Thursday, May 20, 2010

Crimefest I: If this is England, where's the rain?

Everyone remembers who won tons of gold at the Olympics: Michael Phelps. Mark Spitz. Don Schollander (Come on, you remember Don Schollander.)

But who remembers the folks who won silver?

My team finished has just finished second at the Crimefest pub quiz for the second year in a row. This time my teammates were two of the ubiquitous names on the British crime fiction scene, Maxim Jakubowski and Ayo Onatade, but they were not enough to overcome the jet-lagged lump of North American baggage that joined them at the table.

We lost to a team that included Martin Edwards, Ann Cleeves and Karen Meek, just as last year's winning team did. And there were no prizes for runners-up this year, which means fewer books to carry home.

Quizmaster Peter Guttridge said this year's questions would be easy. Lying sack of &(^%!; they were ball-busters.

Tomorrow: Bill James, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Lindsey Davis, Donna Moore, Mike Hodges, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and more.

© Peter Rozovsky 2010

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6 Comments:

Anonymous kathy d. said...

Pray tell, what where the tough questions? Sounds like oral finals at Oxford.

May 21, 2010  
Blogger seana graham said...

Well, I hope it was fun, anyway. But next year, the rematch should be non-jetlagged.

May 21, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Kathy, the final section consisted of anagrams. The teams had to unscramblae phrases into the names of crime authors. This was a cruel trick to play on a celebrating crowd at the end of an evening. I don't think any team got more than three of the ten.

May 21, 2010  
Blogger Karen (Euro Crime) said...

I think we got about 7 of the anagrams though the pub lost one of their menus to the cause. I didn't get any of them though - cos I was marking you understand!!!

Kathy - a typical easy(!) question: name the hotel and village where Holmes set off to the Reichenback Falls.
(I still don't know)

Who first played Miss Marple on the tv in the 1950s.
(Gracie Fields)

May 21, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Seana, these things are always fun. I was less jet-lagged last year than this, but the result was the same. Nest year I may arrive well ahead of time and go into training so I can acclimatize myself.

May 21, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Karen, you all were sober and non-jet-lagged, and you had yourself and Martin Edwards. Each of these is an unfair advantage.

I'm happy to report to report that I got the Peter Robinson anagram.

May 21, 2010  

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