Thursday's Near Miss

I apologise for the incredibly late update of this post, but that's what may have to happen periodically over the next couple of weeks. I can only hope that you think this is finally worth it. We knew that following up our win last week would be tough, but we can happily say that we finished the quiz very respectably. We were 3rd, and only 3 more points (out of 18) would have seen us take the top prize home again. That of course means that it was quite possible that YOUR absence cost us the match. Could you have helped us to carry our winning momentum into next week? Here's your chance to find out. As always, comment below or tweet me at @MPRTaylor, especially if you could have made all the difference.

Venue: The Queen's Arms                                                            Team: Me + the Teacher
Score: 62 - 3rd  (1st place - 64)                                                     Prize: £5 (pulled out of a hat)

Best Team Name

My personal favourite from last week was 'Quizlamic State', but the actual winner is 'I'm Not a Gynaecologist, But I'll Take a Look', so well done them. You can see the full shortlist here. We have only a few on the shortlist this week.

- A Game of Four Halves

- Michael Barrymore's Swim Team

- Overly Specific Knowledge

 

I will endeavour to write down a few more next time, but you're not missing out too much. Get voting, again either comment or tweet me. Now let's get on with the quiz...

Questions

Identify these well known faces from their pictures -

1)                                        2)  

 3)
                   














4) The cereal 'Sugar Puffs' has been renamed this week. What is its new name?

5) What, in the human body, is the hallux? Clue: Most people have two of them.

6) Not counting its claws, how many legs does a crab have?

7) On Groundhog Day, what does a groundhog have to see for the winter weather to stay for 6 more weeks (allegedly)?

8) Do peanuts grow about or below ground?

Identify these musical artists from their songs. (Bear in mind that the Teacher and I were only played 10 second clips.) Click on the links below to be taken to a YouTube video. As always, watch out for adverts.

9) Song 1               10) Song 2                11) Song 3              12) Song 4            13) Song 5

14) Which song was a hit for the Jackson 5, Gloria Gaynor and the Communards?

Questions 15, 16 and 17 all contain a hyphen in the answer.

15) What was the name of Captain Pugwash's main enemy?

16) In 2013, Apple overtook which company at the top of the list of the World's 100 Best Global Brands?

17) The German Doctor Ernst Grafenberg has what named after him?

18) You need both of these for 2 points. (Get one wrong and you lost points.)
Name both of One Direction's No. 1 albums

Tie-Breaker) Salisbury claims to be home to the world's oldest working clock. In which year was it first operational?

Answers

1) Elizabeth Olsen
2) Jack Nicklaus
3) Christina Perri
4) Honey Monster Puffs
5) Big Toe
6) 8
7) It's own shadow
8) Below ground
9) Joan Armatrading (Drop the Pilot)
10) Culture Club (Do You really Want To Hurt Me)
11) The Mavericks (Dance the Night Away)
12) Soul II Soul feat. Caron Wheeler (Back To Life
13) Matt Cardle and Mel C (Losing You)
14) Never Can Say Goodbye
15) Cut-Throat Jake
16) Coca-Cola
17) The G-Spot
18) Take Me Home and Midnight Memories
TB) 1368

Post Match Analysis

1) The picture we were given looked like Hilary Duff to me, which is that answer that we went with. The Teacher was onto something as the thought that it was either Mary Kate or Ashley, but I took the approach that it couldn't be one of a pair of twins as that would be tremendously unfair to anyone besides their parents. Having said that, neither me nor the Teacher had ever heard of their sister.
Fact File: Born in 1989 in Sherman Oaks, California, Olsen followed her sisters into acting and has achieved recognition for her roles in 'Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene' and 'Silent House' and also appeared in the 2014 version of Godzilla.

2) The Teacher is quite hot on most sports, but golf is perhaps not his forte. He realised afterwards that the picture is of a left handed golfer, which means that he reckons he should have got this one. I couldn't possibly comment.
Fact File: Born in 1940 in Upper Arlington, Ohio, Nicklaus is regarded as one of the best golfers of all time, winning a total of 18 of golf's major tournaments, beginning with the US Open in 1962 and finishing with the Masters in 1986. His nickname is the Golden Bear and he developed a rivalry with fellow golfer Arnold Palmer. As I have mentioned once before, Nicklaus is colour blind.

