ROUND 1 - 'Why, oh why, oh why?'

1.

What is the operation codename used by the UK Treasury for civil contingency planning in the case of a 'No Deal Brexit'?

2.

What is the name of Microsoft’s social networking service used for private communications within organisations. Purchased for $1.2 billion in 2012, it is included in all versions of Office 365 and Microsoft 365?

3.

What is the name of the verger played by Edward Sinclair in Dad’s Army?

4.

This American country singer rose to fame with her 1991 debut single She’s in Love with the Boy which went to No.1 in the US.  Married to fellow country singer Garth Brooks, she has had a string of multi-platinum selling albums and had a hit single on both sides of the Atlantic in 1997 with How Do I Live.  Who is she?

5.

What is the name of the Cornish cheese traditionally wrapped in nettles?

6.

Which river flows through Melbourne, Australia?

7.

In Arthurian legend, Uther Pendragon is Arthur’s father but who was his mother?

8.

“5, 4, 3, 2, 1 – go!” is followed by which line from this iconic British film of 1969?

Sp1

What is the capital of Armenia?

Sp2

What is the capital of Cameroon?

Go to Round 1 questions with answers

ROUND 2 - Pairs

1.

The following people have all died in 2019. Put them in order by age at the time of death beginning with the youngest first:

Doris Day, Keith Flint, Albert Finney, Joe Longthorne and Scott Walker.

2.

The following people have all died in 2019. Put them in order by age at the time of death beginning with the youngest first:

Jeremy Hardy, Dianne Oxberry, Windsor Davies, Freddie Starr and Gordon Banks.

3.

Which current Championship Football Club’s Managers over the last decade have included: Mark Warburton, Billy Davies, Martin O’Neill, Alex McLeish and Stuart Pearce?

4.

Which current Championship Football Club’s Managers over the last decade have included: Roy Hodgson, Roberto di Matteo, Alan Irvine, Tony Pulis and Steve Clarke?

5.

Which three words, consecutive in the dictionary mean:

• barren open country

• someone who has no religion or is ignorant or unmindful of religion

• a common low growing evergreen shrub?

6.

Which three words, consecutive in the dictionary mean:

• to make extremely thin

• to flow out of or from anything

• to set free from legal, social and political restraint?

7.

Which actor won the Oscar for Best Actor in a leading role in 1958 for his role as a sexual pervert in the film Separate Tables?  He went on to write two volumes of best-selling memoirs.  During the Second World War, as he was about to lead his men into action, he eased their nervousness by telling them: "Look, you chaps only have to do this once. But I'll have to do it all over again in Hollywood with Errol Flynn!"

8.

Which actress won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 1949 for her performance in The Heiress?  Previously she starred with Errol Flynn in a number of films in the 1930s.  Her relationship with her late sister – also an Oscar winner in a leading role – was fraught. She herself is now 103 years old.

Go to Round 2 questions with answers

ROUND 3 - Hidden theme

1.

Zuleika Dobson, a satire on student life at Oxford University is the only novel by which writer and caricaturist?

2.

In which Skakespeare play is the protagonist assassinated by Sir Pierce of Exton?

3.

Who was responsible for the 'Gotcha' front page headline of May 4th 1982?

4.

What was the colonial name of the country, the capital of which is Ouagadougou?

5.

During the reign of which English monarch was Joan of Arc executed at Rouen?

6.

Which European, insectivorous mammal is known scientifically by the binomial Talpa Talpa?

7.

Which country’s capital city lies on the River Miljacka and is surrounded by the Dinaric Alps?  Since 1998, their official currency has been the Marka.

8.

What is the anatomical name for the big toe?

Sp1

Which French artist of the baroque style is credited with inventing the genre of Fetes Galantes? Among his works are The Embarkation for Cythera (1717) and Pleasures of Love (1718-19).

Sp2

Who composed the operas Euryanthe (1826) and Oberon (1823).  His surname translates from the German as 'weaver'.

Go to Round 3 questions with answers

ROUNDS 4 & 5 -  'Fear And Loathing'

Choose your question - your opponent must have the paired question that follows yours.

At the end of Round 4 (i.e. when the first 4 pairs have been chosen the 'batting order' is reversed and your opponent has first choice and you have to have the paired question that follows it.

