1.

Name either of the only two countries in the world which have the colour purple in their flags.  In one, it appears in a small rainbow motif, in the other as the colour of a parrot depicted in the centre of the flag.  Both countries border the Caribbean Sea.

2.

What was the name of the racehorse which was the subject of an ownership dispute between Sir Alex Ferguson and stud farm magnate John Magnier?

3.

The song Sit Down by James was written as a homage to which author who died in 2013?  Born in Iran, she was raised in Rhodesia and is best known for her novel The Grass is Singing.

4.

What was the name of the Jamaican businesswoman who set up the 'British Hotel' behind the lines during the Crimean War, a recuperation area for sick and convalescent officers?  She was largely forgotten for over a century but her reputation has grown over the last fifty years or so, culminating in her being voted 'Greatest Black Briton' in 2004.

5.

Athens, Vancouver, Melbourne, Auckland and Cheshire have been international locations for spin-offs of which American reality TV series which began with an Orange County version and also includes instalments set in New Jersey, Beverly Hills and Miami?

6.

In The Lord of the Rings books, by what name is Aragorn introduced when first encountered at Bree?  The hobbits continue to call him by this name throughout the book.

7.

Camberwick Green narrator Brian Cant was married to the sister of which TV presenter, who is herself married to Phil Vickery, the TV chef?

8.

Who has a typecast cameo in the original Trainspotting film playing an irritating Game Show presenter?

Sp.

Which novel has inspired songs or albums by Taylor Swift, Tom Waits and Marilyn Manson and also gives its name to a neurological condition affecting perception of size?

ROUND 2 - 'A Hartlepuddlian Round'

A campaign promise kept

1.

Which Hartlepool-born TV personality presents the Soccer Saturday programme on Sky TV?

2.

Which long running Daily Mirror comic strip was set in Hartlepool?

3.

HMS Trimcomalee, built in 1817, is the main attraction at the Maritime Museum in Hartlepool Docks.  What record does it hold?

4.

In 2002 Stuart Drummond was elected Mayor of Hartlepool wearing a monkey costume.  Under what name did he campaign?

5.

In December 1914 German warships shelled Hartlepool.  Name one of the other two east coast towns that were attacked in this raid.

6.

The American rock star, Michael Lee Aday, is claimed to be a supporter of Hartlepool United FC.  How is he better known?

7.

Name the MP who represented Hartlepool between 1992 and 2004.  At various times he held the posts of Northern Ireland Secretary and Minister of Trade and Industry.

8.

Hartlepool-born Jeremy Spencer was the lead guitarist in the original line up of which legendary rock group?

Sp.

The director of the films The Duellists, Gladiator and Blade Runner is a supporter of Hartlepool United FC.  What is his name?

1.

In which film would you find the following line: "You can’t fight in here, this is the war room"?

2.

In which film would you find the following line: "This is war.  This is not a game of cricket."?

3.

The following words come from which song: "He’s a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain, a Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew, and he knows he shouldn’t kill."?

4.

The following words come from which song: "Eight to ten years after coming home, almost eight hundred thousand men are still fighting the Vietnam War."?

5.

Who said: "War is hell"?

6.

Who said: "Draft beer, not people"?

7.

Who rode Bucephalus into battle?

8.

Who rode Marengo into battle?

Sp.

Who rode Copenhagen into battle?

1.

Anatomy

Where in the body would you find the medial and lateral cuneiform bones?

2.

Kol Nidre

The Kol Nidre service takes place on the evening before Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Which German Protestant composer wrote a piece for cello and orchestra entitled Kol Nidrei?

3.

Links

What links Mahler’s 10th Symphony and Mozart’s Requiem Mass?

4.

Name change

Which college of Cambridge University changed its name to Murray Edwards College in 2008?

5.

Archers

Which character in The Archers is played by an actor who until his retirement from the NHS in 2017 was a full-time general practitioner?

6.

Medical terms

What is meant by the medical term deglutition?

7.

Last lines

Which poem ends with the words: "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born"?  (either title or author is required)

8.

Links

What name links John Updike’s character Rabbit and a Swedish physicist after whom a unit of length is named?

9.

Autobiography

Which former political editor of the BBC entitled his autobiography As It Seemed to Me?

10.

Foundation

Which organisation was founded in 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D W Griffiths?

11.

Genetics

Often called 'The father of modern genetics', the monk Gregor Mendel used what type of plant in his research?

