ROUND 1 - Pairs

1.

During the twentieth century an incoming Prime Minister was the nephew of the retiring incumbent.  Name either party to this shameless act of Tory nepotism.

2.

In nineteen of the thirty two years from 1834 to 1865 two men who were brothers in law served either the full or part of a year as the Prime Minister. Name either party to this perfidious act of Whig chicanery?

3.

What name is shared by a distillery in Wick and a bridge across the Avon at Bath that was completed in 1773 and is now a Grade 1 listed building?

4.

What name is shared by a brand of single malt whisky and a female television and radio presenter who resigned from Radio 4's PM in 1993 after alleged difficulties with Hugh Sykes?

5.

Which 'sporting club' admitted its twelfth and most recent member, Arthur Milton, on the third of July 1958?

6.

Apart from the Oval which is the only other venue to have staged an FA Cup final (albeit a replay), an England football international, and an Ashes test match?

7.

The Bridge of Americas, comp1eted in 1962, spans which body of water?

8.

The Mackinac Bridge which, when completed in 1957, was the world's second longest suspension bridge after the Golden Gate, links the two peninsulas of which non-contiguous US state?

1.

Complete the tea party guest list; Alice, The Hatter, The Dormouse and ....

2.

Which Squeeze single of 1979 features the following lyrics: "I give a little muscle and I spend a little cash, but all I get is bitter and a nasty little rash"?

3.

Which US State bordered by Texas to the south came into existence on November the 16th 1907 and, as such, is the forty-sixth State?

4.

Which country celebrates its independence day on the 25th of March to commemorate the day in 1821 when its eleven-year long struggle for independence started?

5.

In July 2000 the model Juliet Norton married the drummer of Scarlet Division.  Her husband was made an MBE in 2003 for his achievements in an unrelated field but can you name him?

6.

Which hymn was written in 1763 by Reverend Augustus Toplady who had been inspired during a storm in Burrington Combe gorge in the Mendip Hills?

7.

Who shot the photograph that appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone on the 22nd of January 1981 showing a naked John Lennon taken just five hours before he was shot dead by Mark Chapman?

8.

Which Sheffield based band, whose album Red Mecca reached number 1 in the UK Indie charts in September 1981, took their name from the Zurich nightclub that had been, sixty five years earlier, instrumental in the foundation of the Dada movement?

Sp.

Which city was devastated by a fire that started in a barn bordering an alley behind number 137 DeKoven Street on the evening of the 8th of October 1871?

1.

Banned globally (although exemptions do apply) by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants of 2001, what do initials of the coolant PCB stand for?

2.

Similarly banned, what do the initials of the fungicide HCB stand for?

3.

Name the Officer in the Royal Artillery whose success in developing anti-personnel munitions saw him being promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1803 and being awarded a lifetime annual stipend of £1200 in 1814.

4.

Name the Officer serving with the 2nd Irregular Punjab Cavalry who, despite losing his left arm in action near Seerporah on the 31st of August 1858, managed to continue in active service by making improvisations to standard equipment.

5.

Which family of sea birds, correctly the Stercorariidae, take their common English name from one of the Faroe lslands that is particularly noted for its colony of the largest species of the family?

6.

Which genus of seabird with a noted colony on St Kilda takes both its scientific and common English name from the Old Norse for foul gull, a reference to the obnoxious stomach oil that is used to great effect to deter predators?

7.

Which 2007 film, the winner of Academy Award for best picture and starring Tommy Lee Jones, takes its title from the opening line of the poem Sailing to Byzantium by W B Yeats?

8.

Which 1940 novel, and subsequent film, which was nominated for the Academy Award for 'best picture' and starred Gary Cooper, take their titles from Meditation 27 in John Donne’s 1624 work Devotions on Emergent Occasions?

ROUND 4 - Hidden theme

1.

The fate that befell Giocante di Casabianca on board the French flagship Orient at the Battle of the Nile in 1798 was the subject of a poem by Felicia Dorothea Hemans. What was the poem's opening line?

2.

Which 1967 film can be summarised by its most famous line "What we have here is a failure to communicate" spoken first by the character played by Strother Martin but also mimicked by the film's hero played by Paul Newman?

3.

Which cartoon character, resident in the Wild West, had a masked alter ego called El Kabong and a sidekick called Baba Looey?

4.

What does the B5289 road cross at 1,167 feet on its way from Seatoller in Borrowdale to Gatesgarth in Buttermere?

5.

Who won the 2011 UK Snooker championship last month?

6.

What is harvested from the Hevea Brasiliensis, and the Palaquium gutta?

7.

