ROUND 1 - Hidden theme

1.

In which 2004 film does Snoop Dogg appear as Huggy Bear Brown, a role made famous thirty years earlier by Antonio Fargas?

2.

To whom did King Charles give 45,000 square miles of land on 4th of March 1681 in order to settle a £16,000 debt that he had owed to the recipient’s father?  The recipient’s new neighbours included the Duke of York and Lord Baltimore?

3.

Which novelist wrote the Barsoom series of novels between 1912 and 1948?  Set on the planet Mars one of them, John Carter of Mars, was published posthumously in 1964.

4.

Name the philanthropic brewer who in 1914 provided £2000 to a fund the establishment of the Radium Institute within the Manchester Royal Infirmary.

5.

What is the colloquial name for the city that is the capital of North Brabant?  An artist born there in, or around, 1450 adopted this colloquial name as his own and used it to sign several major pieces of work.

6.

Name the Governor of California who was officially appointed Chief Justice of the United States on March the 2nd 1954.  He would hold that office for nearly sixteen years.

7.

What mountain pass can be found at the north eastern end of Wasdale and the south western end of Borrowdale?  With Great Gable and Scafell Pike in the vicinity it is a magnet for fellwalkers.

8.

Name the right back who made 492 appearances for Coventry City from 1966 to 1981.  Only Steve Ogrizovic and George Curtis have made more appearances for the club.

Sp.

Which novel, published in July 2015 was described by Alexandra Petri as "Not being by any stretch of the imagination, a good, or even a finished book.  For the first 100 pages it lacks anything that could even charitably be described as a plot”?  Its author had won the Pulitzer Prize in 1960.

1.

Which magazine, published weekly between 1938 and 1957, was owned by Sir Edward Hulton and at various times employed JB Priestley and Fyfe Robertson on its staff?  Its archives have since 1996 been owned by Getty Images Inc.

2.

Which play by Harold Pinter concludes with Meg romanticising the events of the previous evening: “I was the belle of the ball…….I know I was”?

3.

Who did Slovenian model Melania Knauss marry in Palm Beach Florida on January 22, 2005?

4.

What is a clepsydra?

5.

Who played Bernard Sumner in 24 Hour Party People, DCI Sam Tyler in Life on Mars and farmer John Middleton in The Village?

6.

Whose tombstone in Père Lachaise was carved from a 20 ton block of Derbyshire limestone by Jacob Epstein but had to be subjected to restoration work in 2011 to make it kiss-proof?

7.

John Shaw’s Punch House had one change of name in 1796 when John Shaw died and yet another following a radical addition to its menu in 1845.  By what name has this Manchester licensed premises been known by ever since?

8.

Who set a new league goal scoring record by scoring his 436th goal at the culmination of the 1991-92 season overtaking Arthur Rowley’s record that had stood since 1965?

Sp.

In which vessel was Mr Parker instructed to proceed with full speed ahead while everyone lived a life of ease?

ROUND 3 - Announced theme - "Let’s play ball!"

All answers contain a word that is used in the game of baseball

1.

What 1951 novel did Mark Chapman buy on the day he shot John Lennon inscribing it to the book’s youthful protagonist?

2.

What word is used to describe the distance between a point on one tooth of a gearwheel and the same corresponding point on an adjacent tooth?

3.

What metalworking process was accidently discovered by Thomas Boulsover in 1743 while repairing a knife and used by him to make buttons, buckles and spurs?

4.

Of what are The Dresden Green, the Daria-I-Noor and the Moon of Baroda all examples?

5.

Which brand was the main sponsor of the Honda Formula 1 team in 2006 pulling out at the end of the season due to the ban on tobacco sponsorship?

6.

Namche Bazzar, Dingboche, Gorakshep, but where next would you pitch your tent?

7.

Once the Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007, who was the Republican Party’s candidate for the President of the United States in 2012?

8.

What is the name of the major thoroughfare in Edinburgh that was created from the dumped earth from the excavations to create the New Town?  Many prestigious buildings now line the street including the National Gallery of Scotland and the headquarters of the Bank of Scotland.

Sp.

What name connects the driver of the persuader tank in GI Joe, a Zen master of combat from Jungle Planet in Transformers, and an operation carried out by Canadian infantry forces to protect civilians from Croatian forces in 1993?

ROUND 4 - Hidden theme

1.

