ROUND 1

1.

Why has Shirin Ebadi been in the news recently?

She is this year’s Nobel Peace Price winner

2.

For what invention did Peter Mansfield win this year’s Nobel Prize for Medicine?

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (accept MRI Scanner)

3.

In what game are the Hendon Mob of Ram Vaswami, Joe Beevers, Ross Boatman & Barney Boatman, leading players?

Poker (they are England’s Poker Team)

4.

How many cards are dealt to each player in a game of Texas Hold’em Poker?

2 (2 to each player and then there are up to 5 “community” cards, face up in the centre)

5.

Give a year in the life of Alexander the Great.

356 - 323 BC

6.

Give a year in the life of Socrates (the philosopher not the footballer).

469 - 399 BC

7.

Whose latest album is entitled Life for Rent?

Dildo (accept Dido)

8.

Whose first album is entitled Permission to Land?

The Darkness

ROUND 2

1.

Whose recent autobiography is entitled What’s it all about?

Cilla Black

2.

Which was the first football team to eliminate Real Madrid from the European Cup?

Barcelona (in season 1960-1)

3.

Which team won the European Cup in 1961 - the first other than Real Madrid to do so?

Benfica

4.

Who’s latest novel is entitled Avenger?

Fredrick Forsythe

5.

Who last Sunday won the World Matchplay Golf Championship & the £1m prize?

Ernie Els

6.

What is the chemical formula for ethanol?

C₂H₅OH (accept C₂H₆O)

7.

What disease is caused by the substitution of a glutamic acid by a valine, within haemoglobin?

Sickle cell anaemia (do not accept just anaemia)

8.

Who scored England’s try in last Saturday’s defeat of South Africa?

Will Greenwood

ROUND 3

1.

Concorde retires this week - in what year was its maiden flight?

1969 (The 1st scheduled flight was 1975)

2.

In which town are Moorhouses beers produced?

Burnley

3.

Which high tech company has the motto “Think Different”?

Apple Computers

4.

What Ikea item of furniture is the famous Billy?

The Billy Bookcase of course (accept bookshelves)

5.

What items of Ikea furniture are represented by variants called - Krister, Signum, Mikael & Effektiv?

Computer workstations

6.

Which high tech company has the motto “Invent”?

Hewlett Packard

7.

In which town are Timothy Taylor’s beers produced?

Keighley

8.

In which year did Yuri Gagarin become the first man in space?

1961

ROUND 4

1.

In the theme tune to Magpie, what is denoted by the observation of 7 Magpies?

“A secret never to be told”

2.

Complete the following well known saying – “Whitbread big head Trophy Bitter, the pint that ...”.

“.... thinks its a quart”

3.

Who holds the position of Rail Regulator?

Tom Windsor

4.

Of which U.S. Diocese is Gene Robinson earmarked to become the gay Bishop?

New Hampshire

5.

Hoppers of Harrogate recently suffered the theft of £100,000 worth of knickers and bras from the new lingerie collection of which popular female icon?

Kylie Minogue

6.

Which Railway Station tearoom, now refurbished, featured in the film Brief Encounter?

Carnforth

7.

How are George and James Loveless, James Brine, Thomas & John Stanfield and James Hemmett collectively known?

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

8.

Henry Hunt was deemed responsible for what tragic event in 1819?

The Peterloo Massacre

ROUND 5

1.

Which country’s International car registration mark is YV?

Venezuela

2.

Which Booker Prize winning novel, also an Oscar winning film, was written by Michael Ondatje?

The English Patient

3.

Who composed the music for the opera The Pearl Fishers?

Bizet

4.

Who, in Greek Mythology, solved the riddle of the Sphinx?

Oedipus

5.

What is the female equivalent of the Oedipus Complex?

The Electra Complex

6.

Who composed the music for the opera Tristan & Isolde?

Wagner

7.

What book won this year’s Booker prize?

Vernon God Little (by D.B.C. Pierre)

8.

Which country’s International car registration mark is TN?

Tunisia

ROUND 6 

1.

To the nearest £1000, how much total money is there available in the game of Monopoly?

£15,100 (accept £14,100 - £16,100)

2.

What is the only common six-letter word in the English language to end in the letters ‘cit’?

Elicit (also accept Placit - although it’s not in common usage - one for the Scrabble-heads)

3.

According to George Mikes, “Continental people have sex lives but the English have….” What?

Hot water bottles

4.

Whose works include The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker?

Richard Dawkins

5.

For what condition would your doctor prescribe you a statin - such as Lipitor?

To lower a high level of blood Cholesterol

6.

“Deny thy father and refuse thy name”, follows which famous line of Shakespeare’s?

“Romeo, O Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo”

7.

What is the only common six-letter word in the English language to end in the letters ‘igy’?

Effigy

8.

What is the home town of Desperate Dan?

Cactusvilie

ROUND 7

1.

In which of Shakespeare’s plays would you find the phrase “Winter of our discontent”?

Richard III

2.

In which modern country is the ruined city of Carthage?

Tunisia

3.

What would you be doing if you were spelunking?

Exploring caves

4.

Which book would you be reading if you came across “Mrs Do-as-you-would-be-done-by”?

Water Babies

5.

Which book, and recent Oscar-winning film, opens with the line: “My name is Lester Burnham.  I’m 42 years old and in less than a year I will be dead”?

American Beauty

6.

In which city would you find The Book of Kells?

Dublin

7.

In which modern country is the ancient city of Troy?

Turkey

8.

In which of Shakespeare’s plays would you find the phrase “Discretion is the better part of valour”?

Henry IV part I

ROUND 8

1.

On which Scottish island is the whisky Laphroaig produced?

Islay

2.

The disease of Parotitis, is more commonly known as what?

Mumps

3.

What was the first man-made object to exceed the speed of sound?

A whip (i.e. the tip of the whipcord as it is lashed)

4.

From which substance is Turpentine distilled?

Pine resin

5.

What type of creature is an alewife”?

A fish

6.

Who was the first human to fly through the sound barrier and survive?

Chuck Yeager

7.

Infectious mononucleosis is more commonly referred to as what?

Glandular fever (also accept “kissing disease”)

8.

On which Scottish island is the whisky Talisker produced?

Skye

SPARES

1.

“When I am dead and opened, you will find Calais in my heart” - said whom?

Mary Tudor

2.

What is on the summit of Mount Corcovado?

A blooming big statue of Christ (in Rio De Janeiro)

3.

Which team scored most goals in the Euro 2004 football qualifying competition?

France (29)

4.

Which team conceded most goals in the Euro 2004 football qualifying competition?

San Marino (30)

5.

Triton is the largest moon of which planet?

Neptune

6.

Which element has the lowest melting point?

Helium at -270 degrees Celsius

7.

How are Tommy, Dil, Lil, Phil and Angelica collectively known?

The Rugrats

8.

Name the seven deadly sins (“I keep a busy schedule, trying to fit them in” - Warren Zevon - R.I.P.).

Pride, envy, sloth, gluttony, wrath, lust & avarice (or greed)