My Illustrious Return

Hi everybody, did you miss me? I certainly missed you, and I bring with me the dissection of a new type of quiz, this one from the Sun Inn in Pembrokeshire. It was quite refreshing to have a go at a new format. In this quiz, each team was asked a question in turn. If you got your question wrong, it was passed on to the next team, and so on until all teams had failed to answer it. This format suited us pretty well, and we got most of the questions correct, so I'm going to go over the ones which I personally didn't know in order to beef up the amount in this post.  Quiz business should resume as usual on Tuesday, so watch this space. Shall we get started?

03/09/2014
Venue: The Sun Inn                         Team: Me + 3 others
Rank: 1st (out of 4) - 41 points

Questions

I believe that all of these questions came from the Free Pub Quizzes website, if you're interested.

1) The actor who played Derek Harkinson in Eastenders played which character in Dad's Army?

2) How many sides did a threepenny bit have?

3) The Tsetse fly transmits which disease to humans?

4) How many bottles of champagne are there in a Jereboam?

5) How many (different) Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom have there been?

6) Which car manufacturer made the Kitten?

7) 'S' is the international vehicle registration code for which country?

8) Annalise Hartman was a character in which soap?

9) How many cards are used in a game of Canasta?

10) Which London street is highly associated with the medical profession?

11) Jonah Lomu played international rugby for which country?

What did you make of those?

Answers

1) Private Frank Pike (played by Ian Lavender)

2) 12

3) Sleeping sickness

4) 4

5) 53*

6) Reliant

7) Sweden

8) Neighbours

9) 108

10) Harley Street

11) New Zealand

*The answer given was 51, but I have reason to believe from a Chinese zodiac question that this quiz was written in 2004, so I have updated to compensate.

Analysis

1) Not being a devotee of Eastenders, this question meant nothing to me, but when I was met with 'You know, the young one from Dad's Army,' I was then able to leap into action and we got the point. Derek Harkinson, in the show from 2001-2005, was apparently a friend of Pauline Fowler (played by Wendy Richard), who turned out to be gay. Private Pike was 17 at the beginning of Dad's Army, and perhaps a little depressingly for Ian Lavender, this means that he is the only one of the 7 original main characters who is still alive. Pike was in all 9 series from 1968 to 1977, as well as the 1971 movie. Arthur Ian Lavender was born in Birmingham in 1946 and made his debut at the Edinburgh Fringe last year as 'Brooksie' in a stage production of the Shawshank Redemption.

2) Not having used the coin myself I wasn't sure, though my granddad had a jar full of them so I knew that it was an irregular number. The threepenny bit was first produced in 1547 on the ascension of Edward VI to the throne, though it was not continuously minted for many years. At the time, there were 240 pence in a pound, or 80 threepenny bits. No. 1 Croydon, a building completed in 1970 (the year that the coin was phased out), was known for many years as the 'Threepenny Bit Building'. 'Threepenny bits' is also Cockney rhyming slang for 'tits'. In addition, the UK Treasury is introducing a 12 sided design for the £1 in 2017, in an attempt to combat forgery, as it is estimated that there are 45 million counterfeit £1 coins in circulation.

3) Also known as Tik-tik flies, the Tsetse fly is native to most of central Africa, equating to 36 countries. Sleeping sickness (officially African Human trypanosomiasis) causes fever, itchiness and pains, leading to a general lack of coordination, and without treatment, will likely result in death. According to the World Health Organisation, there were 7216 recorded cases in 2012, 83% of which were recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Luckily, the DRC wasn't on my list of holiday destinations anyway). The fly is also responsible for spreading the disease amongst livestock, when it is known as Nagana.

4) Wine bottle questions are usually not too taxing if you know what you're talking about, but unfortunately, I don't. Happily, we were not called upon to answer this particular question. I thought I knew that the answer was 6, but the answer given was 4.
It seems, upon investigation, that this depends whether you're talking about still or sparkling wine. Typically for Bordeaux wine, 3 litres or 4 bottles would be called a Double Magnum, with 4.5 litres/6 bottles being a Jereboam. However, for Champagne (or Burgundy wine), 4 bottles would be a Jereboam, with 6 bottles being called a Rehoboam. On a quizzing level, I think it is best to assume that the former case is the typical one, and to watch out for the use of the word 'champagne' in case you need to adapt your answer. If you're looking for a general guide to bottle sizes, I think this site is probably the most useful.
Jereboam was the first king of the breakaway Kingdom of Israel or Samaria. He and his followers had broken away from the United Kingdom of Israel or Judah. Jereboam reigned from c.931 - c.910 B.C.

