10/08/2014
Venue: First Bowl Hereford Arena Team: Me + 5 others
Place: 1st - 65/82 points Money Round: 2nd (zilch) (9/15)
There wasn't a lot we could have done better. Not realistically anyway. But that's not what we're about here. Full dissection of our performance below.
Questions
Here are the pesky blighters that foiled us this time around. Let me know how well you did with them and we'll try and recruit you. Questions with a * denote Wipeout Round.1) Identify this man - (not the picture used in the quiz)
2) What is the name of the European Space Agency probe that went into orbit around its target comet this week?
3) Which large creature was spotted in the Adriatic Sea this week for the first time in 70 years?
4) On this day (10th August) in 1990, the Magellan Spacecraft began mapping which planet?
5) Celebrity round: Identify the celebrity from this clue - 'I was born in 1963 in Kentucky. I had originally planned to become a musician, but Nicholas Cage, a friend of my wife, persuaded me to take up acting...'
6) How many pairs of ribs does a cat have?*
7) A hinny is a crossbreed between which two animals?*
8) Miss Abel and Miss Baker were the first animals to return from space alive. What creatures were they?*
9) A haberdasher provides materials for which profession?*
10) The Leaning Tower of Pisa leans in which direction - North or South?*
A perfect music round (which is the rarest of things) was of significant help and clinched it for us just in time. How did you find those?
1) John Hurt
2) Rosetta
3) Giant jellyfish
4) Venus
5) Johnny Depp
6) 13
7) A horse and a donkey
8) Monkeys
9) Sewing
10) South (east)
The Excuses
1) Somehow this one slipped through the net. We went with Ian McKellen, which at least isn't totally stupid, but it should have been obvious having seen them both star in several things.
Quiz gold: Hurt was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire in 1940. He was nominated for an Oscar for his role as 'The Elephant Man' John Merrick in 1980, and is also well known for his roles in 1984, I, Claudius; The Naked Civil Servant and for portraying the War Doctor in Doctor Who. 2) I never follow space stories very closely. This is a massive mistake, especially as this week was quite space heavy. I think Leon, our gracious host, is very much enthralled by space stuff and once I've got some of my other quiz pages finished and dusted off, 'Space Stuff' would be an excellent Quiz Fiend cheat sheet. I'll keep you posted. I can't remember what we put, but it was very much wrong.
Quiz gold: The last time that the ESA mounted a comet mission was the Giotto craft destined for Halley's Comet in 1986. Unfortunately it was a disaster as the experts could not decipher the pictures sent back to Earth and Giotto mysteriously disappeared before returning.
3) Another news story which none of us had seen. Apparently the last time it was recorded in the Adriatic was in 1945.Quiz gold: The drymonema dalmatinum derives its name from where it was first seen, the Dalmatian Coast (Croatia) by German naturalist Ernst Haeckel. It is white and fuchsia in colour and can grow up to 3 feet in diameter.
4) See what I mean? Space. I think the date might actually be out by one day (9th August) but that's hardly an excuse for not knowing. Actually maybe we should have given it a try...
Quiz gold: The Magellan Spacecraft was also known as the Venus Radar Mapper (the clue's in the name!) The Magellan was named after Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese explorer who successfully organised the first circumnavigation of the Earth (although he died in the Philippines along the way) completed in 1522.
5) We didn't have enough to go on to start with, although some mega fans did. We managed to get 8 out of 10 available points on the second clue - 'My first acting roles were in 21 Jump Street and classic 1984 horror film 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'.
Quiz gold: Depp's first collaboration with Tim Burton was in 1990 with Edward Scissorhands and has since worked with him on 7 more films.
6) There wasn't a chance in hell we were going to get this and it was just as well we didn't put down the floated answer of 4.
Quiz gold: According to Wikipedia, the cat is the most popular choice of pet worldwide.7) I had actually heard this, but we didn't put it down just to be on the safe side.
Quiz gold: Whereas a mule is the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey, a hinny is the offspring of a female horse and a male donkey.
8) Space again. It could have been anything, as NASA sent up all sorts of creatures into space and my guess would have been fruit flies. Once again, the correct decision was made not to put anything down. Here is a link to a video of the event... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKL5X1EWL7Q
Quiz gold: This news story broke in 1959, paving the way for humans to make the voyage. Miss Able was a rhesus monkey and Miss Baker was a squirrel monkey.
9) I hadn't got a clue. I suppose I should have but to me 'haberdasher' is just one of those words you hear from time to time that goes away again fairly quickly. My friend's guess of 'hats/hatting' was not too far off, but not solid enough either.Quiz gold: The word 'haberdasher' appears in Geoffrey Chaucer's medieval work 'The Canterbury Tales'.
10) Does one dare to guess at a question like this? No, the answer is one does not.
Quiz gold: Since restoration work during the 1990s, the Tower leans at an angle of 3.99 degrees. It was completed in 1372.
Of course, it doesn't all end there you lucky, lucky devils. Here are the 6 questions that cheated us out of our destiny (£100). If you knew four of these, then you would have been of invaluable help. Actually, you would have been valuable to the tune of £16.66 each...
Final Fling
Questions
1) In which country would you find the Rimutaka Railway Tunnel?
2) After her wedding to Prince William in 2011, Kate Middleton laid her bouquet of flowers on whose memorial?
3) The rationing of which foodstuff ended in Britain in 1953?
4) Which rugby union player was nicknamed 'Squeaky'?
5) Mount Apo is in which country?
6) Mechanic's Bay Airport serves which New Zealand city?
Did you enjoy those? Here are the complimentary answers.
1) New Zealand
2) The Unknown Warrior
3) Sugar
4) Rob Andrew
5) The Philippines
6) Auckland
The Excuses
1) We made the classic mistake of mixing up a Maori word with Japanese. That definitely wouldn't be the first time that's happened, not even at Bar Wars.
Quiz gold: The railway tunnel goes through the Rimutaka mountain range on North Island, near Wellington.
2) The Unknown Warrior. I didn't remember this at all, but this is actually a tradition, going back to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon's marriage to the future King George VI in 1923. We went for Princess Diana.
The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior was unveiled on 11th November 1920, at Westminster Abbey in recognition of all unknown war dead. This occurred simultaneously in France, at the Arc de Triomphe.
3) I was a little bit surprised to hear this, but I shouldn't have been. I had never been clear on when sugar rationing ended, and I thought bread was much later than it turned out to be. Bread was our answer.
4) I had never really heard much about him. The name 'Squeaky' comes from his 'squeaky clean' public image. We went for Laurence Dallaglio, who I thought had a similar reputation before he was forced to resign his team captaincy over drug allegations in 1999.Quiz gold: Assuming the role of Fly Half (No. 10), Christopher Robert Andrew played for England in the 1987, 1991 and 1995 World Cup Tournaments and also had a brief career in first class cricket.
5) I have only myself to blame for this one after talking one of my teammates out of the answer being the Philippines. Not one I'll live down for a while, I'm sure, as it stopped us competing for the tie-break for a shot at the money. I think we went for Thailand.
Quiz gold: Apo is the highest mountain in the Philippines and is situated on Mindanao, the second largest island.
6) Do I detect another theme for something that I am rubbish at? Unfortunately, my knowledge of airports has never extended to that side of the globe. We put down Wellington.
Quiz gold: The airport was originally used to serve flying boats rather than aeroplanes.
I think that dissection was quite galling enough for tonight. Let me know how you did, and as always, tell me if I've got anything incorrect here. Until we meet again!
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