Quiz Fiend's Birmingham Debut

Yes, you did read that correctly. This post marks my first outing outside my home county, and whilst it wasn't spectacular, it was serviceable and hopefully the first of many. However, pressure of time means that I won't be able to do my usual research on each question. This will probably be the case for quite some time, as you wouldn't believe the amount of time that I (often accidentally) spend on this blog. Without further ado then, here are my first ever Birmingham failures. Could you have helped us onto the leaderboard?

Venue: The Duck and Scholar (or at least nearby)              Team: Me + 5 others
Score: 44/61 (4th)                           Money: No

I am happy to hear that the Mighty Ducks have reportedly stormed Bar Wars back home. Sadly I can't say the same for us. Let's begin:

Questions

First of all, identify these notable ducks:

1)                                                                                   2)

                                                      













3)                                                                                                           4)

                                                                                                                                               








5) The Lion King became the most successful musical of all time this week, taking over $6.2 billion dollars. Which musical did it overtake?

6) How much did India's Mars Orbiter Mission cost? a) $74 million    b) $45 million  c) 135 million

7) Who topped the leaderboard on Strictly Come Dancing this week? Bonus point for the name of the partner.

8) How much does the average Birmingham student spend on nights out/drinking per week?

9) Which city in J. R. R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings is based on Birmingham University campus?

10) In the third round of the Capital One Cup (or League Cup), Manchester City put 7 goals past Sheffield Wednesday this week. But what did all the goals have in common?

11) Also in the League Cup, how many end of match penalties were racked up between Liverpool and Middlesbrough on Tuesday - 25, 30 or 35?

12) Elvis Presley was a black belt in karate. True or false?

13) Rubies and sapphires are chemically the same substance. True or false?

14) Baby hedgehogs are called kittens. True or false?

There were a couple more questions, but they are sadly not replicable over the blog. How did you do?

Answers

1) Bean the Dynamite
2) Howard the Duck
3) Darkwing Duck
4) Wade Duck
5) The Phantom of the Opera
6) Disputed - See below
7) Frankie Bridge (and Kevin Clifton)
8) £68
9) Isengard
10) They were all scored in the same half
11) 30
12) True
13) True
14) False (Hoglets)

Post Match Analysis

As I mentioned before, I'll have to be brief this week.

1) Apparently he is from the Sonic the Hedgehog universe, which I guessed from the photo. I'm not a total stranger to Sonic, but I would never have guessed the correct answer (though we did actually put 'Dynamite' noting his bomb. He is part of a team known as the 'Hooligans'.

2) We lost out on this one, as we put down 'Harold the Duck' despite my protestations. Not that I knew anything about him. Howard is a Marvel creation, but earned notoriety thanks to a 1986 live action film. According to Wikipedia, it is generally acknowledged as one of the worst films ever made, so I don't feel too bad about missing out on this film.

3) I assumed that Darkwing Duck was a contemporary of Daffy, but he is actually a Disney creation. Assisted by Launchpad McQuack, Darkwing Duck is a parody of the superhero genre and mainly a spoof of Batman. The series ran from 1991 to 1992.

4) We correctly identified him as a Jim Davis creation, but I had never seen him in anything Garfield related. Wade is a hypochondriac, and constantly wears an inner tube to prevent him from drowning.

5) The Phantom of the Opera was masterminded by Andrew Lloyd Webber with assistance from Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe and premiered in 1986. It is based on the 1910 novel by Gaston Leroux. Though the Lion King has earned more money, 'Phantom' is still thought to have been seen by many more people - over 130 million. It is the longest running show ever on Broadway.

6) The answer was given as $45 million but this must have been a mix up when compiling the questions. All news organisations I can see give the figure as $74 million, meaning we were robbed of a crucial point. $74 million is still incredibly cheap when compared to NASA's $74 million MAVEN spacecraft, which also reached Mars this week.

7) Bridge, (born Francesca Sandford in 1989) is one of the 5 members of girl band The Saturdays. When she was younger she was also a member of the S Club 7 off shoot, S Club Juniors. Bridge's Waltz earned her 30 out of 40 points, pipping Eastender Jake Wood's tango by 2 points.

8) We guessed in the right area, but we decided to cut our losses fairly quickly. I don't know where they got their figures, but I imagine they're fairly authoritative.

'Old Joe'

Orthanc

9) Walking around the campus today, I suddenly realised how obvious this was. Isengard was home to Gandalf's wizarding acquaintance (and superior) Saruman, who is won over to the Dark Lord Sauron's forces. Isengard is situated close to the Forest of Fangorn and its most recognisable landmark is the ominous Tower of Orthanc, which is presumably based on the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower.



10) I had no idea. My best guess was that they were all scored by the same player, but my teammates nearly got this. You can read more here.

