ROUND 1 - Announced theme - 'Orangemen are not the only Fruitcakes (Warning: May contain punnets)'

1.

In which northwest building can you witness a Chance Meeting between comedian Ken Dodd and fiery Labour MP Bessie Braddock?

2.

What is the name of the 18th century villa built by Horace Walpole near Twickenham and considered to be Britain’s finest example of Gothic Revival architecture?

3.

Which Carlisle-born musician played keyboards in Brian Ferry’s first band before going on to make his name as a film director?  He directed the 1995 Oscar winning film Leaving Las Vegas.

4.

In 2012 which Canadian won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and thus became the oldest ever person to be awarded an Oscar for an acting role?

5.

Who had a number 3 hit in the UK singles chart in 1988 with Buffalo Stance, taken from her debut album Raw Like Sushi?

6.

Which American alternative rock band released their critically acclaimed double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness in 1995?

7.

What part of Elfride Swancourt’s anatomy provided the title of an 1873 novel?

8.

Which Austrian became the first manager to win the European Cup with two different clubs, Feyenoord in 1970 and FC Hamburg in 1983?  He also led Holland to the 1978 World Cup final.

Sp

America Ferrera won several awards for playing the lead role in which popular TV series that ran from 2006 to 2010?

1.

The Drake Passage separates which two land masses?

2.

Which cold water current flows north along the western coast of Africa roughly from the southern tip to the Equator?

3.

To whom was Ebenezer Scrooge apprenticed as a young man in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol?

4.

Mr Wemmick and his Aged Parent appear in which Dickens novel?

5.

What group of plants is studied by an agrostologist?

6.

Grasses and sedges are both monocotyledons but can be identified from the cross section of their stems, grasses being typically cylindrical.  What shape are the stems of sedges?

7.

In the 1970’s TV comedy Rising Damp who played Rigsby’s lodger and sometimes love interest Miss (Ruth) Jones?

8.

In he 1970’s TV comedy Porridge what was the name of the pleasantly ineffectual prison officer played by Brian Wilde?

Sp.

By what name is Lake Constance known in Germany?

ROUND 3 - Announced theme - 'Was it Bill or was it Ben?'

1.

Which player scored the winning goal in the 2013 FA Cup final?

2.

In 2012 which team knocked Manchester United out of the UEFA Europa League competition?

3.

What two words complete this lyric from the Madness hit Driving in My Car:

“I’ve been up to Muswell Hill / I’ve even been to ---- ----”?

4.

In the 1970s a pint and a spliff in the Grants Arms was often the preamble to a visit to which nearby, now sadly lamented independent cinema in Hulme?

5.

Which Kansas born actress whose films include The Grifters, American Beauty and Being Julia is married to Warren Beatty?

6.

Which Birmingham born former actor and comedian is now better known for his series of crime novels featuring Detective Inspector Tom Thorne?

7.

Sometimes used in English and not to be confused with a French letter, what is the French for a love letter?

8.

What phrase is used in the Scots language to describe a small two-roomed cottage, a sort of upmarket bothy?

Sp.

Which Co Sligo mountain overlooks the grave of W B Yeats?

ROUNDS 4 & 5 - Pick Your Subject

1.

• Something that is attached to another thing

• A place or enclosure marked off by definite limits especially one that surrounds a church or the like

• To express clearly in few words?

2.

TV

Under which title did cooks Cyrus Todiwala and Tony Singh present their cookery programme on BBC2 this Autumn?

3.

CONNECTIONS

Connect: a music award , a dead superstar and an early Ford car.

4.

FILMS

Which Scottish actor appears in the films: 300, P.S. I Love You and Olympus Has Fallen?

5.

BOOKS

Which stand up comedian has just published a novel entitled Watching War Films with my Dad?

6.

LYRICS

Which song of 1982 begins with the line: “It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark"?

7.

BOOKS

What is the name of Edgar Alan Poe’s detective who appeared in The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Mystery of Marie Roget?

8.

