ROUND 1 – Themed

“A Day Out in England”

1.

Which city would you be visiting if you saw a large sign across Stonegate enticing you into Ye Olde Starre Inn?

York

2.

What is the name of Manchester City Council’s outdoor education centre located on the side of Lake Windermere?

Ghyll Head

3.

Stoke-on-Trent is actually an amalgamation of six towns.  Doing what Arnold Bennett did and ignoring Fenton, name four of the other five.

(Four from) Stoke, Hanley, Burslem, Tunstall and Longton

4.

What is the name of the scenic limestone escarpment that runs from the Ironbridge gorge to Craven Arms in Shropshire?

Wenlock Edge

5.

In which English city would you find The Mathmatical Bridge and The Bridge of Sighs?

Cambridge

6.

Who designed the purpose built Natural History Museum in South Kensington?

Alfred Waterhouse

7.

Where can Chesters, Housesteads, Vindolanda and Birdoswald all be found

Hadrian's Wall - they are all forts

8.

How long in feet is the phallus of the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset? (we’ll allow you a generous two feet either way).

27 feet (accept 25 to 29 feet)

ROUND 2 – Themed

There’s an undeclared theme running through the answers which is revealed after the answer to Question 8

1.

Who wrote A Tale of a Tub amongst other satirical works?

Jonathan Swift

2.

The 2006 Nobel prize-winner for literature, Orhan Pamuk, comes from which country?

Turkey

3.

Name the current MP for Wallasey.

Angela Eagle

4.

Who succeeded Malcolm Fraser as Prime Minister of Australia in 1983?

Bob Hawke

5.

By what name do the golfing fraternity know a score of 3 below par?

An albatross

6.

What was the name of Sir Francis Drake’s flagship when he set sail from Plymouth in 1577 for his circumnavigation of the globe?

The Pelican (renamed during the voyage to The Golden Hind)

7.

Where was the first major British land victory in the Falklands in 1982 during which Colonel H. Jones was killed and subsequently awarded a Victoria Cross?

Goose Green

8.

Who wanted “to have some fun on Santa Monica boulevard” in 1994?

Sheryl Crow

Each answer contains the name of a bird

ROUND 3 – Name the decade

Give the decade in which each of the following events took place

1.

The secret ballot is introduced into British politics.

1870s

2.

John Constable paints The Haywain.

1820s

3.

Englishman Nicholas Breakespeare becomes Pope Adrian IV.

1150s

4.

Rhymes known as  Limericks first gain popularity with the publication of Edward  Lear’s  Book of Nonsense.

1840s

5.

Carl Orff composes his best known piece Carmina Burana.

1930s

6.

The registration of births, marriages and deaths becomes compulsory in England and Wales.

1830s

7.

St Augustine travels from Rome to Kent to convert the heathen English to Christianity.

590s

8.

King Alfred the Great dies and is buried in Winchester.

890s

ROUND 4 – Themed

There’s an undeclared theme running through the answers which is revealed after the answer to Question 8

1.

Which character in the 1939 film of The Wizard of Oz was played by actor, Jack Haley?

The Tin man

2.

Which actor played a pair of identical twin gynaecologists in the 1988 film Dead Ringers?

Jeremy Irons

3.

Name the set of keyboard variations composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1741 and called after the harpsichordist who first performed them?

The Goldberg Variations (the harpsichordist was Johann Gottlieb Goldberg)

4.

What name connects a deceased British pop star and the main character in the 1960s animated puppet series Supercar?

Mercury (Freddie Mercury and Mike Mercury).

5.

Link the surname of a well known American blues and folk singer with that of a character played by Penelope Keith in the 1970s sitcom The Good Life?

Leadbetter (singer Huddy and character  Margo)

6.

Which Charles Dickens character was married to Dora Spenlow?

David Copperfield

7.

Combine a prefix meaning together or with, and a general term for an inhabitant of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia?

Cobalt (co and Balt)

8.

Combine a prefix meaning opposition with a word that denotes something you can exchange for a commodity or a service?

Antimony (anti and money)

Each answer contains the name of a metal

ROUNDS 5 to 8 - Bingo Quiz

Each team member selects a number between 1 and 42 to identify the question they are to be asked.  Each team must keep a check on which questions have been asked.  At the end there will be 10 spare questions left over.

1.

Which successful play of the 1960s by an English playwright contains the following stage direction: “They climb the Andes”?

The Royal Hunt of the Sun

2.

In 1948, the first Stoke Mandeville games were held.  What did they become better known as 12 years later?

The Paralympic Games (for disabled athletes)

3.

Michelle Bachelet was elected earlier this year as the President of which country?

Chile

4.

What did Dylan Thomas do in Ireland on July 2  2006?

He won the Irish Derby

5.

Recreationally speaking, what in England has a value of 10 but in Poland has a value of 1?

The letter Z in scrabble

6.

In terms of population, Cordoba and Rosario are the second and third largest cities in which country?

Argentina

7.

Who is known in Arabic as ‘Al Baba’?

The Pope

8.