What natural phenomenon was discovered by Paul Villard in 1900 while researching the properties of radium but was given its current name by Ernest Rutherford in 1903?

8.

Which television drama series has three male characters named in honour of the now refurbished and renamed Halford Lane Stand at the Hawthorns, home to West Bromwich Albion?

Sp.

The 'V.l.P. 50' (fifty), introduced in 1968 by the Alderson Research Laboratories Company, can lay a strong claim to the distinction of being the world's first sophisticated what?

ROUND 5 - Pairs

1.

Name the qualified football league referee who was Minister of Sport from 1964 to 1970 and again from 1974 to 1979 although he was probably more famous for being the Minister of Drought Coordination in 1976?

2.

Which rowing coxswain, the winner of an Olympic silver medal at the 1980 games, was Minister of Sport from 1987 to 1990?

3.

In which Terence Rattigan play does the following line occur: “The boy is plainly innocent. I accept the brief”?

4.

In which Terence Rattigan play, based on his wartime experiences in Bomber Command, does the following line occur: “My God we do owe these boys something you know”?

5.

Blantyre, with a population of 732,518 as of 2008, is the largest city of which African and Commonwealth nation?

6.

Aleppo, with an estimated population of 2,302,570 as of 2005, is the largest city of which Arab nation?

7.

Which artist completed the work The Light of The World in 1853 which depicts Jesus Christ carrying a lantern about to knock on a decrepit door and which is now hung at Keble College, Oxford?

8.

Which artist completed the work The Storm on the Sea in 1633 which depicts a storm tossed boat carrying Jesus Christ, the twelve disciples and an unidentified fourteenth passenger, presumed to be the artist himself, and which was stolen from Boston in 1990?

ROUND 6 - Hidden theme

1.

Who abdicated as King of Romania on the 6th of September 1940?

2.

For which daily broadsheet newspaper has Lionel Barber been the editor since 2005?

3.

What film of 1960 features a giant flesh eating plant called Audrey and was remade in 1986 when Bill Murray took a minor role which in the original had been played by a young Jack Nicholson?

4.

What remedy first concocted by pharmacist James Lofthouse in 1865 has, despite its original target market fading to insignificance, seen sales balloon to such an extent that it has won three Queen’s Awards for Export Achievement since initially being sold overseas in 1974?

5.

What current affairs programme was first broadcast on ITV on the 5th of November 1956 when it was presented by Brian Inglis, and was finally laid to rest, on television at least, by BBC2 in 2008?

6.

The holder of what office would assume the Presidency of the USA in the unlikely event of the death, the incapacity, the resignation or the removal from office, of both the President and the Vice President?

7.

What follows next in a chilling letter written by David Berkowitz to Captain Borelli of the NYPD in 1977: “I am deeply hurt by your calling me a woman hater.  I am not. But I am monster.  I am the…”

8.

In the 1930 Isle of Man TT which long defunct British motorcycle maker finished first, second and third in the Junior event and first and second in the Senior race?

Sp.

What was the full name of the football competition that was originally competed for over three years, 1955 to 1958, and saw one of two English entrants, London, beaten in the final?

ROUND 7 - Pairs

1.

Which team whose last Football League game was back in 1960 are currently the most northerly team in the Blue Square Bet Premier League?

2.

Which team whose last Football League game was back in 1972 are currently the most westerly team in the Blue Square Bet Premier League?

3.

Name the British leader of the mountaineering expedition in 1975 that saw Scott and Haston become the first Britons to successfully ascend Everest.

4.

Name the British leader of the mountaineering expedition in 1953, which saw Hillary and Tenzing become the first men to successfully ascend Everest.

5.

Which surname, made famous by a footballer who saw a goalbound shot fabulously saved by Jim Montgomery, is derived from the name of a medieval occupation for artisans who made bits, spurs and other small pieces of metalwork associated with equestrianism?

6.

Which surname, made famous by a vocalist who has had seven children by four women, is derived from the name given to medieval itinerant pedlars who transported goods from village to village by pack horse?

7.

What is added to olive oil and egg yolk to make an aioli sauce?

8.

Which fruit is the principal ingredient used to make Guacamole?

ROUND 8 - Hidden theme

1.

Which American was described four years after his death in 1870 as being like: “Caesar without the ambition, Frederick without the tyranny, Napoleon without the selfishness and Washington without the reward”?

2.

Who was French Finance Minister from 2007 to 2011 before becoming the head of the International Monetary Fund following Dominique Strauss Kahn’s resignation?

3.

Which aircraft, the only all British design to exceed Mach 2, entered into service with the RAF in 1960?

4.

