AS A curtain-raiser to the new Oxfordshire Summer Quiz Leagues season, all the entrants bar one gathered at the Green Road Club, Kidlington, last Thursday to participate in the crime-themed tabletop.

It was disappointing the Royal Blenheim (Oxford City) had to drop out but main man, and now minor TV celebrity following his conquering of the Eggheads, Nick, was deploying his acting skills for the Eynsham Amateur Dramatic Society.

Still, it was nice to be reacquainted with some old friends, among them the Bell (Lower Heyford) after they took a sabbatical during the winter, and equally delightful to welcome the Blue Boar (Chipping Norton), allied with some pals from their next door neighbours, the Chequers, in what is their first foray into structured quizzing at this time of year.

We have an enforced name change too. With the demise of the Black’s Head pub, the Bletchingdon posse have rehoused at the village’s sports and social club and in the process have reinvented themselves as the Bletchingdon Nomads.

Having mopped up half a dozen gongs in the winter, the Plough carried on now where they left off then, taking the honours here by two points (149-147) from their arch-rival and fellow housemate, the Ploughman’s Bunch. Despite losing the services of Diddly Dee, who took on the question reading duties, the home side took third spot with 139, four ahead of the Royal Sun (Begbroke) with the Black Swan (East Oxford) a point further back.

This week sees the commencement of hostilities in the two league divisions.

Ten teams are lined up for Section One and this is forecast to be as competitive as ever.

The Royal Sun has been installed as the bookies’ pre-tournament favourite on the strength of back-to-back championships in the west in the winter but the Black Swan, for whom Burkey appears to have been the fall guy after their atrocious and costly set of results when Captain Conway sojourned to Australia in February, are sure to figure prominently, as are the Green Road and quite possibly the Gardener’s Arms (North Parade) after they secured the services of Hayesy, former skipper of the now defunct Royal Blenheim B, aka The Young ‘Uns.

James Carr’s questions

* Which UK TV comedy series was released in the United States under the title Doing Time?

* Who was executed in January 1977, the first person in the United States executed since the re-instatement of the death penalty in 1976?

* The theme tune to which 1980’s US TV crime series won 1986 Grammy Awards for Best Instrumental Composition and Best Pop Instrumental Performance?

* Robert Ryan’s 2010 novel Signal Red is based on which real-life event ?

ANSWERS: Porridge; Gary Gilmore; Miami Vice; The Great Train Robbery