ROUND 1

1.

God said “....my bow I set in the cloud, the sign of the covenant between myself and the earth, when I cloud the sky over the earth, the bow shall be seen in the cloud...”  To whom was God speaking and about what?

Noah, referring to the rainbow

2.

The knight, Sir Bercilak de Hautdesert, came to Camelot on New Year’s Day dressed in green.  One of Arthur’s knights struck his head from his body with a single blow, whereupon the trunk picked up the severed head and rode off with it.  Who did this dreadful deed?

Sir Gawain

3.

This rustic idyll of youthful lovers, Dick Dewey and Fancy Day, was set in the village of Mellstock.  First published in 1872, what is the name of the author and the title of the book?

Under The Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy

4.

Which American state is named after its mountain greenery?

Vermont

5.

Built by Sir Christopher Wren at the instigation of Sir Jonas Moore, it became the home of Dr John Flamsteed in 1676.  What is it called?

Greenwich Observatory

6.

When was the ballad Greensleeves first published? (+/- 10 years)

1580

7.

This fruit was introduced to England in 1875 by a member of the Norfolk gentry. It is popularly supposed he forgot its name and so it was named after him.  What is it called?

The greengage (after Sir William Gage - nulles pointes for “Reine Claudo” but a round of applause for the clever b... who knew that)

8.

“....... and this reviving herb whose tender green

 fledges the river lip on which we lean.

Ah!  Lean upon it lightly! For who knows

from what once lovely lip it springs unseen?”

From which classical work is this quatrain taken?

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

ROUND 2

1.

Which American state is nicknamed after the supposed blueness of its grass?

Kentucky

2.

Why are Cambridge men called light blues?

Because light blue ribbon was the only colour available at the nearest haberdashers to the start of the boatrace when it was discovered that Cambridge had no favour to put in the bow of their boat (otherwise they would no doubt still be sporting red and white)

3.

“...I never saw a man who looked

with such a wistful eye

 upon that little tent of blue

 which prisoners call the sky......”

From which poem is this quotation taken?

The Ballad of Reading Gaol (by Oscar Wilde)

4.

Who reached the Top 10 in 1972 with Blue is the Colour?

Chelsea FC

5.

In 1400 a society of ladies and gentlemen was founded in Venice.  In 1590 it appeared in Paris and was all the rage amongst lady savantes.  In 1780 Mrs Montague displayed its badge at her assemblies.  The last member was Miss Monckton, later Countess of Cork, who died in 1840.  What item of clothing distinguished this club?

Blue stockings

6.

In the early 1880s Richard Booth established “The Blue Ribbon Army” in USA, which soon spread to UK.  It was so called because its members wore a narrow ribbon in their lapel. What was the distinguishing feature of this society?

They were teetotal

7.

In which year did Elvis Presley’s Blue Suede Shoes reach the Top Ten?

1956

8.

In the Bible, who was ordered by God to put tassels with violet threads in them in the corner of his garments?

Moses

ROUND 3

1.

What is the difference between the Toga Virilis and the Toga Praetexta?

The Toga Virilis, worn by adult Roman men, is all white; the Toga Praetexta, worn by magistrates and senators, had a purple stripe going around the edge of the garment

2.

What famous British botanical garden was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on the 3^rd of July 2003?

Kew Gardens, London

3.

Why are Elijah Churchill, William Brown and Daniel Bisset accorded a special place in American military history?

They were the first winners of the purple heart in 1783

4.

Who wrote the novel The Color Purple?

Alice Walker

5.

In which American State would you find The Purple Heart Highway?

Pennsylvania (Route 45)

6.

Which American poet wrote “Upon a purple sea to toss incessantly”?

Emily Dickenson

7.

Which American actress and television tycoon was nominated for an Oscar for her role in the film The Color Purple?

Oprah Winfrey (not Whoopi Goldberg)

8.

What famous British ballad of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century about an English garden has words by Alfred Noyes and music by John Bartlett?

Go Down to Kew in Lilac Time

ROUND 4

1.

Who were known as the Robin Redbreasts?

The Bow Street Runners (because of their red waistcoats)

2.

Pastias lines are a symptom of which disease?

Scarlet Fever

3.

Who was Scarlett O’Hara's first husband in Gone With The Wind?

Charles Hamilton

4.

