Waste of a good illness

I’m feeling a little sorry for myself today. I’m sitting here with a streaming nose, sneezing my proboscis off, wallowing in my winter cold. As many in my profession would tell you, having a cold over the weekend is a waste of a bloody good illness. Don’t you worry, it’ll be OK by Monday morning. It always is. Still, at least I can reflect on a good week, quizzing-wise.

Last Sunday Mary, three of the girls and I had lunch at the Twelve Knights, and we used the last quiz voucher which Jessie and I won last time I played down there before Christmas. It didn’t completely cover the cost of the lunch, but it went a long way towards it.
”That was nice, “ Mary enthused on the way out, “So when are we going to be able to afford another Sunday lunch here then, eh?” Which, roughly translated means, - go back tonight and win us another voucher, will you? I know when to take a hint. Only, it’s not as simple as you just have to turn up to win. For one thing there is a picture round, so John and I are probably behind most of the other teams after the first round anyway. Then there was the fact that we didn’t play brilliantly for the rest of the quiz. Our last two scores prior to last Sunday in this same quiz were 51 out of 60, and 49 out of 60. On Sunday we had 39, but amazingly won by a point. Just out of interest, rather surprisingly considering that this was a quiz by a well-known quiz company, there was a blatant wrong ‘un in one of the questions. It asked “In which event did Carl Lewis win three of his 9 Olympic Gold medals? “ or something like that. It definitely asked for the event in which he won three. Now thing is, he won 2 in the 100m ( eventually, after the disqualification of Ben Johnson in 1988) 1 in the 200 m, 2 in the 4x100m relay – BUT – I was adamant that he won 4 in the Long Jump. Al Oerter was the first to win 4 consecutive Olympic golds in the same track and field event – discus, and Carl Lewis second – Long Jump. We put down Long Jump which was the answer given, but I had to check that I was right as soon as I got home. Sad, isn’t it?

Well, that was winning when we didn’t play particularly well. On Monday we had our first match of the second half of the league season. Alright, we haven’t lost this season yet, but then in the last two years we didn’t lose before Christmas, but lost afterwards, so nothing could be taken for granted. It’s always nice to get that first one under the belt, and back into the swing of things. I was pleased with myself for dredging up the phrase synoptic gospels from somewhere. Little things please and all that.

Thursday night was actually the second rugby club quiz of the year. On the second Brian did his annual quiz of the year. It’s been a few years since we won this one, and I wasn’t expecting to challenge this year. A grim old slog saw us hang on to second place. Another week, another quiz, and this Thursday saw us play pretty well on the night to get a rare win over a full Lemurs team. That’s always enough to make me a happy bunny, but if it’s done through dredging up a few answers from heaven alone knows where, then so much the better.

As for the week ahead, John and I will be leaving the Twelve Knights alone this week, and trying a place in Porthcawl. Monday sees us away to the Swan in Aberkenfig, where Barry, Steve and the boys will pose a serious challenge. Then it’s my turn to be quizmaster for the rugby club. Speaking of which I’d best go make a start compiling it. Have a good week yourselves.