11) Obviously I didn't know again. Liverpool eventually won with 14 penalties to 13. The winning goal was scored by Mario Balotelli.

12) I knew Elvis Presley practised karate, but I didn't know he was a black belt. Apparently he developed an enthusiasm for it whilst on military service and achieved his first degree black belt in 1960 (the year of his first comeback). He always carried the certificate with him in his wallet.

13) We were surprised to hear this, as we assumed colour indicated that the two must be distinct, but it turns out that they are both types of corundum. In wedding anniversaries, ruby is the traditional gift for a 40th anniversary and sapphire for the 45th. Corundum is the second hardest mineral after diamond.

14) I was in two minds, but I really wanted this to be true. Unfortunately, I should have trusted instinct. Hoglets is still a great name.


How did you do? Let me know, (either comment or tweet to @MPRTaylor ) and hopefully I'll be back with another quiz this Thursday/Friday. See you soon.

Quiz Fiend's Final Victory! (Almost)

Yes, friends, it was indeed emotional. For those of you who are unaware, this is my final pub quiz in the hallowed halls of the Victory until Christmas time, owing to my moving to Birmingham. It looks very doubtful that I will be able to sustain the compilation of quiz guides on a regular basis for a good long while, but I will still try and keep up the quiz outings if I can. We had another magnificent performance at the Victory this time, earning 95 points. It was great to end on such a high, although we were actually just pipped into second place. We also missed out on the golden opportunity of winning £100, so see the Snowball round below to find if you could have made all the difference to our team. I have resumed the Best Team Name competition, which is up to you to decide. Other than that, please sit back, relax and enjoy my final moments of reporting from the Hereford quizzing front line...

23/09/2014
Venue: The Victory Quiz Extravaganza                Team: Me + 4 others
Score: 95/100 - 2nd (1st place - 96)                       Snowball: LOSS! (Were we in need of your help?)

Obviously, we were pretty pleased with that, but to miss out on the money after months of not being picked is a little bit gutting. I don't think we could have plucked this one out of the ether though. Let's get down to business...

Best Team Name Competition

Unlike last week, this time you can choose the best team name from this shortlist. (If you want the full list, 1) Tough - I didn't note them all down, and 2) you're honestly not missing out.) This is a typical contest in that the one with the most votes wins. The shortlist is as follows:

- Paul Mycock
- If Quizzes Are Quizzical, Then What Are Tests?
- Alex Salmond UDI
- Universally Challenged
- I've Seen Hermione's Gryffindor
- Return of the Prodigal Boobs

You can vote by leaving a comment below or by tweeting me at @MPRTaylor. The winner will be announced around this time next week.

Right then, let's crack on with the main quiz? Could you have helped us win?

Questions

1) Name any 1 of the 2 Asian national football teams who appear in the Top 50 of the FIFA World Rankings?
(See below for the confusion over this question.)

2) Where would you find the pituitary gland?

3) What was the name of the faith healer that Glenn Hoddle hired as part of the English football team coaching staff?

4) By what name is a 'diaphone' more commonly known?

Answers

 
1) Japan and/or Iran

2) At the base of the brain ('Head' was accepted)

3) Eileen Drewery

4) Foghorn

Post Match Analysis/Excuses

1) I'm afraid that the way this question was asked one was one of those quintessential mix ups, and the more we sought clarity as to whether we needed to put down one or two answers, the more confused we became. We put Japan and South Korea, of which one was correct, so we are still none the wiser as the whether we should only have put Japan or if we did the right thing. Never mind, we got one mark out of it.
To Sum Up: Both teams made appearances at the group stages of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, but both also finished bottom of their groups. Iran currently ranks at No. 44 and Japan at equal 48th. Since 2006, the FIFA World Rankings have taken account of the national sides performance over the pervious 4 years, with more weight being given to more recent performances. Unsurprisingly, after their victory at the World Cup, Germany leads the table with 1765 points. England have increased to No. 18 (from 20) since the last time I had to investigate these rankings. Wales and Scotland are joint 29th and Northern Ireland is at 71.       

The Pituitary Gland is in orange

2) I think we might have mixed the position of this up with the thyroid gland. At any rate, we knew it wasn't part of the brain, but it is much closer to the brain that we thought.
To Sum Up: The pituitary gland is a endocrine gland, meaning it produces hormones, the best known probably being Human Growth Hormone (HGH). Other hormones help to regulate blood pressure, the body's water levels, sexual functions, metabolism, body temperature and the thyroid, so it's pretty busy for its size, which is roughly that of a pea. It is also known as the hypophysis.
 

