Paddy’s Guinness, trivia controversy and medical emergency

A glorious afternoon on the back of the ferry had plenty of incident. Firstly, the boys commemorated St. Patrick’s Day with a couple of cans of Guinness. We’d bought the cans with the widget in them, which was kind of a waste, because we didn’t have the glasses. But the Guinness was from Dublin and even out of the can, the black stuff is smooth and glorious.

Now another bunch of lads that weren’t observing Celtic saints, were draining Tooheys, which was originally brewed by Irish immigrants so I guess it is not so unrelated. A time-honoured tradition on the ferry is to loudly ask the question under the bottle top. Now the first two questions passed without incident – Name Australia’s first Australian born Prime Minister and what was the graffiti written by Arthur Stace (Answer below). Amazingly, the next two questions caused considerable consternation. The first question was “How many Melbourne Cup winners has Bart Cummings trained”. 11 was confidently answered. “12” replied the quizmaster. “Rubbish – Think Big won it twice” countered BotF. We agreed to disagree. The question was much more cut and dried. “In which year was the first series of State of Origin Rugby League played?” “1981” shot back. “Nope – 1980” “Crap – you can’t have a one game series”. Subsequent research has proven that both Tooheys and BotF are wrong if it is true that a Series must constitute more that one game. The first series of 3 games was 1982. BotF will take the issue up with Lion Nathan senior management.

Lastly, the boys got caught a little short when the ferry stopped short because a passenger had to be carried off a ferry at the wharf. We’d finished our beers on time, but then got stuck 200m off the wharf. Still, there are worse places one could have been. No doubt there’ll be a 3 page colour supplement on the medical emergency in tomorrow’s Manly Daily. Not that we care greatly, the Fast Ferry also had dramas as it practically went out the Heads to dodge a tug boat, a pilot boat and an impressive tanker.

Answers: Edmund Barton, Eternity