14th December–Whoops!!

 

I feel we owe the teams who played last night something of an apology. Owing to a catastrophic telecommunications failure our own questions were printed very late and not checked properly, and the Harrington B did not see the comments we made having vetted their questions. As a result there was one missing question and several answers that were quite wrong. Very sorry – won’t happen again!!

I have left the questions as presented on the night and not changed any of the answers so they are not to be taken as correct without checking if used again.

Nevertheless despite the above the questions were generally well received  - perhaps Christmas has kicked in early.

It was the last game before the Christmas break so to all who read this blog we wish you a very merry Christmas and all you hope for in 2011, in particular happiness and health.

Away to the New Castle

 

The plight of the Castle was mentioned some time ago - it has been put up for sale and although an emergency landlord has been installed it seems the uncertainty has affected custom and the pub does not open. Except that the two quiz teams have made an arrangement with the landlord that he will open only on Tuesday nights so that the games can take place - a fine piece of diplomacy!

Nevertheless the occasional hours do leave their mark - there is no draught beer!!! - but the landlord had arranged to have some bottles of Marston’s Pedigree (made Nick’s head hurt) and Tomo was delighted with the quality of the bottles of red wine.

The New Castle are old friends and the Phoenix really look forward to meeting them in the League. This was no exception and it was a very close and good-humoured game, with the lead switching from one team to the other throughout the match. The Specialist questions we thought were particularly good and both sets were well balanced and “gettable”. The only disappointment was that the New Castle brought to an end the Phoenix’ run without losing a game!! We were particularly pleased with the question master from the Plough Horntails in what despite the rather gloomy surroundings turned out to be a very pleasant evening.

Tomo led the individual scores with a magnificent 36 closely followed by Bob with 30, a break up of the scores being:

Bob 9/21, Wendy 9/9, Nicki 9/12 and Tomo 12/24; conferred points were 9/10, passovers 8/7 whilst the New Castle pi8cked up 5/9 passovers.

Final score 143 to 139 to the New Castle – worthy winners.

30th November–Away to The Cock, Henbury

 

The last day of November and the first day of heavy snow for the winter.

Bob had managed to tunnel out of the Rainow drifts and struggle down to town where he picked up the very grateful remainder of the team from the Tavern to set off to the far end of the town for the night’s clash with old adversaries The Cock at Henbury. It must be said that the Cock looked very welcoming indeed being brightly lit with Christmas decorations and lights - a very pretty sight with welcoming staff.

Part of the Robinson’s empire, the Cock follows that company’s odd tradition of offering a guest ale that is always brewed by Robinson’s but costs more. The evening’s offerings were Unicorn (the standard bitter), Dizzy Blonde (a tasty lighter summer ale) and Battering Ram a rather heavy, stronger(4.5%) premium dark ale best avoided during a quiz.

The Phoenix got off to a very poor start and at the end of the  five mandatory rounds were pitifully trailing with just 22 pints to the Cock’s 40 although they had played in a disciplined manner – the questions just did not come their way (maybe we should have gone second!). The last three rounds however were kind to the Phoenix  and at the end of the Specialist the lead had dropped to 58 with 52 to the Phoenix. This despite Nick’s appalling error in identifying Charlie and Craig Reid as The Pretenders (a very pleasant and musical rock band) and not The Proclaimers (‘nuff said!).

During the drinks break before the General Knowledge questions Bob told the Cock a couple of jokes and this seems to have sapped their energy and dented the will to live as the Phoenix began to assert themselves.

The General Knowledge questions were well-balanced with some interesting twists (see for instance Q49).

The question master was John from The Albion who joined in the laughter but maintained control.

Except for Bob who played a storming game the scores were not particularly good and wild guesses to improve them had the opposite effect – individual scores were:

Bob 21/18, Wendy 6/9, Nick 3/12 and Tomo 6/6; conferred points were 10/20 with 6/10 passovers. The Cock picked up 4/7 passovers. Eventual score 121 to the Cock and 127 to The Phoenix – a really tough game that the Phoenix were very lucky to come away with!!

The evening ended with a large selection of heavily loaded sandwiches that nicely rounded off the Cock’s warm hospitality. A great game with the quiz team and top marks to the Cock for the welcoming atmosphere.