ROUND 1 - Sci-fi theme

Having been ‘outed’ as a sci-fi fan in the match report a couple of weeks ago, I thought I might as well do a sci-fi themed round. It’s not a hidden theme, though – each answer refers to the title of a novel on Goodread’s list of 100 best sci-fi books.

1.

Which four words follow these lines from The Tempest: “Oh, wonder!  How many goodly creatures are there here!  How beauteous mankind is!”?

2.

Which 2007 Kate Nash song contains the following lines: “And every time we fight I know it's not right, every time that you're upset and I smile.  I know I should forget, but I can't.”?

3.

Leonardo da Vinci, Rene Descartes and Sir John Herschel (son of the man who discovered Uranus) all came up with theoretical ideas for these but the first practical examples were created by a German, Adolf Fick in 1888, although they could only comfortably be used for a couple of hours.  By 2004 there were about 125 million users worldwide.  What are they?

4.

Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean and KitKat have all been versions of what?

5.

Which landforms can be crescentic, linear, star, dome, parabolic or longitudinal?

6.

Which game consists of two or more players making a sequence of string figures, each altering the figure made by the previous player, starting with the eponymous figure?

7.

In Greek mythology, which daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia was stripped and tied to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster before being rescued by Perseus?

8.

The Coen brothers’ film Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? Is loosely based on which work of literature?

Sp.

From which book of the bible do the following charming lines come: "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.  This is the second death."?

Go to Round 1 questions with answers

ROUND 2 - Initials theme

FFS - all the answers include a set of three initials

1.

Which TV series links Las Vegas, Miami and New York?

2.

Which letters appear after the name of a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly?

3.

Which film company’s productions included King Kong, Top Hat and Citizen Kane?

4.

What is next in this sequence: Google, Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, Ebay UK, and ……..?

5.

This company was founded in New York in 1911.  It is the second largest company in the United States in terms of number of employees.  How is it known?

6.

He was born in 1906.  In the 1930s he lived in a flat in what is now the Limes Nursing Home in Didsbury.  In the 1950s he became the first in his profession to share his expertise through the medium of television.  There are now entire channels devoted to it.  Who is he?

7.

This American rock band was formed in 1967 and is still touring.  It has sold over 40 million records. It had a number 7 hit in the UK in 1981 with Keep On Loving You.  What is its name?

8.

This hormone is naturally produced by the kidneys.  It can be artificially produced to improve athletic performance.  How is it commonly known?

Sp1

This writer was born in Trinidad in 1901. He wrote about history, politics and cricket. His best-known book is Beyond a Boundary published in 1963. He died in 1989. There is a library named after him in Hackney. Who is he?

Sp2

Its alumni include Buzz Aldrin, Kofi Annan, Benjamin Netanyahu, David Miliband and the guitarist of Boston Tom Scholz (I’ve got More Than A Feeling that could be some dinner party!).  What is it?

Go to Round 2 questions with answers

ROUND 3 - 'Man Booker' theme

The 2015 Man Booker Prize was awarded last week to Marlon James. All the answers contain the surname of a Booker Prize winner. Several are sound-alikes.

1.

Which writer’s works include A Tale of a Tub and A Journal to Stella?

2.

Pauline McLynn is best known for which sitcom character?

3.

Who was the Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1987-1991?

4.

Whose 4th Symphony is known as The Romantic?

5.

The four main characters of the TV series The A Team were B A Baracus, Hannibal, Faceman and which other character?

6.

Which Irish actor’s films include Minority Report, Phone Booth and Miami Vice?

7.

Who was Dressmaker to the Queen from 1952 to 1989?

8.

Vaughan Williams’s 7th Symphony is based on music he composed for a 1947 film based on which explorer?

Sp.

Who won the Women’s Singles Title at the 1976 French Open?

Go to Round 3 questions with answers

ROUND 4 - 'Back to the Future' theme

It’s Back To The Future II day - yes 21st October 2015 - and we’re all zooming around on Hoverboards while an invisible drone walks the dog for us.  Or not.  Maybe Marty McFly could have travelled to this day in some more interesting years.  See what you think.....

