ROUND 1 - Pairs

1.

What is the only sovereign state in the world that does not have its own national anthem?

2.

Which other country’s national anthem is sung to the tune of God Save the Queen?

3.

Which chemical element’s name is derived from the Latin for 'bitter salt'?

4.

Which chemical element’s name is derived from the Greek for 'opposed to solitude' as it was believed never to exist in pure form?   

5.

Give a year in the life of Italian painter Caravaggio.

6.

Give a life in the life of Dutch painter Vermeer.    

7.

What is the third highest mountain in the world?

8.

What is the third highest mountain in England?

1.

The presently most common version of which nursery rhyme ends with the words, “Who ne’er did any harm / But killed all the mice / In the farmer’s barn”?

2.

Which politician of Irish and Spanish ancestry became the first president of a fully independent Chilean state in 1817?

3.

Which former footballer managed the Northern Ireland team between 1980 and 1993?

4.

Which 1971 crime film set in the NE of England was remade in 2000 starring Sylvester Stallone and met with very hostile criticism?

(originally this question had 'NW' instead of 'NE' but it has been changed for the website)

5.

Who played George Roper in the TV sitcom George and Mildred? 

6.

In contract bridge what is the next lowest possible higher bid for the bidder’s partner after One Spade?    

7.

Which figure in the Robin Hood stories was a wandering minstrel who became a member of Robin Hood’s merry men?

8.

With a mass nearly equal to the Sun's, Sirius B is the nearest known example of what?

ROUND 3 - Top to Tail

The last letter of each answer is the first letter of the next answer and also the last letter of answer 8 is the first letter of answer 1

1.

Lords Canning, Elgin and Napier were the first three to hold the highest office in which colonial government body that began in 1858 and lasted until 1947?  In 1947 Lord Mountbatten became the last holder of the same office?

2.

Which actor links these films: Irma la Douce, Avanti, Glengarry Glen Ross, Missing and The China Syndrome?  (forename and surname needed for the letter link)

3.

Which three words, consecutive in the dictionary, mean: 'undue favouritism to one's relatives', 'the name of a sea god' and 'a clumsy, foolish, socially inept, feeble, irritating or unprepossessing person'?

4.

Who am I?  I started my career at Ipswich Town, making 122 appearances and scoring 48 goals.  I moved on to Charlton Athletic, Spurs, Sunderland and Aston Villa.  Currently I am playing my home games at the Amex Stadium.  I have scored 4 goals in 13 appearances for England. (forename and surname needed for the letter link)

5.

Which brilliant green French plant is known as the 'dragon herb'?

6.

Which phrase, originated in 1892 by Rudyard Kipling in The Ballad of East and West means two things which are so different as to have no opportunity to unite? 

7.

Which left handed guitarist lost the tips of two fingers in an industrial accident but was inspired by the work of similarly afflicted Django Reinhardt to continue playing?  At the weekend he supported Trevor Francis when he received the Birmingham Walk of Stars Award. (forename and surname needed for the letter link)

8.

What name is given to a type of exercise equipment used for developing strength?  It comprises bowling-pin shaped wooden clubs of varying sizes and weights, which are swung in certain patterns as part of an exercise programme. (answer in singular please)

ROUND 4 - Top to Tail

The last letter of each answer is the first letter of the next answer and also the last letter of answer 8 is the first letter of answer 1

1.

Which actor links these films: From Russia with love, The Battle of Britain, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The Sting and Jaws?  (forename and surname needed for letter link)

2.

Which three words, consecutive in the dictionary, mean 'adoration paid to a deity', 'most bad' and 'a fine wool fabric'?

3.

What was the name of Cream's second album, released in 1967?

4.

In 1961 Johnny Theakstone and the Tremeloes sent a demo tape to the BBC but by the time they were contacted to appear on The Saturday Club show, their lead singer had died unexpectedly.  A friend, Bernard Jewry, was asked to impersonate him on the programme.  What name did he take to do so?  He was to do something similar twelve years later.  (forename and surname needed for the letter link)

5.

Which landlocked republic in West Africa with a population of 17 million has 80% of its land area in the Sahara desert?

6.

Who am I?  I arrived from Northern Ireland to play two seasons at Hull City, four years at Wigan Athletic and won a Premier League winners medal with Manchester United.  Spells at West Ham United, Rangers, Derby County, Odense and Olympiacos followed and I am now playing for Notts County.  I have made 39 international appearances to date.  (forename and surname needed for the letter link)

7.