The first winners of the Swiss Football League in 1899-1900 were Grasshoppers.  In which city do they still play their home games?

2.

Which journalist and military historian replaced Bill Deedes as editor of the Daily Telegraph in 1986?

3.

Which British born Academy Award winner said “People talk about androgyny in all sorts of dull ways, but I’ve always been interested in the limitlessness of an androgynous gesture”?  Fortunately for her then that she had a role in a 1992 film in which she went to sleep as a man and woke as a woman.

4.

What butterfly, correctly the Vanessa Atalanta, is the seventh most common species sighted in the UK according to the 2014 Big Butterfly Count?

5.

Displacing 53,200 tons and launched at Harland and Wolff’s yard in 1914 what was the largest vessel sunk during the First World War? 

6.

What entry in Boswell’s Life of Johnson for April the 7th 1775 prompted Ambrose Bierce to respond “with all due respect to that enlightened but inferior lexicographer, I beg to submit that it is the first”?

7.

What single, with lyrics that exaggerate the power of emotion, was released by Boston in 1974?  It reached number 22 in the UK Charts.

8.

Which playwright wrote The Skriker in 1994 that was revived at the Royal Exchange this summer with Maxine Peake in the title role?

Sp.

Where has the battleship USS Missouri been stationed since 1999 when she became a museum ship?

ROUND 5 - Hidden theme

1.

Which cartoon character, allegedly named when screenwriters Joe Ruby and Ken Spears heard a recording of Strangers on the Shore (Ed: Should have read Strangers in the Night) by Frank Sinatra, made his debut on CBS in September 13^th 1969 with a voice provided by Don Messick?

2.

Which fifteen mile long river flows through Pavilion Gardens Buxton and Monsal Dale before becoming a tributary of the Derwent at Rowsley?

3.

Name the incumbent Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

4.

Which partnership successfully sued Edward Bull in 1793 for breach of patent?

5.

What 1973 single was music critic Philip Auslander referring to when he wrote “Her fingers thump out the notes on her bass guitar as she sneeringly shouts the seemingly nonsensical and virtually unintelligible lyrics to her first number one hit…….”?

6.

In June 2003 the American Film Institute issued a list of the 50 greatest movie villains.  Hannibal Lecter, Norman Bates and Darth Vader filled the top three positions.  Which female character was fourth?

7.

What was given to the nation in 1939 by Mrs Pretty, the widow of a military officer who had bought a small estate near Woodbridge, Suffolk?

8.

You happen to find yourself on the 20:39 train departing from Hertford East for Liverpool Street.  What will be your first station stop at 20:43?

Sp.

Who, in 1995, while appearing on the Channel 4 programme Fair Game, famously referred to the members of the RFU committee as “57 old farts”?

ROUND 6 - Announced theme - "Watching the detectives"

All answers include a word that is something a detective might use to solve a case - beware of police slang you slags

1.

Which radio show uses a 30 second variation of a composition written by Ron Goodwin for the movie Monte Carlo or Bust in 1969 as its theme tune?  Entitled the Shickel Shamble it was used in the film as the cue for the German entry, a Mercedes SSK driven by Willi Schickel.

2.

Which city witnessed the public debut of the trolley bus on British streets on 20th of June 1911?  The same city is set to bring them back into use in 2018.

3.

Who could successfully demonstrate a scuffle, a slurp, a cramp roll as well as a paradiddle?  Beware!  A drummer can also perform the last routine but not the first three.

4.

What is the common name for the human disease caused by the bacteria bordetella pertussis?

5.

What is the common name for the member of the animal kingdom that is native to Britain, weighs 240 grams on average, will generally grow to more than a metre in length, can live for 25 years and is correctly classified as the natrix natrix?

6.

Which parliamentary constituency contains the towns of Kidderminster, Bewdley and Stourport within its boundaries and is named after a piece of local woodland occupying 26 square kilometres?

7.

The Nazis used a series of coloured inverted triangles to identify those imprisoned in their concentration camps. Political prisoners, usually communists, wore red; common criminals wore green; but what religious group wore the colour purple?

8.

Which e-commerce retailer specialising in IT products was founded in 1987 by David Atherton and Bruce Smith in Bolton?  Now owned by BT they were shirt sponsors of Fulham FC from 2003 to 2005.

Sp.

Which river, 772 kilometres in length, forms the border between Poland and Ukraine for 185 kilometres and the border between Poland and Belarus for a further 178 kilometres?