1.

If Marty had turned up in Stockholm this day 182 years ago, he could have witnessed the birth of a man whose name is posthumously attached to something almost the total opposite of that which made his fortune during his lifetime.  Who?

2.

Alternatively, the West Riding of Yorkshire, 75 years ago today, saw the birth of a man who is never quite going to become a national treasure but whose voice is instantly recognisable and who exhibits an outspoken certainty on his own area of expertise and many, many other subjects.  Again, who?

3.

Arriving at 36.29 degrees North, 6.25 degrees West in the appropriate year, young McFly would be present at an event which would decisively resolve one part of a long running conflict while the other part continued for a further ten years.  Where would Marty have been?

4.

Much more recently, in South Wales, this day saw a disaster which wiped out a generation.  What was it?

5.

If Marty went on the road to Florida he could have been present at the death of an iconoclast whose reputation and prestige has grown hugely in the 46 years since he died.  Who?

6.

More usefully to humanity, in 1953 in Hampstead Garden Suburb, Marty could have done everything in his power to prevent the birth of the wartime Home Secretary’s grandson.  Who could we have done without?

7.

More fun than any of the above, this first 'galloped' on stage in its present form in Paris on this day in 1858.  What do we know it as?

8.

Much the best of all, this day in 1926 in Liverpool saw the arrival of a genius who entertained us by playing, amongst others, a middle manager failing to manage his own existential crisis and a chronic yet precise farter.  He was most likely eleven minutes late for his own arrival, though this may have extended to seventeen or even twenty two minutes.  Who was this blessed man?

Go to Round 4 questions with answers

ROUND 5 - Hidden theme

In one of the answers the theme is hidden in a longer word

1.

Which 3rd Division team won the first Football League Cup Final to be held at Wembley?

2.

Who was the trainer of Muhammad Ali from 1960 to 1981?  He also worked with Sugar Ray Leonard and George Foreman amongst others.

3.

Which journalist was the author of Diana: Her True Story and biographies of Monica Lewinsky and Tom Cruise?

4.

Who was British Prime Minister at the outbreak of the Crimean War?

5.

Estelle Parsons won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Blanche Barrow in which 1967 film directed by Arthur Penn?

6.

Which team won its only League Championship in 1920 and its only League Cup in 1966?

7.

Which Tony Bennett song, from the musical Kismet and based on The Polovtsian Dances by Borodin, reached Number One in the UK in 1955?  It was one of six versions in the charts that year.

8.

Burntwood School, Wandsworth was awarded which prize last week?

Sp.

What is the name of Boston’s NBA team?

Go to Round 5 questions with answers

ROUND 6 - 'Top to Tail'

This is a top to tail round where the last letter of the first answer is the first letter of the second answer and so on, right up to the last letter of the last answer being the first letter of the first answer.  It also has a musical theme and the eight first letters have an association with something musical (?) which occurred on this day.

1.

Bald Georgian front man of arguably the biggest band in the world in the 1990s....

2.

1990s English post punk band whose leader inexplicably swapped Brett Anderson for Damon Albarn....

3.

Essex girl with a superb voice who started her career Upstairs at Eric’s....

4.

1970s one hit wonders who sang about the home of Gary Sobers....

5.

They transfixed many a young man on Thursday evenings during the late 1970s.  Members included Patti Hammond, Pauline Peters and Lulu Cartwright though their more famous creator and manager did not appear with them....

6.

Cheekily titled last studio album released by The Faces in 1973....

7.

Briefly titled debut solo album from the answer to question three.  The title was her nickname in the punk era....

8.

Unusual location for the album which relaunched the career of a man in black after a prolonged period of substance abuse....

Go to Round 6 questions with answers

ROUND 7 - Hidden theme

1.

Which musical notation, derived from the Italian for to walk, means ‘to be played at a moderately slow and even pace’?

2.

