ROUND 1 - Runners-up

Which person, team, horse or song (as appropriate) came second to ...

1.

Greg Rusedski, in the 1997 BBC Sports Personality of the Year? (person)

2.

Leicester City, in the 2015/16 Premier League season? (team)

3.

Usain Bolt, in the London 2012 men’s 100m final? (person)

4.

Dennis Taylor, in the 1985 World Snooker Championship? (person)

5.

Rag Trade, in the 1976 Grand National? (horse)

6.

Joe Dolce’s Shadap you Face, in the UK Singles charts in 1981? (song)

7.

Coventry City, in the 1987 FA Cup final? (team)

8.

Diversity, in Britain’s Got Talent in 2009? (person)

Sp1

Bradley Wiggins, in the 2012 Tour de France? (person)

Sp2

New Zealand, in the first Rugby World Cup in 1987 (team)

Sp3

Will Young, in the first series of Pop Idol (person)

Go to Round 1 questions with answers

ROUND 2 - Pairs

1.

Franklin Roosevelt introduced a group of policies known as the New Deal.  Which President was responsible for initiating the Fair Deal?

2.

Which 20th century American President was married at St George’s, Hanover Square in London?

3.

UAVs are in common use in the war in Ukraine at present.  What do the initials UAV stand for?

4.

ATACMS are in common use in the war in Ukraine at present.  What do the initials ATACMS stand for?

5.

In 1919 Hollywood film stars Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and director D W Griffith set up a film studio.  What was it called?

6.

Film mogul Harry Cohn, known at various times as 'White Fang' and 'the most hated man in Hollywood' ran which Hollywood film company between 1918 and 1958?

7.

Manchester City has recorded the highest number of Premier League points in a single season (100).  Which team has won the League with the fewest points?

8.

Which team has been relegated from the Premier League with the most points in a season?

Sp.

Which American President initiated the Square Deal policies?

Go to Round 2 questions with answers

ROUND 3 - Hidden theme

Usual caveats apply; theme words may be parts of longer words in the answer

1.

Which highly successful English rock group of the 1970s bore the name of its three members?  Their albums included the entertainingly named Brain Salad Surgery and their highest-charting UK single was a cover of Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man.

2.

Which book by Beatrix Potter tells of a naïve animal sent by an apparently hospitable, gentlemanly fox to collect ingredients for sage and onion stuffing?

3.

What is the next line of this poem?

“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold”.

Blockbuster clue: MAILUTW.

4.

Complete this poem’s first line, which begins:

 “Once upon a midnight dreary”.

Blockbuster clue: WIPWAW.

5.

Which programming language was developed in the 1970s at Bell Laboratories?  It was used to write the bulk of the operating system Unix, which underpins Apple’s MacOS and runs on the bulk of the computers which form the internet.

6.

Which English adventurer was appointed Rajah of Sarawak by the Sultan of Brunei and ruled there from 1841 until his death 1868, the first of the White Rajahs?

7.

What was the stage name of the American actor whose surname at birth was Bottom and who was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar in 1988.  He died very young? (first name and surname required)

8.

What name is given to the playing of music and films in real time while they are being downloaded, rather than waiting until the download is complete?

Sp.

Which character’s name appears the title of a 2001 comedy film starring, amongst others, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts?  It has had several similarly-titled, numbered sequels.

Go to Round 3 questions with answers

ROUND 4 - 'So here it is … ' - A Round on festive music

1.

What is the name of the musical suite composed by Sergei Prokofiev to accompany a 1934 film of the same name?  Sleigh bells feature prominently in one of its five movements.

2.

A 1975 Christmas number 2 hit samples Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé.  Name either the musician or the song (there are no bonus points for getting both).

3.

Who composed the 1854 oratorio L’Enfance du Christ, the best known section of which is The Shepherd’s Farewell?

4.

Who is the only person to sing their own name in the original version of Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid?

5.

What dessert is mentioned in the lyrics to Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree?

6.

A Ceremony of Carols is a 1942 Christmas choral work by which British composer?

7.

In the lyrics to the song Winter Wonderland we are invited to pretend that the snowman built in the meadow is which man?

8.

The Christmas song Do You Hear What I Hear? was written in 1962 as a plea for peace in response to which event?