ROUND 7 - Announced theme - "What’s the point!"

All answers include a word that can precede the word point and still make sense

1.

What 60 foot high rock pinnacle on the south west face of Great Gable was first climbed by Haskett Smith in June 1886?  Still graded as Hard Severe, its ascent is generally recognised as the birth of rock climbing.

2.

Of which award winning television drama did its leading actor say of his role “Then I remembered that Vince’s credo for Walt is that he’s Mr Chips turning into Scarface”? 

3.

Which American rap artist, record producer and fashion designer married Kim Kardashian in May 2014?

4.

Which model name, picked to convey a sense of speed, was used by Royal Enfield for a 4 stroke single cylinder motorcycle introduced in 1931 with 350 and 500cc variants?   The model name is still used today by Royal Enfield of India.

5.

The mountain Snezka, at 1603m the highest in the Krkonose mountains, is also the highest point in which country?

6.

Who before he crashed to his death over German lines on 7th of May 1917 was the leading ace in the RFC with 44 kills?

7.

Name the MP for Stone who was elected unopposed to Chair of the European Scrutiny Committee in September 2010, a move described by Charles Kennedy as “akin to putting King Herod in charge of a maternity ward”.

8.

Which piece of scientific apparatus relying on the existence of the Townsend discharge has its origins in the design for a measuring device used in the gold foil experiment that was performed at the University of Manchester in 1908?

Sp.

What famous pronouncement was made by Lord Acton in a letter to Mandell Creighton in 1887 following the line “Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility.”?

ROUND 8 - Hidden theme

1.

What geographical feature connects the very tip of Cape Prince of Wales in Alaska, The Alpine Club of Canada’s Abbot Pass Hut, the second highest permanent structure in that country, and a white line running across Highway 160 as it crosses Wolf’s Creek Pass in Colorado?

2.

The brachial artery divides into two in the cubital fossa.  One division is the ulnar artery.  What is the other?

3.

Four variables are needed to calculate the theoretical tractive effort of a steam locomotive.  The diameter of the driving wheels, the bore and the stroke of the cylinder are three.  What is the fourth?

4.

Which games company brought you Half Life in 1998 and Left 4 Dead in 2008?

5.

What medical procedure was first performed by German physician Heinrich Quincke in 1891 initially as a therapeutic treatment but was soon found to also be a valuable diagnostic tool?

6.

Which E M Foster novel takes its title from a line in Alexander Pope’s Essay on Criticism?  The 1991 film adaptation saw Helen Mirren and Helena Bonham Carter play the Englishwomen travelling through Tuscany?

7.

Which John Steinbeck novel features Danny who returns to Monterey, California, after serving as a mule driver in the Great War to find he has inherited two houses from his grandfather?

8.

Elvis Costello (in all his guises) had just three singles that reached the top ten of the UK singles chart.  Oliver’s Army and I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down are two, but what was the third that reached number 6 in October 1981?  Pump It Up might fit the theme but it was not a top ten hit.

Sp.

Who lies buried in Durham Cathedral and has had his life and work celebrated with an annual lecture held at St Paul’s Church, Jarrow every year since 1958?

Spares

Can you name either of the two teams relegated from League Division 2 to the Vanarama National League at the end of the 2014-15 season?

ROUND 1 - Hidden theme

1.

In which 2004 film does Snoop Dogg appear as Huggy Bear Brown, a role made famous thirty years earlier by Antonio Fargas?

Starsky and Hutch

2.

To whom did King Charles give 45,000 square miles of land on 4th of March 1681 in order to settle a £16,000 debt that he had owed to the recipient’s father?  The recipient’s new neighbours included the Duke of York and Lord Baltimore?

William Penn

3.

Which novelist wrote the Barsoom series of novels between 1912 and 1948?  Set on the planet Mars one of them, John Carter of Mars, was published posthumously in 1964.

Edgar Rice Burroughs

(they were written in the 1940s)

4.

Name the philanthropic brewer who in 1914 provided £2000 to a fund the establishment of the Radium Institute within the Manchester Royal Infirmary.

(Edward) Holt

5.

What is the colloquial name for the city that is the capital of North Brabant?  An artist born there in, or around, 1450 adopted this colloquial name as his own and used it to sign several major pieces of work.

Den Bosch

6.

