26th November Back at the Dolphin

This time it was the second round of the Cup and Rakesh was called off the bench to play.

It was a very pleasant game with lots of jokes and anecdotes and fairly well balanced: in the first 20 the Dolphin led with 18 to 11, but in the next 20 the Lemmings pulled back a bit with 17 to the Dolphin’s 13 but they hit back with a storming 22 to the Lemmings’ 11. The Lemmings were trailing 53 to 39 –  clearly it was time for a beer break after which the home team just shaved the next 20 with 18 to 17, but the Lemmings took the penultimate group with 15 to 13, a score mirrored by the Dolphin in the last round with 15 to 13.

Final score 99 to 84 – well done the Dolphins and a big thank you to the question master from the Church House who did a splendid job with a light touch.

A very pleasant evening was rounded off with a selection of well-filled sandwiches – many thanks to the landlord and of course to the Dolphins for a great game.

19th November–away to the Dolphin

Odd how tings you have taken for granted for ages suddenly become a puzzle when a new voice asks why is an inland pub in Macclesfield called the Dolphin – in some way it seems to be linked to Wellington and the Battle of Waterloo but not managed to find out much more.

This was a clash that the Lemmings had been dreading as the home team have only visited the B League from the A League this season.They were in third position with two games in hand and the Lemmings were next to bottom and only the previous week Nick had asked the questions as the Robin Hood were beaten.

The Lemmings quite liked the Specialist rounds and although they put up a strong performance finished with a deficit of 3 with 63 to the Dolphin’s 66 – more or less as expected.

In the General Knowledge the Lemmings fought on despite being held back by Nick thinking that a Macclesfield estate agent (Northwood) was an anagram of Doctor Who!! However they managed to steal a lead of 83 to 79 eventually winning the game by a solitary point! Of particular note is Sunil’s personal best and congratulations to Tomo who broke through the 40 barrier.

Individual scores were Bob 6/21, Sunil 12/15, Nick 12/6 and Tomo 21/21 with conferred points 10/12 and 2/8 pass-overs whilst the Dolphin picked up 4/9 pass-overs.

It was a most enjoyable game rounded off with a fine chilli con carne with rice and garlic bread – many thanks to the landlord, to the Dolphin Dragons and especially Dave from the Harrington Academicals who controlled the game with a fine sense of humour and timely beer breaks.

12th November Question Masters

The Lemming had to cover three venues for this week’s games:

Tomo visited the well-established Nag’s Head who played the newly-promoted Chester Road Tavern;

Sunil assisted by Rakesh saw our sister team the Rams be defeated by the Harrington Academicals on home turf

Nick was at the Dolphin, well-known for the high standard of its Robinsons ales and enjoyed a most enjoyable evening where many of the questions evoked memories and anecdotes of people met and life’s incidents. Nick’s favourite was of a player’s father who was in the Irish army when war broke out and the government decided to declare an emergency only to discover there was one already from the Civil War

Marching on …

5th November Home to the Nag’s Head

Despite the date we were expecting no fireworks in this game although it almost started with a damp squib – it was only due to Mark’s vigilance that we realised that we had to provide the question master for the night leading to frantic phone calls and emails.

Our opponents for the evening were a very friendly and light-hearted group against whom we have crossed swords (or at least words) many times over the years.

the questions were pretty good but at the end of the Specialist rounds the Lemmings were trailing by 9 points with 50 to the Nag’s 59 – ‘ we’ve overturned such a lead before.

Unfortunately the General Knowledge were just as unfortunate for the Lemmings which they lost with 70 to the Nag’s 89 – final score 148 to 129.

No complaints about the questions and special mention must be made of Becky who stepped in to be question master for the night ably assisted by Rak with the scoring.

Individual scores were Bob 9/21, Sunil 3/9, Nick 6/18 and Tomo 21/18 with 8/9 conferred and 3/4  pass-overs. The visitors picked up 9/4 pass-overs.

It was another very pleasant evening with the Rams and many thanks are due to Brian for a fine selection of tasty sandwiches and a log fire and well done Becky for stepping at short notice.