Away To The Flag

The start of the second half of the season, and an away game at The British Flag, a Robinson’s house.
It was not an auspicious start – the reserve Tony had been asked to cover Wendy but the evening clashed with Nick’s retirement party and fears were voiced (not least by Nick) that he would be in no state to play. Then panic set in – by the time we were due to leave our home ground (where we had been having a tactics meeting) there was no sign of Tony. Nick’s son Sunil gallantly offered to play and Nick resigned himself to a game.

Just as we were leaving Tony arrived and was briefed on the situation – his face lit up and he said that suited him perfectly and he would stay in the Tavern and drink some excellent beer.

Then more anxiety when it seemed we were in danger of being inconsistent when at the half-way stage we were just 3 points behind after the Specialist questions – 47 to 44 – worried looks all round. Was this to be our first win?

We need not have worried, we were soundly beaten in the General Knowledge rounds 80 to 48 and we thus remain bloodied but unbowed with a clean sheet of no League points. Sunil was a little cautious and could have scored more but played exceptionally well with the conferred questions.

So, individual results:

Bob 12/3, Sunil 0/3, Nick 9/9 and Tomo 9/12.

Again we had a strong showing with conferred points (13/14) but managed to pick up only 8 (1/7) with pass-overs. The Flag keep a tight ship!! A very friendly and enjoyable encounter.

The General Knowledge questions in particular were generally thought to be unbalanced and perhaps a little too clever – will be interesting to see how they were marked by the other teams. And Robbies was not to the taste of the team especially Nick who had started at noon and narrowly failed to empty a barrel of Wild Swan in the home ground.

Duncan's Take - Ox-fford dons it's winners cloak

Billy recruiting for his quiz team

Well, it was nice while it lasted! Three weeks and not a defeat in sight, even though the main reason was that the Wonderers had no matches, their reputation as ace-question masters going before them as they played the part of supreme referees. Nick has provided all the statistics and a profile of the Ox-fford ringer, Ashley Tray, so there they stand, naked in all their under-achievement.



Billy Prattlefaggit rang me to say how disgusted he was, and has asked me to warn the WGW that he is currently putting together a team of over-eighties to usurp their place in the league. He assures me that once he has got a fourth man and a pub that has room for five zimmer frames, they will be having a few practice matches before asking the league to kick the Wonderers out and have his as yet un-named team take their place.

“This is an exciting venture for us” said Billy “we want to show these buggers what the old ‘uns can do. We have got some sponsorship money from the drop-in centre and this has bought us new glasses, and in one case a set of teeth. There is pride at stake here, and the first team we will challenge to a practice match is the Wonderers!

We can still cut it, even though my memory's not as sharp as it used to be. Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.”



So hard times all round for the Wonderers, but at least they keep smiling. In between bouts of tearful self-pity they are currently partaking in a humorous ‘quiz’ to find as many film titles as possible punned from Welsh, Irish, Scottish and English geographical names. They can be towns, counties, regions or rivers. Here are some to be going on with. Constantly reading about failure can be very wearing and this may lighten your day. Please feel free to join in – your entries will be acknowledged in your own name in the final judging. Entries to Bob Langstaff at evenwood@talktalk.net .



Wales
Breakfast at Taffy’s



Scotland
The Glasgow Menagerie

Crocodile Dundee

Callender Girls

Crieff Encounter

Reach for the Skye

A fistful of Dollar



England
Far From The Reading Crowd

Sleepless in Settle

Ice Cold in Alnwick

Brighton Dock

The Merchant of Ventnor

Whose Afraid of Virginia Water?

Mobberley Dick

The Rainow Children

The Wizard of Osmotherley

Basing Saddles

Gunfight at the Oakham Corral

Look back in Ongar

Gone with the Mynd

Clun for Hire

Hooray for Hollinwood

Saturday Night and Sunbury Morning

Casino Royton

Dr. Knowsley

For Your Eye Only

Macc to the Future

Sergeant York



Rivers

The Magnificent Severn

Bridge on the River Wye

Ouse Life is it Anyway?