3) I had absolutely no idea, as you might expect. The team seemed pretty sure the answer was a woman, but couldn't remember the name, and inexplicably didn't go with my answer of 'Mystic Meg'. For some reason, one of our number seemed to think it might have been Cherie Blair's style advisor, Carole Caplin, but we put this down mainly due to lack of alternatives.
To Sum Up: Hoddle first met Drewery in 1976, as she was the mother of Hoddle's girlfriend, Michelle. Staying in contact with Eileen long after  his relationship with Michelle had broken up, Hoddle continually denied that she was influencing his choices when selecting teams in the build up to the 1998 World Cup in France. Hoddle was forced to resign his post of England manager when in a 1999 interview discussing his beliefs, he gave the view that being born with a disability was punishment for wrongdoing in a previous life.

4) The quizmaster said this was easy, but we couldn't tell if he was joking or not. We correctly assumed that 'dia' meant 'two', but this led us to the answer of a Walkie-Talkie, which seemed more logical to us (i.e. 'two-way sound').
To Sum Up: Bells and gongs were originally used to produce the necessary sound to warn ships from dangerous rocks, and even steam powered fog horns were used at one stage, but a diaphone is typically used for this purpose today. It is a machine that uses pressurised air to create a deep 'grunt' of a noise, and has been modified to elongate a second consequential note. The first company to manufacture them, the Diaphone Signal Company, was founded in Toronto in 1903. They are now a common feature on most lighthouses.

How did you do? If you answered Q1, you took us to equal 1st. Q2, 3 or 4 would have taken us into the lead. Let me know if you could have helped us out. But now for the part where you may have been absolutely crucial - the Snowball. How will you cope with these?

Snowball Questions 

S1) This was the question that we were chosen for. We lost. Could you have earned us the £100? No pressure...

James Michael Aloysius Bradford is the real name of which actor turned singer?

S2) Talia Shire, who played Adrian in the Rocky series of films, is the sister of which famous director?

S3) Which capital city is located on the Amager and Zealand islands?

Answers/Excuses

S1) Jimmy Nail
We really had no idea on this. I could think of plenty of singers turned actors, but not the other way around. Knowing that we had to say something, we opted, with no conviction, for Frank Sinatra.
Nail hails from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is best known for playing Leonard 'Oz' Osborne in the comedy/drama series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet from 1983 - 86 and in 2004. He reached No. 1 in the UK in 1992 with the song 'Ain't No Doubt' and had another big hit in 1994 with 'Crocodile Shoes'.

S2) Francis Ford Coppola
I would have guessed this answer, making it a little irritating that we were picked first. I suppose that's just the luck of the draw for you.
Shire was born Talia Rose Coppola in the splendidly named Lake Success, New York in 1946. She is the aunt of both Nicholas Cage and director Sofia Coppola. Shire is also notable for playing the role of Connie Corleone in the Godfather series of films and earned a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for The Godfather Part II at the 1974/5 Academy Awards.

S3) Copenhagen
Another one that we would have got. I wasn't 100% sure but half of my team had actively considered going on holiday there.
Copenhagen was originally founded as a fishing village by the Vikings during the 10th Century and is historically notable for taking a heavy bombardment from the fleet of Admiral Nelson in 1801. Since the completion of the Oresund Bridge, Copenhagen is structurally linked with the Swedish coastal city of Malmo, forming the Oresund region, which is essentially a transnational metropolitan area. Major landmarks include the Tivoli Gardens and the Little Mermaid Statue, a tribute to the writer Hans Christian Andersen. Noma Restaurant has been voted Restaurant Magazine's Best Restaurant in the World for 4 of the last 5 years and it is official city policy that nobody must be further than a 15 minute walk from a beach in any direction, which is probably something most cities would struggle to live up to!


So there you have it. My last Victory outing for an eternity, so I hope you've enjoyed it. If you think I've got anything wrong, please don't hesitate to let me know and definitely let me know if you could have helped us out. Until next time everyone, whenever that may be...

Quiz Fiend's Last Bar Wars! (Until Further Notice)

Yes, sadly it's true. Sunday marked my last Bar Wars appearance for the next few months, as I am off to do a Masters. I hope that my team, the Mighty Ducks, won't miss me too terribly. (I am, of course, lying.) Happily, my last showing was one of the greatest triumphs in my 5 year long pub quizzing history, as I can happily report that not only did we just pip the main quiz, we also netted the cash prize as well! We still dropped a few questions here and there, so you can see if you would have made our victory even more amazing had you been there. I am optimistic that I will still be able to carry on my quiz dissections from university, but I may have to spend less time on them. For now however, why not see how you fared with the ones that stumped us?

