Tie-break special
Another good night at the Elm Tree with 16 teams and top score of 33 followed by 31, 31, 29, 29 and 18, 18 and 18 tied for second last.
Lots of teams in the tie break therefore which was self-indulgently self-referential: what is the average winning score in my quizzes from 2014 to 2022? Answer below.
Also last night’s beer round is worth an airing. Can you match the Dad’s Army characters (Capt Mainwaring, Sgt Wilson, Lance Corporal Jones, Privates Godfrey and Frazer) with the actual wartime records of the actors who played them? Answers below.
1.In WWI was a private with Somerset Light Infantry. Fought in several Somme campaigns. Promoted to Lance Corporal and fought at the Battle of Arras 1917. Suffered serious bayonet wounds and invalided out in 1917. In 1939, volunteered. Became an intelligence officer, with the rank of temporary Major. Served as a “Conducting Officer” dealing with press reporters. Escaped from Boulogne in the last rescue boat, HMS Vimiera. Invalided out. Severely injured in June 1944 in his garden by a V1 rocket.
2.February 1939 joined Territorial Army. In WWII served with Duke of Lancaster’s Own Yeomanry. Then wireless and radar training in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in Lincolnshire. Posted to Egypt and joined Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Rode horses and spoke Arabic. Posted to Suez Canal zone and then to radio repair workshops in Rafah. Returned to Britain in November 1945, demobbed March 1946.
3.In September 1940 home was destroyed by German bomb along with call up papers. Joined Royal Armoured Corps near Salisbury Plain and was commissioned into the Royal Tank Regiment. Served in Britain until 1943, then posted to British India where he spent the rest of the “a comfortable war, with captaincy thrust upon me, before I was demobbed in 1946”.
4.At outbreak of WWII joined up. Served as a trooper in the 4th Queen’s Own Hussars. Posted to the Middle East in December 1940. As part of the 1st Armoured Brigade fought in the Greek Campaign including rearguard action at the Corinth canal in April 1941. Regiment was overrun. Was among 400 men taken POW. Held in Austria for the next four years. Finally demobilised in 1947.
5.Gave up a career in architecture to sign up in WWI and joined the 2nd Battalion Honourable Artillery Company where he fought on the Somme before being invalided out. During WWII served in the Home Guard.
And finally, through gritted teeth, many congratulations to quiz stalwart Alastair Edge whose son (and Durham Johnston alumnus) Matt was in the winning Cambridge Boat Race crew who, “hostile” steering notwithstanding, “edged out” (sorry) Oxford at the weekend.
yours sportingly
Frank
Answers
Average winning score 30.6
Dad’s Army:
1 Private Charles Godfrey (Arnold Ridley)
2 Capt George Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe)
3 Sgt Arthur Wilson (John Le Mesurier)
4 Lance Corporal Jack Jones (Clive Dunn)
5 Private James Frazer (John Lawrie)
Ye Old Elm Tree