Sp1

Who wrote and performed the Christmas song Run Rudolph Run?

Sp2

The music for the carol Hark! The Herald Angels Sing was adapted by Charles Wesley and George Whitefield from an original composition by which 19th century composer?

Go to Round 4 questions with answers

ROUND 5 - Blockbuster Bingo

Choose the initial letters of the words in the answer to get your question

1.

BO

Which football club, in existence for only ten years, was the first Northern club and the first from a working class background to win the FA Cup?

2.

MI

Which film production, company founded in 1961, made films such as A Room With a View and The Remains of the Day?

3.

SBDM

What name is given to the1572 slaughter of Huguenots which started in Paris and spread across France?

4.

AW

What name is given to a confined aquifer in which hydrostatic pressure brings water to the surface?

5.

ES

Which Roman Road ran from London to Lincoln and York?

6.

PAT

What is the title of the play within a play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

7.

AR

Which biblical object changed into a serpent and lends its name to a plant

8.

BMN

Which turn-taking card game also known as Strip Jack Naked?

9.

FOA

Where in Warwickshire is the setting for Shakespeare’s As You Like It?

10.

DCFC

What is the name of the American rock band from Washington State whose breakthrough album was 2003’s Transatlanticsm?

Go to Round 5 questions with answers

ROUND 6 - Hidden theme

1.

What is the name of the annual Australian prize for journalistic excellence?

2.

The Brickyard is the nickname for which US racing circuit?

3.

Which metallic element has the highest melting point?

4.

What surname links a fictional television butler and a fictional housekeeper?

5.

What number is 10 to the power 18?

6.

Of where is Tashkent the capital?

7.

Which port town is 6 miles north west of Grimsby?

8.

What are Burchells, Grevy’s and Hartmann’s?

Go to Round 6 questions with answers

ROUND 7 - Hidden theme

Where the answer is a name, first name and surname are required

1.

Which English privateer was killed in action in 1591 when his ship, The Revenge, took on 53 Spanish ships?

2.

Which eponymous animated hero, voiced by Michael J Fox, starred in three films between 1999-2005?  The final part of the trilogy was subtitled Call of the Wild.

3.

Which Welsh rugby union international, although born in England in 1992, played for Scarlets, Northampton, Saints and Ospreys before transferring to the French club, Provence, in 2024?

4.

Which weather area lies between Sole and Trafalgar?

5.

Who wrote the gothic novel The Castle of Otranto?

6.

A 2015 film, which includes in its title the name of one of the most violent suburbs of Los Angeles, relates the story of the rise and fall of notorious hip hop group NWA.  What is the name of the film?

7.

A 1950s group of British session musicians were one hit wonders with Hoots Mon (re-released twice since 1958), which includes such immortal lines as “There’s a moose loose aboot this hoose”.  What was the name of the group?

8.

A heist film of 1974 starred Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw and takes its title from a train radio call sign.  What is the title?

Sp.

Only one English county contains two National Parks entirely within its boundaries.  Name it.

Go to Round 7 questions with answers

ROUND 8 - Run-ons

Beware soundalikes et cetera; definite and indefinite articles may, indeed should, be ignored

First names and surnames required unless otherwise specified

1.

1963 satirical stage musical and 1969 film, set during the First World War,

&

fictional seaside town in which John le Mesurier played chief clerk to Arthur Lowe’s bank manager.

2.

Former chief executive of BP, who resigned abruptly in 2023 as a result of sexual misdemeanours

&

American media franchise, home of, among others, Bugs Bunny.

3.

British entrepreneur, founder of Sports Direct,

&

adultery-promoting web site whose slogan is 'Life is short. Have an affair'.

4.

Ghost story by Henry James featuring children Flora and Miles (also an opera by Benjamin Britten),

&

novel by C S Lewis consisting of correspondence from a senior devil to his nephew, Wormwood.

5.

Former chairman of the US Federal Reserve whose description in 1996 of stock markets’ “irrational exuberance” led to dramatic falls around the world,

&

popular name of an organization active in the late 15th and early 16th centuries whose first president was Tomas de Torquemada.

6.