21/09/2014
Venue: First Bowl Hereford Arena                           Team: Me + 3 others
Score: 72/82 (1st)                                                      Money Round: Win! (£300)

The team names at TGS are always the same, as they compete for the Tim Evans Cup at the end of the year, so I am not offering you a choice of best team names to pick from this time. But hopefully that will resume at my last Victory quiz on Tuesday. Here are our main quiz woe-bringers:

Questions

1) Which Internet service provider is owned by eBay?

2) Which singer was the godmother of fellow singer Dionne Bromfield?

3) The New Year's Eve fireworks display in London has recently been limited to how many attendees (who will be paying for tickets for the first time)?

4) Which country is currently experiencing the highest economic growth in the European Union?

5) The recent drought and wildfires in California are causing concern over the continued production of which crop, of which California is estimated to grow 80% of the world's supply? 

6) Identify the celebrity from these two separate clues (Clue No. 1 only if you can) -

Clue 1) I was born on Brooklyn in 1966 into a Jewish family. My mother was a nursery school teacher and my father was an electrical engineer. Both of my parents have Russian heritage.

Clue 2) I discovered that I had a talent for stand up comedy and my breakthrough came when I was hired to write for and later perform on Saturday Night Live. I went on to co-star in the 1993 film Coneheads, alongside Chris Farley and Dan Aykroyd (amongst others).

7) The Victoria Cross cannot be awarded to civilians - True or False?


Answers

1) PayPal
2) Amy Winehouse
3) 100000 people
4) Ireland
5) Almonds
6) Adam Sandler
7) False


Post-Match Analysis

1) This was partially down to us not really understanding what was meant by 'Internet service provider'. We assumed that an ISP was a company that provided your internet for you, but apparently the term can apply to anything that provides a service on the internet. We went with AOL, not least because we hadn't heard much of AOL since the days when you had to plug in a modem and listen to screechy dial up noises if you wanted to get online. Does anybody else miss those days? No, me neither...
The Cup of Knowledge: PayPal is headquartered in San Jose, California and was founded in Palo Alto by Ken Howery, Max Levchin, Elon Musk, Luke Nosek and Peter Thiel in 1998. Its purpose is to allow people to conduct financial transactions/purchases safely online, and as such the U.S. government often forbids its use to individuals or states over whom the U.S. is exerting economic sanctions. It has been owned by eBay since 2002.

2) We had no idea. Slightly irritatingly, the team next door to us very definitely knew and delighted in our struggle. We went with Beyoncé ('She's old enough to be a godmother...'). I'm not too irked by this, we were never going to get it.
The Cup of Knowledge: Dionne Bromfield was born in 1996 in Tower Hamlets and first came to prominence when she recorded a video of her singing a cover of Alicia Keys' 'If I Ain't Got You' with Winehouse. She was later signed to Winehouse's record label, Lioness Records.

3) I had skim- read this a few days before, but as often happens with these more throwaway news items, the numbers were a blur. Our guess was 20000, which we'd have been more likely to round down than up.
The Cup of Knowledge: The first major fireworks display of this kind took place on 1st January 2000, when it was estimated that a colossal 3 million people were present. It has been occurring regularly since 1st January 2004, and it is thought that around 500000 attended the last one in 2014. The tickets will cost £10 and you can book up to four as of now, should you fancy it.

4) A fair few floated through our minds. Once again, I had read the relevant news, I just hadn't internalised it. I'm not 100% what we put, but I think it was Poland.
The Cup of Knowledge: After first entering recession in mid 2007, and soon after experiencing the damaging burst of a property bubble (having previously been dubbed the 'Celtic Tiger'), Ireland grew 1.5% over the last 3 months for which figures are available (April to June), making the country an impressive 7.7% larger than this time last year.

5) We would never have guessed this. I think we had a fairly uncommittal guess at maize.
The Cup of Knowledge: Almonds are thought to be collective worth $4.3 billion to the economy of California, with nearly a million acres of the state dedicated to their growth, and it is now considered to be America's favourite 'nut'. However, technically the almond is a seed from inside the drupe (fruit) from the almond tree. Its botanical name is 'Prunus dulcis'.

6) I wasn't ashamed not to know this straight away, but from the first clue I thought it might potentially have been Helen Mirren.  Luckily, somebody also pointed out to me that I had done my maths wrong. Good job we waited for the next clue then, and after hearing the third one we got it correct.
The Cup of Knowledge: Sandler is probably best known for the films Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, the titles of which he combined to make the name of his own production company Happy Madison. Sandler's 2011 Jack and Jill is notable for earning Sandler the title of both Worst Actor and Worst Actress at the Golden Raspberry Awards (Razzies). 

