18th October–Away to the Cock A 2

 

Very grateful to Matt for this excellent report in my absence:

 

“Rusty, pet? Rusty is too good for this lot!” (Pete Postlethwaite to Tara Fitzgerald, Brassed Off)

With Nick and Sunil sunning themselves in Turkey, the remaining Lemmings got to “enjoy” a typical autumn eve of heavy rain to make their second and last league journey beyond the bright new “welcome to Macclesfield” signs to Henbury and a set of opponents who seem to have settled comfortably into the B league pace of life after many years of hovering between this and the A league. With discussion stimulated by the potential of a Rick Davis award for hospitality, the opponents scored well on their cheerful and welcoming outlook but, through no fault of their own, would be handicapped by the single handpump dispensing a passable Robinson’s Unicorn. I did, at one point, experience a sharp citrus note, but only by virtue of switching to tonic water.

The absence of Nick led to the return from “retirement” of Wendy (a retirement that had, at least, lasted two games longer than Tomo’s) and the issue of whether possession trumped many years of service in the allocation of the coveted Number 2 spot. It did and Wendy found herself answering third, having protested that she felt decidedly rusty. The questions were provided by the British Flag and, with the good-humoured input of Neil the QM, we generally enjoyed them – racing ahead on the American States and Sport, before being hauled in by the opponents on a Geography round that we found tough, whilst Science was a bit too much for all of us. The overall impression was positive and healthy scores were posted by both teams and the Flag will, I suspect, bounce back well in the QSL after their somewhat brutal GK offerings last year. The second half, provided by the Sutton Club drew praise for variety and accessibility, although the more sad amongst us experienced a powerful sense of déjà vu in the last few rounds. The Lemmings fared well in general (though I was miffed with myself for forgetting that Dopey had no beard by virtue of looking several decades younger than the other dwarves and with my long since departed scoutmaster who had (heaven knows why?) taught us that a cutty sark was a short shirt which, in retrospect, seems near enough), Bob came to life in the latter stages after a difficult start, Tomo displayed impressive team discipline, sacrificing a few 3s for conferral when not quite sure, but the star of the show was undoubtedly our super-sub who answered 9 of her GK questions and finished with an all-time PB. The Cock battled hard but came up short, with a final score of 155-132. For those able to put Mock-Turtle Soup a long way from their minds, a pleasing array of well-filled sandwiches ensued, along with some liquid relief back at base camp, where we discovered that anything we (and our super-sub) could do, our sister team (and their very super-subs) could do better, but all went well.

Bob 3/21, Matt 15/15, Wendy 12/27, Tomo 9/15.

Conferred 11/13. Passed Over 9/13. Opponents collected 4/4 passed-overs.