ROUND 1 - Hidden theme

1.

When it was completed in 1930 the Chrysler Building in New York was 319 metres tall, but what did it replace as the world's tallest free standing structure?

2.

Name the pictured entertainer.

3.

If a field is rectangular in shape, has an area of one acre, and a length of one furlong, what is its width?

4.

Which Englishman, destined to hold ministerial office, succeeded Nye Bevan as MP for Ebbw Vale in 1960 and held the seat until his retirement in 1992?

5.

In which Dire Straits single released in 1978 would you find the lyric "the band was blowing Dixie double four time"?

6.

Amosite, commonly called brown asbestos, is chemically a silicate of which metal?

7.

Which tale was the first to be told on the way to Canterbury by Chaucer's Pilgrims?

8.

Who was the last British monarch to succeed to the throne with the same ordinal number as his, or her, immediate predecessor?

Sp.

What word is the word for the genus that incorporates both the European and American beaver, a container for sprinkling sugar, and an oil extracted from the seeds of the ricinus plant?

ROUND 2 - 'Better Red than Dead'

Each answer contains either the word ‘red’ or the word ‘dead’

1.

What is the title of the 1881 painting by Robert Gibbs depicting the 93rd Regiment at Balaclava that is housed in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Regimental Museum?

2.

What according to the popular song from a 1953 musical was "a coming on over the crest like a homing pigeon that's a hankering after its nest"?

3.

Which 1994 film, the last in a trilogy exploring the French revolutionary ideals of liberté, egalité and fraternité, was the final film to be directed by Krzyztof Kieslowski?

4.

Which American punk band wrote and performed such celebrated tracks as Anarchy for Sale and Holiday in Cambodia?

5.

Identify the bird pictured.

6.

Which comedy by Tom Stoppard takes its title from a line in a Shakespearean tragedy?

7.

The 1891 poem Derelict by American Young E Allison took its first four lines from what was, at the time, a fictional song sung by a character in a Robert Louis Stevenson novel.  What is the opening line of the poem?

8.

What was the name for the collective of musicians founded in November 1985 and fronted by Billy Bragg and Paul Weller to lend support to the Labour Party?

Sp.

What archaeological find was made by chance in caves at Wadi Qumran in 1947?

ROUND 3 - Hidden theme

1.

What was the name of the bouncy inanimate friend of the character played by Tom Hanks in the 2000 film Castaway?

2.

What, according to the common version of the nursery rhyme, was owed to St Martins?

3.

What is the name of the town which had a population of 12,500 in the 2001 census and is indicated by an arrow on the map?

4.

Which Lakeland fells are pictured in the distance?

5.

Who was the first athlete to run one hundred sub-four minute miles?

6.

Who made his directing debut in the 1971 film Get Carter?

7.

Who works as a cook at the Krusty Krab in Bikini Bottom?

8.

Who was the first wicketkeeper to score two thousand runs and make two hundred dismissals in test match cricket?

Sp.

Who drove Ivor the Engine?

ROUND 4 - Hidden theme

1.

Which town in Manitoba is the only town on the Hudson Bay coastline to be served by railroad and styles itself the Polar Bear Capital of the world?

2.

Whose body was exhumed from Westminster Abbey in 1661, and was then subjected to a posthumous beheading, with the detached head not being finally re-interred until 1960?

3.

Which Willy Russell monologue had Pauline Collins in the on-stage role for its West End opening at the Vaudeville Theatre in 1988?

4.

What was Polly's surname in Fawlty Towers?

5.

Name the mother of Henry II (of England) who secured her son's right to succeed to throne in the Treaty of Winchester of 1153 following a thirteen year quasi-civil war with King Stephen.

6.

Formerly known as Verwoerdburg, the populace of which town in Gauteng province chose to rename it after the local cricket ground, a venue which hosted its first test match in 1995 when England were the visitors?

7.

The deepest part of the Mariana Trench took its name from the Royal Navy survey vessel which established its depth of 10,911 metres in 1951.  Name the vessel.

8.

What is the soubriquet of the rugby union team from Canterbury who won the Super 14 competition for the seventh time in 2008?

Sp.

Who attempted to carry off Hippodamia on the day of her marriage to Pirithuous, king of the Lapithae?

ROUND 5 - 'The weather forecast for this evening is light showers with the temperature falling to minus 3'

All answers have a connection with wintry weather conditions (beware of soundalikes)

1.

