The Phoenix’ Last Chance Saloon

 

This was the Phoenix’ last game of the season on which their hopes for promotion rested. Playing at home against the Plough Horntails the Phoenix were looking to avenge the defeat when they last met. Despite having lost several games they were still second in the League and hopes were high that they would be able to achieve at last their ambition to be in the A League if only for one season.

The Horntails are old friends and adversaries although there were a couple of new faces in the lineup. The Phoenix on the other hand were at full strength and had Rosie the mascot too.

The Specialist questions had been set by the British Flag and whilst there were no high scores, we thought they were original and very good. At the end of the Specialist the Phoenix were trailing 43 to 45 – not a big problem.

The General Knowledge were set by the new team the Robin Hood and this was their first attempt at question setting – they acquitted themselves well but they need to check the balance – one player got about four music questions!

But it was in the General Knowledge that the Horntails stormed ahead with one of the new faces in particular getting a very high score – they took the GK with 80 to 55.

Individual scores were Bob 9/9, Wendy 6/9, Nick 9/6 and Tomo 6/3; conferred points were 9/23 and passovers 4/5. The Horntails picked up 3/7 passovers.

The questionmaster was Liz Horrocks from the A League who stepped in at the last minute to cover for the British flag who were a questionmaster down – she controlled the game with good humour and it was a delight to see her.

The game ended with a good selection of sandwiches – thank you Tracey, Liz and the Horntails.

But a sad day for the Phoenix.