3) I knew I had seen her before, but couldn't place her. I went with Linda Cardellini, of E.R. fame. Knowing last years big thing is an important part of quizzing and on this front I singularly failed.
Fact File: Christina Judith Perri was born in 1986 in Philadelphia. She released her debut single 'Jar of Hearts' in 2010, which was so successful that it earned the unsigned Perri a deal with Atlantic Records. Jar of Hearts reached No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart.

4) I had seen the news but couldn't quite recall the answer. I can totally see why Honey Monster Foods made the change, but I hope it doesn't get too health conscious as I personally don't see the point of cereal without sugar. I opted for 'Honey Wheat Puffs', which looking back on it, I probably wouldn't buy...
Fact File: As the public becomes ever more aware of their own and their children's sugar intake, this sort of move was more or less inevitable. As well as changing the branding, Honey Monster Puffs have reduced the amount of sugar from two cubes per portion to one and a half, and increased the amount of honey by 20%. Sugar Puffs were first launched in 1957 by the Quaker Oats Company and the original mascot was Jeremy the Bear. The Honey Monster made his first appearance in 1976.

5) I thought I had heard that this was the thumb, but I think this might have been one that I got wrong on a previous quiz. Realising that you have got this sort of question wrong is immensely frustrating, and is after all, what the blog is all about.
Fact File: Unlike the other toes, the big toe is only made up of two, rather than three bones (the proximal phalanx and the distal phalanx). When someone's second (or 'long' toe) is longer than their big toe, they are said to have 'Morton's toe'. The thumb, it turns out, is actually the pollex.

6) I thought this was the case for lobsters and so accordingly we removed a pair for the crab. I also drew a little picture for reference and so convinced myself that 6 legs was the magic number.
Fact File: Crabs are crustaceans which are found in all of the worlds oceans and it is estimated that 1 and a half million tonnes of crab are eaten every year. Like lobsters, they are 'decapods' which means 10 legs, and their claws are usually included in this count. Crabs also have a short tail which is often hidden underneath their bodies and the male of the species generally have the larger claws. The largest crab is the Japanese Spider Crab.

7) Groundhog Day is one of those films that I keep on meaning to see but never actually do. The Teacher and I reasoned that the groundhog must see something unique to the groundhog, but we couldn't think exactly what and this one was left until too late, prompting an unsatisfactory answer of 'snow'.
Fact File: Groundhog Day takes place every year on the 2nd of February in the US and Canada. The best known groundhog is 'Punxsutawney Phil' who was featured in the 1993 film. Given that the day was first celebrated in 1887 and the average lifespan of a wild groundhog is about 3 years, we can reasonably conclude that at least 40 groundhogs have taken up Phil's role at some point. This may help explain his questionable record of only 39% accuracy since 1988. Phil makes his predictions at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

8) It appears that the Teacher was right to suggest that legumes as a rule grow above ground, but the peanut is a notable exception. Just our luck...
Fact File: As mentioned above, the peanut is not actually a nut, but a legume. It is unusual in that it flowers above ground, but the actual peanut itself develops below. A peanuts' seeds are called kernels and the oldest peanuts are thought to come from Peru. Former US President Jimmy Carter was a peanut farmer in his youth in his home state of Georgia.

9) This one really stumped us. In my opinion it didn't sound anything like Joan Armatrading, at least not going off the only song of hers that I knew - Love and Affection. This answer was so far from my mind that this answer was completely ungettable, so what can you do?
Fact File: 'Drop the Pilot' is a 1983 song that reached No 11 on the UK Chart. It Armatrading's only other Top 20 hit besides Love and Affection. Armatrading was born on St Kitts in 1950, but relocated to Birmingham in 1958, and made her first public performance at the University.

10) I thought the singer sounded like Boy George, but the Teacher talked me out of it. To be honest, I don't think it mattered, as I might have opted for George as a solo artist. But really, I ought to have recognised the song, given that I could sing the whole of the chorus.
Fact File: Culture Club formed in London in 1981 and is made up of George O'Dowd (better known as Boy George), Roy Hay, Mikey Craig and Jon Moss. In 1983, their hit song 'Karma Chameleon' became the best selling song of the year in the UK. In 1982, 'Do You Really Want To Hurt Me' became the group's 1st No 1 single and it appears on the album 'Kissing To Be Clever'.