US painter Grant Wood’s most famous work, a double portrait with pitchfork,

&

disorder caused by spasmodic contractions of the diaphragm for which there is a variety of entertaining 'cures', none of which works.

7.

British jazz musician, widow of Sir John Dankworth and a Dame in her own right, now aged 97, once described in the Sunday Times as “quite simply the best singer in the world”,

&

surname of the founder of lastminute.com, now a baroness.

8.

English title of a 1997 French memoir describing the author’s life before and after a massive stroke which left him able to communicate only by blinking,

&

popular name for a principle of chaos theory, that trivial events may have vastly more significant consequences.

Sp1

Piano manufacturer founded in Berlin in 1853,

&

piano manufacturer founded in New York in 1853.

Sp2

1984 comedy-adventure film starring Kathleen Turner, Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito, set mostly in Columbia,

&

surname of Labour member of parliament and minister who in 1974 faked his suicide by leaving a pile of clothes on a beach in Miami and disappearing (temporarily).

Go to Round 8 questions with answers

ROUND 1 - Runners-up

Which person, team, horse or song (as appropriate) came second to ...

1.

Greg Rusedski, in the 1997 BBC Sports Personality of the Year? (person)

Tim Henman

2.

Leicester City, in the 2015/16 Premier League season? (team)

Arsenal

3.

Usain Bolt, in the London 2012 men’s 100m final? (person)

Yohan Blake

4.

Dennis Taylor, in the 1985 World Snooker Championship? (person)

Steve Davis

5.

Rag Trade, in the 1976 Grand National? (horse)

Red Rum

6.

Joe Dolce’s Shadap you Face, in the UK Singles charts in 1981? (song)

Vienna

(by Ultravox)

7.

Coventry City, in the 1987 FA Cup final? (team)

Tottenham Hotspur

8.

Diversity, in Britain’s Got Talent in 2009? (person)

Susan Boyle

Sp1

Bradley Wiggins, in the 2012 Tour de France? (person)

Chris Froome

Sp2

New Zealand, in the first Rugby World Cup in 1987 (team)

France

Sp3

Will Young, in the first series of Pop Idol (person)

Gareth Gates

ROUND 2 - Pairs

1.

Franklin Roosevelt introduced a group of policies known as the New Deal.  Which President was responsible for initiating the Fair Deal?

Harry S Truman

2.

Which 20th century American President was married at St George’s, Hanover Square in London?

Theodore Roosevelt

(married his second wife, Edith Kermit, in 1886)

3.

UAVs are in common use in the war in Ukraine at present.  What do the initials UAV stand for?

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

(also known as a drone)

4.

ATACMS are in common use in the war in Ukraine at present.  What do the initials ATACMS stand for?

Army Tactical Missile System

5.

In 1919 Hollywood film stars Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and director D W Griffith set up a film studio.  What was it called?

United Artists

6.

Film mogul Harry Cohn, known at various times as 'White Fang' and 'the most hated man in Hollywood' ran which Hollywood film company between 1918 and 1958?

Columbia Pictures

7.

Manchester City has recorded the highest number of Premier League points in a single season (100).  Which team has won the League with the fewest points?

Manchester United

(75, in the 1996/97 season)

8.

Which team has been relegated from the Premier League with the most points in a season?

West Ham United

(42, in the 2002/03 season)

Sp.

Which American President initiated the Square Deal policies?

Theodore Roosevelt

Go back to Round 2 questions without answers

ROUND 3 - Hidden theme

Usual caveats apply; theme words may be parts of longer words in the answer

1.

Which highly successful English rock group of the 1970s bore the name of its three members?  Their albums included the entertainingly named Brain Salad Surgery and their highest-charting UK single was a cover of Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man.

Emerson Lake and Palmer

2.

Which book by Beatrix Potter tells of a naïve animal sent by an apparently hospitable, gentlemanly fox to collect ingredients for sage and onion stuffing?

The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck

3.

What is the next line of this poem?

“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold”.

Blockbuster clue: MAILUTW.

"Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."

4.

Complete this poem’s first line, which begins:

 “Once upon a midnight dreary”.

Blockbuster clue: WIPWAW.

"While I pondered, weak and weary."

5.