7) We should have put our thinking caps on for this one. Why would Leon have asked otherwise? It was 99% likely that it was true, ergo it was false...
The Cup of Knowledge: First established in 1856 by Queen Victoria during the Crimean War, the cross is typically awarded for distinguished military service, with the counterpart for civilians being the George Cross. The Victoria Cross can however be awarded to civilians if they were acting under military orders whilst performing their act of heroism, and 5 men have received it for this reason. This is the highest level of award that can be conferred by the UK to a member of the Commonwealth or former colony.



I didn't feel that any of these truly showed us up (Helen Mirren notwithstanding), and we were understandably chuffed this week. Up next is the money round - how would you have fared with these? We only got 13, so we squeaked it. It's always worth having absolute certainty on your side, so give them a whirl...

Final Fling Questions:

1) In which U.S. state was Harley-Davidson founded?

2) Who is the Church of England's only saint?

Answers & Analysis

1) Wisconsin. One of our team actually suggested the right answer, but we weren't sure and in the end we went for Tennessee.
The Cup of Knowledge: Harley-Davidson was founded in by William S. Harley and Arthur, Walter and William Davidson in 1903 in Milwaukee. It provided vast numbers of motorcycles for the U.S. government during the two World Wars and is one of only two American motorcycle companies to stay in business during the Great Depression (the other being Indian, which went bankrupt in 1953).

2) Charles I. We didn't have an idea about this one. Well, we kind of did, but had our answer of St. George been correct then this question would have been uncharacteristically easy for the cash round. We wouldn't have thought of anything else under the time pressure, and of all the monarchs we might potentially have thought of, Charles I wouldn't have been particularly high on that list.
The Cup of Knowledge: This question is really asking who was the only person to be canonised by the Church of England after the Reformation (i.e. since Henry VIII rejected the authority of the Catholic Church in 1534). Charles I was canonised because he was regarded by many as a martyr after being beheaded during the English Civil War. However, his status as a saint is not universally recognised and 'St Charles' is not a name that most English people would realise to be a former monarch. This is the sort of question that I love though, so no complaints here.


So there you have it, the round up of my last Bar Wars for a decent length of time. Hope you've enjoyed it and if you have any quibbles with what I've written, please comment. Also, don't forget to let me know how you did with these questions. Until we meet again, Bar Wars...

Just a Quick Note

Hi everyone, this is just a very brief message to say that I haven't forgotten you, I've just been extremely busy and not had a lot of time to update the blog. I am about to relocate, and will have to get used to a new quizzing scene.
However, I will be updating with my last Bar Wars post tomorrow (hopefully) and my final Victory outing should be up on Wednesday. In the meantime, why not have a go at my recent Pointless quiz? Go on, you might be good at it!

Until tomorrow everyone!
John Russ

Pointless Quiz - Final Round

You've made it this far! Can you get a Pointless answer on this final round? I must, of course, point out that I haven't got any money to offer you, but you can have a personal well done if you do manage it. What's the category you ask?

Final Round - The Island of Ireland

You only get one choice I'm afraid. But you do have 3 options to choose from within this category. Your options are:

- Irish Counties - Name any of the 32 counties across either Northern Ireland or the Republic.

- Thin Lizzy Hits - Name any UK Top 40 Hits for Thin Lizzy as of 18/09/2014

- Northern Irish MPs - Any member of the UK Parliament representing Northern Ireland as of 18/09/2014

Answers are beneath this picture of the Pointless Trophy. Good luck!

Answers (Pointless)

Only Pointless answers are shown below. For a full list of the answers, click on the heading of the category to be taken to a relevant website.

Irish Counties:

Westmeath
Laois
Carlow

Thin Lizzy Top 40 Hits:

Sarah
Cold Sweat
Thunder and Lightening
Dedication

Northern Irish MPs:

Gregory Campbell
Pat Doherty
Michelle Gildernew
William McCrea
Frankie Molloy
Paul Maskey
Conor Murphy
Jim Shannon
David Simpson
Sammy Wilson

So there you have it. Did you manage to get a pointless answer? Well done if you did, and please let me know what you thought of this quiz.

Until next time everyone!

Pointless Quiz Round 3 - Head To Head

Welcome to Round 3 - the Head to Head round. Don't let not having anyone to go head to head against stop you from having a go! You've got to try and do better than the highest scoring answer.

Head To Head 1 - Television

Gerry Anderson TV Shows

Here are pictures of 5 TV puppet or 'Supermarionation' shows created by Gerry Anderson. You have to identify the show from the image.



B

A

C

E

D

Answers are at the bottom of the page.


Head To Head 2 - Geography

Mountain Ranges

Below is a list of 5 anagrams of world mountain ranges. Unscramble them for the (lack of) points.

1) HEW GRASS TENT

2) SEDAN

3) CAPTAIN RASH

4) HAY SALAMI

5) ADD ARSENIC CALORIMETER

Again, answers are at the bottom of the page.


