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.
3 comments:
Welcome back Nick. Not the ideal fixture to settle into the A league and whilst our outcome was different (see below), our score was very similar - and we probably had a few more Passovers to benefit from. Interestingly, the big gap in the specialists, followed by close scores in the GK matched our experience. How widespread? A nice set of scores for the four of you (says he, whose miserable 18 has probably placed himself rock-bottom of the A league individual rankings).
For us, it was a welcome visit to the Tavern to face the Rams. We were happy to face a team we knew well from the B league days and even happier to recognise all four of them - having noted some very-high scoring occasionals in their records for last year. Still, there was the figure of Keith Pointon, playing the role of Nemean Lion in our first Herculean task.
The Specialists passed in a surreal hurry and the Robin found themselves 22 to the good. Jim Kennelly was well on his way to marking his presence in the upper-echelons with a fine 45, ably backed by Tony Wilkinson, almost absent last year, settling back in with a sturdy 27. Simon (from the Lamb-cum-Sutton club) fired of the questions at an impressive pace as the GKs passed nip and tuck and the Robin emerged with lead intact and were most pleased to avoid the 11/16 game wait for a win that befell two of the newly-promoteds in the last two years.
As per the questions, well above-par and overwhelmingly accessible as we have come to expect from the Ox-fford, but less of a chance to "fill your boots" than in the last two years, where our matches have yielded combined totals of 300 in the B league. Gone also were the collections of pictures. If Mark's masterplan is to leave the chink of light open for any other teams to try to win the Question-Setters Trophy, then perhaps mission might be accomplished? However, the Rams managed to notice an outdated question (Wasps left Adams Park and sent themselves to Coventry last December) and the pairing of questions was sometimes a little too close - we had a long, loud (and incorrect) conflab over Westpoint as a potential answer to a US military question and guess what came up to the opponents shortly after...Still, one wishes to re-iterate, a good set of qs overall. The question about the period for the earth orbiting the sun fell into the "so straightforward it was difficult" category and the two finest minds in the room both over-exerted themselves, much to the surprise and bewilderment of the onlooking mortals.
So, as we celebrated over an excellent cheeseboard courtesy of Brian (and the usual top-notch beer) and enjoyed the prospect of the Robin sitting in the top half of the A-League (I'll say it now, may not get the chance again). After two weeks on question-asking duties (first opportunity to keep our stranglehold on the Armadillo) we (or those of our large squad who merit selection) will re-convene - guess where, at the Waters Green Tavern. We anticipate a desire for revenge, but have you a Hydra?
Hi Nick!
Nice to have the blog up and running for this season. A minor matter - It's a landlady not a landlord at the Dolphin - the redoubtable Bev, who also does the cooking!
Keep up the good work!
Liz H
Whoops - sorted!
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