to those French and Ruskies, traffic has been mushrooming and we calculate by 2030, the Hound blog will be the only thing read on the internet.

2. No quiz at the PA next week due to a private function. Default fallback will be the Crown & Sceptre in South Croydon but if Steve or Kevster want to show us the mean streets of Reigate or Sutton, then what the hell.

That's all folks.