Name the Governor of California who was officially appointed Chief Justice of the United States on March the 2nd 1954.  He would hold that office for nearly sixteen years.

(Earl) Warren

7.

What mountain pass can be found at the north eastern end of Wasdale and the south western end of Borrowdale?  With Great Gable and Scafell Pike in the vicinity it is a magnet for fellwalkers.

Sty Head

8.

Name the right back who made 492 appearances for Coventry City from 1966 to 1981.  Only Steve Ogrizovic and George Curtis have made more appearances for the club.

Mick Coop

(apologies to Mike of The Albert - I’ll redress the balance as soon as I can)

Sp.

Which novel, published in July 2015 was described by Alexandra Petri as "Not being by any stretch of the imagination, a good, or even a finished book.  For the first 100 pages it lacks anything that could even charitably be described as a plot”?  Its author had won the Pulitzer Prize in 1960.

Go Set a Watchman

Theme: 'Home sweet Home!'

Each answer contains a word that is a home, or at least a place of safety, for an animal wild or domestic

ROUND 2 - Announced theme - “Here are your cards”

All answers include a word that can precede the word card and still make sense

1.

Which magazine, published weekly between 1938 and 1957, was owned by Sir Edward Hulton and at various times employed JB Priestley and Fyfe Robertson on its staff?  Its archives have since 1996 been owned by Getty Images Inc.

Picture Post

2.

Which play by Harold Pinter concludes with Meg romanticising the events of the previous evening: “I was the belle of the ball…….I know I was”?

The Birthday Party

3.

Who did Slovenian model Melania Knauss marry in Palm Beach Florida on January 22, 2005?

Donald Trump

4.

What is a clepsydra?

A water clock

5.

Who played Bernard Sumner in 24 Hour Party People, DCI Sam Tyler in Life on Mars and farmer John Middleton in The Village?

John Simm

6.

Whose tombstone in Père Lachaise was carved from a 20 ton block of Derbyshire limestone by Jacob Epstein but had to be subjected to restoration work in 2011 to make it kiss-proof?

Oscar Wilde

7.

John Shaw’s Punch House had one change of name in 1796 when John Shaw died and yet another following a radical addition to its menu in 1845.  By what name has this Manchester licensed premises been known by ever since?

Sinclair’s Oyster Bar

8.

Who set a new league goal scoring record by scoring his 436th goal at the culmination of the 1991-92 season overtaking Arthur Rowley’s record that had stood since 1965?

Roy Race

Sp.

In which vessel was Mr Parker instructed to proceed with full speed ahead while everyone lived a life of ease?

Yellow Submarine

ROUND 3 - Announced theme - "Let’s play ball!"

All answers contain a word that is used in the game of baseball

1.

What 1951 novel did Mark Chapman buy on the day he shot John Lennon inscribing it to the book’s youthful protagonist?

Catcher in the Rye

2.

What word is used to describe the distance between a point on one tooth of a gearwheel and the same corresponding point on an adjacent tooth?

Pitch

3.

What metalworking process was accidently discovered by Thomas Boulsover in 1743 while repairing a knife and used by him to make buttons, buckles and spurs?

Sheffield plate

4.

Of what are The Dresden Green, the Daria-I-Noor and the Moon of Baroda all examples?

Diamonds

(specifically coloured ones)

5.

Which brand was the main sponsor of the Honda Formula 1 team in 2006 pulling out at the end of the season due to the ban on tobacco sponsorship?

Lucky Strike

6.

Namche Bazzar, Dingboche, Gorakshep, but where next would you pitch your tent?

Everest Base Camp

7.

Once the Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007, who was the Republican Party’s candidate for the President of the United States in 2012?

Mitt Romney

8.

What is the name of the major thoroughfare in Edinburgh that was created from the dumped earth from the excavations to create the New Town?  Many prestigious buildings now line the street including the National Gallery of Scotland and the headquarters of the Bank of Scotland.

The Mound

Sp.

What name connects the driver of the persuader tank in GI Joe, a Zen master of combat from Jungle Planet in Transformers, and an operation carried out by Canadian infantry forces to protect civilians from Croatian forces in 1993?

Back stop

ROUND 4 - Hidden theme

1.

The first winners of the Swiss Football League in 1899-1900 were Grasshoppers.  In which city do they still play their home games?

Zurich

2.

Which journalist and military historian replaced Bill Deedes as editor of the Daily Telegraph in 1986?

