11th December–Last Game of 2018

For this, the last game of 2018 , the Lemmings were playing the Plough Horntails old friends for many years and this last game had a rather festive feel about it with much laughter and fun – so much so in fact that a bottle of sherry and mince pies would have seemed appropriate.

The Specialist questions had been set by the Park Taverners and were no doubt the most innovative and imaginative of the season – the Geography round was a set of photographs of islands from across the world, an alliterative round in which each of the answers (names) first and second names began with the same letter and another round in which players were presented with words from which all vowels and spaces had been removed. All very different, nicely balanced and interesting.

At the end of the Specialist the Lemmings were rather surprised to find they had nosed ahead with a lead of 64 to 52 – but could they maintain this?

The General Knowledge questions had been set by the Chester Rd Tavern and covered a wide range of topics and the Lemmings slipped back a little – but only by 1 losing 77 to 78.

It seems the Lemmings have now broken into their stride after a very slow start to the season as they finished the game with 141 to the visitors’ 130.

Whilst there was fun and merriment throughout the game two incidents nearly brought the house down: the first was when the expected answer was Izaak Walton but the reply give was J P Hartley!! And whilst Bob always has a joke for every occasion this was a first airing for his understanding of Harvey’s Bristol Cream was a breast enlarger!!

Individual scores were Bob 9/15, Becky 15/6, Nick 9/9 and Tomo 21/15; conferred points were 3/17 with 7/15 pass-overs and the visitors picked up 6/11 pass-overs.

The evening was rounded off with hot dogs and mustard supplied by Stephen the manager for which all were extremely grateful in these cold and windy times. It was a perfect evening so many thanks to Stephen, to Pete from the Park Taverners for his patience and endurance as question master, to both question setting teams and of course to the Horntails – we look forward to seeing them again.

The Lemmings offer festive greetings to all in the Macclesfield Pub Quiz and to those that follow it – MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

4th December–Away to the Sutton Mutton

The Lemmings were away to the imaginatively named the Sutton Mutton. This team originally played at The Lamb in Sutton but after a takeover, a makeover and change of name to the Sutton Gamekeeper the establishment now prioritises food (admittedly good) and the quiz team moved across the road to the village hall . This is a fairly large building, nicely decorated for the festivities and with three handpumps and a selection of keg beers. And the quiz team also changed their name to emphasise the long-standing continuity.

Although the faces were not familiar the Muttons have retained the sense of humour and fun that the Lamb always enjoyed and it was a very pleasant game

The Specialist questions were very good and although they did not particularly fall easily for the Lemmings they were marked highly – a round on theme music was good and imaginative although Nick failed to recognise the description of his favourite advert – the old English sheepdog singing Freddy Mercury!! . At the end of the Specialist the Mutton had taken a pretty good lead of 57 to 49 and the Lemmings are no longer smug about catching up on the General Knowledge.

The GK questions were also enjoyable one incident in particular causing gusts of laughter: following a question about Dick Turpin’s horse, the QM muddled the answers and said that fifth in line to the British throne was … Black Bess!!

Nevertheless the game continued with laughter and banter both sides scoring well and following recent experiences the Lemmings were a little surprised to find that they had taken the GK with 96 points to the home team’s 87 giving a final score of 145 for the Lemmings and 144 to the Mutton – a very close finish to a most enjoyable game.

Individual scores were Bob 3/18, Sunil 9/15, Nick 9/12, Tomo 12/21, conferred points 12/20, pass-overs 4/10 with the home team collecting 4/5 pass-overs.

The evening was rounded off with a tasty selection of sandwiches – thank you to the village hall, to the Question Master (also from the Mutton) and to the home team for an excellent game.