Bar Wars: Return of the Quiz

After two whole agonising weeks away, Bar Wars kindly returned this Sunday with a new energy and a cash prize pot big enough to salivate over. Sadly we didn't get our grubby mitts on the money, but we did win the main quiz, so we can't complain too much. Are you in the mood to get quizzical then? Just look at you, I can see you are...

The Money Round questions have now been added below the main quiz questions.

14/09/2014
Venue: First Bowl Hereford Arena      Team: Me + 4 others
Score: 69/77 (1st)               Final Fling: 11/15 (joint 2nd) - No cash

We had an excellent week this time, only dropping 7 questions (one being worth 2 marks). This was no doubt in part thanks to a fairly comfortable Clued Up round (guess the celebrity) and another music round ('Lyrically Speaking') where you had to identify the song from the lyrics. Could you have covered us in even more glory? Here's your chance to be a bit of a know-it-all...

Questions

Question 1

1) Identify this celebrity from her picture.

2) In the medical profession, what does SRN stand for?

3) Which supermarket is launching a new '50 Shades of Grey' range of underwear?

4) How many countries are represented in the inaugural Invictus Games?

5) Which Hollywood star died 5 years ago this week?

6) Clued Up: Identify the celebrity from this clue: 'I was born in Consett, County Durham, in 1955. I had three brothers, one of whom narrowly lost the UKIP leadership election in 2000.'

7) Music Round: Which group performed 'I Can Make You Feel Good'?

I'm not too shaken up by not knowing this bunch straight off the mark, and thankfully it was all academic for us. How did you do?

Answers

1) Lisa Snowdon

2) State Registered Nurse

3) Tesco

4) 13

5) Patrick Swayze

6) Rowan Atkinson

7) Shalamar

Analysis/Excuses

NOT Lisa Snowdon

1) Probably should have got this one, but it's been a long time since I've seen Lisa Snowdon on the box (probably the M&S adverts). The team's answer was Khloe Kardashian, and I was in no position to argue.
Fact File: Snowdon was born Lisa Snawdon in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire in 1972. She was signed and spotted in 1991 by Premier Model Management. She has since been the face of Gucci and Avon lingerie amongst others. She also hosted and judged on Britain's Next Top Model from 2006 - 2009. She reached the final of Strictly Come Dancing in 2008, coming 3rd to Tom Chambers (Snowdon partnered Brendan Cole). Snowdon currently presents Capital Breakfast alongside Dave Berry on London radio station Capital London, where she earned the nickname 'Eggy'.

2) We assumed that this must be some sort of disorder, which explains why our resident biologist didn't really know. The best we could come up with was 'Sensory Receptor Neuron', which although it sounded quite nice, sensory receptors and sensory neurons are separate things.
Fact File: In order to practise in the NHS, you need to register on the Nursing and Midwifery Council, which requires a nursing degree (the nursing diploma was phased out completely as of 2013).  As of 2013, there were around 372,000 registered nurses working in the NHS and you can find out more here.

3) 50 Shades of Grey is a perennial quiz favourite as it makes all sorts of news, and yet nobody wants to admit to knowing anything about it. However, we actually didn't have any idea on this one. We went for Asda, thinking it might be more their style.
Fact File: The 50 Shades series is a trilogy of erotic novels by E. L. James first released in 2011 featuring wealthy businessman Christian Grey and submissive university student Anastasia Steele (not that you needed me to tell you that). It emerged from E. L. James' fan fiction piece 'Master of the Universe', which was based on the Twilight series. It became the fastest selling paperback of all time in the UK. Tesco's F&F clothing released this line with a few months to go before the film based on the series is due to impact the world of cinema.

4) The Invictus Games have been very well publicised this week, so there wasn't really an excuse, but as always I'm not too into sport. The Games opened this week in London and are based on the US's Warrior Games. They were organised by Prince Harry and see competition between wounded servicemen and women. The UK has 130 competitors taking part out of 400 over all. The 13 countries taking part are Canada, the US, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Estonia, Georgia, Afghanistan, Australia and New Zealand.

5) I thought that he had died more recently. The only people going through my mind were Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett (who died on the same day), but I was pretty sure that both of them had died in July. (It was actually June 25th). I don't think I would have thought of Swayze however much time I had.
Fact File: Swayze was born in Houston, Texas in 1952. He is probably best known for his breakthrough role as Johnny Castle in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing and as Sam Wheat in the 1990 film Ghost. Presumably thanks to his steamy pottery scene with Demi Moore in Ghost, Swayze was named the Sexiest Man Alive in 1991 by People Magazine. Somewhat unusually for a Hollywood star, Swayze was married to his wife, Lisa Niemi for 34 years, from 1975 until his death from pancreatic cancer.

