The combatants entered the arena staring precociously at opposition teams. The ‘OAPs’ limbering up in the corner with a few warm-up questions, while the Bizzie Rascals looked on with a menacing stare of contempt which said ‘your are past your sell-by date – if you don’t know the answers now you never will”.

Meredith, Spyrides (Mr and Mrs), and Alexander walked into the hall to a deathly hush. Could they make it a third consecutive victory? You could cut the tension with a knife….

Actually, I exaggerate a little…. Denis arranged another great night at Cannon Roach Hall. There were approximately forty prizes donated for the raffle including two Perry Street shirts signed by HRH Frankie Lampard, plus a fantastic stay at an exclusive B&B. Ann McMeekin won the bid for the B&B but didn’t say who she was taking (sorry Stew). Messrs Harwood and Tinker paid a handsome price for the shirts (although Steve didn’t seem to know much about the bidding process as he was in the toilet – thanks Mrs Tinker!!!). Thanks to everybody for the gifts – the raffle alone raised £450.

Back to the action, as Denis rattled off the questions three teams started to come to the fore… the reigning champions, last year’s runners up – Dave Hilton and his OAPs and the new and upcoming Bizzie Rascals who scented a first victory. Alas, the Bizzies selected Geography for their joker but forgot their maps, while once again the OAP’s ran out of steam as they consumed one too many northern ales left over from the fun-day (Andy, nobody south of the Humber drinks Mild and Bitter!!). This left the trophy in the hands of the defending champions who clung on by just one point from the slightly befuddled OAPs.

Congratulations to Pete, Chris, Catherine and Paul (not really).

The final word comes from Mike Myles, our club Treasurer. “Thanks to the efforts of Denis and his numerous helpers the club has raised £1,450. This will enable us buy the new goalposts we need in order to facilitate nine-a-side football in 2012. Thanks to everyone who came along, and to the guys at the Holy Redeemer for letting us have the hall at a ‘very’ competitive rate.”

The final, final word actually comes from Chris Meredith….. “We (the committee), had a great evening. Based on the alcohol consumed I’m pretty sure everybody had as good a time as we did. We were really pleased to see twelve teams (around 120 people), turn up for the evening. These events are a great opportunity for parents to get together and engender a sense community spirit within the club. It’s mainly for the players – but we can all have a laugh at the same time.”

The Club quiz night attracted a very good turn out and there was fierce competition. The ‘Old Boys’ led by Dave Hilton looked to be home and dry with 2 rounds to go until a magnificent 11 out of 12 points on the Music round, with the joker played, by the U8s, led by the youthful looking Captain Chris Meredith. With one round to go it was a 2 horse race and Dave’s U18s team had their joker to play and were only 8 points behind. Alas, the pressure told on the old timers and they proved lightning does strike twice as they were beaten into second place by a point for the second year running. They are no doubt the unluckiest team is the Perry Street Quiz History.

Captain Meredith shows off the 2009 and 2010 Quiz trophies… Other Team members on the night were Tracey Meredith, Peter and Cathy Spyrides, Paul Alexander plus Graham and Wendy.

Drink

There was one other big winner on the night and that was in the raffle where one of the U13a’s team scooped all the remaining cans of beer as the last prize. Knocking all back there and then was not the best idea though!!