CONNECTIONS

What connects the following people: Danny Latimer, Nanna Larsen, Jessica Costello and Laura Palmer?

9.

MUSIC

What is the name of the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera?

10.

HISTORY

Which King of England once rode his own horse to victory in a race at Newmarket?           

11.

BOOKS

Christy Mahon , Widow Quinn and some peasants are among the cast of which play set on the west coast of Ireland?

12.

CONNECTIONS

Connect: Idris Elba, Morgan Freeman, Clarke Peters and Danny Glover.

13.

HISTORY

How was Luddendorf Bridge, captured by the Allied forces in March 1945, better known?  It was the title of a 1969 film starring George Segal and Robert Vaughan with a decidedly American slant?

14.

• A rowing boat used in the eastern Mediterranean

• A raised structure for a coffin

• A fantastic style in Art and Literature usually involving animal characteristics?

15.

16.

TV

Ben Wishaw, Jeremy Irons and Tom Hiddleston starred in a BBC2 series of 4 of Shakespeare’s Historical plays.  What was the series called?

17.

HISTORY

Which Reformist Bishop was burned at the stake outside Balliol College in 1555?

18.

BOOKS

Who wrote the historical novels The White Queen and The Other Boleyn Girl?

19.

FILMS

Which actress connects the following films: Fight Club, The King’s Speech and Wallace and Gromit, Curse of the Were Rabbit?

20.

MUSIC

Which two Scottish rock bands took their names from a 1984 film directed by Wim Wenders?

ROUND 6 - Pairs

1.

In his book The Devil’s Dictionary what word is defined by Ambrose Bierce as being “God’s way of teaching Americans geography”?

2.

According to Bertrand Russell, “wars do not determine who is right - only who is ........”.  Supply the missing word.

3.

Name the two most recent films shot (mainly) in black and white to win an Oscar for best film.

4.

By a quirk of fate the four winners of the Oscar for best supporting actress between 1978 and 1981 all had the same initials.  Meryl Streep was one of them, name any two of the other three.

5.

Who is the first entry in the Chambers Biographical Dictionary?  He was a Finnish architect and designer (who died in 1976) and is probably best known to you lot as the father of Modernism in Scandinavia. (surname only required)

6.

Who is the second to last entry in the Chambers Biographical Dictionary?  He was a Swiss priest who was preaching the Reformed doctrines as early as 1516, the year before the appearance of Luther’s theses.  (surname only required)

7.

This Fair and Sceptred Isle had a spot of bother with General Galtieri in 1982.  But how did his near namesake, Davide Gualtieri, come even closer to causing national embarrassment for Blighty on the 17th of November 1993?

8.

Which country woke up landlocked on May 24th 1993?

Sp.

(This one is guaranteed to turn Ivor’s face into a little sunbeam)

Of all the world’s capital cities which one has the greatest percentage of vowels to consonants in its name, and to the nearest 1% give that percentage without the use of a calculator?

ROUND 7 - Hidden theme

1.

Name the peer and former Labour minister who left politics to take up high profile roles with the Ramblers’ Association, Greenpeace and, from 2002, as Policy Director of the Soil Association.

2.

To whom was Anne Boleyn secretly betrothed prior to her pursuit by Henry VIII in 1526?

3.

4.

Who was elected as General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) in 2002? (both names required)

5.

Who is credited with the following quotation:

"Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome"?

6.

Which pass in the Alps is the third highest road pass in Switzerland and connects Martigny in Switzerland with Aosta in Italy?

7.

Name the historical figure whose only legitimate heir was Edward of Middleham, born 1473, who predeceased his father by a year.

8.

Name the Grade II listed inn located at 1 The High Street, Cheadle, which has stood empty since 2011?

Sp.

What is the general name given to trees of the angiosperm group?

ROUND 8 - Pairs

1.

Which English king had as one of his mottoes: 'Hey, hey the white swan, by God's soul I am thy man'?

2.

Which English king first adopted the motto, 'Dieu et mon Droit' ('God and my right') as the official motto of the English monarch?

