Deep in the rough: answers

Righto.  Here are the answers to the questions posed in the Deep in the rough article on Saturday.

As I said in that post, I hate using superlatives.  However, as well as having possibly the worst quality photocopying for the picture round, this quiz also featured the definitively dearest raffle I’ve seen at a table quiz. The going rate for the past number of years (around here anyway) is €2 for a “line”, with three of them offered for €5.  Here, €5 got you one line of tickets.  Of course, these days, the lines are put into the bucket whole, so this is really one ticket.

Buying multiple lines of tickets seems preferable, normally, for two reasons: it increases your sense of having a chance (you have three tickets in the hat, after all) and it means that, should you win something early, you could still win again. 🙂

Not so on this night in Ballinlough where the usual three lines would have cost you €15!

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Deep in the rough

Last year I took part in a very enjoyable quiz at Ballyhaunis Golf Club so I was quite excited to hear that the same club were hosting another event this year.  Confusingly though, it was taking place in Ballinlough – which is a completely different town, in case the different names didn’t already make that clear. 🙂

Things started going wrong, however, when Ger arrived with too many team-mates!  There’d been a bit of a miscommunication earlier in the week when I took the heretofore unheard-of step of sourcing potential quizzers for our table.  We actually had seven people mooted for the team at one point and I stated that, if we had one more, we could have two tables.  However, we went our separate ways then and, while I informed folks that we wouldn’t need their services, Ger went off and found that “extra” team-mate!

So we had five people. I got on the phone and called in my father-in-law, who I knew was keen to take part. He arrived and we let the organisers know that we’d be hoping to find two other folks to make up a team.  Fairly promptly we were sorted out. Joe and Rita, a nice couple from ‘out the road’ had come in to the quiz on the off-chance that they could get on a team. As Ger had brought a car-load of family members, he stuck with them and myself and the father-in-law teamed up with the locals.

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A night in the Park: answers

Who's the boss in French politics? François Fillon or Alain Juppé.

Here are the answers for the questions posted yesterday.  As I explained, some questions had several answers before we got to the right one.  In one case, alas, the correct answer was never found, leaving those of us who had submitted it at a disadvantage.

The second question of the night was: “Who is the Prime Minister of France?”. This was quite a hard one for so early in the quiz, I thought.  Well, it turned out to be a mistake as the answer given was Nikolas Sarkozy. I doubt I need to tell you that M. Sarkozy is the President of France and, as a matter of fact, has never served as Prime Minister.  The disagreement expressed by the contestants led the quiz master into a hasty retreat.  Literally – he walked back to the correcting table!

After a brief discussion he came back to the mic and announced that the answer was actually Alain Juppé and the three teams in the room who’d answered thus would be getting a point.  This surprised Ger on our team who, after much mental effort during the round, had come up with the name François Fillon.  However, he wasn’t 100% sure about it and, presuming that the correct answer had actually been frantically looked up, let it pass.

The following morning he went to the trouble of finding out and, sure enough, M. Fillon is the Prime Minister of France.  Alain Juppé was Prime Minister once – between 1995 and 1997! That said, he is the current Minister of Foreign Affairs.  Perhaps, not having the ability to look up the answer, the correctors simply totted up which one (other than Sarkozy!) was given by most teams and presumed that was right?

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A night in the Park

I hope everyone had a pleasant Easter.  As I stated last week, there will be no weekly quiz at Gilligan’s tonight. However, that’s not to say that I don’t have any tales to tell.

Last Thursday night, myself, Ger, his good lady Breda and Gilligan’s regular Mick took part in a quiz for the Western Care Association in the Park Hotel, Kiltimagh. A quiz for a good cause and a quiz which didn’t threaten marital harmony.

You see, Ger and Breda have a running debate/argument about whether one should always give back prize money won at a charity quiz. Breda says yes, Ger says no. Call us what you like but I agree with Ger. You’ve already contributed to the charity with your entrance fee and (almost certainly) tickets for the raffle.  That’s what the quiz is for – it’s a vehicle to get people to make those particular donations. Of course, certain winning teams, either through knowing the organisers, supporting what the charity does or just because they have a generous nature, choose to redonate their winnings.  That’s fine.  Indeed, it’s admirable. But it’s still their choice.