The following picture was provided to each team...

1a

Which Shakespearean character says: "Cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste of death but once"?

1b

Which Shakespearean character observes: "Present fears are less than horrible imaginings"?

2a

Death Valley is located near the border of California and which other US state?

2b

On July 10th 1913, the highest ambient temperature ever recorded on the surface of the earth was measured there. To within 3 degrees (approx) Centigrade or 5 degrees Fahrenheit estimate it.

3a

Name the famous 1533 painting in the National Gallery which shows an anamorphic (distorted) skull dominating the bottom centre of the picture.

3b

Durer’s famous woodcut 1498 of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was based on Revelations. Give the colours of any two Biblical horses as described originally and identify their terrors.

4a

Name the 1991 horror film and the character who says: "Whenever feasible one should always try to eat the rude".

4b

In a 1931 film of an 1818 novel, who said "I have discovered the great ray that first brought life upon the earth."?

5a

The most deadly species to men and women, apart from the human which is very dangerous, is the order of diptera , containing the family of Culicidae, which kill 1,000,000 people a year.  Give the simpler name.

5b

Ectothermic amniote vertebrates kill 50000 people a year. Give the simpler name of this creature.

6a

This scary piece of classical music tells the story of Death, a violinist,  and raising the dead on Halloween to dance to his tune. Which tune and which composer?

6b

A well-known piece by J S Bach has been used in the horror films The Black Cat, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and even Dr Who.  What is it?

7a

Name the deadly poison produced from the beans of the castor oil plant used to kill George Markov in London in 1978.

7b

The most toxic substance known was first identified as a cause of food poisoning in incorrectly prepared sausage in !8th century Germany. Name it.

8a

Whose assassination in December 1934 unleashed a wave of terror in Stalin’s Russia?

8b

Whose execution in July 1794 signalled the end of the Reign of Terror in which 16594 people died?

9a

According to a 2015 survey by BBC Good Food which meat was the most detested?

9b

Which was the most hated vegetable?

10a

Autophobia is a common phobia of what?

10b

Ophidiophobia is also common. What is it?

Go to Rounds 4 & 5 questions with answers

ROUND 6 - One letter differences

Each cryptic clue leads to 2 six letter word answers which differ from one another by a simple letter; to be clear there are two words for each answer which are spelt  almost the same but for one letter changing.

1.

To mither joker

2.

A standard bearing

3.

Dieter to button

4.

Most arid minister

5.

Hillocks lacerations

6.

Tricked blew on

7.

Resolve fortitude

8.

Beat bird

Sp.

Vitreous scraped

Go to Round 6 questions with answers

ROUND 7 - Pairs

1.

Since the end of World War 2 there have been 4 UK-born winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Name 2 of them.

2.

Since the end of World War 2 there have been 5 UK-born winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. Name 3 of them.

3.

Who is the current Leader of the House Of Commons?

4.

Who is the current First Secretary of State?

5.

What type of chemical elements do Neon, Argon, Krypton and Xenon comprise, and what are the 2 missing from the group in that list?

6.

What type of chemical elements do Magnesium, Calcium, Strontium and Barium comprise, and what are the 2 missing from the group in that list?

7.

Who was the biographical subject played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the Holywood film The Imitation Game?

8.

Its story begins with a terrorist’s bomb exploding in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It goes on to centre around a 17th-century painting that a survivor removes from the rubble. The film version of the novel has just been released. Name the novel.

Sp.

What is the name of the British satirical newspaper-style website founded by Neil Rafferty and Paul Stokes in 2007?

Go to Round 7 questions with answers

ROUND 8 - Pot pourri

1.

Since the inception of the Premier League, two league fixtures have been played on 5 different grounds. What are these fixtures?

2.

What was advertised as 'An Aquarian exposition in White Lake New York' in August 1969?

3.

Which snake is the only animal whose Latin name is completely identical to its common name?

4.

Which product, first marketed 50 years ago by the Italian company Ferrero, is available in many colours but most commonly white?  They take their name from the sound that they make in their container.

5.

Who was the leader of the Averni tribe who united the Gauls in opposition to Roman rule?  He was the inspiration for the Asterix comic book series by Goscinny and Uderzo.

