ROUND 1 - Pairs

1.

Who composed the music for the shows Barnum and Sweet Charity?

2.

Who composed the music for the shows Hello Dolly and Mame?

3.

What is the name of the cricket ground in Kolkata that hosted the T20 finals on Sunday?

4.

The world ranked number one male golfer hails from neither Europe nor the United States.  Who is he?

5.

The narrative of which book, published in 1860, is set in St Oggs?

6.

The narrative of which book, published in 1959, is set in the village of Slad?

7.

At which battle, which took place near Durham in 1346, was King David the 2nd of Scotland captured?

8.

What is the name of the battle, also known as Chevy Chase, which took place in 1388 between the Earl of Douglas and Sir Ralph and Henry Percy?

ROUND 2 - Hidden theme

All the answers are linked by a common theme - some of the theme words appear as 'sound-alikes'

1.

Which celebrity chef’s surname is German for 'flowered valley'?  In 2014, he opened The Perfectionists' Cafe in Heathrow Terminal 2.

2.

Born in Moss Side and currently a Professor of Public History at Manchester University, which presenter of TV history documentaries has been dubbed 'the thinking woman's crumpet'?

3.

Opened on 1 January 1940, which was the largest airfield in Europe during WW2?  It had the most USAAF personnel and aircraft maintenance facilities, such that, by the end of the war, 18,000 servicemen were stationed there.  The final remnants were demolished in 2009.

4.

Which right-wing American organisation is named after an American Baptist missionary and military intelligence officer who was shot and killed by communist forces in China in August 1945, shortly after the conclusion of WW2?

5.

What is the famous reply to the following question asked in a movie: "Where shall I go?  What shall I do?"?

6.

At 1191 feet, what two-word name is the most westerly summit on Winter Hill?  It is capped by a Grade II-listed tower.

7.

What is the married name of the only mother to have won the Wimbledon singles title sinceWW1?  She won four consecutive Australian Open singles titles in the 1970s.  She got married in Britain just before the 1975 Wimbledon tournament.

8.

Originally named the Kaiser Wilhelm when it opened in 1895, which waterway runs roughly from SW to NE for 61 miles?

ROUND 3 - 'The Master Round'

Part of each answer can be placed before or after the word 'master' to make another word

1.

What was the name of the versatile musician and broadcaster who was chairman of the radio programme My Music on radio 4 between 1967 and 1994?

2.

What was original purpose of the building that became Withington Hospital?

3.

What is the colloquial name for the coastlines of western South America and the Asian Pacific rim, and the area contained within them - so given because of the presence there of many of the world's most active volcanoes?

4.

Who was the author of The Four Feathers and The House of the Arrow?

5.

What is the name given to the A465 road west of Abergavenny, officially called the 'Neath to Abergavenny trunk road'?  The name is often used in BBC traffic reports.

6.

What is the name of the film made in 1948 starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall - together for the last time.  Edward G Robinson played his usual role as a gangster and Jay Silverheels played a minor role as a Seminole Indian.

7.

What is the title of the Sunni Muslim cleric responsible for the Holy Places in Jerusalem?

8.

What is being described here?  The first occurrence of these items is believed to be in the Paris area in 1659.  The first one in England was in Wakefield in 1809.  The form that we know them today was designed by Richard Redgrave about 1859 and they were coloured green.

Sp1

The growth of high-tech enterprises in an area close to the City of London has led to the name Silicon Roundabout been given to a major road junction in the centre of this area.  What is the name of the roundabout and the adjoining tube station, which is on the Northern line?

Sp2

What is another name for the Spanish dollar, this name giving rise to the nickname of the American Quarter coin?

Sp3

What is the common name for the medical condition known as a cerebrovascular insult?

ROUND 4 - Pairs

1.

How is Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha’s investment likely to pay off this year?

2.

Former Manchester City, and then FA, Chairman David Bernstein, and former Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King have recently been appointed onto the board of which Football Club?

3.

Whose shirt in the 20/20 Cricket World cup bore the number 66?

4.

Which overseas player wears number 45, which is the number of balls it took him to reach the fastest of his several T20 centuries?  When playing in the IPL he has also worn a shirt numbered 333, which is his highest test score.