Max Hastings

3.

Which British born Academy Award winner said “People talk about androgyny in all sorts of dull ways, but I’ve always been interested in the limitlessness of an androgynous gesture”?  Fortunately for her then that she had a role in a 1992 film in which she went to sleep as a man and woke as a woman.

Tilda Swinton

4.

What butterfly, correctly the Vanessa Atalanta, is the seventh most common species sighted in the UK according to the 2014 Big Butterfly Count?

Red Admiral

5.

Displacing 53,200 tons and launched at Harland and Wolff’s yard in 1914 what was the largest vessel sunk during the First World War? 

HMHS Britannic

6.

What entry in Boswell’s Life of Johnson for April the 7th 1775 prompted Ambrose Bierce to respond “with all due respect to that enlightened but inferior lexicographer, I beg to submit that it is the first”?

"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel"

7.

What single, with lyrics that exaggerate the power of emotion, was released by Boston in 1974?  It reached number 22 in the UK Charts.

More Than a Feeling

8.

Which playwright wrote The Skriker in 1994 that was revived at the Royal Exchange this summer with Maxine Peake in the title role?

Caryl Churchill

Sp.

Where has the battleship USS Missouri been stationed since 1999 when she became a museum ship?

Pearl Harbour

Theme: 'Have you got this covered?'

Each answer contains the name of an insurance company that is or was active in the UK

ROUND 5 - Hidden theme

1.

Which cartoon character, allegedly named when screenwriters Joe Ruby and Ken Spears heard a recording of Strangers on the Shore (Ed: Should have read Strangers in the Night) by Frank Sinatra, made his debut on CBS in September 13^th 1969 with a voice provided by Don Messick?

Scooby Doo

(allegedly after the scat "dooby dooby doo")

2.

Which fifteen mile long river flows through Pavilion Gardens Buxton and Monsal Dale before becoming a tributary of the Derwent at Rowsley?

River Wye

3.

Name the incumbent Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

Sir Bernard Hogan Howe

4.

Which partnership successfully sued Edward Bull in 1793 for breach of patent?

Watt and Boulton

5.

What 1973 single was music critic Philip Auslander referring to when he wrote “Her fingers thump out the notes on her bass guitar as she sneeringly shouts the seemingly nonsensical and virtually unintelligible lyrics to her first number one hit…….”?

Can the Can

6.

In June 2003 the American Film Institute issued a list of the 50 greatest movie villains.  Hannibal Lecter, Norman Bates and Darth Vader filled the top three positions.  Which female character was fourth?

The Wicked Witch of the West

7.

What was given to the nation in 1939 by Mrs Pretty, the widow of a military officer who had bought a small estate near Woodbridge, Suffolk?

Sutton Hoo treasure

8.

You happen to find yourself on the 20:39 train departing from Hertford East for Liverpool Street.  What will be your first station stop at 20:43?

Ware

Sp.

Who, in 1995, while appearing on the Channel 4 programme Fair Game, famously referred to the members of the RFU committee as “57 old farts”?

Will Carling

Theme: Each answer contains a word that could have started a question

ROUND 6 - Announced theme - "Watching the detectives"

All answers include a word that is something a detective might use to solve a case - beware of police slang you slags

1.

Which radio show uses a 30 second variation of a composition written by Ron Goodwin for the movie Monte Carlo or Bust in 1969 as its theme tune?  Entitled the Shickel Shamble it was used in the film as the cue for the German entry, a Mercedes SSK driven by Willi Schickel.

I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue

2.

Which city witnessed the public debut of the trolley bus on British streets on 20th of June 1911?  The same city is set to bring them back into use in 2018.

Leeds

3.

Who could successfully demonstrate a scuffle, a slurp, a cramp roll as well as a paradiddle?  Beware!  A drummer can also perform the last routine but not the first three.

A tap dancer

4.

What is the common name for the human disease caused by the bacteria bordetella pertussis?

Whooping Cough

5.

What is the common name for the member of the animal kingdom that is native to Britain, weighs 240 grams on average, will generally grow to more than a metre in length, can live for 25 years and is correctly classified as the natrix natrix?

Grass snake

6.

Which parliamentary constituency contains the towns of Kidderminster, Bewdley and Stourport within its boundaries and is named after a piece of local woodland occupying 26 square kilometres?

Wyre Forest

7.

