Team Snorewell (Apartment 1045)

They say that the secret to success, in any walk of life, is choosing the best people and the right name for your product. However, sometimes things just happen naturally and even better results are achieved. A total of 23 Orwellians and one Clonardier recently returned from an excellent training camp in Cambrils (not Calpe!), Spain. It was all organised perfectly by David Hendron in conjunction with Neenan Travel. I’m sure everyone who was there had a wonderful time and on behalf of us all, thank you for a great week, Dave.

March in Cambrils is off-season and as you can imagine, there wasn’t much going on as far as night-life was concerned. The first afternoon was spent searching frantically for a boozer to watch the England V Ireland match, the less said about that the better. We finally found a nice little Indian Beer Hall where everyone ate and drank to their hearts’ content. It was there that Dave met “Dublin John”. They hit it off instantly and John recommended a restaurant for during the week and Joe’s Pub for scoops. John, a Saggart native, is an ex-pat living in Spain for a long time but you could never tell that by his fine Dublin accent. Joe’s became a regular haunt every evening for holidays pints for my two flatmates, David Donohoe and Colm Egan. James, the owner of Joe’s, informed us that there was a Pub Quiz on the Friday night (our last night) and we quickly spread the word, thanks mainly to a WhatsApp group that some genius created.

The easiest way to choose your team was to stick with whoever was in your apartment. I had David and Colm, and my dear brother Garret made up the compliment. Suffice to say, I was not very confident at this point but at least we’d have a laugh (no offence lads!). All that was left to do was pick a name and win. We were going to go with “Apartment 1045” because it was easy but we had some divine inspiration and came up with “Team Snorewell” instead. The name comes from the nocturnal noises in 1045, the name of our club and the now famous song, “The Girls of Norfolk”. However, we did fail in our attempts to substitute Snorewell into the lyrics for a team song of sorts.

The Friday night came quickly and everybody was ready for a big night out. Coincidentally, the aforementioned Dublin John was the Quizmaster on the night, which was handy as the questions were in English and in an accent we could understand. The first couple of rounds went swimmingly and everybody looked confident and in good spirits. Next came the final round, the music round. I don’t know if it’s just me but most people fancy their chances in the music round of any given pub quiz and fall down on the other rounds. In Cambrils, the opposite applies. From the very beginning of the first song it became very obvious that Dave and Colm were experts in ‘80’s music and lucky for us, every song was from that decade! The stress level in the room rose sharply and a panicked look started to appear on our competitors’ faces. Half way through the round we were flying with confidence and even began to celebrate a little early. This is not good sportsmanship but pints were involved and Pub Quizes are not sport! To cut a long story short, we won in the end. The massive first prize of €42.50 was spent on a round of shots for everyone in the audience and we all went straight home to bed as we had an early flight the following morning.

The good news is that Team Snorewell will reunite for the upcoming Rás Fundraiser Table Quiz in Murphy’s Pub, Rathmines on Friday 8th April.) The Team will be available for photos, autographs and advice before the quiz but will be busy celebrating another victory afterwards. I went to this event last year and it was one of my first Orwell social events. It was a brilliant night out, all organised by our amazing Social Rep, Ann Horan. “The Men Of The Rás” who will represent us at Ireland’s premier racing event need your help in raising funds for everything involved in the week long race. It’s a great opportunity to meet fellow club mates and I highly recommend forming a team. I’m really looking forward to winning again and I wish everybody the best of luck for second place.

 
​Team Snorewell