New event in Retford
I know from my previous experience of attending a local gathering how first contact feels. It wasn't exactly first contact because I knew most of the visitors already, but it was the first meeting that I had hosted since joining the society following Test The Nation last November.
The meeting was well attended, mainly due to local-ish Mensan contact people: Jacquie and Val from Lincoln; Maxine and Andy from Nottingham; Keith, Mary and Diane from Doncaster. Unfortunately, there was not a great response from the locals, if there are any beyond those mentioned below. Denise and I played hosts, with John being the only other Retfordian to attend. Nick was another local, from Clayworth. That made ten. Two others, who had made themselves known but were unable to make it, were from Worksop.
In the middle of the July heatwave, the 15th saw the King & Miller as the location. A pre-booked meal was enjoyed by all before moving on. The conversation was light, and the company was well suited to each other, the usual mixture of quips, puns, innuendoes and wise comments. I didn't talk about cricket once although I, perhaps, made the mistake of telling Maxine that I was half interested in attending the Derby Rocky Horror Show on my birthday.
We discussed the prospect of enjoying an evening in Clumber Park for the next meeting. Hopefully the Clumber Park jaunt will be a BYOBABBQ affair, with a game of boules thrown in, providing the weather is good. If we have to stay in the Clumber Park Hotel because of bad weather - well, never mind. Future plans for ten-pin bowling challenges were also hinted at, plus a future gathering at Gainsborough.
Anyway, having left Maxine and Andy behind, the 8-strong squad trundled across town (past Rowan Atkinson's house) to the Whitehouses to gatecrash the weekly quiz. John was quizmaster there, hence the reason for participating. We had received the inside information that the jackpot must go - a prize normally reserved for getting all the thirty questions correct. We realised that the prize would not be ours when we were unable to make knowledgeable answers to questions such as: what was the breed of dog in Turner & Hooch; what type of weapon is a glaive; what's a hanepoot; what is octopush; what's Billy Ocean's real name? We actually answered the octopush question correctly.
So, we ran two answer sheets concuurently and hedged our bets by accommodating the occasional alternative answer, and managed to acquire 20 points on one sheet, and 21 on the other. Who would have believed it - we won! If looks could kill; especially from our regular arch-rivals from our regular Wednesday night quiz at the Elms. Anyway, £150 shared between the eight of us concluded an excellent Mensa bonding session. Incidentally, on the following night, our team won the Elms Quiz under the team name of 'The Gatecrashers'. That went down well, too.
Although it would be great to think that we could match the numbers for future meetings, it would probably be too much to expect regular visitors from Nottingham, Doncaster and Lincoln. Though there are those of us who believe that Retford is the centre of the universe, and perhaps in several years' time extra-terrastrial Mensans would make first contact there, for now it would suffice to have a few more locals surface.
Give us a call, and get involved!
Colin Hurst