Which 2001 film starred Vinnie Jones as the former England football captain, Danny Meehan, who was serving a three-year stretch for assault?

5.

Complete the quintet who recorded E.S.P. in 1965: Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Tony Williams and…

6.

The Pantheon in Paris was, until the National Assembly in revolutionary France changed its name and use, a church dedicated to which saint whose prayers had saved Paris from Attila the Hun in 451?

7.

What was the name of the institution that in reality was an eighteenth century Whig association that met at an inn run by Christopher Catling, but in fiction was the seedy establishment where Sally Bowles performed in Cabaret?

8.

Which song, written by Sonny Bono and originally a number three hit for Cher in 1966, did Nancy Sinatra cover in 2003 with a version that was used in the film Kill Bill?

Sp.

In which class of yacht did Ben Ainslie win gold medals in both 2004 and 2008?

Spares

1.

Which character returned to Coronation Street in 2011 after an absence of more than forty years?

2.

In which sport does the forty twenty rule apply?

3.

What name is given to a pressurised watertight chamber, open at the bottom, which is used to carry out construction work underwater?

4.

Winter Daydreams, Little Russian, Polish and Pathétique are four of the six symphonies written by which composer who died in mysterious circumstances in 1893?

ROUND 1 - Pairs

1.

During the twentieth century an incoming Prime Minister was the nephew of the retiring incumbent.  Name either party to this shameless act of Tory nepotism.

(either)

Salisbury

(accept Robert Cecil-Gascoyne)

(or)

Arthur Balfour

2.

In nineteen of the thirty two years from 1834 to 1865 two men who were brothers in law served either the full or part of a year as the Prime Minister. Name either party to this perfidious act of Whig chicanery?

(either)

Melbourne

(or)

Palmerston

(accept William Lamb or Henry Temple)

3.

What name is shared by a distillery in Wick and a bridge across the Avon at Bath that was completed in 1773 and is now a Grade 1 listed building?

Pulteney

4.

What name is shared by a brand of single malt whisky and a female television and radio presenter who resigned from Radio 4's PM in 1993 after alleged difficulties with Hugh Sykes?

Singleton

5.

Which 'sporting club' admitted its twelfth and most recent member, Arthur Milton, on the third of July 1958?

Those who have represented England at both cricket and football

6.

Apart from the Oval which is the only other venue to have staged an FA Cup final (albeit a replay), an England football international, and an Ashes test match?

Bramall Lane

(Sheffield)

7.

The Bridge of Americas, comp1eted in 1962, spans which body of water?

The Panama Canal

8.

The Mackinac Bridge which, when completed in 1957, was the world's second longest suspension bridge after the Golden Gate, links the two peninsulas of which non-contiguous US state?

Michigan

1.

Complete the tea party guest list; Alice, The Hatter, The Dormouse and ....

The March Hare

2.

Which Squeeze single of 1979 features the following lyrics: "I give a little muscle and I spend a little cash, but all I get is bitter and a nasty little rash"?

Cool for Cats

3.

Which US State bordered by Texas to the south came into existence on November the 16th 1907 and, as such, is the forty-sixth State?

Oklahoma

4.

Which country celebrates its independence day on the 25th of March to commemorate the day in 1821 when its eleven-year long struggle for independence started?

Greece

5.

In July 2000 the model Juliet Norton married the drummer of Scarlet Division.  Her husband was made an MBE in 2003 for his achievements in an unrelated field but can you name him?

Jamie Oliver

6.

Which hymn was written in 1763 by Reverend Augustus Toplady who had been inspired during a storm in Burrington Combe gorge in the Mendip Hills?

Rock of Ages

7.

Who shot the photograph that appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone on the 22nd of January 1981 showing a naked John Lennon taken just five hours before he was shot dead by Mark Chapman?

Annie Leibovitz

8.

Which Sheffield based band, whose album Red Mecca reached number 1 in the UK Indie charts in September 1981, took their name from the Zurich nightclub that had been, sixty five years earlier, instrumental in the foundation of the Dada movement?

Cabaret Voltaire

Sp.

Which city was devastated by a fire that started in a barn bordering an alley behind number 137 DeKoven Street on the evening of the 8th of October 1871?

Chicago

1.

Banned globally (although exemptions do apply) by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants of 2001, what do initials of the coolant PCB stand for?

Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls

2.

Similarly banned, what do the initials of the fungicide HCB stand for?

Hexa Chloro Benzene

3.

Name the Officer in the Royal Artillery whose success in developing anti-personnel munitions saw him being promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1803 and being awarded a lifetime annual stipend of £1200 in 1814.

(Henry) Shrapnel

4.