5.

What is element number 43?  It is the element with the lowest atomic number in the periodic table that has no stable isotopes.  For medical use – in over 10 million diagnostic tests a year – it has to be harvested from molybdenum.  Its name comes from the Greek word for 'artificial'.

6.

You might think that element 95 - the synthetic radioactive element that follows plutonium in the periodic table - would be some kind of super-bomb material.  Perhaps a mad scientist is studying it in a lair somewhere, but if you want any, you can simply walk into a shop and buy some in the form of a standard smoke alarm.  Named after the country in which it was first isolated, what is the only synthetic element to have found its way into household use?

7.

Six countries border Libya, three of which are Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria.  Name two of the other 3, none of which has ever played in the finals of a football World Cup.

8.

Six Countries border Burkina Faso, three of which are Mali, Niger and Benin.  Name two of the other 3, all of which made their World Cup finals debut in 2006.

ROUND 5 - Pairs

1.

Which river, 2600km long and the 3rd largest in the world by discharge is known as the river Padma in the country where it enters the sea?

2.

Which river, having a total length of 4370 km and being the 2nd largest in the world by discharge is known as the river Lualaba for the first 1800 km?

3.

Whose signature tune was Inka Dinka Doo?

4.

Whose signature tune was I'm Getting Sentimental Over You?

5.

Which explosive consists of 58 parts of nitroglycerin, 37 parts of gun cotton and 5 parts of vaseline?

6.

Which explosive tested in Kent, and much used in the First World War, consists mainly of picric acid?

7.

Which religious sect was founded by John Darby and Edward Cronin in Dublin 1827?  It has since split into various subgroups, some of the main ones being the Exclusives, the Kellyites, the Newtonites and the Bethesda.

8.

Which mystic healing movement first taught publicly by Li Hongzhi in 1992 has roughly 70 million members?  It has failed to achieve state recognition in the country of its origin.

ROUND 6 - Hidden theme

All the answers are linked by a common theme - some of the theme words appear as 'sound-alikes'

1.

Which British studios, operating between 1924 and 1951, produced films including The Lady Vanishes, Oh, Mr Porter starring Will Hay and The Wicked Lady starring Margaret Lockwood.  The studio was particularly associated with melodramas in the 1940s.

2.

What is the occupation of Dogberry in the play Much Ado about Nothing as described in the dramatis personae?

3.

Which British swimmer won the 200 metre breaststroke in the 1976 Montréal Olympics at the same time breaking the world record?

4.

Who became well known for her broadcasts as an agony aunt on London's Capital radio and has since taken part in many programs on the radio and television including Countdown?  She is a co-writer of the TV series Agony.

5.

Which piece of music by Mussorgsky was used in the film Fantasia?

6.

Who designed Marble Arch and the remodelling of Buckingham House which then became Buckingham Palace?

7.

Which soldier came to prominence during the English Civil War in the sieges of Bristol and Lyme Regis and is known as 'The Father of the British Navy' as, after becoming admiral, he instigated a large building programme expanding the Navy from a few tens of ships to hundreds.

8.

What is the name of the Canadian-born harmonica player who played the theme tune Just an Ordinary Copper for the Dixon of Dock Green series on TV?  The surname is a homonym of the British car manufacturer subsumed into the Nuffield Corporation in 1938 and whose name disappeared from models produced after 1969.

Sp1

What is the name given to the number used in fluid dynamics, which is the ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces?

Sp2

Which British regiment was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Colin Mitchell ('Mad Mitch') during its time in Aden in 1967?

Each answer contains an anagram of the capital city of a country

1.

Which weapon was designed in Czechoslovakia by Václav Holek and was the British and Commonwealth forces' primary infantry weapon in World War II?

2.

Which Australian tennis player won 4 Grand Slam tournaments as an amateur, including 3 in 1956?

3.

Which 1998 film, directed by Nora Ephron, who also wrote the screenplay, is about the owner of a large bookstore chain who starts putting the owner of a small local bookstore out of business?

4.

What word can be a breakwater, a mammal such as talpa europaea, and a spicy sauce?

5.

Which Lord High Chancellor of England was canonised in 1935?  The Soviet Union honoured him for the Communistic attitude toward property rights expressed in one of his works published in 1516.