3.

4.

Find the missing name in this list: Andy, Cadel, -------------, Chris.

5.

Admiral Lord Thomas Cochrane (1775-1860) was the real-life prototype for which naval character recently depicted in a series of best selling books and in a 2003 film?

6.

The 20th century spy, Sidney Reilly (1873-1925), was the real-life prototype for which later fictional spy and counter-espionage agent?

7.

In which European city will you find the former Church of Holy Wisdom, once one of the oldest and biggest churches in Christendom?

8.

In which European city will you find the Church of the Holy Family, one of the biggest in Christendom and a designated World Heritage Site?

Sp.

Which poet penned the lines: "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive"?

ROUND 1 - Announced theme - 'Orangemen are not the only Fruitcakes (Warning: May contain punnets)'

1.

In which northwest building can you witness a Chance Meeting between comedian Ken Dodd and fiery Labour MP Bessie Braddock?

Lime Street Railway Station

(2009 sculpture by Tom Murphy)

2.

What is the name of the 18th century villa built by Horace Walpole near Twickenham and considered to be Britain’s finest example of Gothic Revival architecture?

Strawberry Hill

3.

Which Carlisle-born musician played keyboards in Brian Ferry’s first band before going on to make his name as a film director?  He directed the 1995 Oscar winning film Leaving Las Vegas.

Mike Figgis

4.

In 2012 which Canadian won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and thus became the oldest ever person to be awarded an Oscar for an acting role?

Christopher Plummer

5.

Who had a number 3 hit in the UK singles chart in 1988 with Buffalo Stance, taken from her debut album Raw Like Sushi?

Neneh Cherry

6.

Which American alternative rock band released their critically acclaimed double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness in 1995?

The Smashing Pumpkins

7.

What part of Elfride Swancourt’s anatomy provided the title of an 1873 novel?

A Pair of Blue Eyes

8.

Which Austrian became the first manager to win the European Cup with two different clubs, Feyenoord in 1970 and FC Hamburg in 1983?  He also led Holland to the 1978 World Cup final.

Ernst Happel

Sp.

America Ferrera won several awards for playing the lead role in which popular TV series that ran from 2006 to 2010?

Ugly Betty

1.

The Drake Passage separates which two land masses?

South America and Antarctica

2.

Which cold water current flows north along the western coast of Africa roughly from the southern tip to the Equator?

The Benguela Current

3.

To whom was Ebenezer Scrooge apprenticed as a young man in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol?

Mr Fezziwig

4.

Mr Wemmick and his Aged Parent appear in which Dickens novel?

Great Expectations

5.

What group of plants is studied by an agrostologist?

Grasses

6.

Grasses and sedges are both monocotyledons but can be identified from the cross section of their stems, grasses being typically cylindrical.  What shape are the stems of sedges?

Triangular

7.

In the 1970’s TV comedy Rising Damp who played Rigsby’s lodger and sometimes love interest Miss (Ruth) Jones?

Frances de la Tour

8.

In he 1970’s TV comedy Porridge what was the name of the pleasantly ineffectual prison officer played by Brian Wilde?

Mr Barrowclough

Sp.

By what name is Lake Constance known in Germany?

Der Bodensee

ROUND 3 - Announced theme - 'Was it Bill or was it Ben?'

1.

Which player scored the winning goal in the 2013 FA Cup final?

Ben Watson

2.

In 2012 which team knocked Manchester United out of the UEFA Europa League competition?

Athletic Bilbao

3.

What two words complete this lyric from the Madness hit Driving in My Car:

“I’ve been up to Muswell Hill / I’ve even been to ---- ----”?

Selsey Bill

4.

In the 1970s a pint and a spliff in the Grants Arms was often the preamble to a visit to which nearby, now sadly lamented independent cinema in Hulme?

The Aaben

5.

Which Kansas born actress whose films include The Grifters, American Beauty and Being Julia is married to Warren Beatty?

Annette Bening

6.