The Corryvreckan whirlpool lies off the west coast of Scotland.  Its cold 200 metre deep waters produces arguably Britain's best examples of what food stuff which, for best cooking results, is prepared fresh out of the water?

8.

What word links a so-called prequel TV series, a multinational oil and gas company and a ship used for a voyage of discovery?

ROUND 5 - Pairs

1.

Which London football team spent 1962-63 in Division One, the only London team to have been in the top flight of English football for just one season?

2.

Which London football club reached the FA cup semi-finals in 2013, the fourth occasion on which they had done so although they have never won the trophy?

3.

Where in England is the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior?

4.

Who married whom in the royal wedding at Westminster Abbey in 1973?

5.

Who is the youngest cricketer in history to score centuries in both innings of a Test match?

6.

Phil Hughes played for three English counties; name two of them.

7.

Who was the lead vocalist with the group the Small Faces?

8.

Which singer wrote the song The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face?

ROUND 6 - Hidden topical theme

1.

What was the unofficial name of a secret military society formed in 1901 by members of the Serbian army with the aim of uniting all territories with a majority South Slavic population not ruled by Serbia or Montenegro?  The group’s connections to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914 led to it being viewed as a contributor to the outbreak of WW1.

2.

This pop singer launched her career with the phenomenally successful, jazz tinged album Come Away With Me in 2002.  It sold 26m copies and won 5 Grammies.  She has recorded 4 more platinum selling albums since then – the last in 2012.  Her father is the late sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar.  Who is she?

3.

Which 1989 film is a comedy drama about the bonds between a group of women after the death of a close friend. It starred Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley Maclaine, Darryl Hannah, Julia Roberts and Olympia Dukakis and earned Roberts a nomination at the 1990 Oscars for Best Supporting Actress?

4.

Which supermodel and actress born in 1954 in Michigan USA has been married four times, most notably to musician Billy Joel?  She featured in Joel’s video to his 1983 No.1 hit single Uptown Girl.

5.

Which company owns Costa Coffee – the second largest coffee house chain in the world? 

6.

What is the family name of the Dukes of Devonshire? 

7.

Who played the ship’s captain Edward J Smith in the 1997 film Titanic?   

8.

What is the common name for a chilli which is a cultivar of the capsicum frutescens species?  It grows extensively in Africa of which it is native and was taken to Goa in India by the Portuguese.  The origin of its name is the Ronga language of southern Mozambique.

ROUNDS 7 & 8 - 'Pick Your Own TV Quiz Programme'

1.

Mastermind (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

What was the name of the American born opera singer who was Holmes’ antagonist in The Scandal In Bohemia and has frequently been portrayed as his 'love interest' in film and TV spin offs?

2.

Only Connect

What would come fourth in this sequence?

3.

Counterpoint

Which instrument, similar to a trumpet but with a rounder more mellow tone takes its name from the German word for wing?

4.

University Challenge

In chemistry, what is defined as the amount of any substance that contains as many elementary entities as there are atoms in 12 grams of pure carbon-12?

5.

Quote Unquote

To a question about whether she had posed for a calendar in 1947 with nothing on, how did Marilyn Monroe famously reply?

6.

Telly Addicts

With a combined audience of 28.6 million what was the most watched event of the 1970’s on British TV (and the fifth largest audience ever)?  The event occurred on April 17th 1970 in the South Pacific Ocean.

7.

The News Quiz

Why did Nigel Farage suggest that “putting baby in the corner” was a good idea in an interview last week?

8.

Blockbusters (BS)

Which 'BS' is a celestial object named after the US physicist who first measured it in 1916?  It is the nearest star to the sun that is visible in the Northern Hemisphere.

9.

Are You Smarter Than a Ten Year Old?

I was a large plant-eating dinosaur of the late Jurassic period with 2 rows of pointed spikes on my back.  My name means 'roofed lizard'.  Who was I?

10.

Mastermind (General Knowledge)

Mr Lockwood and Nellie Dean are the narrators of which 1847 novel?

11.

Only Connect

What is the link between these images?

12.

Are You Smarter Than a Ten Year Old?

What was the name given by the geophysicist Alfred Wegener to the supercontinent that existed during the late Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic eras?

13.

Mastermind (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

What part did Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths play in the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?

14.

 Counterpoint

Treulich Gefuhrt is played in churches up and down the land every week where it is known as Here Comes the Bride - but from which 1850 opera is this music taken?

15.