12

Links

What name links an actor and female celebrity impersonator, born Daniel Patrick Carroll, with a British company known for high-security printing of papers such as bank notes and passports?

1.

Anatomy

Where in the body would you find the sphenoid bone?

2.

Kol Nidre

The Kol Nidre service takes place on the evening before Yom Kippur the day of atonement. Which Austrian Jewish composer wrote a piece for narrator, choir and orchestra entitled Kol Nidre?

3.

Links

What name is common to salt-cured, sometimes smoked, salmon and a component of rocket fuel?

4.

Name change

In 2017 a college of which American university changed its name from Calhoun College to Grace Hopper College?

5.

Archers

Which character in The Archers is played by the 12th Earl of Portland?

6.

Medical terms

What is meant by the medical term micturition?

7.

Last lines

Which poem ends with the words: "A sadder and wiser man / He rose the morrow morn"? (either title or author is required)

8.

Links

What links Owen Meany in John Irving’s Prayer for Owen Meany and Death (and Death of Rats) in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books?

9.

Autobiography

Which former chief political correspondent of the BBC entitled his autobiography Give Me Ten Seconds?

10.

Foundation

Which organisation was founded in 1947 by, amongst others, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour and George Rodger?

11.

Genetics

What kind of insect did the American geneticist Thomas Morgan, who received the Nobel prize for medicine in 1933, use in his research?

12

Links

What name links a light in the Elizabeth Tower which is normally lit on the evenings when Parliament is sitting and the second of two Formula 1 racing drivers who died on consecutive days in 1994?

ROUND 6 - Run Ons

The last word of the first answer is the first (or the first part of the first, at least) of the second: for example, 'Innocuous statue and Irish actor' would be 'Venus de Milo O’Shea'.  First names (or initials) and last names of people are required unless otherwise specified.  There are some homonyms.

1.

Eponymous hero of an opera by Benjamin Britten set entirely aboard a ship and ending with the hero’s death; Straight man in an American comic duo popular in films in the 1940s.

2.

1998 romantic comedy starring Cameron Diaz and involving some unusual hair gel; instigator of the last private prosecution in the UK for blasphemous libel (the crime was abolished, long afterwards, in 2008).

3.

Curiously-named subject of a song made popular by Johnny Cash; influential rock/punk band formed in 1976, originally and very transiently with the man who later became Sid Vicious on drums.

4.

The soothsayer’s five-word response in Shakespeare’s play when taunted by Julius Caesar with the words "The ides of March are come"; film which won several Oscars, including best picture, in 1940.

5.

British comedy duo who between 1956 and 1967 wrote and performed revues consisting of monologues and songs; English title of the first volume of À la Recherche du Temps Perdu.

6.

British bass-baritone, long-time panellist who appeared on every episode of the BBC’s My Music, particularly known for performances of Flanders and Swann’s Hippopotamus Song; best-known characters of Aardman Animations.

7.

German-American film star whose signature song was Falling in Love Again; German lyric baritone known particularly for his performances of Schubert lieder.

8.

Knighted actor who starred in Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut film Quartet; British musician, founder of Jazz Warriors who plays clarinet, bass clarinet and flute but is best known as a saxophonist, awarded a CBE in 2009 for services to jazz.

Sp.

Australian writer, winner of the Booker Prize in 1988 and 2001; English actor and Hollywood star, born in Bristol who was nominated for a best actor Oscar but received only an honorary award, in 1974.

ROUND 7 - A Swedish Round

A tribute to Ashton’s apology for not listening when we played the Opsimaths and being unable to tell the difference between Sweden and the Netherlands

1.

Swedish author David Lagercrantz has written two follow-up novels to which trilogy?  (the name of the trilogy, not any of its component novels, is required)

2.

Which Ingmar Bergman film concerns grouchy Professor Isak Borg’s journey from Stockholm to Lund to be awarded an honorary doctorate?

3.

Daniel Ek is the founder and CEO of which company which has been heavily criticised by musicians such as Thom Yorke, David Byrne and Taylor Swift?

4.

The year before they won with Waterloo, with which repetitively-titled song did Abba enter the Swedish heats for Eurovision, finishing third?

5.

Which Swede is the only male Scandinavian to have won one of golf’s major tournaments, following his Open victory in 2016?

6.

Which Swedish band of the 1990s released albums entitled Gran Turismo and First Band on the Moon?

7.

