History Men beat Prodigals

On fire with their new team dynamic the History Men vanquish the Champs

Thinking man's skipper, Ivor, reports on his team changes ...

We are back to our favourite pastime. Drinking? No! Quizzing.  Which also functions as a weekly MOT of our ageing brain function.

Tonight’s first test was to remember that the Historymen have relocated to the Parrswood for home games and that the papers are to be picked up by the away team at the Fletcher Moss.  A quick email to the team and the opposition to remind them, and all was well.

Next test was to bag the snug behind the purple curtains.  This little sanctuary is always deserted, so, like an execution chamber, no member of the public can see your ritual humiliation, or hear you (and your team) scream when you have a 'blurt'.  Tony’s Bards have first refusal on this refuge as the more senior Parrswood team.  However Roddy has used his mathematical prowess to devise an algorithm that ensures we are both in the Parrswood only when we play each other.  Everything is foolproof.  We are not sure why Ethel Rodin's Geoff turned up looking for his team. 

Our first match was always going to be difficult given the prowess of our opponents.  In fact looking at the fixture list I do not think there will be any easy games ever again.  Our personnel is unchanged - older but not necessarily more knowledgeable.  In the close season no one appears to have been revising their lists of US state capitals, Oscar winners or changing flags of the world.

The only difference tonight was the team dynamic, ethos and support systems. Young David was encouraged to go ahead with the answers he might once have conferred, while Anne has been encouraged to keep focussed until the end and has replaced the late Peter Morgan's “It’s only a pub quiz” with the late Peter Morgan’s other aphorism “Just answer the question”. The latter advice is particularly useful for not fretting that one’s answer does not fit in with what usually turns out to be the wrong theme anyway (e.g. did Abba ever have a hit called Legerdemain?).

Anyhow both teams did very well (as young Mr Grace would say) with a combined score of 81, only 6 unanswereds (3 each) and 9 steals (4-5).  The only reason we won was a superior 'two rate' (14-9).  However some things never change ... despite a lead of 6 going into the last round we very nearly lost.

Electric Pigs beat Charabancs

The Pigs blow away last season's cobwebs and soar to the top

...while Damian sends his lamentations...

And so, for the second year on the trot (don't care to delve too deeply into previous season openers) we fall at the first hurdle of the new season.

It didn't help that we were a 3-man team tonight (foreign sojourns and sickness accounting for nearly everybody else), but our adversaries proved very worthy indeed and defiantly ungenerous in offering up any steals as we waited with baited breath for the odd crumb to be thrown our way (Gary wouldn't even offer up the question about the burial places of Richards I and III which I felt sure would come my way).

After drawing level at the start we were reduced to playing catch-up, or at least trying to, with the deficit steadily increasing with each subsequent round.  With the Piggies in this mood we could only submit gracefully and applaud their efficient and disciplined performance.