Telly Addicts

With a combined audience of 32.1 million what was the most watched event of the 1990’s on British TV (and the second largest audience ever)?  The event occurred on September 6th 1997. 

16.

University Challenge

The pH scale is a measure of the acidity of an aqueous solution; the 'p' stands for 'power of'.  What does the 'H' represent? 

17.

Blockbusters (KP)

Which 'KB' is a region of the solar system beyond Neptune that contains the dwarf planets Haumea, Makemake and Pluto?  

18.

Quote Unquote

At the end of the 1959 Billy Wilder comedy Some Like It Hot, Gerry says “We can’t get married at all.  I’m a man.”  What is Osgood’s reply?

19.

Are You Smarter Than a Ten Year Old?

Which four letters were removed from the famous Hollywood sign in 1949 so that it reflected the name of the general area rather than the housing development that it was originally put up to publicise?

20.

The News Quiz

Why did Tory MP Nigel Mills have to sweet talk his way out of an awkward situation this week?

Spares

1.

At which city did Francis Drake 'singe the King of Spain’s beard'?

2.

Which novel of 1839 features Wackford Squeers? 

3.

Who disappeared in London in !995 after appearing in the play Cell Mates?

ROUND 1 - Pairs

1.

What is the only sovereign state in the world that does not have its own national anthem?

Cyprus

2.

Which other country’s national anthem is sung to the tune of God Save the Queen?

Liechtenstein

3.

Which chemical element’s name is derived from the Latin for 'bitter salt'?

Aluminium

4.

Which chemical element’s name is derived from the Greek for 'opposed to solitude' as it was believed never to exist in pure form?   

Antimony

5.

Give a year in the life of Italian painter Caravaggio.

Any year between 1572 & 1610

6.

Give a life in the life of Dutch painter Vermeer.    

Any year between 1632 & 1675

7.

What is the third highest mountain in the world?

Kangchenjunga

8.

What is the third highest mountain in England?

Helvellyn

1.

The presently most common version of which nursery rhyme ends with the words, “Who ne’er did any harm / But killed all the mice / In the farmer’s barn”?

Ding Dong Bell

2.

Which politician of Irish and Spanish ancestry became the first president of a fully independent Chilean state in 1817?

Bernardo O’Higgins

3.

Which former footballer managed the Northern Ireland team between 1980 and 1993?

Billy Bingham

4.

Which 1971 crime film set in the NE of England was remade in 2000 starring Sylvester Stallone and met with very hostile criticism?

(originally this question had 'NW' instead of 'NE' but it has been changed for the website)

Get Carter

5.

Who played George Roper in the TV sitcom George and Mildred? 

Brian Murphy

6.

In contract bridge what is the next lowest possible higher bid for the bidder’s partner after One Spade?    

One No Trump

7.

Which figure in the Robin Hood stories was a wandering minstrel who became a member of Robin Hood’s merry men?

Alan A ‘Dale

8.

With a mass nearly equal to the Sun's, Sirius B is the nearest known example of what?

White dwarf

(accept 'degenerate dwarf')

ROUND 3 - Top to Tail

The last letter of each answer is the first letter of the next answer and also the last letter of answer 8 is the first letter of answer 1

1.

Lords Canning, Elgin and Napier were the first three to hold the highest office in which colonial government body that began in 1858 and lasted until 1947?  In 1947 Lord Mountbatten became the last holder of the same office?

British Raj

(do not accept Indian Government)

2.

Which actor links these films: Irma la Douce, Avanti, Glengarry Glen Ross, Missing and The China Syndrome?  (forename and surname needed for the letter link)

Jack Lemmon

3.

Which three words, consecutive in the dictionary, mean: 'undue favouritism to one's relatives', 'the name of a sea god' and 'a clumsy, foolish, socially inept, feeble, irritating or unprepossessing person'?

nepotism, Neptune, nerd

4.

Who am I?  I started my career at Ipswich Town, making 122 appearances and scoring 48 goals.  I moved on to Charlton Athletic, Spurs, Sunderland and Aston Villa.  Currently I am playing my home games at the Amex Stadium.  I have scored 4 goals in 13 appearances for England. (forename and surname needed for the letter link)

Darren Bent

5.

Which brilliant green French plant is known as the 'dragon herb'?

Tarragon

6.

Which phrase, originated in 1892 by Rudyard Kipling in The Ballad of East and West means two things which are so different as to have no opportunity to unite? 