6.

Who found fame as the author of a book that is narrated by Lorelei Lee in the form of a diary complete with spelling and grammatical errors?  It was made into a 1953 film directed by Howard Hawks.

7.

Which part of a plant derives its name from the Latin for 'medicine extracted from the flower'?

8.

Who found fame playing the part of Rollin Hand in an American TV series of the 1960s and 1970s, and won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for playing the part of Bela Lugosi in the film Ed Wood?

After over 30 years of avid enthusiasm for all things Jeff Lynne – James finally gets to see ELO play live when they start their UK tour this weekend. Here’s a bingo round featuring some of their best known song titles. Should anyone consider this to be of dubious taste, wait until you hear some of the questions…

1.

10538 Overture

Which composer’s overtures include Les Franc Juges, Le Corsaire, Le Roi Lear and Le Carnival Romain?

2.

Can’t Get It Out Of My Head

Which politician, who died of a brain tumour in 1999, is the only MP to have been accused of being drunk at the dispatch box – an accusation strenuously denied at the time, but subsequently admitted in diaries?

3.

Confusion

Which former children’s TV presenter, a Yorkshireman now aged 82, performed poorly in themed episodes of The Weakest Link and Pointless – probably as a result of his then developing Alzheimer’s disease?  More recently he went missing from his home in Majorca leading to an extended – but fortunately successful - Police search.

4.

Eldorado

Eldorado International Airport is the largest airport in which country?

5.

Evil Woman

When Margaret Thatcher died in 2013 (3 years ago on Friday) which song subsequently reached no. 2 in the UK chart (it was no. 1 in Scotland)?   

6.

Jungle

Assisted by the anopheles species, what are plasmodium falciparum, plasmodium ovale, plasmodium vivax and plasmodium knowlesi?

7.

Mr Blue Sky

Who is the current Chief Political Correspondent for Sky News?  In one week last year he managed to use the C-word twice about the Health Secretary, as well as stopping half way through a live broadcast to shout “F***ing Hell” at Big Ben for having the audacity to chime - apparently it was re-recorded but then they broadcast the wrong clip.

8.

Roll Over Beethoven

What is the nickname of Beethoven’s 5th Piano Concerto?

9.

Turn to Stone

One can leave the M6 at, either the southerly A500 junction, or the A34 junction north of Stafford, to get to Stone.  Give the numbers of these junctions.

10.

In which film does the title character build an estate called Xanadu?  His second wife grows to hate the '49,000 acres of nothing but scenery and statues' and it becomes symbolic of the emptiness of the main character’s life.

Spares

1.

The ruins of Nineveh lie very close to which modern day Iraqi city?

2.

What is the name of the battle, which took place on the banks of the river Ouse immediately before Stamford Bridge in 1066?  The golf club which is situated there now hosted the Benson & Hedges International open competition between 1971 and 1989.

3.

In which Shakespeare play do the characters Ferdinand, King of Navarre, and Holofernes, a schoolmaster, appear?

ROUND 1 - Pairs

1.

Who composed the music for the shows Barnum and Sweet Charity?

(Cy) Coleman

2.

Who composed the music for the shows Hello Dolly and Mame?

(Jerry) Herman

3.

What is the name of the cricket ground in Kolkata that hosted the T20 finals on Sunday?

Eden Gardens

4.

The world ranked number one male golfer hails from neither Europe nor the United States.  Who is he?

Jason Day

(of Australia)

5.

The narrative of which book, published in 1860, is set in St Oggs?

Mill on the Floss

6.

The narrative of which book, published in 1959, is set in the village of Slad?

Cider with Rosie

7.

At which battle, which took place near Durham in 1346, was King David the 2nd of Scotland captured?

Neville's Cross

8.

What is the name of the battle, also known as Chevy Chase, which took place in 1388 between the Earl of Douglas and Sir Ralph and Henry Percy?

Otterburn

ROUND 2 - Hidden theme

All the answers are linked by a common theme - some of the theme words appear as 'sound-alikes'

1.

Which celebrity chef’s surname is German for 'flowered valley'?  In 2014, he opened The Perfectionists' Cafe in Heathrow Terminal 2.

