Defiant Despite Everything

The first proper winter snowfall and it all seemed to be going wrong: Becky was supposed to be playing but had had an exhausting day and rang to ask if Sunil could play instead; then Bob rang – he was snowed in up in the hills above town and couldn’t make it. And we were to play the Harrington B team in the lovely old pub the Harrington Arms in Gawsworth – an absolute treasure. Originally a farmhouse it was converted to a pub in 1710 but the farming business continued; for many years it was run by the magnificent Mrs Bailey, herself a Cheshire treasure and the reason there are so many hilarious stories  about visitors to the pub. Following Mrs Bailey’s death the farm business  was detached and it is now a warm friendly pub still belonging to Robinsons brewery.

Fortunately both Sunil and Becky were able to play and Tomo ploughed through the snow to face the home team. The Dizzy Blonde was on top form and a warm welcome awaited us.

The Robin Hood had set both sets of questions that were well received but one question in particular fooled both teams and the question masters as all believed that the division of Korea could not possibly have taken place in 1945 and the given answer must be a typo for 1954 (the answer given by the home team). On checking later however we found the printed answer was correct and there was a hurried rewriting of the scores. All was done in a friendly and humorous atmosphere and it was a most enjoyable evening.

At the end of the Specialist, the Lemmings had slipped ahead with 48 to 41, but did not fare so well in the General Knowledge which they lost with 62 to the home team’s 64 – final score 110 to 106 to the visitors. An interesting point is that there was a surprising number of successful pass-overs with both teams picking up around 20. Individual scores were Sunil 6/15, Becky 6/3, Nick 12/9 Tomo 12/12, conferred 6/9 with 6/14 pass-overs. The Harrington picked up 9/12 pass-overs.

Throughout the game, anxious eyes were kept on the window as it continued to snow but a generous selection of tasty sandwiches set up the visitors for the slalom home Many thanks to the very friendly bar staff, to the home team and to the patient question masters for a most enjoyable game.