Which company made and sold the Pet, VIC-20 and Amiga computers?

3.

Which French physicist and chemist’s law states that: 'If the mass and volume of a gas are held constant then gas pressure increases linearly as the temperature rises'?

4.

Which 1947 film, remade in 1994 with Richard Attenborough in the lead role, revolves around a court case in which the hero attests that he is the real Santa Claus?

5.

Which city is served by the George Bush Intercontinental Airport?

6.

Which body of water lies between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land?

7.

Which title is shared by a 1915 film by Cecil B DeMille, a Faustian play written by Vaclav Havel in 1985 and singles released by New Order in 1982 and Heaven 17 in 1983?

8.

He was born in Liverpool in 1941 and, after serving a prison sentence in 1973, moved to the Manchester area, where he lived for a while with a well-known local couple.  He eventually found work as a binman and married ‘Stardust Lil’ before moving on, to Bury.  Who was he?

Sp.

Which Bradford band had hits in the late 1970s with a cover of Needles and Pins and with Living Next Door to Alice?

Go to Round 7 questions with answers

ROUND 8 - ‘It's as easy as 123 as simple as doh re mi'

All the answers include a set of three numbers

1.

It first flew in 1967.  It is the best-selling commercial jet airliner of all time.  What is it?

2.

They were first made in San Francisco in 1890.  They are said to have become the world’s best-selling item of clothing.  What are they?

3.

This 1966 Francois Truffaut film starred Julie Christie and Cyril Cusack.  It was an adaptation of a dystopian novel published in 1951.  What is it called?

4.

This bafflingly popular American pop punk band was formed in 1992.  It has sold 35 million albums worldwide.  Its contribution to popular culture includes an album called Enema of the State.  What is it called?

5.

It was inspired by its creator’s unhappy experiences in Broadcasting House.  Ironically it was later used as the title of a long-running BBC TV series.  What is it called?

6.

 Which road connects the M56 and the M6 via Mere?

7.

Complete this quote from the film Mike Bassett England Manager: "Ladies and gentlemen England will be playing……."

8.

Between 1951 and 1992 Radio Luxemburg could be heard on which medium wave frequency?

Sp1

What is the name of the 1974 Eric Clapton album that includes I Shot The Sheriff?

Sp2

This 2007 fantasy war film was based on a Frank Miller comic series.  It starred Gerard Butler.  It also featured Michael Fassbender’s first film appearance.  What is it called?

Sp3

(This week’s official Lord Bath question.....)  How many Munros are there?

Go to Round 8 questions with answers

ROUND 1 - Sci-fi theme

Having been ‘outed’ as a sci-fi fan in the match report a couple of weeks ago, I thought I might as well do a sci-fi themed round. It’s not a hidden theme, though – each answer refers to the title of a novel on Goodread’s list of 100 best sci-fi books.

1.

Which four words follow these lines from The Tempest: “Oh, wonder!  How many goodly creatures are there here!  How beauteous mankind is!”?

"Oh brave new world"

(Brave New World - Aldous Huxley)

2.

Which 2007 Kate Nash song contains the following lines: “And every time we fight I know it's not right, every time that you're upset and I smile.  I know I should forget, but I can't.”?

Foundations

(Foundation Trilogy – Isaac Asimov)

3.

Leonardo da Vinci, Rene Descartes and Sir John Herschel (son of the man who discovered Uranus) all came up with theoretical ideas for these but the first practical examples were created by a German, Adolf Fick in 1888, although they could only comfortably be used for a couple of hours.  By 2004 there were about 125 million users worldwide.  What are they?

Contact lenses

(Contact – Carl Sagan)

4.

Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean and KitKat have all been versions of what?

The Android operating system

(accept just 'Android')

(Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K Dick)

5.

Which landforms can be crescentic, linear, star, dome, parabolic or longitudinal?

Dunes

(Dune – Frank Herbert)

6.

Which game consists of two or more players making a sequence of string figures, each altering the figure made by the previous player, starting with the eponymous figure?

Cat’s Cradle

(Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut)

7.

