23rd Feb Home to The Weaver

 

Refreshed after having the previous week off, the Lemmings bounced into their home venue looking forward to a clash with The Weaver. Sunil was standing in for Wendy and looking forward to a PB whilst the Weaver looked pretty secure in second place in the League. The game clashed with the Arsenal Barcelona football but even the remarkable two goals of Messi failed to inject any excitement into the quiz battle; however one question (GK 71) did initiate a lively discussion about how much tolerance, if any, should be given – in this case, the Weaver answered with gorgon but the given answer was (correctly) Medusa – see Duncan’s comment below. I must stress this in no way detracted from the high standard of the questions.

At the end of the Specialist questions the Lemmings despite their energy and confidence were trailing by 23 points!! They had 45 to the Weavers’ 68 but have been known to make up a deficit in the General Knowledge.

As someone once said “We shall fight with growing confidence” – so, after drinks of Brian’s fortifying ales the Lemmings confidently sat down to make up the deficit. Sadly this was more of the Dardanelles than most other battles and the Lemmings lost the General Knowledge with 65 points to the Weaver’s 114 making the final score 182 to 110. The worst ever defeat for the Lemmings in all their incarnations.

Individual scores were Bob 12/9, Sunil 0/6, Nick 12/9 and Tomo 9/18; conferred points were 8/17 with 4/6 pass-overs whilst the Weavers collected 9/11 pass-overs.

Arsenal lost too

However, the beer was of its usual exceptional standard and was soaked up with a magnificent selection of sandwiches and a superb pork pie – many thanks to Brian, to the Weaver and to the Dolphin who supplied the questions and question master

16th February Cup/Plate Semi Finals

The Lemmings were not involved in either competition having been defeated earlier, the questions are however published - a good variety of questions and it will be interesting to see the results

9th February–Away to the Robin Hood

It was such a pleasant surprise to arrive at the Robin Hood – the car park was full, inside all the tables were full with people dining, drinking, talking  etc. There were three hand-pumps with a good selection of wines, draft cider and a comprehensive menu. It is so pleasing to see how the pub has been turned around – and a great relief that tables had been reserved for the quiz.

The team are old friends and adversaries and it is always a pleasure to play against them. Unfortunately the Lemmings were without Bob who had suffered a loss in the family; of the two usual substitutes Sunil was giving a talk to a gathering of web designers and Tony was sick but Wendy’s husband Ken kindly cancelled a previous arrangement and made up the team.

The questions were out of the ordinary and this seems to be a recurring theme recently – a very welcome turn away from quiz books etc. and some proper thought put into the questions. Unfortunately this did not work to the Lemmings’ advantage and they were trailing by 11 points at the end of the Specialist with 63 to 74; they did much better in the General Knowledge but still lost by 1 point (60 to 61) with a final score of 135 to 123 to the Robin Hood. There was just one question that both teams thought was wrong and a substitute was used.

Individual scores were Wendy 18/12, Ken 9/3, Nick 15/3 and Tomo 12/15; conferred points were 8/21 with 1/6 pass-overs while the Robin took 3/6 pass-overs.

A very tasty selection of sandwiches (including excellent roast beef with horseradish!!) rounded off a very pleasant evening – many thanks to the Robin Hood, to the team and the question master who sometimes plays for the Robin and who covered for the Rams who were unable to provide one,

2nd February–Local Derby

The Lemmings were playing the Rams who had the home advantage but the Lemmings got there early and grabbed the favoured home team table in an attempt to psychologically distract the Rams; this failed very badly as at one stage it looked as though both teams would be sitting at the same table!! Eventually the Lemmings slunk to the fireside table with their tails between their legs. But there was more to come!! The start of the quiz was then delayed because there was no sign of Bob – the Lambs and question Master Andrew graciously agreed to a delay (second moral victory) and after 10 minutes Nick received a phone call from Bob who was looking for us in the Robin Hood high in the hills above Macclesfield; further time was allowed but eventually the Lemmings offered to start conferring Bob’s questions until he arrived (fortunately he only missed one, didn’t know it, the others didn’t either and nor did the Rams so nothing was lost).

The questions themselves were certainly different (a marked lack of soccer questions except for a picture of a lady footballer) and quite testing, particularly the Specialist reflected in the individual scores below – even so at the end of the Specialist the Lemmings had a lead of 16 with 48 to 32.

The General Knowledge however showed a marked turn in the Lemmings’ fortunes but only one was disputed (Nick on the Ho Chi Min question – he was wrong but the question should have stipulated North Vietnam) and the Rams clawed back 10 points with 76 to the Lemmings’ 66. Even so, the Lemmings took the game with a narrow victory of 6 – 114 to 108.

Individual scores were Bob 9/21, Wendy 6/3, Nick 6/3, Tomo 9/18 conferred 12/10 pass-overs 6/10; the Rams collected 6/11 pass-overs

The evening finished with an excellent soup from Brian with fresh crusty baguette slices - much appreciated by all - thank you Brian, Andrew and the Rams for a good hujoured game.