From which Joni Mitchell song is this line taken:

   “and I dreamed I saw the bomber death planes riding shotgun in the sky”?

Woodstock

9.

Who was the young barrister who defended Penguin books during the Lady Chatterley trial of 1960?

John Mortimer

10.

What was invented in Germany at the start of the 18th century and is a concoction of rosemary, orange flowers and oils of bergamot distilled in a grape spirit?

Eau de Cologne

11.

The construction of what began in Belfast on March 31 1909?

The Titanic

12.

Whose sporting autobiography was published in 2005 and was cruelly dismissed by one critic who wrote: “Just like Athens, this one is not worth finishing”?

Paula Radcliffe

13.

Who or what is Great Smoo?

Scotland’s largest cave

14.

In the quarter-finals of the FIFA World Cup 2006, and, with the exception of  penalty shootouts, four of the  eight teams failed to score a goal.  Name the four teams.

England, Portugal, Brazil, Ukraine

15.

In mathematics, what has two parts called the characteristic and the mantissa?

A logarithm

16.

Recently voted the best action scene ever, the opening 23 minutes of which 1997 film was shot on a small beach in Co. Wexford?

Saving Private Ryan

17.

How often does a hebdomadal event take place?

Weekly

18.

How are you affected if you suffer from lethologica?

It is the momentary inability to recall a well-known word or name - the dreaded tip of the tongue syndrome

19.

What is expected to happen to Ban Ki-Moon on 1 January 2007?

He is expected to succeed Kofi Annan as United Nations Secretary-General

20.

Why has the 14th century Byzantine Emperor, Manuel IV Palaeologus, been in the news lately?

His were the harsh words about Islam that were controversially quoted by Pope Benedict XVI in a recent lecture in Munich, Germany

21.

Headed by lawyer, Dick Pound, what is the full name of the organization known by the acronym WADA?

World Anti-Doping Agency

22.

Recently adapted for television, what is the name of the  prequel to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, written in 1966  by novelist, Jean Rhys?

Wide Sargasso Sea

23.

In which European capital city is the Amalienborg Palace the main royal residence?

Copenhagen

24.

Actress, Dame Helen Mirren, recently did something on screen which no previous actress has done.  What did she do?

She created critically acclaimed screen portrayals of both Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II

25.

What is the commonly used term for the mainly childhood complaint of  enuresis?

Bed-wetting

26.

What recently happened to Shinzo Abe?

He succeeded Junichiro Koizumi as Prime Minister of Japan

27.

How were the opening lines of this famous song, first sung in German in 1929, translated into English:

 “Ich bin vom kopf bis fuss, auf liebe eingestellt”

“Falling in love again” (made famous, of course, by Marlene Dietrich).

28.

As what were  Alecto, Megaera and Tisiphone collectively known in Graeco-Roman mythology?

The Furies, or Eumenides, or Erinyes (any one of these will do)

29.

What was the name of the horse recently ridden to gold-winning victory in the World Equestrian event in Aachen, Germany by Zara Phillips?

Toytown

30.

Which British monarch once famously declared that he “hated all poets and painters”?

King George II (which, of course, immediately inspired many poems of a critical and or satirical nature)

31.

Name the Italian footballer who was famously given a nasty chest pain by Zinedine Zidane in the World Cup Final between France and Italy played in Berlin on July 9 this year?

Marco Materazzi

32.

Name the Birmingham Labour MP for Erdington who recently got into trouble for making a spoof video of Tory leader, David Cameron, inviting viewers to sleep with his wife?

Sion Simon

33.

Which church in Paris is the setting for much of the action in Dan Brown’s bestselling book The Da Vinci Code?

Saint Sulpice

34.

Which philosopher published a book entitled Meditations on First Philosophy (or just Meditations for short)?

Rene Descartes

35.

What is the name of the new West-End musical produced by former Monty Python member Eric Idle  which is based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

Spamalot

36.

What was Amelie Mauresmo the first Frenchwoman to achieve this year since 1925?

She won the Wimbledon Women’s Singles Championship (Suzanne Lenglen was the last Frenchwoman to do so previously)

37.

What position does Ugandan-born John Sentamu currently hold in the Church of England?

He is the Archbishop of York (the second most senior Anglican clergyman after the Archbishop of Canterbury)

38.

Who is Aishah Asmi and why has she been in the news lately?

She is the Muslim teacher who was suspended for wearing a veil in the classroom

39.

Name the young snooker champion (winner of one Welsh Open, one British Open and 3 Benson & Hedges titles) who died earlier this month.

Paul Hunter

40.

Carcharadon Carcharias is the Latin name for what species of large, predatory  fish?

The great white shark

41.

What famous political entity was replaced by The Confederation of the Rhine on July 12 1806?

The Holy Roman Empire

42.

Britain’s first sitting female MP, Lady Nancy Astor, apparently once retorted to Winston Churchill that, “if you were my husband, I would offer you poison!” How was Churchill said to have replied?

“Madam, if I were your husband, I would take it!” (any variation on these words will suffice)