They are known as Sucrilhos in Brazil and as Zucaritas in the rest of Latin America, but how are they known to British consumers?

2.

Which 1958 film featured an Austin K2 called Katy?

3.

Which novel by Ernest Hemingway concerns a writer facing a slow death from an infected wound suffered while on safari?

4.

Sex: They released an album entitled Californication in 1999 which sold 15 million copies worldwide.

Drugs: Original guitarist Hillel Slovak died of a heroin overdose in 1988.

Rock and Roll: Most definitely!!

Name this American band.

5.

Which motor sport legend, although destined never to win a single Formula One Grand Prix, did win the George Medal for pulling Clay Reggazoni from the burning wreckage of his BRM in the 1973 South African Grand Prix?

6.

Name the highlighted province on this map of the Netherlands.

7.

Which company inflicted the on-line multiple player phenomenon World of Warcraft upon society?

8.

Lieutenant Chard of the 5th Field Company Royal Engineers won the Victoria Cross in 1879 for the defence of what?

ROUND 6 - 'Search for Sid'

In memory of the 30^th anniversary of the death of Sid Vicious - all answers contain the word ‘Sid’

1.

The AIM9 entered into operational service with the United States Navy in 1956.  By what name was it, and for that matter still is, more commonly known?

2.

Which car manufacturer introduced the pictured model, the Sapphire 346, in 1952?

3.

Which actress, born in 1755, was famous for her portrayal of Lady MacBeth and was so highly regarded that the Metropolitan Railway named an electric locomotive in her honour in 1922?

4.

What is the title of the Lionel Bart song from a 1968 musical which includes the lyric "....then the drinks are on the house"?

5.

Which political title had fallen into obscurity before being revived by Michael Heseltine who adopted it in 1992 in preference to the more staid title used by his immediate predecessors?

6.

Which artist's model was born in 1829, famously sat for many of the early Pre-Raphaelites, married Rossetti in 1860, died of a laudanum overdose in 1862, and was later exhumed so that Rossetti could retrieve some of his poems that he had slipped into her coffin?

7.

Name the glassy volcanic rock pictured.

8.

Derek Conway, the disgraced former Tory MP now sitting as an Independent, inherited his safe constituency from Edward Heath in 2001.  What is the full title of the seat?

Sp.

What seaside town lies immediately to the west of Salcombe Hill, an important exposure in the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site?

ROUND 7 - 'Let's meet the Browns'

Each question involves someone called Brown

1.

Joe Brown, Mancunian and mountaineer…..but in 1955 he and George Band were the first climbers to reach the summit of which 28,169 feet high mountain?

2.

John Brown, mouldering body and fervent anti slavery campaigner…..but what doomed raid did he lead on the 16th October 1859 which ultimately led to his capture and execution?

3.

Mr Brown, commuter and part time defender of the realm…..but which train did he catch to town every morning?

4.

Henry Brown, resident of 32 Windsor Gardens London and father of Jonathan and Judy…..but can you name his creator?

5.

Gordon Brown, dour son of the manse and self proclaimed saviour of the World…..but his 1994 speech promoting post neo-classical endogenous growth theory led to which famous quip from Michael Heseltine regarding the true identity of the author?

6.

Fizz Brown, underworld machinist and ginger goddess…..but can you name her former boyfriend currently serving a two year prison sentence for falsely imprisoning Rosie Webster?

7.

Capability Brown, Geordie and landscape gardener…..but at which of his gardens did he dam a small stream flowing under Vanbrugh's Grand Bridge which half drowned that structure but created the classic English view pictured here?

8.

Charlie Brown, Snoopy's friend and natural born loser…..but what was the name of his piano-playing buddy with the Ludwig van Beethoven fixation who, like Charlie, later came to share his name with a politician who first came to prominence in the 1990s?

Sp.

Leroy Brown, Chicago resident and the baddest man in town…..but according to the lyrics who exactly was he badder than?

ROUND 8 - 'If possession is theft someone's been nicking some unusual things!'

Each answer is a 2 word phase of possession (e.g. 'TMTCH’s Obsessions')

1.

The plant Polemonium Caeruleum shares its common name with an edifice described in the Book of Genesis which was the subject of a William Blake painting.  What is its common name?

2.

Which painting by Rembrandt depicts a scene from the Book of Daniel and was acquired for the National Gallery in 1964?

3.

Which famed Scottish hill is 32 miles from Stirling, 43 miles from Glasgow but a mere 823 feet high?

4.