In Greek mythology, which daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia was stripped and tied to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster before being rescued by Perseus?

Andromeda

(The Andromeda Strain – Michael Crichton)

8.

The Coen brothers’ film Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? Is loosely based on which work of literature?

(Homer’s) Odyssey

(2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthur C Clarke)

Sp.

From which book of the bible do the following charming lines come: "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.  This is the second death."?

Revelations

(Revelation Space – Alastair Reynolds)

ROUND 2 - Initials theme

FFS - all the answers include a set of three initials

1.

Which TV series links Las Vegas, Miami and New York?

CSI

(the original series was set in Las Vegas; spin-off series have been CSI: Miami and CSI: NY)

2.

Which letters appear after the name of a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly?

MLA

(Member of the Legislative Assembly)

3.

Which film company’s productions included King Kong, Top Hat and Citizen Kane?

RKO Pictures

(accept RKO)

4.

What is next in this sequence: Google, Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, Ebay UK, and ……..?

BBC online

(accept BBC - they are the most visited websites in the UK in descending order)

5.

This company was founded in New York in 1911.  It is the second largest company in the United States in terms of number of employees.  How is it known?

IBM

6.

He was born in 1906.  In the 1930s he lived in a flat in what is now the Limes Nursing Home in Didsbury.  In the 1950s he became the first in his profession to share his expertise through the medium of television.  There are now entire channels devoted to it.  Who is he?

A J P Taylor

7.

This American rock band was formed in 1967 and is still touring.  It has sold over 40 million records. It had a number 7 hit in the UK in 1981 with Keep On Loving You.  What is its name?

REO Speedwagon

8.

This hormone is naturally produced by the kidneys.  It can be artificially produced to improve athletic performance.  How is it commonly known?

EPO

(erythropoietin)

Sp1

This writer was born in Trinidad in 1901. He wrote about history, politics and cricket. His best-known book is Beyond a Boundary published in 1963. He died in 1989. There is a library named after him in Hackney. Who is he?

C L R James

Sp2

Its alumni include Buzz Aldrin, Kofi Annan, Benjamin Netanyahu, David Miliband and the guitarist of Boston Tom Scholz (I’ve got More Than A Feeling that could be some dinner party!).  What is it?

MIT

(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Go back to Round 2 questions without answers

ROUND 3 - 'Man Booker' theme

The 2015 Man Booker Prize was awarded last week to Marlon James. All the answers contain the surname of a Booker Prize winner. Several are sound-alikes.

1.

Which writer’s works include A Tale of a Tub and A Journal to Stella?

Jonathan Swift

2.

Pauline McLynn is best known for which sitcom character?

Mrs. Doyle

(from Father Ted)

3.

Who was the Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1987-1991?

George Carey

4.

Whose 4th Symphony is known as The Romantic?

Bruckner

5.

The four main characters of the TV series The A Team were B A Baracus, Hannibal, Faceman and which other character?

Murdock

6.

Which Irish actor’s films include Minority Report, Phone Booth and Miami Vice?

Colin Farrell

7.

Who was Dressmaker to the Queen from 1952 to 1989?

Hardy Amies

8.

Vaughan Williams’s 7th Symphony is based on music he composed for a 1947 film based on which explorer?

(Robert Falcon) Scott

(The Sinfonia Antarctica)

Sp.

Who won the Women’s Singles Title at the 1976 French Open?

Sue Barker

Theme: The 'Man Booker' authors and their works:

Graham Swift – Last Orders, Roddy Doyle – Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, Anita Brookner – Hotel Du Lac, Peter Carey – Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelly Gang, Iris Murdoch – The Sea, the Sea, J.G Farrell – Siege of Krishnapur, Kingsley Amis – The Old Devils, Paul Scott – Staying On, Pat Barker-The Ghost Road

Go back to Round 3 questions without answers

ROUND 4 - 'Back to the Future' theme

It’s Back To The Future II day - yes 21st October 2015 - and we’re all zooming around on Hoverboards while an invisible drone walks the dog for us.  Or not.  Maybe Marty McFly could have travelled to this day in some more interesting years.  See what you think.....