Ribble Without A Cause

Stour Wars

It’s A Wonderful Liffey

Tyne Bandits

An American Wear Wolf in London





Chin up Wonderers and remember, change is inevitable (except from vending machines)



Duncan Disorderley

23 January - Magnus R.I.P.

Refreshed after two weeks as question masters the Wonderers knew that playing on their home ground they would be able to maintain their consistent form.

They were not to be disappointed but it was a close call – the Ox-FFord C team had obviously heard of the Wonderers’ prowess and one of their team failed to show. In time-honoured fashion he was replaced with an ash tray (what will we do after July??) - ironically it was the eponymous Ashley Tray who got all their easy questions!

Nevertheless, it was a close call with the Wonderers managing to cling to their unbroken run of defeats with a respectable score of 129 to the Ox-Fford’s 139.

Individual scores were pretty good – Steve put in a guest appearance with a very creditable 27 (9/18), Tomo equalled his personal best with 30 (12/18), Bob put in his usual solid performance with 27 (12/15) and once again Nick showed he owes his place on the team to the blog with 15 (9/6).

Conferred points show good team work with 20 (11/9) and against a team as good as the Ox-Fford we were lucky to pick up 10 pass-overs (6/4).

The usual what-if comment – 5 wrong guesses would have given a dead heat if conferred, and 6 would have destroyed the Wonderers’ credibility as consistent losers.

Another most enjoyable evening, well done and thanks to the Ox Fford C team.

Duncan Bounces Back into 2007

Thanks Nick, for holding the fort and doing such a good article on the defeat by the Castle. I tried to do one but I was so depressed and let's face it, there are only so many words in the language and I couldn't find any fresh way of introducing another defeat. And I get so depressed at Christmas, which is a time of the year I really dislike. I hate that stupid Father Christmas idea. Last year I left him a salad and a note saying that he could afford to lose a bit of weight. I tried to be a bit more positive this time and I told 'er indoors that we were going traditional. No more frozen turkey. So I bought a real one, plucked it myself and stuffed it myself. She only had to kill it and put it in the oven. As if being in trouble over that wasn't enough, I think I upset Wendy from the quiz team. I was telling her how we should have the proper old-fashioned Christmasses back and she agreed and said she was going to make her own Christmas pudding. I suggested that she do what they used to do and drop a couple of threepenny bits in the pudding mix for good luck. It was then that she slapped my face and said that tradition or no tradition, her bra was staying firmly fastened. She hasn't spoken to me since. Christmas Day was even worse. My nephew, little Kevin, was in floods of tears. All he got was an empty box. His Dad told him it was an Action Man deserter.



Anyway, back to the quiz. I am upbeat again now that Christmas is over and happy to report that at last, I did not witness a defeat of the Waters Green Wondereres.

This is because they did not play.

Nevertheless, dedicated to the cause of minority sports as I am, I entered the Prince Albert (not in the biblical sense, you understand) to watch Bob Langstaff in his role as Question Master. He carried out this job with wit, wisdom, fortitude and forbearance. The competing teams were so pleased that they suggested the rest of the WGW team should have a whip round and buy him a huge present!



No Action Men please.



Here's to a win in 2007

Peas on earth and goodwill to you all"



Duncan

CASTLED!!!

Bloated from a month of resting from the quiz and two weeks of guzzling good food and wine, the Wonderers waddled into their home pub to face the mighty Castle with high hopes of breaching their defences and scoring our first victory in the A League.
It was a cliffhanger! At the end of the Specialist rounds, the Castle were just 2 ahead, at a beer break halfway through the General knowledge it was level pegging (i.e. the Wonderers were leading in the GK by 2 points). And at the end the Castle raised the drawbridge with a breathtaking win of 110 to 107. Well done the Castle - thanks for a great game.

The questions were fine and the balance good but there were no big scores with the exception of Tomo who scored what is probably a best-ever personal best - congratulations.

Scores were Bob 0/6, Wendy 9/12, Nick 9/0 and Tomo 15/15.

It is interesting that we picked up 30 points on conferred answers (10 +20) and managed to get 7 from pass-overs from the Castle.

As the scores were so close it would have taken just 2 of the wrong guesses to have won the match if they'd been conferred - 109 to 108. Phew!!