Sloping Off - December 2005
Christmas Meeting
7th December 2005
The Annual Christmas party was held on December the 7th at the Wheatsheaf, and began with something out of a Carry On film. Picture the scene, it is bucketing down with rain, and I arrive with all the prizes for the raffle, a model supplied at a considerable discount in a large box for our quiz prize, mince pies, paper plates, pencils and papers for the quiz, raffle tickets etc. etc. In short, somewhat heavily laden! As I make my way carefully to the door, I am intercepted by our Chairman who tells me that due to the Manchester United / Benfica Champion’s League Football match, we cannot use the Function Room. Now since I am something of a football fan myself, I happen to know that it is an away match, and Benfica are a team from Lisbon in Portugal, so why this should affect a pub in Hampshire I do not immediately twig. But then it slowly dawned that the Function Room is where the TV is! As we get the room for free, we can’t complain, although why people want to leave their homes on a miserable evening to watch something that they can watch in the comfort of their own homes is beyond me!
So I stagger into the public bar, and working on two round bar tables instead of the several large rectangular tables I had counted on, “organise” myself. The farce continues when I discover that the packets of pencils I had bought to supply for people who did not bring a pen are not sharpened, so we break open a craft knife from one of the Raffle prizes and start sharpening!
As people arrive, I distribute raffle tickets, quiz answer sheets, pencils, each time having to search the muddled table for the required items, but slowly it all falls into place! Eventually we have some semblance of order, and the Chairman gives us all the news. Then it is my turn. Speaking loudly and carefully, I read out question 1 only to have Mr Brockway call out the answer! This enables most contestants to score at least one point, some of those present should see a doctor for a hearing test!
The quiz progresses, frequently with comments by Mr Enticott supplying additional clues in the form of some truly awful puns (eg Q what was the military version of the Locheed Super Electra called? A. The Hudson DE’s clue “I think I’ll keep that answer in a-BAY-ance”. )
I think the quiz was quite successful, if we do this again I’ll make things a bit easier (with a few tough questions to sort the men from the boys!) But everyone seemed to enjoy themselves! Not surprisingly the winner was David Enticott, with a highly respectable score of 17 out of a possible 23, although I should dock him a point. He debated the answer to one question, and I spent an hour and a half on the net last night checking I was right before I could sleep!
The quiz was followed by the Raffle, and with the relatively low attendance everyone got a prize then we went round again and everyone got another prize. After 2 rounds, we still had a couple of items left, these were offered round to whoever wanted them! By this time most of us were peckish, and the excellent sausage rolls supplied by Tony Cousins’ wife were most welcome, the mince pies went down well too. A few were offered to the footy fans, since if they cannot afford a TV they probably can’t afford food either!
Despite the lack of our usual room, it was an enjoyable evening!
Terry Sullivan
For those of you who could not attend, here are the quiz questions:
(Float the mouse over the question to reveal the answer)