1.

If Marty had turned up in Stockholm this day 182 years ago, he could have witnessed the birth of a man whose name is posthumously attached to something almost the total opposite of that which made his fortune during his lifetime.  Who?

Alfred Nobel

(of dynamite and peace prize fame)

2.

Alternatively, the West Riding of Yorkshire, 75 years ago today, saw the birth of a man who is never quite going to become a national treasure but whose voice is instantly recognisable and who exhibits an outspoken certainty on his own area of expertise and many, many other subjects.  Again, who?

Geoffrey Boycott

3.

Arriving at 36.29 degrees North, 6.25 degrees West in the appropriate year, young McFly would be present at an event which would decisively resolve one part of a long running conflict while the other part continued for a further ten years.  Where would Marty have been?

The Battle of Trafalgar

4.

Much more recently, in South Wales, this day saw a disaster which wiped out a generation.  What was it?

The Aberfan disaster

5.

If Marty went on the road to Florida he could have been present at the death of an iconoclast whose reputation and prestige has grown hugely in the 46 years since he died.  Who?

Jack Kerouac

6.

More usefully to humanity, in 1953 in Hampstead Garden Suburb, Marty could have done everything in his power to prevent the birth of the wartime Home Secretary’s grandson.  Who could we have done without?

Peter Mandelson

7.

More fun than any of the above, this first 'galloped' on stage in its present form in Paris on this day in 1858.  What do we know it as?

The Can-Can

8.

Much the best of all, this day in 1926 in Liverpool saw the arrival of a genius who entertained us by playing, amongst others, a middle manager failing to manage his own existential crisis and a chronic yet precise farter.  He was most likely eleven minutes late for his own arrival, though this may have extended to seventeen or even twenty two minutes.  Who was this blessed man?

Leonard Rossiter

Go back to Round 4 questions without answers

ROUND 5 - Hidden theme

In one of the answers the theme is hidden in a longer word

1.

Which 3rd Division team won the first Football League Cup Final to be held at Wembley?

Queens Park Rangers

2.

Who was the trainer of Muhammad Ali from 1960 to 1981?  He also worked with Sugar Ray Leonard and George Foreman amongst others.

Angelo Dundee

3.

Which journalist was the author of Diana: Her True Story and biographies of Monica Lewinsky and Tom Cruise?

Andrew Morton

4.

Who was British Prime Minister at the outbreak of the Crimean War?

Earl of Aberdeen

5.

Estelle Parsons won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Blanche Barrow in which 1967 film directed by Arthur Penn?

Bonnie and Clyde

6.

Which team won its only League Championship in 1920 and its only League Cup in 1966?

West Bromwich Albion

(full name of team required)

7.

Which Tony Bennett song, from the musical Kismet and based on The Polovtsian Dances by Borodin, reached Number One in the UK in 1955?  It was one of six versions in the charts that year.

Strangers in Paradise

8.

Burntwood School, Wandsworth was awarded which prize last week?

Stirling Prize

(for Architecture)

Sp.

What is the name of Boston’s NBA team?

Boston Celtics

Theme: Each answer contains the name of a Scottish League Football team

Go back to Round 5 questions without answers

ROUND 6 - 'Top to Tail'

This is a top to tail round where the last letter of the first answer is the first letter of the second answer and so on, right up to the last letter of the last answer being the first letter of the first answer.  It also has a musical theme and the eight first letters have an association with something musical (?) which occurred on this day.

1.

Bald Georgian front man of arguably the biggest band in the world in the 1990s....

Michael Stipe

2.

1990s English post punk band whose leader inexplicably swapped Brett Anderson for Damon Albarn....

Elastica

3.

Essex girl with a superb voice who started her career Upstairs at Eric’s....

Alison Moyet

4.

1970s one hit wonders who sang about the home of Gary Sobers....

Typically Tropical

5.