6) Atkinson was floating through my mind, but I had no idea about his brother challenging for the UKIP leadership. I also thought he was from Newcastle rather than County Durham, but Newcastle was actually where Atkinson went to university. However, the penny dropped on the second clue and we got 8 out of the 10 points available.
Fact File: Atkinson went on to get a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Queen's College, Oxford, where he was brought to stardom through the Oxford Revue and would later meet Richard Curtis, with whom he wrote the first series of Blackadder. Atkinson is also well known for starring as Edmund Blackadder, for his performances on Not the Nine O'Clock News and for Mr. Bean, a role he reprised for the London Olympic Opening Ceremony in 2012. He has been dubbed 'the man with the rubber face'. He is also a noted petrolhead.

7) We all knew the song, but not who did it. It was really just a case of 'put anything down'. But we had a very decent music round this time, so I'm not complaining.
Fact File: Shalamar were a Los Angeles based disco group who reached their peak popularity in the 1980s. They were formed through the medium of the hit soul music show Soul Train in 1977 and were instrumental in bringing 'body-popping' to the UK. Shalamar released 'I Can Make You Feel Good' in the UK in 1982 from the critically acclaimed album 'Friends', at which time the group consisted of Jeffrey Daniel, Howard Hewett and Jody Watley.

Too easy for you?

Here's what you've all been waiting for then. The dosh. The spondoolicks. The £££. Remember, you would only have needed to answer any two of these correctly in order for you to be splitting £250 six ways with us. Can you handle the pressure?

Questions

1) Which electronics company invented the first all electric compact calculator in 1957?

2) The Henley Regatta is always held on the first weekend of which month?

3) Which number in Bingo corresponds to the call 'Staying Alive'?

4) Who is the oldest footballer to score a goal for England?

Answers

1) Casio.
This blunder was my fault as the team suggested Casio and I was sure that I had heard somewhere that it was Sony. I pushed for Sony and I can only offer my heartfelt apologies, but this question alone would still have only put us in a head to head with winning team Quizzle My Nizzle and not earned us the moolah.
Fact File: Casio was founded in 1946 as Kashio Seisakujo in Tokyo by Tadao Kashio. Whilst the company's first success was the yuwiba pipe, the profits from this intriguing invention were used to manufacture the Model 14-A. This calculator can technically claim to be 'compact' by the standards of the day, but the machine still weighed 140kg (or just over 22 stones), was built into a desk, and as you can see from the picture, wouldn't exactly fit in the palm of your hand anyway. Nevertheless, it was certainly a big step forward and the company rebranded itself as the Casio Computer Company in the same year. You can find out more here, if the mood takes you...

2) July.
We were one month out with August. This is just one of those questions, I suppose, where you can always field a decent guess but can never rely on getting the right answer without having been there.
Fact File: The Henley Royal Regatta was originally held in March 1839. It is held every year on the Thames in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, and takes place from Wednesday to Sunday (2nd - 6th July in 2014). All competitions take place over a course of the length of 1 mile and 550 yards, which is known as the Straight Course. The best known trophy is the Grand Challenge Cup contested by Men's Eights. It is part of the British Social Season.

3) 85.
It was pretty clear that this must be a number ending in 5. We went with 55.
Fact File: Bingo is a popular game of chance in Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, and there are many premises in the UK devoted to the game, though it is now becoming more popular online. It differs from the US version and Canadian version and you can find a summary of the British rules here. The game is thought to have begun in Italy in 1530 when it was known as 'Lo Giuoco del Lotto D'Italia'. The UK version uses 90 numbers. I'm not going to go through all the calls for there various numbers here, though you may like to have a look at this list. 55, for the record, is typically known simply as 'All the Fives'.

4) Sir Stanley Matthews.
This was probably one we should have got. But then, you know me and sport.
Fact File: Known as the 'Wizzard of Dribble', Matthews was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1915 and is regarded as one of the best ever English footballers. He won the first European Footballer of the Year Award in 1956 and was knighted in 1965. Matthews, an outside right player, began his career at Stoke City in 1930. He moved to Blackpool in 1947 and back to Stoke in 1961. He retired in 1965, briefly going on to manage Stoke's rival club, Port Vale. He became the oldest player to score a goal for England in 1956, aged 41 against Northern Ireland, At 42 years, he remains the oldest footballer to ever represent England on the field. He died in Tenerife in 2000.

That's your lot then. Did you get two of those or more? You could have been looking at a hefty amount of cash. Let me know how you did.

With any luck I'll be updating with our performance in the Victory quiz tomorrow. See you back here soon!