I Still Hate Family Fortunes Rounds . . . But . . .

Sometimes it pays to have a memory which remembers the most inconsequential nonsense forever. On Tuesday night John and I were in the Duke of Wellington in Cowbridge again. I’ve told you about the quiz on several occasions. John and I don’t go every week, because it’s a really nice little quiz, and we don’t want to ruin it by coming and winning 7 times out of every ten, or whatever the figure would be. Actually we lost on Tuesday night, and also a fortnight ago, which was the quiz that brought the long winning streak to an end. However that’s not the point that I’m writing about.

Mark the landlord says that he puts the questions together himself, or he certainly implies this anyway. Well, on Tuesday night one of the themed rounds was ‘Family Fortunes’. If you’ve been reading LAM for any length of time you’ll know just what my reaction was when he announced this. Cards on the table, I hate Family Fortunes rounds. There’s a place for guessing games within a quiz, but not a whole round of them. Still, for once, moaning about that is not actually the reason why I write. The fact is that as he began asking the questions, a little light bulb went off in my memory. The first question was something along the lines of
“I asked 100 people in Cowbridge – name a famous Peter. Was the most popular answer – Blue – Pan – Kay – Andre ?"
The fact is that the most popular was Pan. Next question was
“I asked 100 people in Cowbridge “ where is a good place to take someone on a first date – was the most popular answer cinema – pub – park – etc. "
Here’s the rub. 18 months ago when I played in a quiz in a British bar in Alicante, exactly the same Family Fortunes round was asked then. Except it was - we asked 100 british people on the Costa Blanca etc. etc. ! So I actually had my most successful Family Fortunes round ever, and the three I didn’t answer correctly I had heard in that quiz, but just couldn’t remember the answer.

As I say, it made no difference because we lost the whole quiz by a point anyway. But it just gave me a little glow of satisfaction to know that what I have always suspected, ie – that Mark is buying in the quiz, is actually true.

Little things please little minds, they do say . . .