"Never the twain shall meet"

(accept "ne'er the twain shall meet")

7.

Which left handed guitarist lost the tips of two fingers in an industrial accident but was inspired by the work of similarly afflicted Django Reinhardt to continue playing?  At the weekend he supported Trevor Francis when he received the Birmingham Walk of Stars Award. (forename and surname needed for the letter link)

Tony Iommi

(of Black Sabbath)

8.

What name is given to a type of exercise equipment used for developing strength?  It comprises bowling-pin shaped wooden clubs of varying sizes and weights, which are swung in certain patterns as part of an exercise programme. (answer in singular please)

Indian Club

ROUND 4 - Top to Tail

The last letter of each answer is the first letter of the next answer and also the last letter of answer 8 is the first letter of answer 1

1.

Which actor links these films: From Russia with love, The Battle of Britain, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The Sting and Jaws?  (forename and surname needed for letter link)

Robert Shaw

2.

Which three words, consecutive in the dictionary, mean 'adoration paid to a deity', 'most bad' and 'a fine wool fabric'?

worship, worst, worsted

3.

What was the name of Cream's second album, released in 1967?

Disraeli Gears

4.

In 1961 Johnny Theakstone and the Tremeloes sent a demo tape to the BBC but by the time they were contacted to appear on The Saturday Club show, their lead singer had died unexpectedly.  A friend, Bernard Jewry, was asked to impersonate him on the programme.  What name did he take to do so?  He was to do something similar twelve years later.  (forename and surname needed for the letter link)

Shane Fenton

(who later did another impersonation job when he changed his name to Alvin Stardust)

5.

Which landlocked republic in West Africa with a population of 17 million has 80% of its land area in the Sahara desert?

Niger

6.

Who am I?  I arrived from Northern Ireland to play two seasons at Hull City, four years at Wigan Athletic and won a Premier League winners medal with Manchester United.  Spells at West Ham United, Rangers, Derby County, Odense and Olympiacos followed and I am now playing for Notts County.  I have made 39 international appearances to date.  (forename and surname needed for the letter link)

Roy Carroll    

7.

The Corryvreckan whirlpool lies off the west coast of Scotland.  Its cold 200 metre deep waters produces arguably Britain's best examples of what food stuff which, for best cooking results, is prepared fresh out of the water?

Langoustine

8.

What word links a so-called prequel TV series, a multinational oil and gas company and a ship used for a voyage of discovery?

Endeavour

(HMS Endeavour was Captain Cook's ship and Endeavour charts the life of the early Inspector Morse)

ROUND 5 - Pairs

1.

Which London football team spent 1962-63 in Division One, the only London team to have been in the top flight of English football for just one season?

Leyton Orient

2.

Which London football club reached the FA cup semi-finals in 2013, the fourth occasion on which they had done so although they have never won the trophy?

Millwall

3.

Where in England is the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior?

Westminster Abbey

4.

Who married whom in the royal wedding at Westminster Abbey in 1973?

Princess Anne & Captain Mark Phillips 

5.

Who is the youngest cricketer in history to score centuries in both innings of a Test match?

Phil(lip) Hughes

6.

Phil Hughes played for three English counties; name two of them.

(two of)

Worcestershire,

Middlesex,

Hampshire 

7.

Who was the lead vocalist with the group the Small Faces?

Steve Marriott

8.

Which singer wrote the song The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face?

Ewan MacColl

ROUND 6 - Hidden topical theme

1.

What was the unofficial name of a secret military society formed in 1901 by members of the Serbian army with the aim of uniting all territories with a majority South Slavic population not ruled by Serbia or Montenegro?  The group’s connections to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914 led to it being viewed as a contributor to the outbreak of WW1.

Black Hand

2.

This pop singer launched her career with the phenomenally successful, jazz tinged album Come Away With Me in 2002.  It sold 26m copies and won 5 Grammies.  She has recorded 4 more platinum selling albums since then – the last in 2012.  Her father is the late sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar.  Who is she?

Norah Jones

3.

Which 1989 film is a comedy drama about the bonds between a group of women after the death of a close friend. It starred Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley Maclaine, Darryl Hannah, Julia Roberts and Olympia Dukakis and earned Roberts a nomination at the 1990 Oscars for Best Supporting Actress?

Steel Magnolias

4.

Which supermodel and actress born in 1954 in Michigan USA has been married four times, most notably to musician Billy Joel?  She featured in Joel’s video to his 1983 No.1 hit single Uptown Girl.