The Red Room, The Father and Miss Julie are the works of which man, considered the father of Swedish literature?

8.

What is Sweden’s fourth largest city after Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo?

Sp.

What is the name of the current Swedish monarch? (regnal number not required)

1.

Which song, which has become a Hibernian FC anthem, is the title track of the musical which features the songs of the Reid twins?

2.

What two word phrase did Coldplay’s Chris Martin and wife Gwyneth Paltrow use to describe their separation in 2014?

3.

What is the name of the disgraced Trinidadian FIFA official now facing extradition to the US for criminal prosecution for racketeering and money-laundering?

4.

In which English city is the longest guided busway in the world?  It connects the city to Histon and Impington amongst other places.

5.

Galaxies come in three classes: spiral, irregular and which other?

6.

Named his country’s player of the century in 1999, what was the arboreal nickname of All-Black lock forward Colin Meads, who died in August?

7.

Which Oscar-winning film of the 1950s has a title taken from Rudyard Kipling’s 1892 poem Gentleman Rankers? It follows and rhymes with the line "Gentleman Rankers, out on the spree, Damned …".

8.

The U2 song New Year’s Day is about which movement of the early 1980s?

Sp.

What word is used by Native Americans to refer to European Americans with little or no blood links to any tribe but who claim to be American Indians?  It is also the name of a popular snack cake in the US described as a golden sponge cake with a creamy filling.

1.

Name either of the only two countries in the world which have the colour purple in their flags.  In one, it appears in a small rainbow motif, in the other as the colour of a parrot depicted in the centre of the flag.  Both countries border the Caribbean Sea.

(either) Nicaragua (the rainbow)

2.

What was the name of the racehorse which was the subject of an ownership dispute between Sir Alex Ferguson and stud farm magnate John Magnier?

Rock of Gibraltar

3.

The song Sit Down by James was written as a homage to which author who died in 2013?  Born in Iran, she was raised in Rhodesia and is best known for her novel The Grass is Singing.

Doris Lessing

4.

What was the name of the Jamaican businesswoman who set up the 'British Hotel' behind the lines during the Crimean War, a recuperation area for sick and convalescent officers?  She was largely forgotten for over a century but her reputation has grown over the last fifty years or so, culminating in her being voted 'Greatest Black Briton' in 2004.

Mary Seacole

5.

Athens, Vancouver, Melbourne, Auckland and Cheshire have been international locations for spin-offs of which American reality TV series which began with an Orange County version and also includes instalments set in New Jersey, Beverly Hills and Miami?

The Real Housewives of…

6.

In The Lord of the Rings books, by what name is Aragorn introduced when first encountered at Bree?  The hobbits continue to call him by this name throughout the book.

Strider

7.

Camberwick Green narrator Brian Cant was married to the sister of which TV presenter, who is herself married to Phil Vickery, the TV chef?

Fern Britton

8.

Who has a typecast cameo in the original Trainspotting film playing an irritating Game Show presenter?

Dale Winton

Sp.

Which novel has inspired songs or albums by Taylor Swift, Tom Waits and Marilyn Manson and also gives its name to a neurological condition affecting perception of size?

Alice in Wonderland

1.

Which Hartlepool-born TV personality presents the Soccer Saturday programme on Sky TV?

Jeff Stelling

2.

Which long running Daily Mirror comic strip was set in Hartlepool?

Andy Capp

3.

HMS Trimcomalee, built in 1817, is the main attraction at the Maritime Museum in Hartlepool Docks.  What record does it hold?

It is the oldest British warship still afloat

4.

In 2002 Stuart Drummond was elected Mayor of Hartlepool wearing a monkey costume.  Under what name did he campaign?

H’Angus The Monkey

5.

In December 1914 German warships shelled Hartlepool.  Name one of the other two east coast towns that were attacked in this raid.

(either) Scarborough

(or) Whitby

6.

The American rock star, Michael Lee Aday, is claimed to be a supporter of Hartlepool United FC.  How is he better known?

Meat Loaf

7.

Name the MP who represented Hartlepool between 1992 and 2004.  At various times he held the posts of Northern Ireland Secretary and Minister of Trade and Industry.

Peter Mandelson

8.

Hartlepool-born Jeremy Spencer was the lead guitarist in the original line up of which legendary rock group?

Fleetwood Mac

Sp.

The director of the films The Duellists, Gladiator and Blade Runner is a supporter of Hartlepool United FC.  What is his name?

