ROUND 1

1.

What record was set by Simon Murray last week?

He became the oldest man to walk to the South Pole

2.

Which King lost his life when his horse tripped on a molehill throwing him to the ground?

William III (William of Orange)

3.

Which motorcar manufacturer made the Hornet?

Wolseley

4.

What is the better-known name for a galanthus?

Snowdrop

5.

The statement “You have everything to gain and nothing to lose by betting on the existence of God” is known as what?

Pascal’s Wager

6.

Gavrilo Princip, who assassinated Archduke Frans Ferdinand, belonged to which organisation?

The Black Hand Gang

7.

What sauce is made from mayonnaise, tomato puree, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco?

Marie Rose

8.

Temple Meads is the principal train station of which city?

Bristol

ROUND 2

1.

Which European city’s underground trains are painted entirely orange?

Glasgow

2.

Which motorcar manufacturer made the Magnet?

MG

3.

What is a Ranunculus?

Buttercup

4.

“Entities ought not to be multiplied save from necessity” - this medieval aid to modern diagnostics is known by what name?

Occam’s Razor

5.

Abe, Joe, Raymond and Izzy Bernstein led which notorious organisation in West Michigan and Detroit?

The Purple Gang

6.

What sauce is an emulsion of butter and egg yolks, seasoning and lemon juice?

Hollandaise

7.

Which city is served by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart airport?

Salzburg

8.

Erroll Reynolds, Daniel Gordon, Jamie Taylor and Christopher Moodie were in the news last week.  What for?

They are the 4 supposed Moss Side gangsters made subject to Anti-Social Behaviour Orders

ROUND 3

1.

The centre of Oxford is called Carfax.  What does carfax mean?

A crossroads

2.

Carla, Desirée and Nicola are varieties of what?

Potato

3.

The Apple Mac was named in honour of Alan Turing – but what links the name Apple Mac to Turing?

He committed suicide by eating an apple poisoned with cyanide

4.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and their Wild Bunch joined up with remnants of the James gang and became known as what?

The Hole in the Wall Gang

5.

What sauce is made from egg yolks, vinegar, butter, shallots and herbs?

Bearnaise

6.

Which city is served by Franz-Josef Strauss Airport?

Munich

7.

Why has Axel Wilhelm been in the news in the past week?

He was arrested at Manchester Airport for claiming he had knives and bombs in his luggage

8.

Who wrote Oranges are not the only fruit?

Jeanette Winterson

ROUND 4

1.

Ailsa Craig, Solidity and Up-to-Date are varieties of which vegetable?

Onion

2.

Which was the shortest year and why?

1751, because it began on March 25th (in the ‘Old Style’) whilst 1752 began on January 1st (in the ‘Modern Style’)

3.

Which 4 people, on 26th March 1981, formed the “Gang of Four”?

Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins, William Rogers and David Owen

4.

Which sauce is made from basil, garlic, pine nuts, Parmesan and olive oil?

Pesto

5.

In which city is Citadel train station?

Carlisle

6.

Who is the Acting Director General of the BBC?

Mark Byford

7.

Who wrote Five Quarters of the Orange?

Joanne Harris

8.

What is the derivation of the word curfew?

It comes from the old French for “Cover your fire”

ROUND 5

1.

What gang is supposed to have controlled major crime in Manchester in the ’60s and ’70s?

The Quality Street Gang

2.

Which was the second shortest year?

1752 (because 11 days were struck out of the calendar for the month of September)

3.

Which city is served by Saint Exupery airport?

Lyon

4.

Whose famous last words were “Pardonnez-moi, monsieur”?

Marie Antoinette (she accidentally stepped on the executioner’s toe)

5.

Where would you be if you were shopping in Jaffa Road?

Jerusalem

6.

The US space probe, Mars Rover, has landed 2 robot vehicles on Mars.  What are they called?

Spirit and Opportunity

7.

What is the common name for the plant Iberis?

Candytuft

8.

St Anthony of Padua is the patron saint of which country?

Portugal

ROUND 6 

1.

Whose famous last words were “All my possessions for a moment of time”?

Queen Elizabeth I

2.

Who in boy’s fiction called themselves ‘The Outlaws’?

William, Henry, Douglas and Ginger (in the Just William stories)

3.

What’s the name of the cannibal sentenced in Kassel to 6 years in prison for manslaughter?

Armin Meiwes

4.

What is the principal train station of Edinburgh?

Waverley

5.

Who wrote the oratorio Theodora?

Handel

6.

Who is reputed to have said “Oranges are not the only fruit”?

Nell Gwynn

7.

What phrase did Ruskin coin to describe the poetic tendency to ascribe human emotions to Nature?

Pathetic Fallacy

8.

What is the common name for the plant Vinca?

Periwinkle

ROUND 7

1.

Which city is served by Frederick Chopin airport?

Warsaw

2.

Who on his deathbed famously said “My design is to make what haste I can to be gone”?

Oliver Cromwell

3.

Who won the Orange prize for fiction in 2003?

Valerie Martin (for Property)

4.

Who is the Acting Chairman of the BBC?

Lord Ryder

5.

Edward VII, Gladstone and Winston are varieties of what?

Apple

6.

Who was the first patron saint of England?

St Edmund

7.

Which canine sounding Manchester gang was named by its founder and leader in memory of his brother?

The Pit Bulls

8.

Who called themselves Mrs Morley and Mrs Freeman?

Queen Anne and Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough (they used to write to each other using these names)

ROUND 8

1.

Who is the former Head of the US Iraq enquiry team who recently told a Congressional committee that he now believes US intelligence was wrong over WMD?

David Kay

2.

What is the principal train station in Birmingham?

New Street

3.

The Vale of Avoca, in Wexford, is the setting for which fictional TV township?

Ballykissangel

4.

Which US sports star was known as ‘The Juice’?

O. J. Simpson

5.

Who was the first King of England to speak English?

Henry IV (in both parts - if the question master feels like making a bad joke)

6.

What is the common name for Hypericum?

St John’s Wort

7.

Whose famous last words were “It was a great game of golf, fellers”?

Bing Crosby

8.

Name four out of the seven members of the Crazy Gang.

Jimmy Nervo and Teddy Knox, Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen, Charlie Naughton, Jimmy Gold and “Monsieur” Eddie Gray

SPARES

1.

Name the three Kings of England who have died from arrow wounds.

Harold II (Godwinson), William II (William Rufus) and Richard I (The Lionheart)

2.

The Empress Theodora was the wife of which Roman Emperor (responsible for the codification of Roman Law)?

Justinian

3.

Charles I was beheaded on January 29th of which year?

1649 (New Style for the genuinely pedantic)

4.

Callandar, Stirlingshire, is the setting for which TV fictional township?

Tannochbrae (Dr Finlay’s Casebook)

5.

In which far eastern city did the Green Gang operate, controlling the opium trade for the French, vice and extortion, and raising taxes for the Government during the first half of the 20th Century?

Shanghai