Heston Blumenthal

2.

Born in Moss Side and currently a Professor of Public History at Manchester University, which presenter of TV history documentaries has been dubbed 'the thinking woman's crumpet'?

Michael Wood

3.

Opened on 1 January 1940, which was the largest airfield in Europe during WW2?  It had the most USAAF personnel and aircraft maintenance facilities, such that, by the end of the war, 18,000 servicemen were stationed there.  The final remnants were demolished in 2009.

RAF Burtonwood

4.

Which right-wing American organisation is named after an American Baptist missionary and military intelligence officer who was shot and killed by communist forces in China in August 1945, shortly after the conclusion of WW2?

The John Birch Society

5.

What is the famous reply to the following question asked in a movie: "Where shall I go?  What shall I do?"?

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"

(in Gone With The Wind)

6.

At 1191 feet, what two-word name is the most westerly summit on Winter Hill?  It is capped by a Grade II-listed tower.

Rivington Pike

7.

What is the married name of the only mother to have won the Wimbledon singles title sinceWW1?  She won four consecutive Australian Open singles titles in the 1970s.  She got married in Britain just before the 1975 Wimbledon tournament.

Evonne Cawley

(accept Evonne Goolagong)

8.

Originally named the Kaiser Wilhelm when it opened in 1895, which waterway runs roughly from SW to NE for 61 miles?

Kiel Canal

ROUND 3 -  'The Master Round'

Part of each answer can be placed before or after the word 'master' to make another word

1.

What was the name of the versatile musician and broadcaster who was chairman of the radio programme My Music on radio 4 between 1967 and 1994?

(Steve) Race

2.

What was original purpose of the building that became Withington Hospital?

(Chorlton) Workhouse

(Note: 2 occurrences of the theme!)

3.

What is the colloquial name for the coastlines of western South America and the Asian Pacific rim, and the area contained within them - so given because of the presence there of many of the world's most active volcanoes?

'Ring of fire'

4.

Who was the author of The Four Feathers and The House of the Arrow?

(A E W) Mason

5.

What is the name given to the A465 road west of Abergavenny, officially called the 'Neath to Abergavenny trunk road'?  The name is often used in BBC traffic reports.

Head(s) of the Valleys Road

6.

What is the name of the film made in 1948 starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall - together for the last time.  Edward G Robinson played his usual role as a gangster and Jay Silverheels played a minor role as a Seminole Indian.

Key Largo

7.

What is the title of the Sunni Muslim cleric responsible for the Holy Places in Jerusalem?

Grand Mufti

8.

What is being described here?  The first occurrence of these items is believed to be in the Paris area in 1659.  The first one in England was in Wakefield in 1809.  The form that we know them today was designed by Richard Redgrave about 1859 and they were coloured green.

Postboxes

Sp1

The growth of high-tech enterprises in an area close to the City of London has led to the name Silicon Roundabout been given to a major road junction in the centre of this area.  What is the name of the roundabout and the adjoining tube station, which is on the Northern line?

Old Street

Sp2

What is another name for the Spanish dollar, this name giving rise to the nickname of the American Quarter coin?

Piece of Eight

(the $0.25 coin is colloquially called 2 bits)

Sp3

What is the common name for the medical condition known as a cerebrovascular insult?

A stroke

ROUND 4 - Pairs

1.

How is Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha’s investment likely to pay off this year?

He is the owner of Leicester City FC, who are likely to win the Premiership

2.

Former Manchester City, and then FA, Chairman David Bernstein, and former Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King have recently been appointed onto the board of which Football Club?

Aston Villa

3.

Whose shirt in the 20/20 Cricket World cup bore the number 66?

Joe Root

(Route 66)

4.

Which overseas player wears number 45, which is the number of balls it took him to reach the fastest of his several T20 centuries?  When playing in the IPL he has also worn a shirt numbered 333, which is his highest test score.

(of the West Indies)

5.

What is element number 43?  It is the element with the lowest atomic number in the periodic table that has no stable isotopes.  For medical use – in over 10 million diagnostic tests a year – it has to be harvested from molybdenum.  Its name comes from the Greek word for 'artificial'.

