ROUND 1 - Pairs

1.

Which one time member of the German National Socialist Workers Party was interred on Mount Zion in 1974?

2.

Which one time member of the German Communist League was cremated in Woking in 1895?

3.

What is the alias of the fictional villain Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, the owner of the Iceberg Lounge?

4.

According to his creator which fictional criminal was “the master of depravity who could defy the laws of gravity and always has an alibi with one or two to spare”?

5.

What logo appears on way markers for National trails in England and Wales?

6.

What logo is used by the Peak District National Park?

7.

What is the name of the alloy patented by The Crucible Steel Company and marketed from 1910 which caused a radical improvement in the efficiency of metal working through increased feed rates and depth of cut?

8.

What is the name of the alloy used to clad the fuel rods inside the reactor of the early British nuclear power plants including Bradwell, Wylfa and Oldbury?

1.

You are at a trendy trattoria in Trafford where you order Cervelles de la Paysanne.  What offal does the waiter bring you?

2.

What was first formulated by a Birmingham pharmacist in 1837 in response to his wife’s allergy to eggs and is still mass produced today at a site in Banbury?

3.

Who did Charles J Guiteau shoot and wound on the 2nd of July 1881, his victim dying from his wounds several weeks later?

4.

What song popularised by Glenn Miller and his orchestra includes the following lyrics:

“Dinner in the diner
Nothing could be finer
Then to have your ham and eggs in Carolina”

5.

Which Scottish international footballer won the SPFA young player of the year award in 1991 and 1993 as well as finishing joint top scorer in the 1993-4 UEFA Cup Winners Cup despite his club, Aberdeen, being knocked out as early as the Second Round?

6.

What was the codename for the German plan to seize control of Gibraltar in early 1941 that had to be cancelled due to Franco’s refusal to cooperate?

7.

What term, now used extensively by palaeontologists and geologists, was first coined by Professor Joseph Kirschvink in 1992 to describe conditions on the planet during the Proterozoic eon between 2.5 billion years and 540 million years ago?

8.

Who created the character Captain Cat, an old blind sea captain now resident in the fictional village of Llareggub?

Sp.

The International Boxing Hall of Fame announced two inductees in the Observer category for 2011.  One was the commentator Harry Carpenter but who was the other?

1.

What do Dover, Dragonfly and The Pie have in common?

2.

What do an insulated 13 amp electric plug, replacement tungsten carbide tips for a circular saw blade, 2 letter Os, a tin of peas, and a pair of size 9 brown pumps have in common?

3.

Who has been the only Oscar to win an Oscar?

4.

Hammerstein won his second Oscar in 1945 along with Richard Rogers for the song It Might As Well Be Spring but from which musical was it taken?

5.

Blue John, still mined around Castleton for lapidary purposes only, is simply an unusually coloured example of which mineral once used extensively as a flux in steelmaking?

6.

Oakstone, once mined at Arbor Low for lapidary purposes, is simply an unusually banded and coloured example of which mineral used extensively in oil and gas extraction, the manufacture of glossy paper and a specific medical purpose?

7.

Burnt at the stake on the 18th of March 1314 Jacques de Molay was the twenty third and last holder of which office?

8.

Burnt at the stake on the 6th of July 1415 whose execution on this date is now celebrated as a national holiday in the Czech Republic?

ROUND 4 - Hidden theme

1.

Which single, released on Stax Records’ Volt Label in 1967 just days after the death of its singer in an aircraft accident, became the first posthumous US Billboard number one when it topped that chart in March 1968?

2.

What was the confectionary, launched in 1970, that in its early days was promoted by television advertisements featuring Terry Scott, dressed as a schoolboy, and his punch line 'Hands Off!'?

3.

Which English privateer, captain of The Adventure Galley, was hung for murder and piracy at Execution Dock, Wapping on May the 23rd 1701?

4.

Which often covered song first recorded in 1980 includes the following lyrics: “If you know your history then you would know where you’re coming from Then you wouldn’t have to ask me who the heck do I think I am”?

5.

Whose autobiography entitled Bound for Glory was published in 1943 and provides the source for the name The Boomtown Rats?

6.