Ridley Scott

1.

In which film would you find the following line: "You can’t fight in here, this is the war room"?

Dr Strangelove

2.

In which film would you find the following line: "This is war.  This is not a game of cricket."?

The Bridge on the River Kwai

3.

The following words come from which song: "He’s a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain, a Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew, and he knows he shouldn’t kill."?

Universal Soldier

4.

The following words come from which song: "Eight to ten years after coming home, almost eight hundred thousand men are still fighting the Vietnam War."?

19

5.

Who said: "War is hell"?

General Sherman

6.

Who said: "Draft beer, not people"?

Bob Dylan

7.

Who rode Bucephalus into battle?

Alexander the Great

8.

Who rode Marengo into battle?

Napoleon

Sp.

Who rode Copenhagen into battle?

Wellington

1.

Anatomy

Where in the body would you find the medial and lateral cuneiform bones?

The foot

2.

Kol Nidre

The Kol Nidre service takes place on the evening before Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Which German Protestant composer wrote a piece for cello and orchestra entitled Kol Nidrei?

Bruch

3.

Links

What links Mahler’s 10th Symphony and Mozart’s Requiem Mass?

Both were unfinished when the composer died

4.

Name change

Which college of Cambridge University changed its name to Murray Edwards College in 2008?

New Hall

5.

Archers

Which character in The Archers is played by an actor who until his retirement from the NHS in 2017 was a full-time general practitioner?

Robert Snell

6.

Medical terms

What is meant by the medical term deglutition?

Swallowing

7.

Last lines

Which poem ends with the words: "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born"?  (either title or author is required)

Yeats (or)

The Second Coming

8.

Links

What name links John Updike’s character Rabbit and a Swedish physicist after whom a unit of length is named?

Angstrom

9.

Autobiography

Which former political editor of the BBC entitled his autobiography As It Seemed to Me?

John Cole

10.

Foundation

Which organisation was founded in 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D W Griffiths?

United Artists

11.

Genetics

Often called 'The father of modern genetics', the monk Gregor Mendel used what type of plant in his research?

Pea

12

Links

What name links an actor and female celebrity impersonator, born Daniel Patrick Carroll, with a British company known for high-security printing of papers such as bank notes and passports?

(de) la Rue

1.

Anatomy

Where in the body would you find the sphenoid bone?

The skull

2.

Kol Nidre

The Kol Nidre service takes place on the evening before Yom Kippur the day of atonement. Which Austrian Jewish composer wrote a piece for narrator, choir and orchestra entitled Kol Nidre?

Schönberg

3.

Links

What name is common to salt-cured, sometimes smoked, salmon and a component of rocket fuel?

 Lox

4.

Name change

In 2017 a college of which American university changed its name from Calhoun College to Grace Hopper College?

Yale

5.

Archers

Which character in The Archers is played by the 12th Earl of Portland?

David Archer

6.

Medical terms

What is meant by the medical term micturition?

Urination

7.

Last lines

Which poem ends with the words: "A sadder and wiser man / He rose the morrow morn"? (either title or author is required)

Coleridge (or)

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

8.

Links

What links Owen Meany in John Irving’s Prayer for Owen Meany and Death (and Death of Rats) in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books?

All their speech is printed in block capitals

9.

Autobiography

Which former chief political correspondent of the BBC entitled his autobiography Give Me Ten Seconds?

John Sergeant

10.

Foundation

Which organisation was founded in 1947 by, amongst others, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour and George Rodger?

Magnum photos

11.

Genetics

What kind of insect did the American geneticist Thomas Morgan, who received the Nobel prize for medicine in 1933, use in his research?

Fruit fly

(Drosophila melanogaster)

12

Links

What name links a light in the Elizabeth Tower which is normally lit on the evenings when Parliament is sitting and the second of two Formula 1 racing drivers who died on consecutive days in 1994?

Ayrton

(light and Senna)

ROUND 6 - Run Ons

The last word of the first answer is the first (or the first part of the first, at least) of the second: for example, 'Innocuous statue and Irish actor' would be 'Venus de Milo O’Shea'.  First names (or initials) and last names of people are required unless otherwise specified.  There are some homonyms.

1.

Eponymous hero of an opera by Benjamin Britten set entirely aboard a ship and ending with the hero’s death; Straight man in an American comic duo popular in films in the 1940s.

Billy Budd/Bud Abbott

2.