Which programming language was developed in the 1970s at Bell Laboratories?  It was used to write the bulk of the operating system Unix, which underpins Apple’s MacOS and runs on the bulk of the computers which form the internet.

C

6.

Which English adventurer was appointed Rajah of Sarawak by the Sultan of Brunei and ruled there from 1841 until his death 1868, the first of the White Rajahs?

Sir James Brooke

7.

What was the stage name of the American actor whose surname at birth was Bottom and who was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar in 1988.  He died very young? (first name and surname required)

River Phoenix

8.

What name is given to the playing of music and films in real time while they are being downloaded, rather than waiting until the download is complete?

Streaming

Sp.

Which character’s name appears the title of a 2001 comedy film starring, amongst others, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts?  It has had several similarly-titled, numbered sequels.

Ocean

Theme: Each answer contains the name of a body of water

Go back to Round 3 questions without answers

ROUND 4 - 'So here it is … ' - A Round on festive music

1.

What is the name of the musical suite composed by Sergei Prokofiev to accompany a 1934 film of the same name?  Sleigh bells feature prominently in one of its five movements.

Lieutenant Kijé

2.

A 1975 Christmas number 2 hit samples Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé.  Name either the musician or the song (there are no bonus points for getting both).

Greg Lake or

I Believe In Father Christmas

3.

Who composed the 1854 oratorio L’Enfance du Christ, the best known section of which is The Shepherd’s Farewell?

Hector Berlioz

4.

Who is the only person to sing their own name in the original version of Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid?

Sting

5.

What dessert is mentioned in the lyrics to Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree?

Pumpkin Pie

6.

A Ceremony of Carols is a 1942 Christmas choral work by which British composer?

Benjamin Britten

7.

In the lyrics to the song Winter Wonderland we are invited to pretend that the snowman built in the meadow is which man?

Parson Brown

8.

The Christmas song Do You Hear What I Hear? was written in 1962 as a plea for peace in response to which event?

Cuban Missile Crisis

Sp1

Who wrote and performed the Christmas song Run Rudolph Run?

Chuck Berry

Sp2

The music for the carol Hark! The Herald Angels Sing was adapted by Charles Wesley and George Whitefield from an original composition by which 19th century composer?

Felix Mendelssohn

Go back to Round 4 questions without answers

ROUND 5 - Blockbuster Bingo

Choose the initial letters of the words in the answer to get your question

1.

BO

Which football club, in existence for only ten years, was the first Northern club and the first from a working class background to win the FA Cup?

Blackburn Olympic

2.

MI

Which film production, company founded in 1961, made films such as A Room With a View and The Remains of the Day?

Merchant Ivory

3.

SBDM

What name is given to the1572 slaughter of Huguenots which started in Paris and spread across France?

Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

4.

AW

What name is given to a confined aquifer in which hydrostatic pressure brings water to the surface?

Artesian Well

5.

ES

Which Roman Road ran from London to Lincoln and York?

Ermine Street

6.

PAT

What is the title of the play within a play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

Pyramus and Thisbe

7.

AR

Which biblical object changed into a serpent and lends its name to a plant

Aaron’s Rod

8.

BMN

Which turn-taking card game also known as Strip Jack Naked?

Beggar My Neighbour

9.

FOA

Where in Warwickshire is the setting for Shakespeare’s As You Like It?

Forest of Arden

10.

DCFC

What is the name of the American rock band from Washington State whose breakthrough album was 2003’s Transatlanticsm?

Death Cab For Cutie

Go back to Round 5 questions without answers

ROUND 6 - Hidden theme

1.

What is the name of the annual Australian prize for journalistic excellence?

Walkley awards

2.

The Brickyard is the nickname for which US racing circuit?

Indianapolis

3.

Which metallic element has the highest melting point?

Tungsten

4.

What surname links a fictional television butler and a fictional housekeeper?

Hudson

(Upstairs Downstairs and Sherlock Holmes)

5.

What number is 10 to the power 18?

Quintillion

6.

Of where is Tashkent the capital?

Uzbekistan

7.

Which port town is 6 miles north west of Grimsby?

Immingham

8.

What are Burchells, Grevy’s and Hartmann’s?

Zebra species

Theme: The initial letter of each answer spells 'WithQuiz'

Go back to Round 6 questions without answers

ROUND 7 - Hidden theme

Where the answer is a name, first name and surname are required

1.

