Depleted and Defeated

Regular followers of the fortunes of our quiz team will have realised that, if there is no mention of Monday's quiz by Wednesday or so, then we almost certainly didn't win. And while this is indeed the case this week, I have to say that I wanted my appreciation of Richard Whiteley to be the uppermost item for three or four days, anyway.

In the heat of the cellar bar on Monday night, with not many more than a handful of people as the academic terms come to an end ('terms' because there are a lot of teaching institutions in Madrid, and their start and end dates are all different), myself, Sam and Hugh, comprising just half the usual team, as we had failed to attract any possible subs from the Centre, proved not to be a match for the full-strength team containing Edu, among others, nor for our old friends and adversaries, who came second. Without our polymath friend Mush and his encyclopaedic knowledge of matters cinematic, we were at something of a disadvantage, but in terms of our own satisfaction, we thought we did well enough, considering.

Next Monday we should have John and Tony, though not Mush, back, as the Centre, after a nine-day break for all teachers, restarts today with its famed July intensive courses, which means that some, but not all, and certainly not Hugh or myself, proud owners of old-style contracts, will be back in the classroom.

I have already arranged an extra player for Monday, too, so hope springs eternal. There may be a couple more weeks left of this season before the heat, and reducing numbers, finally knock it on the head till mid-September.

However, there will still be material for the blog, as the football season, which as I pointed out not long ago, has only just ended, is about to recommence - in fact were I interested in it, I could start in by commenting on the Irish Premier League, which is operating this weekend, but although I am inclined to adopt teams in a number of leagues around the place, just to give myself that extra little bit of interest, I don't have any interest in this one.

However, now I come to think of it, my semi-ironic predictions about Liverpool having to play Total Network Solutions (or Llansantffraid, as they should more properly be known), in the Champions' League have actually come true. I wonder what odds I could have got from Hills or Ladbrokes on that fixture coming out of the hat.

More on my various football favourites, and on team nicknames, soon.