Head To Head 3 - The Pope

Pope Francis

All you have to do is get the correct answers to these facts about Pope Francis.

1) What is his birth name?

2) Which country does he come from?

3) Which Pope did he succeed in 2013?

4) Which football club does he support?

5) He is the first Pope to be a member of which religious group founded by Ignatius of Loyola in 1540?

All of the answers are below this picture of Xander and Richard.

Answers

A) Stingray - 42
B) Joe 90 - 6
C) Thunderbirds - 84
D) Captain Scarlet - 53
E) Fireball XL5 - 11

1) Western Ghats - 1
2) Andes - 76
3) Carpathians - 35
4) Himalayas - 93
5) Sierra Madre Occidental - POINTLESS!

1) Jorge Mario Bergoglio - 16
2) Argentina - 45
3) Benedict XVI - 71
4) San Lorenzo de Almagro - POINTLESS!
5) Jesuits/Society of Jesus - 3

How did you do with those?

Are you ready for the final round now then. Click here to see if you can get a Pointless answer where it counts.

Pointless Quiz Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of this Pointless Quiz. You know the rules by now, so let's get cracking. Music is the name of the game this time.


ROUND 2

Music - Follow-up Hits

Below is a list of 12 artists and their first ever UK number 1 hit (according to the Official Charts Company). Next to that is a set of initials which indicates the title of their next Top 40 hit after that chart topper and the year it was released. Once again, you need to go for obscurity.

Artists:

Madonna - Into the Groove                                                                       H #2 (1985)
The Black Eyed Peas - Where is the Love?                                             SU  #2 (2003)
Elton John - Don't Go Breaking My Heart                                                BATJ #37 (1976)
Lady Gaga - Just Dance                                                                           PF #1 (2009)
Spice Girls - Wannabe                                                                             SYBT #1 (1996)
Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through the Grapevine                                     GLAETCB #26 (1969)
Boyzone - Words                                                                                      ADB #1 (1996)
Rihanna - Umbrella                                                                                  SUAD #5 (2007)
Kylie Minogue - I Should Be So Lucky                                                     GTBC #2 (1988)
Rod Stewart - Maggie May                                                                       YWIW #1 (1972)
The Beatles - From Me To You                                                                SLY #1 (1963)
Michael Jackson - One Day In Your Life                                                  TGIM #8 (1982)

Target To Beat: 15

Answers are beneath this picture of Richard.

Answers

Madonna: Holiday - 34
The Black Eyed Peas: Shut Up - 13
Elton John: Bennie and the Jets - 23
Lady Gaga: Poker Face - 37
Spice Girls: Say You'll Be There - 42
Marvin Gaye: Good Lovin' Ain't Easy To Come By - 6
Boyzone: A Different Beat - 15
Rihanna: Shut Up and Drive - 20
Kylie Minogue: Got To Be Certain - 4
Rod Stewart: You Wear It Well - 25
The Beatles: She Loves You - 74
Michael Jackson: The Girl Is Mine - 3

How are you doing so far? Let me know in the comments section.

Ready for the Head To Head round? Click here.

Pointless Quiz Part 1

Hello everybody and welcome to my latest TV themed quiz, this time based on the BBC1 phenomenon Pointless! This is going to be a (slightly) interactive quiz - this page will only contain the first round and there is a link to Round 2 at the bottom of this page. These blog posts will more or less follow the format of the show, and for anybody unfamiliar with the rules, you have to try and get the LEAST obvious answer, so a low score is what you're looking for. Obviously, I don't have the time or resources to ask 100 people any of these questions, so the scores are just based on my opinion. No arguing! Shall we get started then?

I should make it clear that this quiz is not in any way affiliated with the show, it is just for fun.

(If you really hate the look of Round 1, you can skip to Round 2 by clicking here.)

ROUND 1

Sport - Football

Premier League Winning Managers

The aim of this round is to name any club* that any of these men listed below (who have all won the English Premier League) have managed during their career. You do not have to specify which manager managed which team to get the points, you just have to get a correct answer.

*National sides are not accepted.

Managers:

Alex Ferguson
Kenny Dalglish
Arsene Wenger
Jose Mourinho
Carlo Ancelotti
Roberto Mancini
Manuel Pellegrini

Target Score to beat: 10

Have a think about those and you can find the answers underneath this picture of Alexander.

Answers

Here they are then. How did you do?