Which English privateer was killed in action in 1591 when his ship, The Revenge, took on 53 Spanish ships?

Sir Richard Grenville

2.

Which eponymous animated hero, voiced by Michael J Fox, starred in three films between 1999-2005?  The final part of the trilogy was subtitled Call of the Wild.

Stuart Little

3.

Which Welsh rugby union international, although born in England in 1992, played for Scarlets, Northampton, Saints and Ospreys before transferring to the French club, Provence, in 2024?

George North

4.

Which weather area lies between Sole and Trafalgar?

Fitzroy

5.

Who wrote the gothic novel The Castle of Otranto?

Horace Walpole

6.

A 2015 film, which includes in its title the name of one of the most violent suburbs of Los Angeles, relates the story of the rise and fall of notorious hip hop group NWA.  What is the name of the film?

Straight Outta Compton

7.

A 1950s group of British session musicians were one hit wonders with Hoots Mon (re-released twice since 1958), which includes such immortal lines as “There’s a moose loose aboot this hoose”.  What was the name of the group?

Lord Rockingham’s XI

8.

A heist film of 1974 starred Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw and takes its title from a train radio call sign.  What is the title?

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

Sp.

Only one English county contains two National Parks entirely within its boundaries.  Name it.

Devon

Theme: Each answer includes the names of an 18th century British Prime Minister ...

Grenville (1763-65); Stuart (1762-63); North (1770-82); Fitzroy (1768-70); Walpole (1721-42); Compton (1742-43); Pelham (1743-54); Rockingham (1765-66 and 1782); Devonshire (1756-57)

Go back to Round 7 questions without answers

ROUND 8 - Run-ons

Beware soundalikes et cetera; definite and indefinite articles may, indeed should, be ignored

1.

1963 satirical stage musical and 1969 film, set during the First World War,

&

fictional seaside town in which John le Mesurier played chief clerk to Arthur Lowe’s bank manager.

Oh! What a Lovely War /

Walmington on Sea

2.

Former chief executive of BP, who resigned abruptly in 2023 as a result of sexual misdemeanours

&

American media franchise, home of, among others, Bugs Bunny.

Bernard Looney /

Looney Tunes

3.

British entrepreneur, founder of Sports Direct,

&

adultery-promoting web site whose slogan is 'Life is short. Have an affair'.

Mike Ashley /

Ashley Madison

4.

Ghost story by Henry James featuring children Flora and Miles (also an opera by Benjamin Britten),

&

novel by C S Lewis consisting of correspondence from a senior devil to his nephew, Wormwood.

The Turn of the Screw /

The Screwtape Letters

5.

Former chairman of the US Federal Reserve whose description in 1996 of stock markets’ “irrational exuberance” led to dramatic falls around the world,

&

popular name of an organization active in the late 15th and early 16th centuries whose first president was Tomas de Torquemada.

Alan Greenspan /

Spanish Inquisition

6.

US painter Grant Wood’s most famous work, a double portrait with pitchfork,

&

disorder caused by spasmodic contractions of the diaphragm for which there is a variety of entertaining 'cures', none of which works.

American Gothic /

Hiccoughs

7.

British jazz musician, widow of Sir John Dankworth and a Dame in her own right, now aged 97, once described in the Sunday Times as “quite simply the best singer in the world”,

&

surname of the founder of lastminute.com, now a baroness.

Cleo Laine /

Lane-Fox

8.

English title of a 1997 French memoir describing the author’s life before and after a massive stroke which left him able to communicate only by blinking,

&

popular name for a principle of chaos theory, that trivial events may have vastly more significant consequences.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly /

Butterfly Effect

Sp1

Piano manufacturer founded in Berlin in 1853,

&

piano manufacturer founded in New York in 1853.

Bechstein /

Steinway

Sp2

1984 comedy-adventure film starring Kathleen Turner, Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito, set mostly in Columbia,

&

surname of Labour member of parliament and minister who in 1974 faked his suicide by leaving a pile of clothes on a beach in Miami and disappearing (temporarily).

Romancing the Stone /

Stonehouse

Go back to Round 8 questions without answers