Saturday afternoon at Corflu Silver began with a team trivia contest requiring UK fans to answer questions about US fanhistory, and US fans about UK fanhistory. Ken Forman emceed. Andy Hooper invited me to fill out his US team, along with Ted White and Robert Licthman. The UK team included Sandra Bond, Mark Plummer, Nic Farey and Dr. Rob Jackson.

It was remarkable how much fanhistory the two teams darn near but didn’t quite know, which kept the score very close til the end. We did know a few things, as the score was announced as 55-55 during the game. The final outcome was decided by an improvised sudden death question. I think the US team won. At least, Ken Forman afterwards showed me a scoresheet with a big checkmark on that side of the ledger.

Next, fans performed Andy Hooper’s play “The Price of Pugwash” as a reader’s theater. Lise Eisenberg, Len Bailes, Randy Byers, Lloyd Penney, Bill Mills and the rest did very well delivering the lines and carrying off the humor. It was another excellent script by Hooper.

The anchor leg of the afternoon’s program was the auction. Treasures like Warhoon 28 and a 1946 Worldcon program book went on the block. I was very happy to get three early issues of Energumen. I became active in trading fanzines around 1971, so I had already missed several issues of that zine, which set the standard for fannish genzines at the point where I was learning what that was.

Update 4/28/2008: Thanks to Sandra Bond for supplying the name of the fourth member of the Brit trivia team, Dr. Rob Jackson. Update 4/29/2008: And as Mark Plummer points out, he was on the trivia team, not Claire. At this point I can either admit how amped I was to be in the game, which seems to have had a drug-like effect on my ability to remember who was on the other team, or simply claim my view of them was eclipsed by Nic Farey’s hat. Hmmm…