(isolated only in 1936, but predicted by Mendeleev in 1871)

6.

You might think that element 95 - the synthetic radioactive element that follows plutonium in the periodic table - would be some kind of super-bomb material.  Perhaps a mad scientist is studying it in a lair somewhere, but if you want any, you can simply walk into a shop and buy some in the form of a standard smoke alarm.  Named after the country in which it was first isolated, what is the only synthetic element to have found its way into household use?

Americium

(It decays at a predictable rate, firing alpha particles at a receptor - if smoke gets in between, the rate of particles hitting the sensor drops, and sets off your alarm)

7.

Six countries border Libya, three of which are Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria.  Name two of the other 3, none of which has ever played in the finals of a football World Cup.

Niger, Chad, Sudan

8.

Six Countries border Burkina Faso, three of which are Mali, Niger and Benin.  Name two of the other 3, all of which made their World Cup finals debut in 2006.

Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast

ROUND 5 - Pairs

1.

Which river, 2600km long and the 3rd largest in the world by discharge is known as the river Padma in the country where it enters the sea?

Ganges

2.

Which river, having a total length of 4370 km and being the 2nd largest in the world by discharge is known as the river Lualaba for the first 1800 km?

Congo

3.

Whose signature tune was Inka Dinka Doo?

Jimmy Durante

4.

Whose signature tune was I'm Getting Sentimental Over You?

Tommy Dorsey

5.

Which explosive consists of 58 parts of nitroglycerin, 37 parts of gun cotton and 5 parts of vaseline?

Cordite

6.

Which explosive tested in Kent, and much used in the First World War, consists mainly of picric acid?

Lyddite

7.

Which religious sect was founded by John Darby and Edward Cronin in Dublin 1827?  It has since split into various subgroups, some of the main ones being the Exclusives, the Kellyites, the Newtonites and the Bethesda.

The Plymouth Brethren

8.

Which mystic healing movement first taught publicly by Li Hongzhi in 1992 has roughly 70 million members?  It has failed to achieve state recognition in the country of its origin.

Falun Gong

ROUND 6 - Hidden theme

All the answers are linked by a common theme - some of the theme words appear as 'sound-alikes'

1.

Which British studios, operating between 1924 and 1951, produced films including The Lady Vanishes, Oh, Mr Porter starring Will Hay and The Wicked Lady starring Margaret Lockwood.  The studio was particularly associated with melodramas in the 1940s.

Gainsborough Pictures

2.

What is the occupation of Dogberry in the play Much Ado about Nothing as described in the dramatis personae?

Constable

3.

Which British swimmer won the 200 metre breaststroke in the 1976 Montréal Olympics at the same time breaking the world record?

(David) Wilkie

4.

Who became well known for her broadcasts as an agony aunt on London's Capital radio and has since taken part in many programs on the radio and television including Countdown?  She is a co-writer of the TV series Agony.

(Anna) Raeburn

5.

Which piece of music by Mussorgsky was used in the film Fantasia?

(St John's) Night on Bare/Bald Mountain

6.

Who designed Marble Arch and the remodelling of Buckingham House which then became Buckingham Palace?

(John) Nash

7.

Which soldier came to prominence during the English Civil War in the sieges of Bristol and Lyme Regis and is known as 'The Father of the British Navy' as, after becoming admiral, he instigated a large building programme expanding the Navy from a few tens of ships to hundreds.

(Robert) Blake
 

8.

What is the name of the Canadian-born harmonica player who played the theme tune Just an Ordinary Copper for the Dixon of Dock Green series on TV?  The surname is a homonym of the British car manufacturer subsumed into the Nuffield Corporation in 1938 and whose name disappeared from models produced after 1969.

(Tommy) Reilly
 

Sp1

What is the name given to the number used in fluid dynamics, which is the ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces?

Reynold's number
 

Sp2

Which British regiment was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Colin Mitchell ('Mad Mitch') during its time in Aden in 1967?

ROUND 7 - 'Capital Confusion'

Each answer contains an anagram of the capital city of a country

1.

Which weapon was designed in Czechoslovakia by Václav Holek and was the British and Commonwealth forces' primary infantry weapon in World War II?

Bren Gun

(Bern)

2.

