You're better off with filth than funny.

We had a new question master last Thursday. That’s a good thing. Variety is the spice of life and the more people you’ve got willing and able to sit in the question master’s chair the better. For a first go I think he did a very good job too. Yes, I could make criticisms, but then I’ve been doing it for about 28 years and you could criticise mine too. I think the guy is called Peter. He did say, but I’m really sorry because it seems to have gone in one ear and straight out of the other. Let’s call him Peter anyway. Peter took the decision to intersperse general knowledge rounds with themed rounds. Personally I wouldn’t – it’s not my cup of tea – but it worked well enough in this quiz. One thing it did do was that it killed the quiz off as a contest after round 2 – the sports round. We outscored the other teams comfortably, and while we didn’t top score in all of the other rounds, we did in most of them. But there we are – I’d like to think we did so well because the quiz was just a tiny bit harder than normal, and also because there were no obvious howlers here the answer given was wrong – this is occasionally an issue with other setters. For example, the previous week. We’d played well, all had some good answers and won very comfortably. Yet my main feeling going home was anger that the question master had said that Henry VII was the son of the Black Prince! Jess was angry about that one as well. Chip off the old block.

To be honest the only thing I didn’t like was the question at the end of the first round. It went something like this – which team in one of the Scottish football leagues has a name which is also a telegram message? Now, the thing is, almost anything could be a telegram message, if you’re willing to pay for the letters you need. So what was the answer? Motherwell. Geddit? Joking questions are something which should only ever be done sparingly, and only when they’re actually funny. In other words, only things like- Which comedian/actor , who was popular in the 60s, shared his name with four body parts? Answer? Tony Hancock Work it out. A little bit of filth now and then works wonders.