Christopher Merlin Vyvyan Holland born in 1945 is the biographer and only grandchild of which noted aesthete?

7.

Who had held the world record for the men’s 400m for eleven years before Michael Johnson broke it with a time of 43.18 in 1999?

8.

Which song had been a minor success in the USA for Sam Cooke before being the second UK number one single for The Rolling Stones in December 1964?

Sp.

Which television series, set in the fictional town of Fairview, was first broadcast in the USA in 2004?

ROUND 5 - Pairs

1.

Which Victorian masterpiece, a collaboration between architect Sir Horace Jones and engineer Sir John Wolfe Barry, was honoured with a prestigious Engineering Heritage Award in 1987?

2.

The only other bridge to have been awarded an Engineering Heritage Award was built in 1911 but which river does it span?

3.

Name the sculptor, the creator of Woman With Her Throat Cut, who died on the 11th of January 1966 and is featured on the Swiss 100 franc note.

4.

Name the composer, the creator of Danse de la Chevre, who died on the 27th of May 1955 and is featured on the Swiss 20 franc note.

5.

Which London thoroughfare, home to Somerset House, takes its name from the Anglo Saxon word for shoreline?

6.

Which London thoroughfare, home to Bush House the headquarters of the World Service, takes its name from the Anglo Saxon for old settlement?

7.

Which chemical compound, first isolated in 1804, was named after the Greek god of dreams?

8.

Which chemical compound was named after the Greek for blue having been first identified during the production of the dye, Prussian blue, in the early eighteenth century?

1.

Who was seen receiving the Aquanaut of the Year award on British television on the 27th of May 1965?

2.

Name the co-author of the sitcom The Office who made a cameo appearance in one episode in which he was ridiculed by David Brent as being a quote “big lanky goggle eyed freak”.

3.

Which bronze winning Olympic medallist holds the second fastest time for 400 metres by a British woman behind Kathy Cook’s record which has stood since 1984?

4.

What sporting fixture had its death knell at Scarborough in September 1962 after a hundred and fifty six year history?

5.

Who won the Mercury Award in September 2005 for the album I Am A Bird Now?

6.

Who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1960 for her portrayal of Petronella Van Daan in The Diary of Anne Frank and was also nominated for the same award in 1972 for The Poseidon Adventure?

7.

What was the appropriately titled collection of twelve short stories by Agatha Christie published in 1947?

8.

Whose Illustrations of the Family of the Psitticidae, or Parrots was published in 1832 when the author was aged just twenty?

Sp.

In which European city would you find the suburb of Vyronas named in honour of Lord Byron?

ROUND 7 - Pairs

1.

Which almost enclosed sea must be crossed to reach the Barents Sea from the port of Archangel?

2.

Which almost enclosed sea must be crossed to reach the Black Sea from the mouth of the River Don?

3.

What is the common name of the drably coloured bird, correctly the cinclus cinclus, which builds its nest on a crevice or a ledge in the bank of a fast moving river and feeds on larvae and molluscs taken from the river bed in a highly distinctive action?

4.

 What is the common name of the drably coloured bird, correctly the riparia riparia, which builds its nest at the end of a burrow dug into a river bank, and feeds on flying invertebrates taken on the wing?

5.

Who, in 1860, accepted the post of State Geologist of California and was later to become Professor of Geology at Harvard University?

6.

In 1965 the US Geological Service considered and rejected a petition to have Mount Whitney renamed in honour of which Honorary Citizen of the USA?

7.

Who wrote the line of poetry “The best laid schemes of mice and men” which provided the inspiration for the title of the novel by John Steinbeck?

8.

Which Steinbeck novel takes its title from the book of Genesis Chapter 4 verse 16?

ROUND 8 - Hidden theme

1.

What avant-garde theatre in the Borough of Camden is housed in a building that was originally for the use of the Bloomsbury Rifles?

2.

Which fictional character has been portrayed in film by both Steve McQueen and Pierce Brosnan?

3.

Which film took its title from an opinion originally expressed by Lieutenant General Frederick Browning, portrayed in the film by Dirk Bogarde?

4.

Which nineteenth century novel concludes with the epitaph of the chief protagonists, a brother and sister who had perished by drowning, “In their death they were not divided”?