6.

“Amerigo Bonasera sat in New York Criminal Court No. 3 and waited for justice; vengeance on the men who had so cruelly hurt his daughter, who had tried to dishonour her.” ....is the opening to which iconic novel which celebrates the 50th anniversary of its publication this year?

7.

What was the Roman name for the River Cam?  It now gives its name to a literary magazine that has featured the early works of the likes of Michael Frayn, AA Milne and Ted Hughes.

8.

Eugene Cernan was, in 1972, the 12th and so far, last person to do what?

Go to Round 8 questions with answers

ROUND 1 - 'Why, oh why, oh why?'

1.

What is the operation codename used by the UK Treasury for civil contingency planning in the case of a 'No Deal Brexit'?

Yellowhammer

2.

What is the name of Microsoft’s social networking service used for private communications within organisations. Purchased for $1.2 billion in 2012, it is included in all versions of Office 365 and Microsoft 365?

Yammer

3.

What is the name of the verger played by Edward Sinclair in Dad’s Army?

Mr Yeatman

4.

This American country singer rose to fame with her 1991 debut single She’s in Love with the Boy which went to No.1 in the US.  Married to fellow country singer Garth Brooks, she has had a string of multi-platinum selling albums and had a hit single on both sides of the Atlantic in 1997 with How Do I Live.  Who is she?

Trisha Yearwood

5.

What is the name of the Cornish cheese traditionally wrapped in nettles?

Yarg

6.

Which river flows through Melbourne, Australia?

The Yarra

7.

In Arthurian legend, Uther Pendragon is Arthur’s father but who was his mother?

Ygraine

8.

“5, 4, 3, 2, 1 – go!” is followed by which line from this iconic British film of 1969?

“You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off”

Sp1

What is the capital of Armenia?

Yerevan

Sp2

What is the capital of Cameroon?

Yaounde

Theme: Each answer starts with the letter 'Y'

ROUND 2 - Pairs

1.

The following people have all died in 2019. Put them in order by age at the time of death beginning with the youngest first:

Doris Day, Keith Flint, Albert Finney, Joe Longthorne and Scott Walker.

Keith Flint (49),

Joe Longthorne (64),

Scott Walker (76),

Albert Finney (82),

Doris Day (97)

2.

The following people have all died in 2019. Put them in order by age at the time of death beginning with the youngest first:

Jeremy Hardy, Dianne Oxberry, Windsor Davies, Freddie Starr and Gordon Banks.

Dianne Oxberry (51),

Jeremy Hardy (57),

Freddie Starr (76),

Gordon Banks (81),

Windsor Davies (88)

3.

Which current Championship Football Club’s Managers over the last decade have included: Mark Warburton, Billy Davies, Martin O’Neill, Alex McLeish and Stuart Pearce?

Nottingham Forest

4.

Which current Championship Football Club’s Managers over the last decade have included: Roy Hodgson, Roberto di Matteo, Alan Irvine, Tony Pulis and Steve Clarke?

West Bromwich Albion

5.

Which three words, consecutive in the dictionary mean:

• barren open country

• someone who has no religion or is ignorant or unmindful of religion

• a common low growing evergreen shrub?

Heath,

heathen,

heather

6.

Which three words, consecutive in the dictionary mean:

• to make extremely thin

• to flow out of or from anything

• to set free from legal, social and political restraint?

Emaciate,

emanate,

emancipate

7.

Which actor won the Oscar for Best Actor in a leading role in 1958 for his role as a sexual pervert in the film Separate Tables?  He went on to write two volumes of best-selling memoirs.  During the Second World War, as he was about to lead his men into action, he eased their nervousness by telling them: "Look, you chaps only have to do this once. But I'll have to do it all over again in Hollywood with Errol Flynn!"

David Niven

8.

Which actress won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 1949 for her performance in The Heiress?  Previously she starred with Errol Flynn in a number of films in the 1930s.  Her relationship with her late sister – also an Oscar winner in a leading role – was fraught. She herself is now 103 years old.

Olivia de Havilland

Go back to Round 2 questions without answers

ROUND 3 - Hidden theme

1.