They transfixed many a young man on Thursday evenings during the late 1970s.  Members included Patti Hammond, Pauline Peters and Lulu Cartwright though their more famous creator and manager did not appear with them....

Legs & Co.

6.

Cheekily titled last studio album released by The Faces in 1973....

Ooh La La

7.

Briefly titled debut solo album from the answer to question three.  The title was her nickname in the punk era....

Alf

8.

Unusual location for the album which relaunched the career of a man in black after a prolonged period of substance abuse....

Folsom (prison)

Theme: The initial eight letters spell out M-E-A-T-L-O-A-F, who inflicted the Bat Out Of Hell album on an innocent world, this day in 1977

Go back to Round 6 questions without answers

ROUND 7 - Hidden theme

1.

Which musical notation, derived from the Italian for to walk, means ‘to be played at a moderately slow and even pace’?

Andante

2.

Which company made and sold the Pet, VIC-20 and Amiga computers?

Commodore

3.

Which French physicist and chemist’s law states that: 'If the mass and volume of a gas are held constant then gas pressure increases linearly as the temperature rises'?

Luis Joseph Gay-Lussac

(full surname required)

4.

Which 1947 film, remade in 1994 with Richard Attenborough in the lead role, revolves around a court case in which the hero attests that he is the real Santa Claus?

Miracle on 34th Street

5.

Which city is served by the George Bush Intercontinental Airport?

Houston

6.

Which body of water lies between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land?

The Ross Sea

7.

Which title is shared by a 1915 film by Cecil B DeMille, a Faustian play written by Vaclav Havel in 1985 and singles released by New Order in 1982 and Heaven 17 in 1983?

Temptation

8.

He was born in Liverpool in 1941 and, after serving a prison sentence in 1973, moved to the Manchester area, where he lived for a while with a well-known local couple.  He eventually found work as a binman and married ‘Stardust Lil’ before moving on, to Bury.  Who was he?

Eddie Yeats

Sp.

Which Bradford band had hits in the late 1970s with a cover of Needles and Pins and with Living Next Door to Alice?

Smokie

Theme: Each answer refers to a Tamla Motown artist....

The Andantes, The Commodores, Marvin Gaye, The Miracles, Thelma Houston, Diana Ross, The Temptations, Duane Eddy and Smokey Robinson

Go back to Round 7 questions without answers

ROUND 8 - ‘It's as easy as 123 as simple as doh re mi'

All the answers include a set of three numbers

1.

It first flew in 1967.  It is the best-selling commercial jet airliner of all time.  What is it?

Boeing 737

2.

They were first made in San Francisco in 1890.  They are said to have become the world’s best-selling item of clothing.  What are they?

Levi 501 Jeans

3.

This 1966 Francois Truffaut film starred Julie Christie and Cyril Cusack.  It was an adaptation of a dystopian novel published in 1951.  What is it called?

Fahrenheit 451

4.

This bafflingly popular American pop punk band was formed in 1992.  It has sold 35 million albums worldwide.  Its contribution to popular culture includes an album called Enema of the State.  What is it called?

Blink 182

5.

It was inspired by its creator’s unhappy experiences in Broadcasting House.  Ironically it was later used as the title of a long-running BBC TV series.  What is it called?

Room 101

6.

 Which road connects the M56 and the M6 via Mere?

A556

7.

Complete this quote from the film Mike Bassett England Manager: "Ladies and gentlemen England will be playing……."

"...four four f***ing two."

(accept "4-4-2")

8.

Between 1951 and 1992 Radio Luxemburg could be heard on which medium wave frequency?

208

Sp1

What is the name of the 1974 Eric Clapton album that includes I Shot The Sheriff?

461 Ocean Boulevard

Sp2

This 2007 fantasy war film was based on a Frank Miller comic series.  It starred Gerard Butler.  It also featured Michael Fassbender’s first film appearance.  What is it called?

300

Sp3

(This week’s official Lord Bath question.....)  How many Munros are there?

277

Go back to Round 8 questions without answers