23rd October–Away to the Harrington Academicals

The Lemmings got off to a messy start when five people turned up expecting to play, and once again Sunil wended his weary way home alone. The Academicals already have three in the top ten scorers and surprisingly the Lemmings having lost every game so far have two, Bob and Tomo. Should be a close game.

Seems ages since the Lemmings last played at the Harrington with fond memories of the late Mrs Bailey the former landlady who ruled the pub with a rod of iron and and an even stronger sharp tongue. Tomo has more poignant memories as when he asked the questions there last season Adum from our sister team fell and broke his foot struggling on with the game in agony!!

We thought the questions were very good and imaginative, with a very different round on isles and islands of the UK and a picture round on bald-headed men (with verbal descriptions for the visually impaired!!). Even so at the end of the Specialist the Lemmings were trailing with 45 to the home team’s 64 – but they’ve made up such a deficit several times in the past.

In the General Knowledge each of the Lemmings scored better but it was not enough and they lost by 107 to 75 making the final score 171 to 120.

So, nothing if not consistent,  the Lemmings went down with another huge deficit and seem to be a reflection of the town’s football team who lost 5-0 to Northampton on the night (although they have had one win!!!).

So, looking forward to the Cup/Plate competition next week when we play the Sutton Club and perhaps a change of fortunes.

Individual scores were Bob 15/18,  Becky3/12, Nick 6/6. Tomo 9/18, Conferred 6/15, pass-overs 2/6 and the Academicals picked up 9/8

The meeting was rounded off with a selection of tasty sandwiches from the current landlord – many thanks to the landlord, to the Academicals and to the question master from the Plough Horntails.

16th October Home to the Rushton Diamonds

It was a pleasure to meet these old rivals again and they received a warm welcome to the Tavern. A glowing fire had been lit, there was the usual excellent choice of real ales and no distractions from other games or competitions – a perfect setting for an evening of gentle banter and quizzing.

The Lemmings were in buoyant mood as after the sound thrashing last week things could only get better.They had suffered heavily losing by 28 points and were confident they would never see such a deficit again.

However they got off to a very slow start, Sunil leading the field with 9 Bob and Tomo separating him from Nick’s 0!! And at the end of the Specialist rounds the Lemmings were trailing with 33 to the Diamonds’ 66, already a greater difference than last week’s entire game!! 

The Lemmings do not usually like to complain about the questions and in fact the questions themselves were OK. But the Lemmings did feel strongly that there was much imbalance on the evening – had they started with second in the Specialist they felt sure they would have achieved a much better result, a feeling that is supported with a glance at the scores below. But, to be fair, when we questioned other teams they had not noticed any imbalance.

The Lemmings did however have one stroke of luck when Sunil was asked to say what is the Prdsall Chord which he had recently visited with Nick on a historical walk about the birth of the railways.

Whilst the Lemmings fared better in the General Knowledge rounds they still lost by 71 to 97 and the inevitable question is raised – is this a record?

Despite the deflating run of play, it was still a very pleasant evening with a lot of friendly banter, good humour and a joke from Bob that may have been heard before.

Individual scores were Bob 6/21 Sunil 9/12 Nick 0/15 Tomo 3/21 Conferred 13/10 with 2/2 pass-overs – the Diamonds collected 9/11 pass-overs.

All the questions and results are (or soon will be) available here 

The evening was rounded off with a very tasty selection of sandwiches along with a large bowl of Brian’s real twice-cooked chips – many thanks Brian, the Diamonds and the question master.

Home to the British Flag 9th October

As twilight fell over the long hot summer dawn broke over the new season of the Macclesfield Pub Quiz League.

The Lemmings welcomed the British Flag back to the B League, mostly sporting bright new tans and as keen as the Lemmings to get off to a good start. Some of the questions fell into the Lemmings’ lap – three on Croatia whence Nick had just returned and 3 or 4 on Australia all of which fell to Becky who had spent some time there.

Nick struggled as usual with names but conferring saved the day – in fact only Tomo scored more than the conferred points – see below.

The questions were of a very high order, as we have come to expect of the first game of the season, with no challenges and high scores.

It was a game with much laughter and banter and an excellent start to the season.At the half-way point the Lemmings were trailing by 71 to 57 but have made up such a deficit in the past. Unfortunately this was not the case and the general knowledge result showed the Flag moving further ahead with 103 to 87, final score 174 to 146.

Individual scores were Bob 5/21 Becky 9/9 Nick 6/15 and Tomo 12/21 conferred points were 13/13 with 4/8 pass-overs. The Flag picked up 5/8.

A fine finish to the evening was a superb stew with slices of baguette provided by landlord Brian.

Many thanks to Brian, to the Flag and to the question master Alasdair from the Nags Head.