Christie Brinkley

5.

Which company owns Costa Coffee – the second largest coffee house chain in the world? 

Whitbread

6.

What is the family name of the Dukes of Devonshire? 

Cavendish

7.

Who played the ship’s captain Edward J Smith in the 1997 film Titanic?   

Bernard Hill

8.

What is the common name for a chilli which is a cultivar of the capsicum frutescens species?  It grows extensively in Africa of which it is native and was taken to Goa in India by the Portuguese.  The origin of its name is the Ronga language of southern Mozambique.

Piri piri

ROUNDS 7 & 8 - 'Pick Your Own TV Quiz Programme'

1.

Mastermind (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

What was the name of the American born opera singer who was Holmes’ antagonist in The Scandal In Bohemia and has frequently been portrayed as his 'love interest' in film and TV spin offs?

2.

Only Connect

What would come fourth in this sequence?

3.

Counterpoint

Which instrument, similar to a trumpet but with a rounder more mellow tone takes its name from the German word for wing?

Flugelhorn

4.

University Challenge

In chemistry, what is defined as the amount of any substance that contains as many elementary entities as there are atoms in 12 grams of pure carbon-12?

A mole

5.

Quote Unquote

To a question about whether she had posed for a calendar in 1947 with nothing on, how did Marilyn Monroe famously reply?

“It’s not true. I had the radio on.”

6.

Telly Addicts

With a combined audience of 28.6 million what was the most watched event of the 1970’s on British TV (and the fifth largest audience ever)?  The event occurred on April 17th 1970 in the South Pacific Ocean.

Splashdown of Apollo 13

7.

The News Quiz

Why did Nigel Farage suggest that “putting baby in the corner” was a good idea in an interview last week?

He supported Claridges' stance on breastfeeding mothers by saying that they should sit in a corner to do it

8.

Blockbusters (BS)

Which 'BS' is a celestial object named after the US physicist who first measured it in 1916?  It is the nearest star to the sun that is visible in the Northern Hemisphere.

Barnard’s Star

9.

Are You Smarter Than a Ten Year Old?

I was a large plant-eating dinosaur of the late Jurassic period with 2 rows of pointed spikes on my back.  My name means 'roofed lizard'.  Who was I?

A stegosaurus

10.

Mastermind (General Knowledge)

Mr Lockwood and Nellie Dean are the narrators of which 1847 novel?

Wuthering Heights

11.

Only Connect

What is the link between these images?

12.

Are You Smarter Than a Ten Year Old?

What was the name given by the geophysicist Alfred Wegener to the supercontinent that existed during the late Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic eras?

Pangaea

13.

Mastermind (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

What part did Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths play in the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?

They were the young cousins who duped him into believing in the existence of the Cottingley Fairies 

14.

 Counterpoint

Treulich Gefuhrt is played in churches up and down the land every week where it is known as Here Comes the Bride - but from which 1850 opera is this music taken?

Lohengrin

(by Richard Wagner)

15.

Telly Addicts

With a combined audience of 32.1 million what was the most watched event of the 1990’s on British TV (and the second largest audience ever)?  The event occurred on September 6th 1997. 

Funeral of Princess Diana

16.

University Challenge

The pH scale is a measure of the acidity of an aqueous solution; the 'p' stands for 'power of'.  What does the 'H' represent? 

Hydrogen

17.

Blockbusters (KP)

Which 'KB' is a region of the solar system beyond Neptune that contains the dwarf planets Haumea, Makemake and Pluto?  

Kuiper Belt

18.

Quote Unquote

At the end of the 1959 Billy Wilder comedy Some Like It Hot, Gerry says “We can’t get married at all.  I’m a man.”  What is Osgood’s reply?

“Well, nobody’s perfect!”

19.

Are You Smarter Than a Ten Year Old?

Which four letters were removed from the famous Hollywood sign in 1949 so that it reflected the name of the general area rather than the housing development that it was originally put up to publicise?

'L-A-N-D'

20.

The News Quiz

Why did Tory MP Nigel Mills have to sweet talk his way out of an awkward situation this week?

He was caught out playing Candy Crush Saga on his tablet during a Work and Pensions committee meeting

Spares

1.

At which city did Francis Drake 'singe the King of Spain’s beard'?

Cadiz

2.

Which novel of 1839 features Wackford Squeers? 

Nicholas Nickleby

3.

Who disappeared in London in !995 after appearing in the play Cell Mates?

Stephen Fry