Which is a long way of telling you that Thursday night’s quiz didn’t have a cash prize up for grabs.  Instead, a “weekend break in the Mill Park Hotel to the winning team” was promised.  The Mill Park Hotel is in Donegal and none of us thought that too far to travel for a free weekend. 🙂

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Squeal like a pig: answers

Here are the answers to the questions posed yesterday.  I’ll fly through this post pretty promptly as I have another one ready to go later today.  Busy, busy, busy!

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s post that the quiz was run as a fundraiser for a man named Michael.  What is Michael doing that he needs funds? Climbing a mountain for charity? Building houses in South Africa?

No, he’s running for something called the King of the Tubber.  I have no clue what this prestigious title involves except that it’s must be to do with the town of Ballintubber.  Presumably it’s a bit of a lark connected to a local festival.  Michael is clearly believes it’s worth taking it seriously though since he’s engaging in campaign fundraising!*

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Squeal like a pig

My near-addiction to taking part in quizzes is, mostly speaking, a good thing.  Well, a harmless thing anyway.  Alas, this wasn’t the case on Friday night when I had a most annoying evening’s quizzing.

A listing in a local paper, which caught Ger’s eye last week, took us to the small Mayo village of Ballyglass, and into a pub with a brilliant name: The Squealing Pig.  The omens weren’t good for yours truly when I was struck down with an ear ache just as we set off for the quiz venue.   Things got so bad for me during the interminable wait for the quiz to start that, on an other night, I’d have simply wished my team the best of luck and drove home. Typically, this had to occur on the one night we figured car pooling was a good idea so, not wanting to be the cause of the entire team’s departure, I stuck it out.

Blessings be upon her, my team-mate Marie used some girl-girl sympathy to acquire a couple of paracetamol tablets from one of the ladies behind the bar.  After a few minutes the tabs kicked in and, for the second half of the quiz, I was a new man.

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Yeoutch answers!

Here are the answers to the questions posted yesterday in Yeoutch!

It wasn’t all doom and gloom at Tuesday night’s quiz.  I’ve previously mentioned Aiden’s amazing ability to pluck seemingly impossible answers from his memory.  This week he didn’t disappoint.

• What’s the collective noun for foxes? “I’m pretty sure it’s a skulk.” It is.
• “Goat Island divides what?” This bizarrly phrased question had us thinking for several minutes.  It had to be a body of water but which one? At the end I took a desperate stab at Niagara Falls. “You’re right – there is a Goat Island there alright.”
• He also correctly named all the Greek vowels. Alas he can’t count (and neither could the rest of us) as we put down six as our answer.

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Yeoutch!

Last weekend I felt old.  This week I feel stupid.

The quizmaster at last night’s Tuesday Quiz Night in Gilligan’s was Elaine. She was a noteworthy host for two reasons:

1. she is the first quizmaster yet who’s younger than myself (I’m pretty sure her age begins with a 2!)
2. she asked some bloody hard questions!

If my posting of questions I got wrong is the thing you find most interesting on the site, well, congratulations – you’re going to enjoy a bumper crop today!

I had felt pretty good about my chances.  The random draw had put me on the same team as Aiden, the sauvante from a memorable night last Autumn. We also had Austin and Catherine on our team, a couple from Ballyhaunis who were making their debuts. They seemed keen.

Alas, at the end we’d only scored 67/100. This was still good enough for third place! Even the winners didn’t do too much better, scoring 73. 73% is a low score to win a quiz IMHO.

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Epic epicness answers

Here are the answers to the questions I posed in Friday’s post.  Apologies for the delay in putting these up.  Yesterday was a lovely day and I went to the beach.  🙂

First of all, here is an extract from the Chambers Online Dictionary:

triskaidekaphobia noun fear of the number thirteen.
ETYMOLOGY: Early 20c, from Greek treiskaideka thirteen.

Once again, thank you Con!

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A victory of epic epicness

Since moving house last August, I have managed to compete in just three quizzes – and finished second in all of them.  That run of bad luck came to an end last night, although it was a close run thing.

At the end of what might be called ‘normal time’, my team had finished joint-first on 95 points out of 100. A tie-break was announced and both tables were given a fresh sheet of paper and told to answer five further questions.  Unfortunately at the end of this round, we were still tied – we’d both gotten three right.

An abortive attempt at settling the quiz then took place when the quizmistress asked us to write down the name of the recent Icelandic volcano which had caused the suspension of flights.  As it turned out, both teams did such a poor job of this task that the idea was abandoned!

Finally, after yet another five questions (and at about 1am), we were declared the winners, having beaten our opponents by four to three. Phew!

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