The Nazis used a series of coloured inverted triangles to identify those imprisoned in their concentration camps. Political prisoners, usually communists, wore red; common criminals wore green; but what religious group wore the colour purple?

Jehovah’s Witnesses

8.

Which e-commerce retailer specialising in IT products was founded in 1987 by David Atherton and Bruce Smith in Bolton?  Now owned by BT they were shirt sponsors of Fulham FC from 2003 to 2005.

DABS

(is that honours even, Mike?)

Sp.

Which river, 772 kilometres in length, forms the border between Poland and Ukraine for 185 kilometres and the border between Poland and Belarus for a further 178 kilometres?

The Bug

ROUND 7 - Announced theme - "What’s the point!"

All answers include a word that can precede the word point and still make sense

1.

What 60 foot high rock pinnacle on the south west face of Great Gable was first climbed by Haskett Smith in June 1886?  Still graded as Hard Severe, its ascent is generally recognised as the birth of rock climbing.

Napes needle

2.

Of which award winning television drama did its leading actor say of his role “Then I remembered that Vince’s credo for Walt is that he’s Mr Chips turning into Scarface”? 

Breaking Bad

3.

Which American rap artist, record producer and fashion designer married Kim Kardashian in May 2014?

Kanye West

4.

Which model name, picked to convey a sense of speed, was used by Royal Enfield for a 4 stroke single cylinder motorcycle introduced in 1931 with 350 and 500cc variants?   The model name is still used today by Royal Enfield of India.

Bullet

5.

The mountain Snezka, at 1603m the highest in the Krkonose mountains, is also the highest point in which country?

The Czech Republic

6.

Who before he crashed to his death over German lines on 7th of May 1917 was the leading ace in the RFC with 44 kills?

Albert Ball

7.

Name the MP for Stone who was elected unopposed to Chair of the European Scrutiny Committee in September 2010, a move described by Charles Kennedy as “akin to putting King Herod in charge of a maternity ward”.

Bill Cash

8.

Which piece of scientific apparatus relying on the existence of the Townsend discharge has its origins in the design for a measuring device used in the gold foil experiment that was performed at the University of Manchester in 1908?

Geiger Counter

Sp.

What famous pronouncement was made by Lord Acton in a letter to Mandell Creighton in 1887 following the line “Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility.”?

"Power (tends to) corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”

ROUND 8 - 'Hidden theme

1.

What geographical feature connects the very tip of Cape Prince of Wales in Alaska, The Alpine Club of Canada’s Abbot Pass Hut, the second highest permanent structure in that country, and a white line running across Highway 160 as it crosses Wolf’s Creek Pass in Colorado?

The Continental Divide

2.

The brachial artery divides into two in the cubital fossa.  One division is the ulnar artery.  What is the other?

Radial artery

3.

Four variables are needed to calculate the theoretical tractive effort of a steam locomotive.  The diameter of the driving wheels, the bore and the stroke of the cylinder are three.  What is the fourth?

Steam pressure

4.

Which games company brought you Half Life in 1998 and Left 4 Dead in 2008?

Valve

5.

What medical procedure was first performed by German physician Heinrich Quincke in 1891 initially as a therapeutic treatment but was soon found to also be a valuable diagnostic tool?

Lumbar puncture

6.

Which E M Foster novel takes its title from a line in Alexander Pope’s Essay on Criticism?  The 1991 film adaptation saw Helen Mirren and Helena Bonham Carter play the Englishwomen travelling through Tuscany?

Where Angels Fear to Tread

7.

Which John Steinbeck novel features Danny who returns to Monterey, California, after serving as a mule driver in the Great War to find he has inherited two houses from his grandfather?

Tortilla Flat

8.

Elvis Costello (in all his guises) had just three singles that reached the top ten of the UK singles chart.  Oliver’s Army and I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down are two, but what was the third that reached number 6 in October 1981?  Pump It Up might fit the theme but it was not a top ten hit.

A Good Year for the Roses

Sp.

Who lies buried in Durham Cathedral and has had his life and work celebrated with an annual lecture held at St Paul’s Church, Jarrow every year since 1958?

St Bede

Theme: 'Wheely tired of this now?'

Each answer contains a word that is something a car tyre may possess or display

Spares

Can you name either of the two teams relegated from League Division 2 to the Vanarama National League at the end of the 2014-15 season?

(either)

Tranmere Rovers

(or)

Cheltenham Town