Zuleika Dobson, a satire on student life at Oxford University is the only novel by which writer and caricaturist?

Max Beerbohm

2.

In which Skakespeare play is the protagonist assassinated by Sir Pierce of Exton?

Richard the Second

3.

Who was responsible for the 'Gotcha' front page headline of May 4th 1982?

Kelvin MacKenzie

4.

What was the colonial name of the country, the capital of which is Ouagadougou?

Upper Volta

5.

During the reign of which English monarch was Joan of Arc executed at Rouen?

Henry the Sixth

6.

Which European, insectivorous mammal is known scientifically by the binomial Talpa Talpa?

Mole

7.

Which country’s capital city lies on the River Miljacka and is surrounded by the Dinaric Alps?  Since 1998, their official currency has been the Marka.

Bosnia-Herzegovina

8.

What is the anatomical name for the big toe?

Hallux

Sp1

Which French artist of the baroque style is credited with inventing the genre of Fetes Galantes? Among his works are The Embarkation for Cythera (1717) and Pleasures of Love (1718-19).

Jean-Antoine Watteau

Sp2

Who composed the operas Euryanthe (1826) and Oberon (1823).  His surname translates from the German as 'weaver'.

Carl-Maria von Weber

Theme: Each answer contains the name of an SI unit or a derived SI unit...

Ohm, Second, Kelvin, Volt, Henry, Mole, Hertz, Lux, Watt and Weber

Go back to Round 3 questions without answers

ROUNDS 4 & 5 - 'Fear And Loathing'

Choose your question - your opponent must have the paired question that follows yours.

At the end of Round 4 (i.e. when the first 4 pairs have been chosen the 'batting order' is reversed and your opponent has first choice and you have to have the paired question that follows it.

The following picture was provided to each team...

1a

Which Shakespearean character says: "Cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste of death but once"?

Julius Caesar

1b

Which Shakespearean character observes: "Present fears are less than horrible imaginings"?

Macbeth

2a

Death Valley is located near the border of California and which other US state?

Nevada

2b

On July 10th 1913, the highest ambient temperature ever recorded on the surface of the earth was measured there. To within 3 degrees (approx) Centigrade or 5 degrees Fahrenheit estimate it.

134° Fahrenheit

56.7° Centigrade

3a

Name the famous 1533 painting in the National Gallery which shows an anamorphic (distorted) skull dominating the bottom centre of the picture.

The Ambassadors

(by Holbein)

3b

Durer’s famous woodcut 1498 of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was based on Revelations. Give the colours of any two Biblical horses as described originally and identify their terrors.

(any two from)

White - Conquest or Plague

Red - War

Black - Famine

Pale or ashen or pale green - Death

4a

Name the 1991 horror film and the character who says: "Whenever feasible one should always try to eat the rude".

Hannibal Lecter

Silence of the Lambs

4b

In a 1931 film of an 1818 novel, who said "I have discovered the great ray that first brought life upon the earth."?

Dr Henry Frankenstein

5a

The most deadly species to men and women, apart from the human which is very dangerous, is the order of diptera , containing the family of Culicidae, which kill 1,000,000 people a year.  Give the simpler name.

Mosquitoes

5b

Ectothermic amniote vertebrates kill 50000 people a year. Give the simpler name of this creature.

Snakes

6a

This scary piece of classical music tells the story of Death, a violinist,  and raising the dead on Halloween to dance to his tune. Which tune and which composer?

Danse Macabre

Camille Saint Saens

6b

A well-known piece by J S Bach has been used in the horror films The Black Cat, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and even Dr Who.  What is it?

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor

7a

Name the deadly poison produced from the beans of the castor oil plant used to kill George Markov in London in 1978.

Ricin

7b

The most toxic substance known was first identified as a cause of food poisoning in incorrectly prepared sausage in !8th century Germany. Name it.

Botulinum toxin

(from the Latin botulus – sausage)

8a

Whose assassination in December 1934 unleashed a wave of terror in Stalin’s Russia?

Sergei Kirov

8b

Whose execution in July 1794 signalled the end of the Reign of Terror in which 16594 people died?

Maximilian Robespierre

9a

According to a 2015 survey by BBC Good Food which meat was the most detested?