11) This was the only real aggravation on the music round, given that the Teacher and I both knew the song, but neither of us knew who performed it. It really surprised me to find that the song was from the late 1990s, and not as I had thought, from the mid 1950s. Our guess was Eddie Cochran, with misgivings.
Fact File: The Mavericks were formed in Miami, Florida in 1989. They reached No 4 with 'Dance the Night Away' in the UK in 1998.

12) I knew that I had heard this song, but for the life of me I couldn't place the extract played to us. I thought it might have been 90s, so casting around for girl groups, we went for B*Witched.
Fact File: Soul II Soul were originally active from 1988 - 1997. Formed in London, 'Back To Life' is the group's biggest hit, reaching No. 1 for 4 weeks in 1989.





13) Meh. Neither of us could have got this one.
Fact File: Cardle was born in Southampton in 1983 and found fame through winning the X Factor in 2010, reaching No 1 with a cover of Biffy Clyro's 'Many of Horror', released as 'When We Collide'. He brought out this song with Mel C of Spice Girls fame in 2013 and it got to No. 14 in the charts. The two are widely thought to be a couple.

14) When the quizmaster said the right answer, it all came flooding back, but this caused a bit of brain wracking at the time. I'm not a huge fan of the song, and I had never heard the Communards version, which might have made the difference here.
Fact File: The song was originally written by Clifton Davies for the Supremes, but Motown gave it to the Jackson 5 to record instead. Gaynor's version was the most successful in the UK, reaching No. 2 in 1974. It was her first UK hit.

15) Another Pugwash crisis. I might have to watch a few episodes so we don't keep constantly falling into these traps.
Fact File: Captain Pugwash first appeared the 'The Eagle' comic's first issue in 1950. Claiming to be 'the bravest buccaneer' Pugwash captains The Black Pig whose crew consists of Tom the Cabin Boy, Master Mates, Barnabas and Willy. Cut-Throat Jake, his arch nemesis, commands The Flying Dustman and sports an eye-patch, massive black beard and a West Country accent. Several television adaptions have been made, with arguably the most famous being broadcast from 1974-75.

16) The Teacher and I were both agreed that the answer to this must be very obvious indeed and that it was probably so ingrained in daily life that we would probably overlook it. What we weren't prepared for was that the answer was SO obvious that we had been drinking it all night...
Fact File: I have actually already done a fact file on Coca-Cola, but here's a chance to expand. Coca-Cola (which originally contained small quantities of cocaine) was developed as a non-alcoholic version of John Pemberton's 'French Wine Cola', which in turn Pemberton had created as a healthier alternative to morphine. Since some economic sanctions were recently lifted on Burma, there are only two countries in the world where Coca-Cola is not sold - Cuba and North Korea.

17) No chance here. We were never going to shorten Grafenberg to G, so this one was a lost cause. Grafenberg spot somehow doesn't sound quite as sexual.
Fact File: It is hotly debated as to whether the famed G-spot actually exists, but it is considered to be an erogenous area of the vagina that can produce powerful orgasms in women. Grafenberg was born in Adelbesen in 1881 and fled Hitler's Nazi regime in the 1930s, dying in New York City in 1957. He also invented the intrauterine device (IUD) form of contraception. The G-spot was named in Grafenberg's honour in 1981.

18) This would have been fairly embarrassing if I had remembered both of them. I remembered Midnight Memories from the constant heavy promotion at the time, but the other one was not coming.
Fact File: One Direction (1D) were formed in 2010 for the seventh series of the X Factor, where they came third to Matt Cardle. Composed of Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne and Niall Horan, their debut album 'Up All Night' reached No 2 in the UK and Midnight Memories became the biggest selling album worldwide in 2013.

TB) Well, we were almost within 200 years at least. To put this in context, the clock, which is located in Salisbury Cathedral and has no dial, first began its work at a time when Richard II of England had reigned for 9 years, when he signed the Treaty of Windsor (an alliance with Portugal) and recognised John of Gaunt as King of Castile. The Hundred Years War had been raging for almost 50 years by this point, and Germany's oldest university, Heidelberg, (which the Teacher attended) was founded.