Alex Ferguson
East Stirlingshire - 7
St Mirren - 6
Aberdeen - 15
Manchester United - 99

Kenny Dalglish
Liverpool - 65
Blackburn Rovers - 35
Newcastle United - 12
Celtic - 4

Arsene Wenger
Nancy-Lorraine - 3
AS Monaco - 7
Nagoya Grampus (Eight) - 4
Arsenal - 43

Jose Mourinho
Benfica - 9
Uniao de Leiria - POINTLESS!
Porto - 17
Chelsea - 46
Internazionale/Inter Milan - 24
Real Madrid - 38

Carlo Ancelotti
Reggiana - 2
Parma - 6
Juventus - 11
A. C. Milan - 14
Chelsea - 46
Paris St German - 19
Real Madrid - 38

Roberto Mancini
Fiorentina - 4
Lazio - 8
Internazionale/Inter Milan - 24
Manchester City - 48
Galatasaray - 23

Manuel Pellegrini
Universidad de Chile - 2
Palestino - 1
O'Higgins F.C. - POINTLESS!
Universidad Catolica - 2
LDU Quito - 3
San Lorenzo - POINTLESS!
River Plate - 6
Villarreal - 9
Real Madrid - 38
Malaga - 16
Manchester City - 48

If you got below 50, I imagine you'd have probably made it through this round. Onto the next one.

Click here to go to Round 2.

On Course for a Victory? Not Quite

Hello again everybody, and welcome to the account of our very promising and then, tremendously disappointing performance at the Victory Curry and Quiz on Tuesday. As usual, my pain is your pleasure and there are 10 juicy quiz questions for you to get your teeth into. We only needed 2 out of these first 7 questions to win, so you could have made all the difference. I'm also introducing a new feature this week. I'm going to start noting down the best team names and announcing a winner for the best one. Well then, what are we waiting for?

16/09/2014
Venue: The Victory Colosseum                                        Team: Me + 4 others
Score: 87 (joint 2nd, lost on tiebreak) 1st place - 90         Snowball: Not chosen

The first half started off so well, but it all went downhill very swiftly after that. I also managed to ruin the tiebreaker for us by saying an answer that would have cemented us 2nd place and then insisting that I was almost definitely wrong. Just the way these things go I suppose.

Best Team Name: 3 team names stood out for me this week. I may start compiling a shortlist in future so that you can help decide the best one. Without further fanfare, here are my inaugural awards:

3rd Place - If Scotland votes yes, does that mean we can ban haggis?
2nd Place - Adrian Chiles
1st Place - If quizzes are quizzical, then what are tests?

There wasn't really much of a contest this week, 1st place romped home. Typically it's best to be topical with these, but all the best Scottish names were taken last week, and Scotland has really been dominating the news. I would tell you our name but 1) it was an in-joke and 2) it wasn't very funny.

So, on with the main quiz then:

Questions

1) A total of 5 points up for grabs here (we managed 4) -
Name all the 5 things that Solomon Grundy did on a weekday.

2) How many timeouts is each side allowed in a game of American Football?

3) What was the name of Kylie Minogue's debut album?

4) Who voiced Chef in South Park?

5) What would a plangonologist collect?

6) Which musicians duetted on the hit 'The Girl is Mine' in the 1980s?

7) Identify the song from the opening lyrics:
'I got my first real six-string, Bought it at the five-and-dime.'

Tiebreak) How many episodes of Neighbours did Harold Bishop appear in?


A lot of pop culture simply passed us by this week. My guess is you did much better. Why not find out by how much?

Answers

1) Born, Christened, Married, Took Ill, Grew Worse
2) 6
3) Kylie
4) Isaac Hayes
5) Dolls
6) Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney
7) Summer of '69 (by Bryan Adams)
TB) 1659 episodes


Post Match Analysis

NOT that Solomon Grundy

1) Not a household favourite. In reality we were riding our luck by getting 4 out of 5. We got everything from Monday to Thursday, but we assumed that he must have been divorced at some point. Not so. They didn't do divorce quite as much back in those days.
The Bare Necessities: This nursery rhyme was first published in England in 1842 and its Roud Folk Song Index number is 19299. The full rhyme is below:
'Solomon Grundy, Born on a Monday,
Christened on Tuesday, Married on Wednesday,
Took ill on Thursday, Grew worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday, Buried on Sunday,
That was the end of Solomon Grundy.'
How considerate of them to bury him on a day to fit in with the rest of his life!
Solomon Grundy should not be confused with the zombie enemy of the Green Lantern and member of the Injustice League who first appeared in All-American Comics in 1944 (however tempted you may be).

2) This seems like an awful lot to me, but there you go. We went with 3, knowing that each game is divided into 4 quarters and theorised that maybe you'd be allowed one each in the second, third and fourth quarters. Plus, we decided to go with the old Trivial Pursuit adage - if you don't know, the answer is either '3' or 'Adolf Hitler'.
The Bare Necessities: Timeouts are very common in all of the major American sports. The aim is generally to allow the coach to speak to and inspire the team to glory, and they are often employed strategically. In American Football, each team is allowed 3 per half, and they cannot be carried over, though more may be called if the game reaches overtime. Calling a timeout just before potentially crucial points are scored is known as 'icing the kicker'. They are usually called by the Quarterback or the Head Coach.