In 1863 Conrad became the first to fall where?

5.

Mark Twain died in 1910, aged 75, but shortly before his death he wrote "The Almighty has no doubt said ‘Now here are those two unaccountable freaks, they came in together, they must go out together."'  One freak was himself but what was the other freak to which he referred?

6.

What is being described here by its creator: "It is impossible to separate a cube into two cubes or a fourth power into two fourth powers, or in general, any power higher than the second into two like powers"?

7.

Which novel by Umberto Eco published in 1988 derived its title from an experiment by a French physicist to demonstrate the rotation of the earth?

8.

Which novel by William Styron was made into a film version of the same name in which Meryl Streep won an Oscar for her role as an Auschwitz survivor who had faced a terrible dilemma?

Sp.

What starts with The Heir and ends with The Madhouse?

Spares

1.

I Geir Haarde resigned as Prime Minister of Iceland last week.  Of which political party does he remain the Chairman and leader?

2.

The Gironde estuary is formed by the confluence of the Garonne and which other river?

3.

The Caledonian MacBrayne ferry service to the Isle of Iona sails from Fionnphort which is to be found on which other Scottish Island?

4.

The DTI is now BERR.  What do the new initials stand for?

ROUND 1 - Hidden theme

1.

When it was completed in 1930 the Chrysler Building in New York was 319 metres tall, but what did it replace as the world's tallest free standing structure?

Eiffel Tower

2.

Name the pictured entertainer.

Bill Bailey

3.

If a field is rectangular in shape, has an area of one acre, and a length of one furlong, what is its width?

One Chain

(accept 22 yards or 66 feet, but point out that the theme requires the answer to be a chain)

4.

Which Englishman, destined to hold ministerial office, succeeded Nye Bevan as MP for Ebbw Vale in 1960 and held the seat until his retirement in 1992?

Michael Foot

5.

In which Dire Straits single released in 1978 would you find the lyric "the band was blowing Dixie double four time"?

Sultans of Swing

6.

Amosite, commonly called brown asbestos, is chemically a silicate of which metal?

Iron

7.

Which tale was the first to be told on the way to Canterbury by Chaucer's Pilgrims?

The Knight’s Tale

8.

Who was the last British monarch to succeed to the throne with the same ordinal number as his, or her, immediate predecessor?

William the Fourth

(succeeding George IV in 1830)

Sp.

What word is the word for the genus that incorporates both the European and American beaver, a container for sprinkling sugar, and an oil extracted from the seeds of the ricinus plant?

Castor

ROUND 2 - 'Better Red than Dead'

Each answer contains either the word ‘red’ or the word ‘dead’

1.

What is the title of the 1881 painting by Robert Gibbs depicting the 93rd Regiment at Balaclava that is housed in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Regimental Museum?

The Thin Red Line

2.

What according to the popular song from a 1953 musical was "a coming on over the crest like a homing pigeon that's a hankering after its nest"?

The Deadwood Stage

3.

Which 1994 film, the last in a trilogy exploring the French revolutionary ideals of liberté, egalité and fraternité, was the final film to be directed by Krzyztof Kieslowski?

Three Colours Red

4.

Which American punk band wrote and performed such celebrated tracks as Anarchy for Sale and Holiday in Cambodia?

The Dead Kennedvs

5.

Identify the bird pictured.

Redstart

6.

Which comedy by Tom Stoppard takes its title from a line in a Shakespearean tragedy?

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

(from Hamlet)

7.

The 1891 poem Derelict by American Young E Allison took its first four lines from what was, at the time, a fictional song sung by a character in a Robert Louis Stevenson novel.  What is the opening line of the poem?

“Fifteen men on a dead man's chest”

8.

What was the name for the collective of musicians founded in November 1985 and fronted by Billy Bragg and Paul Weller to lend support to the Labour Party?

Red Wedge

Sp.

What archaeological find was made by chance in caves at Wadi Qumran in 1947?

The Dead Sea Scrolls

ROUND 3 - Hidden theme

1.

What was the name of the bouncy inanimate friend of the character played by Tom Hanks in the 2000 film Castaway?

Wilson

2.

What, according to the common version of the nursery rhyme, was owed to St Martins?

Five farthings

3.

What is the name of the town which had a population of 12,500 in the 2001 census and is indicated by an arrow on the map?

Fraserburgh

4.

Which Lakeland fells are pictured in the distance?

The Langdale Pikes

(accept Pike O'Stickle and Harrison Stickle if the answerer chooses to give the individual names)

5.