5.

What is the name of the ropes used to rotate the yards around the mast of a square rigged ship that allow it to sail at different angles to the wind?

6.

What had its origins in 1867 at number 24 Holles Street, Cavendish Square, London; a building which was to be demolished a mere twenty two years later?

7.

For which club did Alfredo di Stefano make his professional debut in 1945?

8.

What was the name of the Royal Naval frigate selected for a voyage to Barbados to test the accuracy of John Harrison’s H4 model of chronometer?

Sp.

Which BBC character made his television debut in 1963 and made £10,900 for his charity, Childline, on a special edition of The Weakest Link in 2005?

Spares

1.

The current exhibition The Pleasure Principle at the Tate Liverpool features the work of which surrealist artist?

2.

Which Maori word, used as a greeting and roughly translating to 'good health' in English, has been appropriated as a brand name by Atlantic Industries?

3.

Who, In Greek mythology, was the daughter of Ares and Queen of the Amazons?

4.

Which of the world’s 8,000 metre peaks was the first to be successfully ascended?

ROUND 1 - Pairs

1.

Which one time member of the German National Socialist Workers Party was interred on Mount Zion in 1974?

Oscar Schindler

2.

Which one time member of the German Communist League was cremated in Woking in 1895?

Friedrich Engels

3.

What is the alias of the fictional villain Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, the owner of the Iceberg Lounge?

The Penguin

4.

According to his creator which fictional criminal was “the master of depravity who could defy the laws of gravity and always has an alibi with one or two to spare”?

MaCavity

5.

What logo appears on way markers for National trails in England and Wales?

Acorn

6.

What logo is used by the Peak District National Park?

Millstone

7.

What is the name of the alloy patented by The Crucible Steel Company and marketed from 1910 which caused a radical improvement in the efficiency of metal working through increased feed rates and depth of cut?

High Speed Steel

8.

What is the name of the alloy used to clad the fuel rods inside the reactor of the early British nuclear power plants including Bradwell, Wylfa and Oldbury?

Magnox

1.

You are at a trendy trattoria in Trafford where you order Cervelles de la Paysanne.  What offal does the waiter bring you?

Brains

2.

What was first formulated by a Birmingham pharmacist in 1837 in response to his wife’s allergy to eggs and is still mass produced today at a site in Banbury?

Bird’s Custard powder

3.

Who did Charles J Guiteau shoot and wound on the 2nd of July 1881, his victim dying from his wounds several weeks later?

President Garfield

4.

What song popularised by Glenn Miller and his orchestra includes the following lyrics:

“Dinner in the diner
Nothing could be finer
Then to have your ham and eggs in Carolina”

Chattanooga Choo-Choo

5.

Which Scottish international footballer won the SPFA young player of the year award in 1991 and 1993 as well as finishing joint top scorer in the 1993-4 UEFA Cup Winners Cup despite his club, Aberdeen, being knocked out as early as the Second Round?

Eoin Jess

(helped by scoring 4 against Valur of Iceland in the first round)

6.

What was the codename for the German plan to seize control of Gibraltar in early 1941 that had to be cancelled due to Franco’s refusal to cooperate?

Operation Felix

7.

What term, now used extensively by palaeontologists and geologists, was first coined by Professor Joseph Kirschvink in 1992 to describe conditions on the planet during the Proterozoic eon between 2.5 billion years and 540 million years ago?

Snowball Earth

8.

Who created the character Captain Cat, an old blind sea captain now resident in the fictional village of Llareggub?

Dylan Thomas

Sp.

The International Boxing Hall of Fame announced two inductees in the Observer category for 2011.  One was the commentator Harry Carpenter but who was the other?

Sylvester Stallone

Theme: Each answer contains the name of a cartoon feline

1.

What do Dover, Dragonfly and The Pie have in common?

They are all fictional race horses from film and television

(Dover was the horse encouraged by Eliza in My Fair Lady, Dragonfly was the horse that Basil Fawlty surreptitiously bet upon, and The Pie was ridden to National glory by Velvet Brown)

2.

