Questions

1.

Sergei Prokoviev was one of Russia’s greatest composers; so why did his death attract hardly any coverage in the Russian media?

2.

Who directed the 1957 film 12 Angry Men?

3.

The mummified body of which English reformer and philosopher can be seen in a glass case in University College London?

4.

What is the chief city of the Spanish region of Aragon?

5.

What type of people are known locally in Devon as grockles, and in Cornwall as emmets?

6.

Let’s play Blockbusters - what ‘J’ is a large Brazilian stork?

7.

What famous piece of music is “dedicated to my friends pictured within”?

8.

Who famously dismissed The Holy Roman Empire as being “neither Holy nor Roman nor an Empire”?

9.

In physics, what is defined as something that causes a change in the acceleration of an object?

10.

Which football league ground lies closest to the river Mersey?

11.

In which country is the lost city of Machu Picchu rediscovered in 1911?

12.

How many British servicemen lost their lives as a direct consequence of the Falklands war in 1982 (+ or – 10)?

13.

In which film did Frank Sinatra make a decent fist of playing a drug addict?

14.

Which 1759 Act of Parliament revolutionised transport in Britain?

15.

What nationality was the jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt?

16.

Complete the following list by giving the missing location: Anaheim (1955), Orlando (1971), Paris (1982), ???? (1983).

17.

What emotive political word was coined by The Daily Mail in 1906?

18.

Which country’s national football team is nicknamed “The Indomitable Lions”?

19.

Kelloggs launched two breakfast cereals onto the British market in 1922 and both are still are still going strong.  One was Cornflakes - what was the other?

20.

Who is being described in this extract from 1066 And All That:

“He spent most of his declining years trying to solve the Irish question.  But whenever he got warm the Irish changed the question.”

21.

Which hero from classical mythology has a name that means swollen foot?

22.

Which 19^th century English novel is subtitled A Pure Woman?

23.

How many bones are there in the human skull (+ or – 1)?

24.

Better known in Britain as a member of successful groups, which British born singer later went  solo and had his single Higher Love voted USA record of the year in 1986?

25.

Name the historian who specialises in the history of Russia and has written the award winning A People’s Tragedy and the more recent Natasha’s Dance.

26.

Which football league team was passionately supported by Sir Edward Elgar?

27.

For how many years did monarchs from the house of Tudor rule England?

28.

Name the 3 officially designated National Parks of Wales.

29.

Let’s play Blockbusters.  What ‘T’ is a small nocturnal lemur-like mammal of South East Asia?

30.

If you met some bloke in the pub and you were chatting away in Esperanto (as you do) and he told you he was a “Lakisto” what would you deduce he did for a living?

31.

Name the brewery on Green Lane in Heywood, Lancashire that produces Bantam Bitter and Wobbly Bob.

32.

In the TV comedy Porridge what is the name of the easily conned, hen-pecked assistant governor of Slade prison that was played by Brian Wilde?

33.

Who invented the mercury thermometer in 1714?

34.

Simone Signoret won a best actress Oscar in 1959 for her role in which film based on an English novel?

35.

Which European country is known in its own language as Republika Hrvatska?

36.

Which popular song was originally published in 1915 with the title Till The Boys Come Home?

37.

Name the writer described below:

Born at 21 King Street, Manchester 1805.  Died Reigate 1882.  Wrote 39 historical novels nearly all closely based on real people and events in Manchester and Lancashire.  A friend of Dickens whose popularity he at one time rivalled.

38.

Which footballer comes next in this list: Jeff Astle, Neil Young, David Webb?

39.

Where in South Manchester is the Powerhouse Library?

40.

Complete the title of this 1980s pop group: Johnny Hates ????

41.

Which leading figure of the Renaissance died in exile at the Chateau Cloux near Amboise in France on May 3^rd 1519?

42.

Who is the president of Syria?

43.

Between which years was Neil Kinnock leader of the Labour Party?

44.

While in Germany recently I went to a Bundesliga football match.  Being tired and emotional and having left my glasses in the pub I was unable to read my programme.  All I could make out was 04 versus 96.  Which two teams was I watching?

45.

Give a year in the life of the poet Edmund Spenser.

46.

Which Irish horse won the Grand National in 2002?

47.

Which vitamin helps form healthy bones and teeth and is also essential for helping the body to absorb calcium and phosphorus?

48.

Which singer had a posthumous hit in 1966 with Distant Drums?

49.

Name 4 of the 5 USA states that are included in the Pacific time zone.

50.

Which poet was known as the Swan Of Mantua?

51.

What is the Dutch word used to denote an area of land that has been reclaimed from the sea?