Who was the first athlete to run one hundred sub-four minute miles?

John Walker

6.

Who made his directing debut in the 1971 film Get Carter?

Mike Hodges

7.

Who works as a cook at the Krusty Krab in Bikini Bottom?

Spongebob Squarepants

8.

Who was the first wicketkeeper to score two thousand runs and make two hundred dismissals in test match cricket?

(Thomas) Godfrey Evans

Sp.

Who drove Ivor the Engine?

Jones the Steam

ROUND 4 - Hidden theme

1.

Which town in Manitoba is the only town on the Hudson Bay coastline to be served by railroad and styles itself the Polar Bear Capital of the world?

Churchill

2.

Whose body was exhumed from Westminster Abbey in 1661, and was then subjected to a posthumous beheading, with the detached head not being finally re-interred until 1960?

Oliver Cromwell

3.

Which Willy Russell monologue had Pauline Collins in the on-stage role for its West End opening at the Vaudeville Theatre in 1988?

Shirley Valentine

(the stage version was a monologue with Shirley addressing the wall)

4.

What was Polly's surname in Fawlty Towers?

Sherman

5.

Name the mother of Henry II (of England) who secured her son's right to succeed to throne in the Treaty of Winchester of 1153 following a thirteen year quasi-civil war with King Stephen.

Matilda

6.

Formerly known as Verwoerdburg, the populace of which town in Gauteng province chose to rename it after the local cricket ground, a venue which hosted its first test match in 1995 when England were the visitors?

Centurion

7.

The deepest part of the Mariana Trench took its name from the Royal Navy survey vessel which established its depth of 10,911 metres in 1951.  Name the vessel.

HMS Challenger

8.

What is the soubriquet of the rugby union team from Canterbury who won the Super 14 competition for the seventh time in 2008?

Crusaders

Sp.

Who attempted to carry off Hippodamia on the day of her marriage to Pirithuous, king of the Lapithae?

The Centaurs

ROUND 5 - 'The weather forecast for this evening is light showers with the temperature falling to minus 3'

All answers have a connection with wintry weather conditions (beware of soundalikes)

1

They are known as Sucrilhos in Brazil and as Zucaritas in the rest of Latin America, but how are they known to British consumers?

Frosties

2.

Which 1958 film featured an Austin K2 called Katy?

Ice Cold in Alex

3.

Which novel by Ernest Hemingway concerns a writer facing a slow death from an infected wound suffered while on safari?

The Snows of Kilimanjaro

4.

Sex: They released an album entitled Californication in 1999 which sold 15 million copies worldwide.

Drugs: Original guitarist Hillel Slovak died of a heroin overdose in 1988.

Rock and Roll: Most definitely!!

Name this American band.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers

5.

Which motor sport legend, although destined never to win a single Formula One Grand Prix, did win the George Medal for pulling Clay Reggazoni from the burning wreckage of his BRM in the 1973 South African Grand Prix?

Mike Hailwood

6.

Name the highlighted province on this map of the Netherlands.

Friesland

7.

Which company inflicted the on-line multiple player phenomenon World of Warcraft upon society?

Blizzard

8.

Lieutenant Chard of the 5th Field Company Royal Engineers won the Victoria Cross in 1879 for the defence of what?

Rorke's Drift

(Stanley Baxter's role in Zulu)

ROUND 6 - 'Search for Sid'

In memory of the 30^th anniversary of the death of Sid Vicious - all answers contain the word ‘Sid’

1

The AIM9 entered into operational service with the United States Navy in 1956.  By what name was it, and for that matter still is, more commonly known?

Sidewinder

(missile)

2.

Which car manufacturer introduced the pictured model, the Sapphire 346, in 1952?

Armstrong Siddeley

3.

Which actress, born in 1755, was famous for her portrayal of Lady MacBeth and was so highly regarded that the Metropolitan Railway named an electric locomotive in her honour in 1922?

Sarah Siddons

4.

What is the title of the Lionel Bart song from a 1968 musical which includes the lyric "....then the drinks are on the house"?

Consider yourself

(from Oliver!)

5.

Which political title had fallen into obscurity before being revived by Michael Heseltine who adopted it in 1992 in preference to the more staid title used by his immediate predecessors?

President of the Board of Trade

(instead of being the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry)

6.