Which Birmingham born former actor and comedian is now better known for his series of crime novels featuring Detective Inspector Tom Thorne?

Mark Billingham

7.

Sometimes used in English and not to be confused with a French letter, what is the French for a love letter?

Billet doux

8.

What phrase is used in the Scots language to describe a small two-roomed cottage, a sort of upmarket bothy?

But and Ben

Sp.

Which Co Sligo mountain overlooks the grave of W B Yeats?

Ben Bulben

ROUNDS 4 & 5 - Pick Your Subject

1.

• Something that is attached to another thing

• A place or enclosure marked off by definite limits especially one that surrounds a church or the like

• To express clearly in few words?

adjunct;

precinct;

succinct

2.

TV

Under which title did cooks Cyrus Todiwala and Tony Singh present their cookery programme on BBC2 this Autumn?

The Incredible Spice Men

3.

CONNECTIONS

Connect: a music award , a dead superstar and an early Ford car.

Mercury

4.

FILMS

Which Scottish actor appears in the films: 300, P.S. I Love You and Olympus Has Fallen?

Gerard Butler

5.

BOOKS

Which stand up comedian has just published a novel entitled Watching War Films with my Dad?

Al Murray

6.

LYRICS

Which song of 1982 begins with the line: “It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark"?

Thriller

7.

BOOKS

What is the name of Edgar Alan Poe’s detective who appeared in The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Mystery of Marie Roget?

Auguste Dupin

8.

CONNECTIONS

What connects the following people: Danny Latimer, Nanna Larsen, Jessica Costello and Laura Palmer?

All murder victims in TV series

(Broadchurch, The Killing, Murder 1 and Twin Peaks)

9.

MUSIC

What is the name of the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera?

Love Never Dies

10.

HISTORY

Which King of England once rode his own horse to victory in a race at Newmarket?           

Charles II

11.

 BOOKS

Christy Mahon , Widow Quinn and some peasants are among the cast of which play set on the west coast of Ireland?

The Playboy of the Western World

12.

CONNECTIONS

Connect: Idris Elba, Morgan Freeman, Clarke Peters and Danny Glover.

All have portrayed Nelson Mandela on screen

13.

HISTORY

How was Luddendorf Bridge, captured by the Allied forces in March 1945, better known?  It was the title of a 1969 film starring George Segal and Robert Vaughan with a decidedly American slant?

The Bridge at Remagen

14.

• A rowing boat used in the eastern Mediterranean

• A raised structure for a coffin

• A fantastic style in Art and Literature usually involving animal characteristics?

caique;

catafalque;

grotesque

15.

In the Midnight Hour

16.

TV

Ben Wishaw, Jeremy Irons and Tom Hiddleston starred in a BBC2 series of 4 of Shakespeare’s Historical plays.  What was the series called?

The Hollow Crown

17.

HISTORY

Which Reformist Bishop was burned at the stake outside Balliol College in 1555?

18.

BOOKS

Who wrote the historical novels The White Queen and The Other Boleyn Girl?

Philippa Gregory

19.

FILMS

Which actress connects the following films: Fight Club, The King’s Speech and Wallace and Gromit, Curse of the Were Rabbit?

Helena Bonham-Carter

20.

MUSIC

Which two Scottish rock bands took their names from a 1984 film directed by Wim Wenders?

Travis and Texas

(the film was Paris Texas – the character was Travis Henderson)

ROUND 6 - Pairs

1.

In his book The Devil’s Dictionary what word is defined by Ambrose Bierce as being “God’s way of teaching Americans geography”?

War

2.

According to Bertrand Russell, “wars do not determine who is right - only who is ........”.  Supply the missing word.

Left

3.

Name the two most recent films shot (mainly) in black and white to win an Oscar for best film.

The Artist (2011) and Schindler's List (1993)

4.

By a quirk of fate the four winners of the Oscar for best supporting actress between 1978 and 1981 all had the same initials.  Meryl Streep was one of them, name any two of the other three.