What do an insulated 13 amp electric plug, replacement tungsten carbide tips for a circular saw blade, 2 letter Os, a tin of peas, and a pair of size 9 brown pumps have in common?

They were all on the shopping list that started with four candles – handles for forks

3.

Who has been the only Oscar to win an Oscar?

Oscar Hammerstein

4.

Hammerstein won his second Oscar in 1945 along with Richard Rogers for the song It Might As Well Be Spring but from which musical was it taken?

State Fair

5.

Blue John, still mined around Castleton for lapidary purposes only, is simply an unusually coloured example of which mineral once used extensively as a flux in steelmaking?

Fluorite

(accept alternative name, fluorspar)

6.

Oakstone, once mined at Arbor Low for lapidary purposes, is simply an unusually banded and coloured example of which mineral used extensively in oil and gas extraction, the manufacture of glossy paper and a specific medical purpose?

Barite

7.

Burnt at the stake on the 18th of March 1314 Jacques de Molay was the twenty third and last holder of which office?

Grand Master of the Knights Templar

8.

Burnt at the stake on the 6th of July 1415 whose execution on this date is now celebrated as a national holiday in the Czech Republic?

Jan Hus

ROUND 4 - Hidden theme

1.

Which single, released on Stax Records’ Volt Label in 1967 just days after the death of its singer in an aircraft accident, became the first posthumous US Billboard number one when it topped that chart in March 1968?

Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay

2.

What was the confectionary, launched in 1970, that in its early days was promoted by television advertisements featuring Terry Scott, dressed as a schoolboy, and his punch line 'Hands Off!'?

Curly Wurly

3.

Which English privateer, captain of The Adventure Galley, was hung for murder and piracy at Execution Dock, Wapping on May the 23rd 1701?

Captain (William) Kidd

4.

Which often covered song first recorded in 1980 includes the following lyrics: “If you know your history then you would know where you’re coming from Then you wouldn’t have to ask me who the heck do I think I am”?

Buffalo Soldier

5.

Whose autobiography entitled Bound for Glory was published in 1943 and provides the source for the name The Boomtown Rats?

Woody Guthrie

6.

Christopher Merlin Vyvyan Holland born in 1945 is the biographer and only grandchild of which noted aesthete?

Oscar Wilde

7.

Who had held the world record for the men’s 400m for eleven years before Michael Johnson broke it with a time of 43.18 in 1999?

Butch Reynolds

8.

Which song had been a minor success in the USA for Sam Cooke before being the second UK number one single for The Rolling Stones in December 1964?

Little Red Rooster

Sp.

Which television series, set in the fictional town of Fairview, was first broadcast in the USA in 2004?

Desperate Housewives

ROUND 5 - Pairs

1.

Which Victorian masterpiece, a collaboration between architect Sir Horace Jones and engineer Sir John Wolfe Barry, was honoured with a prestigious Engineering Heritage Award in 1987?

Tower Bridge

2.

The only other bridge to have been awarded an Engineering Heritage Award was built in 1911 but which river does it span?

Tees

(Transporter Bridge)

3.

Name the sculptor, the creator of Woman With Her Throat Cut, who died on the 11th of January 1966 and is featured on the Swiss 100 franc note.

Alberto Giacometti

4.

Name the composer, the creator of Danse de la Chevre, who died on the 27th of May 1955 and is featured on the Swiss 20 franc note.

Arthur Honegger

5.

Which London thoroughfare, home to Somerset House, takes its name from the Anglo Saxon word for shoreline?

The Strand

6.

Which London thoroughfare, home to Bush House the headquarters of the World Service, takes its name from the Anglo Saxon for old settlement?

Aldwych

7.

Which chemical compound, first isolated in 1804, was named after the Greek god of dreams?

Morphine

8.

Which chemical compound was named after the Greek for blue having been first identified during the production of the dye, Prussian blue, in the early eighteenth century?

Cyanide

1.

Who was seen receiving the Aquanaut of the Year award on British television on the 27th of May 1965?

Troy Tempest

2.

Name the co-author of the sitcom The Office who made a cameo appearance in one episode in which he was ridiculed by David Brent as being a quote “big lanky goggle eyed freak”.

Stephen Merchant

3.