Name the Officer serving with the 2nd Irregular Punjab Cavalry who, despite losing his left arm in action near Seerporah on the 31st of August 1858, managed to continue in active service by making improvisations to standard equipment.

(Captain) Sam Browne

(both names needed as it is known as a Sam Browne belt)

5.

Which family of sea birds, correctly the Stercorariidae, take their common English name from one of the Faroe lslands that is particularly noted for its colony of the largest species of the family?

Skua

6.

Which genus of seabird with a noted colony on St Kilda takes both its scientific and common English name from the Old Norse for foul gull, a reference to the obnoxious stomach oil that is used to great effect to deter predators?

Fulmar

7.

Which 2007 film, the winner of Academy Award for best picture and starring Tommy Lee Jones, takes its title from the opening line of the poem Sailing to Byzantium by W B Yeats?

No Country For Old Men

8.

Which 1940 novel, and subsequent film, which was nominated for the Academy Award for 'best picture' and starred Gary Cooper, take their titles from Meditation 27 in John Donne’s 1624 work Devotions on Emergent Occasions?

For Whom The Bell Tolls

ROUND 4 - Hidden theme

1.

The fate that befell Giocante di Casabianca on board the French flagship Orient at the Battle of the Nile in 1798 was the subject of a poem by Felicia Dorothea Hemans. What was the poem's opening line?

"The boy stood on the burning deck"

2.

Which 1967 film can be summarised by its most famous line "What we have here is a failure to communicate" spoken first by the character played by Strother Martin but also mimicked by the film's hero played by Paul Newman?

Cool Hand Luke

3.

Which cartoon character, resident in the Wild West, had a masked alter ego called El Kabong and a sidekick called Baba Looey?

Quick Draw McGraw

4.

What does the B5289 road cross at 1,167 feet on its way from Seatoller in Borrowdale to Gatesgarth in Buttermere?

Honister Pass

5.

Who won the 2011 UK Snooker championship last month?

Judd Trump

6.

What is harvested from the Hevea Brasiliensis, and the Palaquium gutta?

(Natural) Rubber

(accept latex but point out that the theme requires the given answer)

7.

What natural phenomenon was discovered by Paul Villard in 1900 while researching the properties of radium but was given its current name by Ernest Rutherford in 1903?

Gamma Rays

(accept Gamma Radiation but point out the theme needs the given answer)

8.

Which television drama series has three male characters named in honour of the now refurbished and renamed Halford Lane Stand at the Hawthorns, home to West Bromwich Albion?

New Tricks

(Jack Halford, Brian Lane, Gerry Standing)

Sp.

The 'V.l.P. 50' (fifty), introduced in 1968 by the Alderson Research Laboratories Company, can lay a strong claim to the distinction of being the world's first sophisticated what?

Crash Test Dummy

(accept Anthromorphic Test Device but point out that the theme needs the given answer; lCOQ earlier dummies existed but the VIP 50 was the first to replicate the 50 percentile male, i.e. Mr Average. Earlier dummies were apparently too heavy)

ROUND 5 - Pairs

1.

Name the qualified football league referee who was Minister of Sport from 1964 to 1970 and again from 1974 to 1979 although he was probably more famous for being the Minister of Drought Coordination in 1976?

Denis Howell

2.

Which rowing coxswain, the winner of an Olympic silver medal at the 1980 games, was Minister of Sport from 1987 to 1990?

Colin Moynihan

3.

In which Terence Rattigan play does the following line occur: “The boy is plainly innocent. I accept the brief”?

The Winslow Boy

4.

In which Terence Rattigan play, based on his wartime experiences in Bomber Command, does the following line occur: “My God we do owe these boys something you know”?

Flare Path

5.

Blantyre, with a population of 732,518 as of 2008, is the largest city of which African and Commonwealth nation?

Malawi

6.

Aleppo, with an estimated population of 2,302,570 as of 2005, is the largest city of which Arab nation?

Syria

7.

Which artist completed the work The Light of The World in 1853 which depicts Jesus Christ carrying a lantern about to knock on a decrepit door and which is now hung at Keble College, Oxford?

(William) Holman Hunt

8.

Which artist completed the work The Storm on the Sea in 1633 which depicts a storm tossed boat carrying Jesus Christ, the twelve disciples and an unidentified fourteenth passenger, presumed to be the artist himself, and which was stolen from Boston in 1990?

Rembrandt

ROUND 6 - Hidden theme

1.

Who abdicated as King of Romania on the 6th of September 1940?

King Carol II

2.

For which daily broadsheet newspaper has Lionel Barber been the editor since 2005?

Financial Times

3.