Which artist's model was born in 1829, famously sat for many of the early Pre-Raphaelites, married Rossetti in 1860, died of a laudanum overdose in 1862, and was later exhumed so that Rossetti could retrieve some of his poems that he had slipped into her coffin?

Elizabeth Siddal

7.

Name the glassy volcanic rock pictured.

Obsidian

8.

Derek Conway, the disgraced former Tory MP now sitting as an Independent, inherited his safe constituency from Edward Heath in 2001.  What is the full title of the seat?

Old Bexley and Sidcup

Sp.

What seaside town lies immediately to the west of Salcombe Hill, an important exposure in the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site?

Sidmouth

ROUND 7 - 'Let's meet the Browns'

Each question involves someone called Brown

1.

Joe Brown, Mancunian and mountaineer…..but in 1955 he and George Band were the first climbers to reach the summit of which 28,169 feet high mountain?

Kanchenjunga

(although they reputedly stopped a foot short out of respect)

2.

John Brown, mouldering body and fervent anti slavery campaigner…..but what doomed raid did he lead on the 16th October 1859 which ultimately led to his capture and execution?

Harper's Ferry

(the Armoury)

3.

Mr Brown, commuter and part time defender of the realm…..but which train did he catch to town every morning?

“The eight twenty-one”

(from the Bud Flanagan song)

4.

Henry Brown, resident of 32 Windsor Gardens London and father of Jonathan and Judy…..but can you name his creator?

Michael Bond

5.

Gordon Brown, dour son of the manse and self proclaimed saviour of the World…..but his 1994 speech promoting post neo-classical endogenous growth theory led to which famous quip from Michael Heseltine regarding the true identity of the author?

"Its not Brown's its Balls"

6.

Fizz Brown, underworld machinist and ginger goddess…..but can you name her former boyfriend currently serving a two year prison sentence for falsely imprisoning Rosie Webster?

John Snape

7.

Capability Brown, Geordie and landscape gardener…..but at which of his gardens did he dam a small stream flowing under Vanbrugh's Grand Bridge which half drowned that structure but created the classic English view pictured here?

Blenheim

8.

Charlie Brown, Snoopy's friend and natural born loser…..but what was the name of his piano-playing buddy with the Ludwig van Beethoven fixation who, like Charlie, later came to share his name with a politician who first came to prominence in the 1990s?

Schroeder

Sp.

Leroy Brown, Chicago resident and the baddest man in town…..but according to the lyrics who exactly was he badder than?

Old King Kong

ROUND 8 - 'If possession is theft someone's been nicking some unusual things!'

Each answer is a 2 word phase of possession (e.g. 'TMTCH’s Obsessions')

1.

The plant Polemonium Caeruleum shares its common name with an edifice described in the Book of Genesis which was the subject of a William Blake painting.  What is its common name?

Jacob's Ladder

2.

Which painting by Rembrandt depicts a scene from the Book of Daniel and was acquired for the National Gallery in 1964?

Balshazzar's Feast

3.

Which famed Scottish hill is 32 miles from Stirling, 43 miles from Glasgow but a mere 823 feet high?

Arthur's Seat

4.

In 1863 Conrad became the first to fall where?

Beecher's Brook

5.

Mark Twain died in 1910, aged 75, but shortly before his death he wrote "The Almighty has no doubt said ‘Now here are those two unaccountable freaks, they came in together, they must go out together."'  One freak was himself but what was the other freak to which he referred?

Halley's Comet

(he was born and died within a few days of it's perihelion)

6.

What is being described here by its creator: "It is impossible to separate a cube into two cubes or a fourth power into two fourth powers, or in general, any power higher than the second into two like powers"?

Fermat's Last Theorem

7.

Which novel by Umberto Eco published in 1988 derived its title from an experiment by a French physicist to demonstrate the rotation of the earth?

Foucault's Pendulum

8.

Which novel by William Styron was made into a film version of the same name in which Meryl Streep won an Oscar for her role as an Auschwitz survivor who had faced a terrible dilemma?

Sophie's Choice

Sp.

What starts with The Heir and ends with The Madhouse?

The Rake's Progress

1.

I Geir Haarde resigned as Prime Minister of Iceland last week.  Of which political party does he remain the Chairman and leader?

Independence Party

2.

The Gironde estuary is formed by the confluence of the Garonne and which other river?

Dordogne

3.

The Caledonian MacBrayne ferry service to the Isle of Iona sails from Fionnphort which is to be found on which other Scottish Island?

Mull

4.

The DTI is now BERR.  What do the new initials stand for?

Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform

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