With a feel of impending, career-limiting, doom, he handed back to the TC while rapidly considering (a) how up to date his CV was and, (b), if he knew of any leads going in other airlines (any would do!) as he felt sure he was about to be hung out to dry by the TC. The TC turned to him after a short, but ominous, pause and said "Mmmmm, not bad, not bad ....... all I can say is ................ thank God you flew that - I wouldn't have known where to start! I just thought you, having just done your IR, would be best placed to fly that! Very well done!!!!!".
Reminds me of taking my instructor initial skill test out of a somewhat unfamiliar airfield. Five minutes after take-off I realised that I had lost positional awareness. So I turned to my examiner, who was pretending to be my student at that point "So Bloggs, can you tell me where we are right now?", he went into a textbook description of nearby roads and towns and told me exactly where I was, "Well done Bloggs, now onto the first exercise"....
G