1998 romantic comedy starring Cameron Diaz and involving some unusual hair gel; instigator of the last private prosecution in the UK for blasphemous libel (the crime was abolished, long afterwards, in 2008).

There’s Something about Mary Whitehouse

3.

Curiously-named subject of a song made popular by Johnny Cash; influential rock/punk band formed in 1976, originally and very transiently with the man who later became Sid Vicious on drums.

A boy named Sue/Siouxsie and the Banshees

4.

The soothsayer’s five-word response in Shakespeare’s play when taunted by Julius Caesar with the words "The ides of March are come"; film which won several Oscars, including best picture, in 1940.

"Aye, Caesar, but not Gone" With The Wind

5.

British comedy duo who between 1956 and 1967 wrote and performed revues consisting of monologues and songs; English title of the first volume of À la Recherche du Temps Perdu.

Flanders and Swann’s Way

6.

British bass-baritone, long-time panellist who appeared on every episode of the BBC’s My Music, particularly known for performances of Flanders and Swann’s Hippopotamus Song; best-known characters of Aardman Animations.

Ian Wallace and Gromit

7.

German-American film star whose signature song was Falling in Love Again; German lyric baritone known particularly for his performances of Schubert lieder.

Marlene Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

8.

Knighted actor who starred in Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut film Quartet; British musician, founder of Jazz Warriors who plays clarinet, bass clarinet and flute but is best known as a saxophonist, awarded a CBE in 2009 for services to jazz.

Tom Courtenay/Courtney Pine

Sp.

Australian writer, winner of the Booker Prize in 1988 and 2001; English actor and Hollywood star, born in Bristol who was nominated for a best actor Oscar but received only an honorary award, in 1974.

Peter Carey/Cary Grant

ROUND 7 - A Swedish Round

A tribute to Ashton’s apology for not listening when we played the Opsimaths and being unable to tell the difference between Sweden and the Netherlands

1.

Swedish author David Lagercrantz has written two follow-up novels to which trilogy?  (the name of the trilogy, not any of its component novels, is required)

The Millennium Trilogy

2.

Which Ingmar Bergman film concerns grouchy Professor Isak Borg’s journey from Stockholm to Lund to be awarded an honorary doctorate?

Wild Strawberries

3.

Daniel Ek is the founder and CEO of which company which has been heavily criticised by musicians such as Thom Yorke, David Byrne and Taylor Swift?

Spotify

4.

The year before they won with Waterloo, with which repetitively-titled song did Abba enter the Swedish heats for Eurovision, finishing third?

Ring Ring

5.

Which Swede is the only male Scandinavian to have won one of golf’s major tournaments, following his Open victory in 2016?

Henrik Stenson

6.

Which Swedish band of the 1990s released albums entitled Gran Turismo and First Band on the Moon?

The Cardigans

7.

The Red Room, The Father and Miss Julie are the works of which man, considered the father of Swedish literature?

August Strindberg

8.

What is Sweden’s fourth largest city after Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo?

Uppsala

Sp.

What is the name of the current Swedish monarch? (regnal number not required)

Carl Gustaf (XVI)

1.

Which song, which has become a Hibernian FC anthem, is the title track of the musical which features the songs of the Reid twins?

Sunshine on Leith

2.

What two word phrase did Coldplay’s Chris Martin and wife Gwyneth Paltrow use to describe their separation in 2014?

"Conscious uncoupling"

3.

What is the name of the disgraced Trinidadian FIFA official now facing extradition to the US for criminal prosecution for racketeering and money-laundering?

Jack Warner

4.

In which English city is the longest guided busway in the world?  It connects the city to Histon and Impington amongst other places.

Cambridge

5.

Galaxies come in three classes: spiral, irregular and which other?

Elliptical

6.

Named his country’s player of the century in 1999, what was the arboreal nickname of All-Black lock forward Colin Meads, who died in August?

Pinetree

7.

Which Oscar-winning film of the 1950s has a title taken from Rudyard Kipling’s 1892 poem Gentleman Rankers? It follows and rhymes with the line "Gentleman Rankers, out on the spree, Damned …".

From Here to Eternity

8.

The U2 song New Year’s Day is about which movement of the early 1980s?

Solidarity

Sp.

What word is used by Native Americans to refer to European Americans with little or no blood links to any tribe but who claim to be American Indians?  It is also the name of a popular snack cake in the US described as a golden sponge cake with a creamy filling.

Twinkie