52.

A sweet scented violet with lavender-coloured flowers takes its name from which Italian city?

53.

Who exhorted Radio Luxembourg listeners to write to him at Keynsham, near Bristol if they wanted to win the football pools?

54.

Which opera by Vincenzo Bellini was set in the English Civil War?

55.

If you travel due west from the Isle Of Man you would arrive in which Irish county?

56.

Name the arts review programme that can be heard each weekday evening on Radio 4 at 7:15pm.

57.

Why was Saint Veronica chosen to be the patron saint of photographers?

58.

The name of the element with the atomic number 97 is the latinized version of which Californian town?

59.

(One of Fr Megson’s old chestnuts) The county that has won the most All-Ireland Hurling titles and the county with the most All-Ireland Gaelic Football titles both begin with the same letter.  The hurlers come from the province of Leinster and the footballers from the province of Munster.  Give either county paired with the sport for which it has the most titles.

60.

The indigenous population of which small remote Scottish island group were evacuated to the mainland in August 1930?

61.

David Mitchell is a young writer based in Hiroshima, Japan.  To date he has only written two novels and has achieved success with both of them.  Name either of his novels.

62.

If in Manchester you came across William Gladstone and Oliver Heywood on one side and John Bright and James Frazer (DD) on the other side, who would be in the middle?

63.

Which club were relegated from the English football league in May 2002?

64.

Name the year:

Serious accident occurs at Three Mile Island nuclear plant; 14 people are drowned in the Fastnet race; the Rubik cube goes on sale; the  shock of  Brighton opening a naturist beach proves too much for John Wayne who dies.

65.

The plant Colza, or Brassica Napus, whose cultivation tends to make the English countryside in Summer look like it has been taken over by hordes of tightly-packed Norwich City fans, is more commonly known by what name?

66.

In the Sikh religion all males are given the additional name Singh.  What corresponding name is given to all the females of that religion?

67.

In which city was the actor Keanu Reeves born?

68.

Which Peter Schaffer play deals with the Spanish massacre of the Incas?

69.

In which musical work is a duck represented by an oboe, a cat by a clarinet and Grandfather by a bassoon?

70.

On which planet is a year shorter than a day?

Answers

1.

He died on the same day as Joseph Stalin (March 5^th 1953)

2.

Sidney Lumet

3.

Jeremy Bentham

4.

Zaragoza

5.

Tourists (or outsiders)

6.

Jabiru

7.

(Elgar’s) Enigma Variations

8.

Voltaire

9.

A Force

10.

Edgeley Park ( Stockport County)

11.

Peru

12.

258 (accept 248 to 268)

13.

The Man With The Golden Arm

14.

The Canals Act

15.

Belgian

16.

Tokyo (Disney Theme Parks opened)

17.

Suffragette

18.

Cameroon

19.

All Bran

20.

William Gladstone

21.

Oedipus

22.

Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy)

23.

22

24.

Stevie Winwood

25.

Orlando Figes

26.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

27.

118 years (1485 to 1603)

28.

Snowdonia, Brecon Beacons, The Pembrokeshire Coast

29.

Tarsier

30.

A milkman

31.

The Phoenix Brewery

32.

Mr. Barrowclough

33.

Gabriel Fahrenheit

34.

Room At The Top

35.

Croatia

36.

Keep The Home Fires Burning

37.

Harrison Ainsworth

38.

Charlie George (scorers of winning FA Cup Final goals 1968, ’69, ’70, ‘71)

39.

Moss Side (Raby Street)

40.

Jazz

41.

Leonardo Da Vinci

42.

Bashar Al Assad

43.

1983 to 1992

44.

Schalke 04 and Hannover 96

45.

1552 to 1599

46.

Bindaree

47.

Vitamin D

48.

Jim Reeves

49.

(4 from) California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Nevada

50.

Virgil

51.

Polder

52.

Parma

53.

Horace Batchelor (apologies to any quizzers under the age of 67)

54.

I Puritani (The Puritans)

55.

County Down

56.

Front Row

57.

Traditionally, she gave Christ a towel to wipe his face on his way to Calvary.  The imprint of his face remained on the cloth thus being the first “photographic” image.

58.

Berkeley (Berkelium)

59.

Kilkenny (hurling) or Kerry (football). What kept you?

60.

Saint Kilda

61.

Ghostwritten and Number Nine Dream

62.

Prince Albert (statues in Albert Square)

63.

Barnet

64.

1979

65.

Rapeseed

66.

Kaur

67.

Beirut

68.

The Royal Hunt Of The Sun

69.

Peter And The Wolf (by Prokofiev)

70.

Venus