Candy from a Kid

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 372, 9 August 1946, Page 15

Candy from a Kid

[Ts a truism that the chaps in this year’s First XV. are nowhere near the size of the men we used to play with, nor would the puny teams who oppose them have scored a single try against the heroes of '28. So it is when the ex-quiz kid looks back on the old sé§sion. Surely

announcers were sterner and questions tougher in the days when we earned our shilling-and-a-free-clean in the Give It a- Name Jackpots? Or is it, merely, as in the case of the old school, that our standards have changed? The

former explanation is the more flattering, and has the added merit of being backed by the facts. In last Monday’s session sponsor and announcer were obviously joined in an unnatural alliance to get rid of the cash as fast as possible. (1/- and a free clean for knowing who was the outlaw of Sherwood Forest.) Special coaching was provided for any candidate not immediately responsive to the question, (One candidate, asked the American author of Strange Interlude and Anna Christie, was told that it was an Irish name, that it began with something apostrophe, that it began with O’). Another competitor earned plaudits and

prize money with his third guess.) The candidate who, in spite of the facilities, muffed his shot, must undoubtedly have felt that he had betrayed not only himself but the spirit of the thing.