3) D'oh! Sometimes, it just doesn't pay to overthink things. Thinking of the single, we went for 'Lucky', but we were painfully aware that this one was going to give us the slip.
The Bare Necessities: 'Kylie' was first released in 1988 and was produced by Stock Aitken & Waterman. It is best known for the singles 'The Loco-motion' (UK No. 2) and 'I Should Be So Lucky' (No. 1). It has sold over 5 million copies worldwide, 2 million of which are in the UK, making Minogue the first solo female artist to achieve this feat.

4) We really didn't know. I've only seen a handful of South Park episodes. After many possibles put forward, we decided to go with O. J. Simpson, guessing that employing him after his controversial acquittal in 1995 would be something that the South Park team would be happy to do.
The Bare Necessities: Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was born in Covington, Tennessee in 1942. He made a name for himself as a producer and songwriter at Stax Records and is best known for writing the song 'Soul Man' which became a hit for Sam and Dave in 1967, and for writing the score to the 1971 Blaxploitation film 'Shaft', for which Hayes became only the 3rd African-American to win a competitive Oscar. Hayes finally achieved a UK No. 1 single in 1998, when in his role as Chef, he topped the chart with 'Chocolate Salty Balls'. Hayes is a scientologist and was made an honorary king of Ada in Ghana in 1992 (for his humanitarian work).

5) We had a inkling that this one wouldn't be anywhere near as obscure as it sounded. I don't think we really stood a chance with this though, despite ruling several things (stamps, coins, cigarette cards) out. I think we went with matchboxes...
The Bare Necessities: There's not really a lot that I can add here, other than the word has its origins in ancient Greek (surprise surprise). Apparently, because women were not allowed to be actors in ancient Greece, women were represented onstage by a large doll or 'plangon'.

6) We got Jackson, but not Paul McCartney, and sadly this one was all down to me, costing us outright second place. I assumed that the two musicians had only collaborated on 'Say, Say, Say', but I committed a cardinal quizzing error here by working on an assumption I had no good reason to make. I was however, very tired indeed, so I'll allow myself this slip up just this once.
The Bare Necessities: 'The Girl Is Mine' is a 1982 song written by Jackson and co-produced with Quincy Jones. It was the first single to be released from Jackson's piece de resistance, Thriller, which has the greatest claim to be the best selling album in the world. The single reached No. 8 in the UK. The pair had already recorded Say, Say, Say by this point, but it was not released until 1983.The only other song that Jackson and McCartney recorded together was 'The Man' and one of the reasons I had been keen to discount the likelihood of another Jackson/McCartney collaboration was because of McCartney's intense displeasure at being outbid by Jackson for the rights to many of his songs in 1985.

7) Another 80s music question evading us. This being the last question, we just went with our stock 'don't know' answer of Born To Run.
The Bare Necessities: 'Summer of '69' was released by Bryan Adams in 1985, from the 1984 album Reckless. Co-written with Jim Vallance, the song was originally intended to be called 'Best Days Of My Life'. Adams has confirmed that '69 is a reference to the sexual position, rather than the year. Though well known in the UK, it did not reach the top 40 on its release, peaking at 42.

Tiebreak) Once again, I threw our opportunity to come second away. I originally guessed 2000, which would have just clinched it for us, but revised it to 3000 when I considered how many Neighbours episodes there approximately were. I obviously hadn't allowed for the fact that he wouldn't have been in ALL of those episodes. Oh dear.
The Bare Necessities: Harold Wayne Bishop was played by Ian Smith, who appeared in the show from 1987 - 1991, 1996 - 2009 and briefly in 2011. When Smith departed the show in 1991, Bishop was written out by being swept out to sea, reappearing 5 years later with amnesia. He would later join the Salvation Army as a result of their help. Bishop is also well known for his friendship with Lou Carpenter. His 2011 return to the show was to marry Carolyn Johnstone, many years of the death of his previous wife Madge, played by Anne Charleston.

So there's the damage. I wasn't in the best of moods after this, but perhaps you would have been if you'd have been picked for the Snowball. There were two chances this week. Could you have won £100?

Questions

1) 'Telesphobia' is the fear of what?

2) What is the name of the small rubber-headed hammer used by doctors for testing reflexes?

Answers

1) Being last.
Quite appropriate that this was the first snowball then really...

2) A Plexor.


How did you find those then? Could you have won £100?
Let me know how you did and as always, don't hesitate to correct me if you think I've got anything wrong. Until next time then...