Did everyone see the syzygy last night? I hope so

Charles C

Feels like destiny finally came through for us last night at the quiz. "French For Mushrooms" have quizzed impressively well (under a number of different titles and guises) during their tenure at The Duchy Arms, regularly hitting third and second place, as well as having a fair crack at the jackpot but victory has eluded them for too long. However, the planets aligned (what is known as a 'syzygy' - my favourite word in the English language and a trivia freebie for you, dear Reader) on Wednesday 3rd July 2019 and 1st place was theirs. Having got 3-out-of-3 on the tube stations, the movie posters, the music videos and the Aladdin song lyrics the win could not be more deserved. Fantastic stuff.

Along the way, we learned about Lord Cardigan; that Christiano Ronaldo has more Twitter followers (at the time of writing) than Donald Trump; and, the Jamaican Women's Football team is called 'The Reggae Girlz'. By the end, "Canuck, Canuck" had earned the consolation Smarties (not very fair to ask Canadian senior citizens about Oasis music videos?!), having been one of only a handful of teams to know the LA KIngs play ice hockey. Taking the bottle of wine, "Flat 4", who had convinced us 'Juliette' was not the only 100% female name in the NATO phonetic alphabet. Apparently, 'Sierra' also counts. We ruled out 'India' because, well, Katie Hopkins. "Money Less" also quizzed well, knowing that Egypt contains the only remaining Wonder Of The World.
“Better Late Than Never” were just ahead, and were among the fastest to get the Enid Blyton anagram. “Fishermen’s Friends” seemed unfairly intent on beating themselves up about the film posters (All chick flicks. All difficult.) but rallied magnificently to get 3-out-of-3 in for the tube stations. “Dirty Mike & The Boyz” stopped ruining Toyota Priuses (The Other Guys film – anyone?) to deliver a superb quiz performance, even knowing that the selection process in The Hunger Games is called ‘the reaping’. Just half a point ahead of them, their arch-rivals, “Quiz In My Pants” just stole the intra-office trophy, with the badly explained film plot about Apollo 13 possibly being the difference. They were level with “The Rookies” (very good Hannibal Lecter expertise) and “Kaa-Ching” (one of only a few teams to know who Post Malone is).
In silver-medal position, with a team name that can only be described as inflammatory, “US Women’s Soccer” (wincing as I type), who made a special effort to tell me it would be their country’s birthday today (more wincing), quizzed strongly. Not great on tube stations or Oasis music videos but impressively solid across other topics. Just remember your country is one of this country’s greatest exports, after the internet, the Rolling Stones and Branston Pickle. Happy Birthday, indeed! Finally…full glory for “French For Mushrooms”, who deservedly won the £40 bar tab. Please don’t now regard this pub quiz as ‘completed’ and not come back!
The jackpot question on the world record for the diameter of the world’s largest ball of string got way out of hand. Having asked for it in centimetres, I received answers ranging from 208cm (i.e. 2.08 metres = reasonable) to 10,001cm (i.e. over 100 metres = not reasonable. Picture the Millennium Dome. Made out of string…!). Still, the envelopes were nasty and outfoxed “The Rookies” this time. A rollover brings next week’s total to just shy of £100. Come and get it. I’ve saved you a space*. #onlytheduchyarmshastheanswer

*I haven’t actually saved you a space. It’s always good to book.