What film of 1960 features a giant flesh eating plant called Audrey and was remade in 1986 when Bill Murray took a minor role which in the original had been played by a young Jack Nicholson?

Little Shop of Horrors

4.

What remedy first concocted by pharmacist James Lofthouse in 1865 has, despite its original target market fading to insignificance, seen sales balloon to such an extent that it has won three Queen’s Awards for Export Achievement since initially being sold overseas in 1974?

Fisherman’s Friend

5.

What current affairs programme was first broadcast on ITV on the 5th of November 1956 when it was presented by Brian Inglis, and was finally laid to rest, on television at least, by BBC2 in 2008?

What the Papers Say

6.

The holder of what office would assume the Presidency of the USA in the unlikely event of the death, the incapacity, the resignation or the removal from office, of both the President and the Vice President?

The Speaker of the House of Representatives

7.

What follows next in a chilling letter written by David Berkowitz to Captain Borelli of the NYPD in 1977: “I am deeply hurt by your calling me a woman hater.  I am not. But I am monster.  I am the…”

"Son of Sam"

8.

In the 1930 Isle of Man TT which long defunct British motorcycle maker finished first, second and third in the Junior event and first and second in the Senior race?

Rudge

Sp.

What was the full name of the football competition that was originally competed for over three years, 1955 to 1958, and saw one of two English entrants, London, beaten in the final?

Inter Cities Fairs Cup

(not the same as the UEFA Cup which although replacing it in 1971 had different entry rules – more than one team per city – and was administered by UEFA)

ROUND 7 - Pairs

1.

Which team whose last Football League game was back in 1960 are currently the most northerly team in the Blue Square Bet Premier League?

Gateshead

2.

Which team whose last Football League game was back in 1972 are currently the most westerly team in the Blue Square Bet Premier League?

Barrow

3.

Name the British leader of the mountaineering expedition in 1975 that saw Scott and Haston become the first Britons to successfully ascend Everest.

Chris Bonnington

4.

Name the British leader of the mountaineering expedition in 1953, which saw Hillary and Tenzing become the first men to successfully ascend Everest.

John Hunt

5.

Which surname, made famous by a footballer who saw a goalbound shot fabulously saved by Jim Montgomery, is derived from the name of a medieval occupation for artisans who made bits, spurs and other small pieces of metalwork associated with equestrianism?

Lorimer

6.

Which surname, made famous by a vocalist who has had seven children by four women, is derived from the name given to medieval itinerant pedlars who transported goods from village to village by pack horse?

Jagger

7.

What is added to olive oil and egg yolk to make an aioli sauce?

Garlic

8.

Which fruit is the principal ingredient used to make Guacamole?

Avocado

ROUND 8 - Hidden theme

1.

Which American was described four years after his death in 1870 as being like: “Caesar without the ambition, Frederick without the tyranny, Napoleon without the selfishness and Washington without the reward”?

General Robert E Lee

2.

Who was French Finance Minister from 2007 to 2011 before becoming the head of the International Monetary Fund following Dominique Strauss Kahn’s resignation?

Christine Lagarde

3.

Which aircraft, the only all British design to exceed Mach 2, entered into service with the RAF in 1960?

(English Electric) Lightning

4.

Which 2001 film starred Vinnie Jones as the former England football captain, Danny Meehan, who was serving a three-year stretch for assault?

The Mean Machine

5.

Complete the quintet who recorded E.S.P. in 1965: Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Tony Williams and…

Herbie Hancock

6.

The Pantheon in Paris was, until the National Assembly in revolutionary France changed its name and use, a church dedicated to which saint whose prayers had saved Paris from Attila the Hun in 451?

St Genevieve

7.

What was the name of the institution that in reality was an eighteenth century Whig association that met at an inn run by Christopher Catling, but in fiction was the seedy establishment where Sally Bowles performed in Cabaret?

The Kit Kat club

8.

Which song, written by Sonny Bono and originally a number three hit for Cher in 1966, did Nancy Sinatra cover in 2003 with a version that was used in the film Kill Bill?

Bang Bang

(my baby shot me down)

Sp.

In which class of yacht did Ben Ainslie win gold medals in both 2004 and 2008?

Finn

Spares

1.

Which character returned to Coronation Street in 2011 after an absence of more than forty years?

Dennis Tanner

2.

In which sport does the forty twenty rule apply?

Rugby League

3.

What name is given to a pressurised watertight chamber, open at the bottom, which is used to carry out construction work underwater?

Caisson

4.

Winter Daydreams, Little Russian, Polish and Pathétique are four of the six symphonies written by which composer who died in mysterious circumstances in 1893?

Tchaikovsky