Which bronze winning Olympic medallist holds the second fastest time for 400 metres by a British woman behind Kathy Cook’s record which has stood since 1984?

Katharine Merry

4.

What sporting fixture had its death knell at Scarborough in September 1962 after a hundred and fifty six year history?

Gentlemen v Players cricket match

5.

Who won the Mercury Award in September 2005 for the album I Am A Bird Now?

Antony and the Johnsons

6.

Who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1960 for her portrayal of Petronella Van Daan in The Diary of Anne Frank and was also nominated for the same award in 1972 for The Poseidon Adventure?

Shelley Winters

7.

What was the appropriately titled collection of twelve short stories by Agatha Christie published in 1947?

The Labours of Hercules

8.

Whose Illustrations of the Family of the Psitticidae, or Parrots was published in 1832 when the author was aged just twenty?

Edward Lear

Sp.

In which European city would you find the suburb of Vyronas named in honour of Lord Byron?

Athens

ROUND 7 - Pairs

1.

Which almost enclosed sea must be crossed to reach the Barents Sea from the port of Archangel?

White Sea

2.

Which almost enclosed sea must be crossed to reach the Black Sea from the mouth of the River Don?

Sea of Azov

3.

What is the common name of the drably coloured bird, correctly the cinclus cinclus, which builds its nest on a crevice or a ledge in the bank of a fast moving river and feeds on larvae and molluscs taken from the river bed in a highly distinctive action?

(White Fronted) Dipper

(accept old name of Water Ouzel)

4.

 What is the common name of the drably coloured bird, correctly the riparia riparia, which builds its nest at the end of a burrow dug into a river bank, and feeds on flying invertebrates taken on the wing?

Sand Martin

5.

Who, in 1860, accepted the post of State Geologist of California and was later to become Professor of Geology at Harvard University?

(Joshua) Whitney (as in the mountain)

6.

In 1965 the US Geological Service considered and rejected a petition to have Mount Whitney renamed in honour of which Honorary Citizen of the USA?

Churchill

7.

Who wrote the line of poetry “The best laid schemes of mice and men” which provided the inspiration for the title of the novel by John Steinbeck?

Robert Burns

8.

Which Steinbeck novel takes its title from the book of Genesis Chapter 4 verse 16?

East of Eden

ROUND 8 - Hidden theme

1.

What avant-garde theatre in the Borough of Camden is housed in a building that was originally for the use of the Bloomsbury Rifles?

Drill Hall

(often the host of Radio 4’s Just a Minute)

2.

Which fictional character has been portrayed in film by both Steve McQueen and Pierce Brosnan?

Thomas Crown

3.

Which film took its title from an opinion originally expressed by Lieutenant General Frederick Browning, portrayed in the film by Dirk Bogarde?

A Bridge Too Far

4.

Which nineteenth century novel concludes with the epitaph of the chief protagonists, a brother and sister who had perished by drowning, “In their death they were not divided”?

The Mill on the Floss

5.

What is the name of the ropes used to rotate the yards around the mast of a square rigged ship that allow it to sail at different angles to the wind?

Braces

6.

What had its origins in 1867 at number 24 Holles Street, Cavendish Square, London; a building which was to be demolished a mere twenty two years later?

The Blue Plaque Scheme

(the house was the one time home of Lord Byron)

7.

For which club did Alfredo di Stefano make his professional debut in 1945?

River Plate

8.

What was the name of the Royal Naval frigate selected for a voyage to Barbados to test the accuracy of John Harrison’s H4 model of chronometer?

HMS Tartar

Sp.

Which BBC character made his television debut in 1963 and made £10,900 for his charity, Childline, on a special edition of The Weakest Link in 2005?

Basil Brush

Spares

1.

The current exhibition The Pleasure Principle at the Tate Liverpool features the work of which surrealist artist?

Rene Magritte

2.

Which Maori word, used as a greeting and roughly translating to 'good health' in English, has been appropriated as a brand name by Atlantic Industries?

Kia Ora

3.

Who, In Greek mythology, was the daughter of Ares and Queen of the Amazons?

Hippolyta

4.

Which of the world’s 8,000 metre peaks was the first to be successfully ascended?

Annapurna