Cup/Plate 1st round Away to the Wharfies

 

The Wharfies – immediately conjures up images of burly stevedores one-handedly unloading the barges moored along the canal by the Hovis building. But no, it is our old friends from the Knot in Rushton Spencer which is striving to become a restaurant with no interest in quiz teams. They have now moved to The Wharf – good to meet them again.

The Wharf is particularly interesting – it was taken over by a real ale loving guy who introduced new ranges of ale with great success and has now expanded to an off-licence (with a couple of hand pumps) with a staggering range of foreign and independent beers in the Market Place. Of particular interest on the night was All Gates Nellie Melba – their excellent range usually takes the name of the beer from Wigan coal mines so this was quite a break with tradition – no idea why.

The questions had been set by the Plough Horntails and the Robin Hood at very short notice and they produced a challenging and interesting set – very well done indeed. Challenging is perhaps an underestimation – scoring was very slow in starting in fact it was not until the fifth question that either team scored a point giving rise to a rousing cheer and handshakes all round.

Question 64 in particular had everyone scratching their heads but after much research the answer can be revealed:

“The six of hearts is so called in Kilkenny. At the Revolution in 1688, one of the family of Grace, of Courtstown, in Ireland, equipped at his own expense a regiment of foot and troop of horse, in the service of King James. William of Orange promised him high honours if he would join the new party, but the indignant baron wrote on a card, “Tell your master I despise his offer.” The card was the six of hearts, and hence the name.” Wonder if anyone got that.

It was a very close contest throughout, except for one round that the Lemmings won by 10 points that carried them through the evening. Scores at the end of each round were (visitors first) 16/13, 21/11, 15/14, 16/15, 9/14 and 12/10 – final score 89/77 to the Lemmings.

The evening was rounded off with some excellent sandwiches and crisps – many thanks to the Wharf, to the Wharfies and to the question master.

In lesser leagues, Arsenal lost to Sheffield Wednesday (3-0) and Chelsea were held to a draw by Stoke

20th October–Away to the Dolphin

 

For the first game of the season, the Lemmings were playing the Dolphin and were hoping for a warm welcome such as this – we were not disappointed. The pub has always had a good reputation for the quality of its Robinson’s ales and the night was no exception – there were at least five handpumps with a variety of beers including the new Trooper and the very welcome Dizzy Blonde.

The questions had been prepared by the Ox-Fford in a very short time and full credit must go to them for the high standard they set for the rest of the season. Nevertheless the Lemmings did rather badly in the Specialist rounds losing by 20 points with 54 to 74 although there was no feeling that the questions had been unbalanced. The General Knowledge questions were perhaps a little over-egged with Oscar and film questions but the Lemmings’ performance improved considerably losing by just 4 points with 100 to 104.

The question master was Paul from The Ox-Fford who managed to run through all the rounds in a remarkably short period with a very light touch and rich sense of humour – perhaps infectious because the whole evening was a deli8ght with much laughter and jokes.

And to round off a most enjoyable evening the landlady produced a delicious dish of chicken jalfrezi with chips.

Individual scores were Bob 9/24, Wendy 12/21, Nick 12/15 and Tomo 9/24; conferred pints were 8/12 with 4/4 pass-overs. The Dolphin collected 7/7 pass-overs. Final score 178 to 154.

Many thanks to the Dolphin landlady, to Paul and perhaps most of all to the team – may every game for the rest of the season be as enjoyable.

WELCOME TO THE 2015/16 SEASON

 

The season opened with the Plate Final and the thorny problem of how to deal with The Wharf’s disappearance – should the A League carry the vacancy or the C League? It was a fairly difficult one as if the A League were selected, the promotions from last season are affected. The issue was put to a vote (one member of all teams present to vote) and the C League was selected by a big majority. The Lemmings did not vote.

The Plate final was between the Lemmings and long-term adversaries but very close friends the Park Tavern. The questions  were selected from those presented by all teams at the end of last season and thanks are due to Billy Stubbs and others for creating a balanced and enjoyable set of questions (although we did get the first nomination for the Nine-Banded Armadillo trophy).

The Lemmings stormed into a pretty hefty lead in the first round with 18 points to 10 which seems to have gone to their collective head as they lost the next two rounds and at the half-way stage it was level pegging! However the half-time pint sobered them up and they began to pull away eventually winning the game with 85 to 69. The Lemmings were all of the opinion that it would have been a different story if they had had the Park’s questions.

The Weaver has changed considerably under the new landlords, and it was a pleasure to see beers other than Robinsons, with a Tetleys bitter and Rock’s Doom Bar.

Rick Davies officiated with his usual light touch and added asides contributing to a most enjoyable evening.

Many thanks to the Weaver, the question master, the question setters and most of all to the Park Taverners.