The Judging Panel arrived safely in time for Happy Hour, having flown direct from Faversham fully tanked-up with Shepherd Neame's Spitfire Kentish Ale (correctly identified by Penny Washers: "So that's how Spitfire Ale gets its name!"). They had a short delay before take-off because they had to de-beer and re-beer (as Conso sensibly suggested: "Shouldn't we be mounting it BEFORE we fill it?"). Shortly after landing, Jim, having read Traffic_Is_Er_Was's safety guarantee ("Flash point must be pretty low, Bert's got a fag in his hand.") settled down with his first pint, then brought the judging to a temporary halt as he lit a cigarette, sipped his beer, and calmly exploded (correctly predicted by Danny 42C: "Are you sure you flushed all the petrol out thoroughly before you started, Hoskins ?") Judging had to wait until Jim had collected himself.
The Panel were much impressed with the overall quality of entries, and awarded 'Special Mentions' to the four competitors quoted above. However, the three captions that most tickled them were:
In 3rd Place: AndyTug with "Judging by what the bloke on the left is writing, is this the first time Australian lager landed in the UK?"
In 2nd Place: Arm_out_the_Window with "I'm not sure that's what HQ meant by 'Let Jerry have it with both barrels', but carry on anyway."
But, in 1st Place is Wensleydale (who seemed to be in his element here, clocking up a record 7 captions in the Panel's shortlist) with: "The Spitfire behind will be carrying the Whisky - he's the tail chaser."
Wensleydale is therefore the winner of the Coffman Starter Trophy, and hopefully will provide us with something for the weekend.
You have control...
Last edited by jim's brother; 9th Dec 2016 at 16:23.