Hester Prynne is the heroine of which work of fiction first published in 1850?

The Scarlet Letter

5.

What was the Scarlet Letter and what did it stand for?

‘A’  - for adultery

6.

Henri Dunant founded the Red Cross after which battle of 1859?

Solferino

7.

Jim Connel of County Meath wrote a well known song in 1889, originally to the tune of The White Cockade.  What is it called?

The Red Flag

8.

In 1964, the Daffodil Patrol evolved into what well known and much admired entity?

The Red Arrows

ROUND 5

1.

How many countries have a coastline on the Black Sea?

Six (Turkey, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria)

2.

(Picture A)  Who is this actor, picked to play Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black, in the third Harry Potter film?

Gary Oldman

3.

Who was the lead singer of Black Sabbath?

Ozzy Osbourne

4.

Give a year in the life of Edward, the Black Prince.

1330-1376

5.

On TV who controls Captain Black?

The Mysterons (from Captain Scarlet)

6.

Which girl group had a hit with Drinking Black Coffee in 2000?

All Saints

7.

The newspaper publisher Conrad Black has just released a biography of the longest serving US president.  Who was he?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

8.

(Picture B) This is the flag of which country?

Papua New Guinea

ROUND 6 

1.

The Orange River forms the border between which two countries?

The Republic of South Africa and Namibia

2.

(Picture C) Who played Mr Orange in this film?

Tim Roth (in Reservoir Dogs)

3.

Jason Orange was in which band?

Take That

4.

Give a year in the life of William of Orange?

1650-1702

5.

Who or what was Agent Orange in the Vietnam war?

It was used as a herbicide to remove covering vegetation

6.

Which American supergroup had a hit with Drinking Orange Crush in 1989?

R.E.M.

7.

Whose first novel was Oranges are not the only Fruit published in 1985?

Jeanette Winterson

8.

(Picture D)  This is the flag of which mountainous country?

Bhutan

ROUND 7

1.

Who wrote the Twyborn Affair?

Patrick White (the Australian Nobel Laureate)

2.

Who wrote The White Guard?

Mikhail Bulgakov

3.

Which one time resident of the White House wrote a newspaper column called My Day?

Eleanor Roosevelt

4.

Which former resident of the White House was christened Claudia Taylor, campaigned for a more beautiful capital during her stay in the White House and later went on to found the National Wildflower Research Center?

Lady Bird Johnson

5.

Who directed the 1990 film White Hunter Black Heart?

Clint Eastwood

6.

Who starred with Gregory Hines in the 1986 film White Nights?

Mikhail Baryshnikov

7.

Who wrote the lyrics to Nights in White Satin?

Justin Hayward

8.

Which plant did Oscar Hammerstein immortalise?

Edelweiss

ROUND 8

1.

In the days of Nelson, Admirals were appointed to the Red, White and Blue Squadrons.  What was a Flag Officer with no Station?

Yellow Admiral

2.

An artificial harbour, code-named Mulberry, was installed on which British invasion beach in June 1944?

Gold Beach

3.

The Huang Ho or Yellow River is also known as what?

China’s Sorrow

4.

In Shakespeare, yellow is a colour abhorred by whom?

Olivia (in Twelfth Night)

5.

What is a Golden Number used for?

Calculating the date of Easter

6.

In Henry IV Part II to whom is it said “Have you not a moist eye, a dry hand, a yellow cheek, a white beard, a decreasing leg, an increasing belly?"?

Falstaff

7.

In Twelfth Night, of whom did Viola say “She pin’d in thought, and with a green and yellow melancholy, she sat like Patience on a monument, smiling at grief”?

Herself

8.

What is the Golden Horn?

The harbour of Constantinople (Istanbul)

SPARES

1.

Where did the Rainbow Warrior sink?

Auckland Harbour

2.

The song Somewhere over the Rainbow comes from which film?

The Wizard of Oz

3.

Who wrote the opera For the love of Three Oranges?

Prokofiev

4.

Who wrote the book Green Eggs and Ham?

Dr Seuss

5.

The Psychedelic Furs sang the title song for which film, starring Molly Ringwauld, in the 1980s?

Pretty in Pink

6.

The name of a film, and also a song sung by Deep Blue Something, concerns a famous New York store. What is the film/song called?

Breakfast at Tiffany’s