Kieran delights in a close victory on a memorable evening

From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success  

That was the moment the contest turned.  As to the match score all it did was cut the Albert's lead from two points to one but we'd just given away a pass over and the game was threatening to get away from us.  Barry had snatched at Xanadu rather than giving the full song title (in fairness to our man in the black barren land I would have made exactly the same mistake had it been my question) and we were flirting with disaster.  Then David started naming films of 1968; Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was the third on his list and I remembered the damn song - that movie is uneven to say the least.  Danger averted we ended that round ahead having been behind since the start of Round 3 and we never looked back.   

David was also rightly proud of dredging up The Book of Dave.  From a crowded field of Tory grift I somehow remembered Cameron's Greensill scam and what Barry doesn't know about South African curries or Johnny-come-lately German states isn't worth knowing.  I even got to school Martin (and David) on the Swan Lake characters - that was a first!  

There's a wonderful, hopefully not apocryphal, story about the First Sea Lord number one upping everybody at some high-rolling drinks do.  The Chief of the General Staff comes up to the nation's top Jolly Jack Tar and starts fawning all over him: "I'm really envious of your title you know.  First Sea Lord sounds so magnificent, so grand, so imperial".  Said sailor, spying the most open of goals, looks down his incomparably snooty nose and replies: "Well yes, First Land Lord doesn't have quite the same ring about it."  Such effortless snobbery is what made Britain great.   

Our seven point victory margin doesn't reflect the game at all; the result was in doubt right up to halfway through the final round.  One of those games when the victorious team scores a bunch of points at the end, once the win is mathematically certain.  Ashton joined a previously very exclusive club of just one (Ethel's Greg) in scoring 7 twos and ending up on the losing side.  The famed value for money of Sam Smiths' pubs goes up in smoke if a round consists of two drinks and three bags of crisps, so that's how they make their money.  Nonetheless I was very happy to buy the victors' round to mark what was our best performance of the campaign.   

It's been a season of near misses and 'what ifs' for us.  Two losses to the Prodigals by a combined three points and a ridiculous defeat at the hands of the hapless Opsis in the opening match - if only.....  However City's uncommonly early exit from the Champions League means we should be able to field a full strength side in the Val Draper Cup and it's been more than ten years since we've made any serious impression in that competition.  Maybe we can still land some silverware to send the Lowestoft Ben Duckett on his triumphant way back to .. er... Norfolk.   

Not content with being by far the best team in the league this season, The Prodigals are also now established as the best question setters.  I wish I could dislike them but it's just not possible.  I have to own up to being pleased when they lost to Ethel last week though. Sorry Prodigals, but we never managed a 100% season, nor even an unbeaten one, in our heyday so there's a quiet satisfaction that you couldn't do it either.  And we didn't set out to engineer that result - honest!  

Our highest points total of the season and we even won the Bingo rounds, just.  What a great evening!  Next week we return to the Griffin and Bogota Bob.  It's been pretty quiet on the international news front since we last saw him five weeks ago so I assume he's just been taking it easy in some peaceful, quiet retreat somewhere......