(two from)

Maggie Smith, Mary Steenbergen and Maureen Stapleton

(the films were respectively: California Suite, Melvin and Howard and Reds)

5.

Who is the first entry in the Chambers Biographical Dictionary?  He was a Finnish architect and designer (who died in 1976) and is probably best known to you lot as the father of Modernism in Scandinavia. (surname only required)

(Alvar) Aalto

6.

Who is the second to last entry in the Chambers Biographical Dictionary?  He was a Swiss priest who was preaching the Reformed doctrines as early as 1516, the year before the appearance of Luther’s theses.  (surname only required)

(Huldreich) Zwingli

7.

This Fair and Sceptred Isle had a spot of bother with General Galtieri in 1982.  But how did his near namesake, Davide Gualtieri, come even closer to causing national embarrassment for Blighty on the 17th of November 1993?

He scored a goal for San Marino after just 8.3 seconds in a World Cup qualifying match against England

8.

Which country woke up landlocked on May 24th 1993?

Ethiopia

(Eritrea became independent on that day)

Sp.

(This one is guaranteed to turn Ivor’s face into a little sunbeam)

Of all the world’s capital cities which one has the greatest percentage of vowels to consonants in its name, and to the nearest 1% give that percentage without the use of a calculator?

Ouagadougou; 73%

ROUND 7 - Hidden theme - 'A Cunning Plan'

1.

Name the peer and former Labour minister who left politics to take up high profile roles with the Ramblers’ Association, Greenpeace and, from 2002, as Policy Director of the Soil Association.

Lord Melchett

2.

To whom was Anne Boleyn secretly betrothed prior to her pursuit by Henry VIII in 1526?

Henry Percy

(son of the Earl of Northumberland)

3.

"Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May"

(any mention of the darling buds of May will do)

4.

Who was elected as General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) in 2002? (both names required)

Bob Crow

(accept Robert)

5.

Who is credited with the following quotation:

"Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome"?

Doctor (Samuel) Johnson

6.

Which pass in the Alps is the third highest road pass in Switzerland and connects Martigny in Switzerland with Aosta in Italy?

The (Great) St Bernard Pass

7.

Name the historical figure whose only legitimate heir was Edward of Middleham, born 1473, who predeceased his father by a year.

Richard III

8.

Name the Grade II listed inn located at 1 The High Street, Cheadle, which has stood empty since 2011?

The George & Dragon

Sp.

What is the general name given to trees of the angiosperm group?

Hardwoods

Theme: Each answer contains the name of a character appearing in at least one episode of the Blackadder TV programs, including the 4 series and several specials

ROUND 8 - Pairs

1.

Which English king had as one of his mottoes: 'Hey, hey the white swan, by God's soul I am thy man'?

Edward III

2.

Which English king first adopted the motto, 'Dieu et mon Droit' ('God and my right') as the official motto of the English monarch?

Henry V

3.

Virginia

(they are the first names of the 4 living British winners of Wimbledon past and present; surnames: Mortimer, Jones, Wade and Murray)

4.

Find the missing name in this list: Andy, Cadel, -------------, Chris.

Bradley

(they are the first names of the last 4 winners of the Tour de France; surnames: Schleck, Evans, Wiggins and Froome)

5.

Admiral Lord Thomas Cochrane (1775-1860) was the real-life prototype for which naval character recently depicted in a series of best selling books and in a 2003 film?

Jack Aubrey

(hero of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World)

6.

The 20th century spy, Sidney Reilly (1873-1925), was the real-life prototype for which later fictional spy and counter-espionage agent?

James Bond

7.

In which European city will you find the former Church of Holy Wisdom, once one of the oldest and biggest churches in Christendom?

Istanbul

(it is perhaps better known under its Greek name of 'Hagia Sophia')

8.

In which European city will you find the Church of the Holy Family, one of the biggest in Christendom and a designated World Heritage Site?

Barcelona

(it is perhaps better known under its Spanish name of 'La Sagrada Familia')

Sp.

Which poet penned the lines: "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive"?

Walter Scott

(from his epic poem, Marmion)