5) This is the sort of thing that a few years ago, I would have been able to tell you just like that. I would have been able to count, but 1) I didn't have enough time and 2) the quiz was 10 years out of date anyway. The first holder of the office is generally regarded to have been Sir Robert Walpole, who was appointed to the key posts of First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons by King George I on 4th April 1721. While Walpole was never officially Prime Minister, this was how he was commonly referred to, in recognition of his significant political power, and the office evolved into a coherent position over time. Only one woman has held the role since its creation (guess who) and 17 men have held the role more than once, though at nearly 21 years, Walpole still holds the record for longest tenure in the job.


6) We did get this question, but it wasn't a car with which I was familiar. Reliant, based in Tamworth, Staffordshire for most of its life, was founded in 1935 and is probably most famous for the Reliant Robin, a three wheeled model often the subject of many jokes. The Kitten (both a car and van model) succeeded the Reliant Rebel, and was produced from 1975-1982. It was later manufactured in India (as the Sipani Dolphin), where it became notable as a rally car, and it has its own fan society, the Reliant Kitten Register since 1991. Reliant ceased making cars in 2002.



7) Another car question. I like to think I would have guessed this one correctly anyway. Sweden has used the code S as far back as 1911. As far I can see, the first international vehicle registration codes were first issued in 1910, so Sweden was quite quick to adopt one. The first countries (and their respective territories) to adopt the codes were the United States, United Kingdom (including Ireland), France, Monaco, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Hungary (separately), Italy, Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria and Russia. The codes have been monitored by the United Nations since 1945 and are officially known as the rather catchy 'Distinguishing Signs used by Vehicles on International Traffic' or DSIT. The code is usually displayed as a sticker on the back of the vehicle, but Sweden (and many others) are no longer required to show this in other European Economic Area nations if the car already displays the EU flag on its number plate (standard practise since the late 1990s).

8) Annalise Hartman (later Kratz) appeared on the show from 1993-96, briefly returning in 2005 and was played by Kimberley Davies. She was portrayed as a manipulative 'bitch' style character and is best known for a storyline where she was jilted at the altar by her fiancé, Mark Gottlieb, who had decided to become a priest. She was notable for having a string of boyfriends on the show, including Lou Carpenter, who she courted for his money despite a 30 year age gap. Davies was reputedly spotted by producers while she was on a night out with her boyfriend, who assessed her as 'perfect for the role'. If only all of us could get a job that way!

9) We got this one wrong, opting for 104. The game utilises 2 standard decks of cards including the jokers, which are used as wild cards.  I'm not going to go into the full rules, but you can find them here. Canasta belongs to the rummy family and was invented in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1939 and it is typically played by four people. Its name comes from the Spanish for 'basket'. The aim is to be the first player or team to reach 5000 points. Interestingly, the highest scoring cards are the red 3s, with their black equivalents among the lowest. Variants include Samba and Hand and Foot Canasta.

10) Harley Street is owned by the de Walden estate and has experienced a sharp increase in the number of medical practitioners from the second half of the 19th century onwards, from 20 in 1860 to over 3000 in the modern era. It is located in the City of Westminster, and has been home to former Prime Minister William Gladstone, artist J. M. W. Turner, King George VI's speech therapist Lionel Logue, and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Harriet Harman was born there in 1950.

11) I couldn't place him, but this was academic as we weren't asked, and anyway, my team did know. Lomu was born in Auckland in 1975, played as a winger, and is the all time top Rugby World Cup try scorer, despite not ever winning the tournament. His performance at the 1995 World Cup in South Africa is a particular highlight in his career. He is regarded as one of the all time greatest players, so that doesn't reflect too well on me. There are also plenty of his highlights available online. Lomu retired in 2007.

And there you have it. I hoped you've enjoyed my first blog for ages, and hopefully I have many more left in me. Until next time, and don't forget to write in the comments if you could have helped us along the way, even if this time we didn't really need it. Also, if I've got anything wrong, let me know and I'll investigate. See you soon!