A Comprehensive Near Victory!

Hello ladies and gentlemen, you've come to the right place. You're in for the tale of our glorious near miss last night. Nelson would be proud! Back at the Victory pub again, it was almost a sad occasion as we bade farewell to our loyal shipmates Tom and Ellen who are not off to Scotland for good. Don't ask for details, it's a bit of a headache. Anyway, here's the lowdown on our quizzing performance...

29/07/14
The Victory (Curry and) Pub Quiz
The team: Me + 4 others
Result: 2nd (88/100)   Snowball (money round): Not chosen

I was pretty happy with our prowess, and everybody had something to add (which was handy as 3rd place got 86). We were fairly far off the top score of 94, but that's what this blog is all about.

Starter for 10: 10 of the 22 sports included in the Commonwealth Games

Here are the questions that caused the grief...

1) Frank Lampard signed to which football club this week?
2) Frances Shand Kydd was whose mother?
3) In which sport would you use a jess?
4) Which actor starred in the film City Lights?
5) In the nursery rhyme, Simple Simon was fishing for what?
6) Who famously said 'It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog'?

I can't say I'm too distressed about not getting this motley crew, but they're definitely ones to log for the future.

The Answers

1) New York City F.C.
2) Princess Diana (although, surely in theory you could have her brothers and sisters...)
3) Falconry
4) Charlie Chaplin
5) Whales
6) Mark Twain

The Excuses

1) Football is a perennial weak spot for me, but none of us had heard anything about this story at all. We went for Barcelona.
Quiz staple: After 13 seasons at Chelsea F.C., Lampard is the club's highest goalscorer of all time with 211.
2) Again, no idea, other than we assumed it had to be someone very famous indeed. Thinking that the name sounded American, I suggested Winston Churchill, (whose New York born mother was actually called Jeanette Jerome). Shand Kydd got the name from a later marriage.
Quiz staple: Princess Diana was born in 1961 in Sandringham House. There is a bulldog on Eastenders named after her.
3) There was no chance of us getting this. The jess is the leather strap used to tether the bird. I thought a jess might be a compliment to the jack in bowls.
Quiz staple: Falconry was only formalised in the UK under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act.
4) Again, little to no chance. I had no quibble with the team's answer of Russell Crowe, although as it turns out it's not exactly his era!
Quiz staple: City Lights is a 1931 film featuring the Tramp character and is a romantic comedy.
5) Don't think I'd ever heard this nursery rhyme beyond the first verse with the pieman. I suggested salmon, but I much preferred our other suggested answer of 'compliments'.
Quiz staple: The compilation of English language nursery rhymes is called the Roud Folk Song Index.
6) Should have known this, but drew a blank. Thinking it was either a boxing quip or possibly a Churchill quote, we opted for the latter.
Quiz staple: Mark Twain was born Samuel Clemens in Florida, Missouri. The beginning and end of his life (1835-1910) coincided with two sightings of Halley's Comet. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is often referred to as 'the Great American Novel'.

There were 6(!) Snowballs this week and I only knew one of them. If I haven't explained before the Snowball is when your team name is pulled out of a hat for a chance to win £100. Here are all 6 of the pesky blighters for your intense pleasure. We would only have won on Questions 3 and 6 (and 5 with the clue provided).

Snowball Questions

1) Which famous landmark would you find on Mount Lee?
2) Which famous actress was born Camille Javel?
3) Which famous artist designed the Chupa Chups logo?
4) In which year was Steven Hawking born - 1940, 1942 or 1947?
5) On which island was Popeye filmed?*
6) How many teams are competing in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow - 71 or 81?

*Q5 clue: The island was decorated for bravery during World War II.

Answers and additional trivia

1) The Hollywood sign
The sign was first erected in 1923 and originally spelt out 'HOLLYWOODLAND'.
2) Brigitte Bardot
Bardot's breakout film role was And God Created Woman in 1956. She has been fined several times for inciting racial hatred.
3) Salvador Dali
Dali's most famous work is probably the 1932 painting of melting clocks, 'The Persistence of Memory'. He had a pet ocelot named Babou.
4) 1942
Hawking, best known for the 1988 book 'A Brief History of Time', was diagnosed with motor neurone disease when he was 21 and only given 2 years to live at the time.
5) Malta
The island displays the George Cross on its flag. This list of films shot wholly or partly in Malta is quite impressive.
6) 71.
You either know it or you don't. Apparently the 2014 Games is the largest multi-sport event ever held in Scotland.

That's it for this week. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did (i.e. lots).
Until we meet again...