Liver

9b

Which was the most hated vegetable?

Brussels sprouts

10a

Autophobia is a common phobia of what?

Fear of being alone

10b

Ophidiophobia is also common. What is it?

Fear of snakes

Go back to Rounds 4 & 5 questions without answers

ROUND 6 - One letter differences

Each cryptic clue leads to 2 six letter word answers which differ from one another by a simple letter; to be clear there are two words for each answer which are spelt  almost the same but for one letter changing.

Example: Q: Shouter Cricketer; A: Bawler Bowler

1.

To mither joker

pester; jester

2.

A standard bearing

banner; manner

3.

Dieter to button

faster; fasten

4.

Most arid minister

driest; priest

5.

Hillocks lacerations

mounds; wounds

6.

Tricked blew on

fooled; cooled

7.

Resolve fortitude

settle; mettle

8.

Beat bird

thrash; thrush

Sp.

Vitreous scraped

glazed; grazed

Go back to Round 6 questions without answers

ROUND 7 - Pairs

1.

Since the end of World War 2 there have been 4 UK-born winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Name 2 of them.

(any 2 from ….)

Winston Churchill (1953),

Patrick White (1973),

William Golding (1983),

Harold Pinter (2005)

NB It was hotly contested that Seamus Heaney should be a valid answer in addition to those above

2.

Since the end of World War 2 there have been 5 UK-born winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. Name 3 of them.

(any 3 from ….)

John Boyd Orr (1949),

Philip Noel-Baker (1959),

Mairead Corrigan (1976),

Betty Williams (1976),

David Trimble (1998)

NB It was hotly contested that John Hume should be a valid answer in addition to those above

3.

Who is the current Leader of the House Of Commons?

Jacob Rees-Mogg

4.

Who is the current First Secretary of State?

Dominic Raab

5.

What type of chemical elements do Neon, Argon, Krypton and Xenon comprise, and what are the 2 missing from the group in that list?

Noble Gasses;

Helium and Radon

6.

What type of chemical elements do Magnesium, Calcium, Strontium and Barium comprise, and what are the 2 missing from the group in that list?

Alkaline Earth Metals; Beryllium and Radium

7.

Who was the biographical subject played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the Holywood film The Imitation Game?

Alan Turing

8.

Its story begins with a terrorist’s bomb exploding in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It goes on to centre around a 17th-century painting that a survivor removes from the rubble. The film version of the novel has just been released. Name the novel.

The Goldfinch

(by Donna Tartt)

Sp.

What is the name of the British satirical newspaper-style website founded by Neil Rafferty and Paul Stokes in 2007?

The Daily Mash

Go back to Round 7 questions without answers

ROUND 8 - Pot pourri

1.

Since the inception of the Premier League, two league fixtures have been played on 5 different grounds. What are these fixtures?

Spurs v West Ham United

Spurs v Southampton

(White Hart Lane, Wembley, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, The Boleyn Ground and the London Stadium

and

White Hart Lane, Wembley, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, The Dell and St Mary’s)

2.

What was advertised as 'An Aquarian exposition in White Lake New York' in August 1969?

Woodstock Festival

3.

Which snake is the only animal whose Latin name is completely identical to its common name?

Boa Constrictor

4.

Which product, first marketed 50 years ago by the Italian company Ferrero, is available in many colours but most commonly white?  They take their name from the sound that they make in their container.

Tic Tacs

5.

Who was the leader of the Averni tribe who united the Gauls in opposition to Roman rule?  He was the inspiration for the Asterix comic book series by Goscinny and Uderzo.

Vercingetorix

6.

“Amerigo Bonasera sat in New York Criminal Court No. 3 and waited for justice; vengeance on the men who had so cruelly hurt his daughter, who had tried to dishonour her.” ....is the opening to which iconic novel which celebrates the 50th anniversary of its publication this year?

The Godfather

(by Mario Puzo)

7.

What was the Roman name for the River Cam?  It now gives its name to a literary magazine that has featured the early works of the likes of Michael Frayn, AA Milne and Ted Hughes.

Granta

8.

Eugene Cernan was, in 1972, the 12th and so far, last person to do what?

Stand on the surface of the moon

Go back to Round 8 questions without answers