Which Australian tennis player won 4 Grand Slam tournaments as an amateur, including 3 in 1956?

Lew Hoad

(Doha)

3.

Which 1998 film, directed by Nora Ephron, who also wrote the screenplay, is about the owner of a large bookstore chain who starts putting the owner of a small local bookstore out of business?

You’ve Got Mail

(Lima)

4.

What word can be a breakwater, a mammal such as talpa europaea, and a spicy sauce?

Mole

(Lome)

5.

Which Lord High Chancellor of England was canonised in 1935?  The Soviet Union honoured him for the Communistic attitude toward property rights expressed in one of his works published in 1516.

Thomas More

(Rome - the work in question is Utopia)

6.

Who found fame as the author of a book that is narrated by Lorelei Lee in the form of a diary complete with spelling and grammatical errors?  It was made into a 1953 film directed by Howard Hawks.

Anita Loos

(Oslo - the book in question is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes)

7.

Which part of a plant derives its name from the Latin for 'medicine extracted from the flower'?

Anther

(Tehran)

8.

Who found fame playing the part of Rollin Hand in an American TV series of the 1960s and 1970s, and won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for playing the part of Bela Lugosi in the film Ed Wood?

Martin Landau

(Luanda - the TV series was Mission Impossible)

ROUND 8 - 'Electric Light Orchestra Bingo'

After over 30 years of avid enthusiasm for all things Jeff Lynne – James finally gets to see ELO play live when they start their UK tour this weekend. Here’s a bingo round featuring some of their best known song titles. Should anyone consider this to be of dubious taste, wait until you hear some of the questions…

1.

10538 Overture

Which composer’s overtures include Les Franc Juges, Le Corsaire, Le Roi Lear and Le Carnival Romain?

Hector Berlioz

2.

Can’t Get It Out Of My Head

Which politician, who died of a brain tumour in 1999, is the only MP to have been accused of being drunk at the dispatch box – an accusation strenuously denied at the time, but subsequently admitted in diaries?

Alan Clark

3.

Confusion

Which former children’s TV presenter, a Yorkshireman now aged 82, performed poorly in themed episodes of The Weakest Link and Pointless – probably as a result of his then developing Alzheimer’s disease?  More recently he went missing from his home in Majorca leading to an extended – but fortunately successful - Police search.

John Noakes

4.

Eldorado

Eldorado International Airport is the largest airport in which country?

Colombia

(main hub for Bogota)

5.

Evil Woman

When Margaret Thatcher died in 2013 (3 years ago on Friday) which song subsequently reached no. 2 in the UK chart (it was no. 1 in Scotland)?   

Ding Dong!  The Witch is Dead

(from The Wizard of Oz)

6.

Jungle

Assisted by the anopheles species, what are plasmodium falciparum, plasmodium ovale, plasmodium vivax and plasmodium knowlesi?

They are varieties of malaria

7.

Mr Blue Sky

Who is the current Chief Political Correspondent for Sky News?  In one week last year he managed to use the C-word twice about the Health Secretary, as well as stopping half way through a live broadcast to shout “F***ing Hell” at Big Ben for having the audacity to chime - apparently it was re-recorded but then they broadcast the wrong clip.

Jon Craig

8.

Roll Over Beethoven

What is the nickname of Beethoven’s 5th Piano Concerto?

The Emperor

9.

Turn to Stone

One can leave the M6 at, either the southerly A500 junction, or the A34 junction north of Stafford, to get to Stone.  Give the numbers of these junctions.

14 and 15

10.

In which film does the title character build an estate called Xanadu?  His second wife grows to hate the '49,000 acres of nothing but scenery and statues' and it becomes symbolic of the emptiness of the main character’s life.

Citizen Kane

Spares

1.

The ruins of Nineveh lie very close to which modern day Iraqi city?

Mosul

2.

What is the name of the battle, which took place on the banks of the river Ouse immediately before Stamford Bridge in 1066?  The golf club which is situated there now hosted the Benson & Hedges International open competition between 1971 and 1989.

Fulford

3.

In which Shakespeare play do the characters Ferdinand, King of Navarre, and Holofernes, a schoolmaster, appear?

Love's Labours Lost