That's your lot folks. Don't forget to comment or tweet me and tell me how you did and which was the best team name. Until next time then...

Best Team Name Winner and Update

Hi again everyone. This is just a very quick note to say that the Wednesday quiz at the Green Man was cancelled this week and the Redtooth version is set to be replaced by one of the pub's own creation. I don't think from the sound of it that this will be to our advantage, but we might get some money off food this week so swings and roundabouts! The Teacher and I also tried a quiz on Tuesday at the Jekyll and Hyde pub in Birmingham City Centre, which I would recommend to anyone to try at least once! I haven't got too much time, so now for the big reveal of the best team name winner last week.

Best Team Name Winner (The Green Man) 

 

 

I am very happy to announce that 'Alcoholics Unamimous' earned the most votes over the past week and is accordingly declared Best Team Name Winner.

 

The deadline for the Queen's Arms quiz closes tomorrow. You can find a link to the options here, and let me know your choice by commenting or tweeting me at @MPRTaylor. Happy voting!

Our Regular Sunday Struggle

We actually have a relatively decent story to tell this week (I even got a bonus point for bringing my own pen), but we knew that the top spot was unattainable after Round 1 - the News Round. I'll leave the question as to whether most of these questions are actually news up to you. I haven't got a lot of time to detail these questions today so this post will be brief. I may have to generally scale down some of these blog posts in future, but today I don't really think you're missing much.

Venue: The Duck & Scholar                                                            Team: Me + 2 others
Score: 48/61

Best Team Name 

 

There was only one contender this week - 'You're a Quizzard, Harry'.

 

 

Questions

1) Snowboarder Rich Millington broke a Guinness World Record this week, but what was it? 

a) He completed the most 360s in a minute

b) He reached the fastest ever speed on a snowboard

c) He boarded the furthest distance in 24 hours

 

2) Which Apprentice candidate has called himself 'a mix between Gandhi and the Wolf of Wall Street'?

 

3) Which TV presenter posted a photo of their naked bottom on Twitter this week?

 

4) In football news, Sunderland lost an away game to Southampton 8-0 this week. How many hours did the round trip to Southampton and back take them?

5) This week researchers found that which animals are able to detect rain storms from as far away as 150 miles?

6) The average human being can see about 1 million different colours, but scientists at Newcastle University have found a woman who can see how many more colours than this?
a) 55 million
b) 99 million
c) 111 million

 

7) What is the full name of the daughter of Peter Andre and Katie Price?
a) Princess Tiamii Diamond Faith Andre
b) Princess Tiamii Crystal Esther Andre
c) Princess Tiamii Pearl Sophie Andre

8) What is the first name of Fearne Cotton's son?

 

9) Which F*R*I*E*N*D*S star named their child Coco?

10) Which celebrity couple attempted to trademark their child's name?

11) Into which sea does the Volga river flow?

12) What is the time difference (in hours) between Spain and Poland?

13) Which product carried the slogan 'The Totally Tropical Taste'?

 

Answers

 

1) c) He boarded the furthest distance in 24 hours

2) Scott (McCullogh)

3) Amanda Holden

4) 11 hours

5) Elephants (specifically African elephants)

6) b) 99 million colours

7) b) Princess Tiamii Crystal Esther Andre

8) Rex

9) Courteney Cox

10) Jay-Z and Beyoncé Knowles

11) Caspian Sea

12) 0

13) Lilt

 

Post Match Analysis

 

1) None of us had heard of this, so we just went for what we thought was the most likely (a).

Fact File: Millington completed 308 runs of an indoor slope at the Chill Factore in Trafford, Greater Manchester. It took him 24 hours to cover 25 kilometres and he accepted the challenge on behalf of Disability Snowsports UK. He said he will celebrate by 'having a bath and drinking a beer'.

 

2) I had seen the episode, but it takes me forever these days to learn the names of the various candidates, especially now that there are 20. Knowing I was wrong, I put down 'Stephen'.

Fact File: The Apprentice is a reality TV show where various businesspeople compete to earn the favour of a wealthy magnate. The UK version features Alan Sugar (who created the electronics and computer firm Amstrad in 1968) in this role and the candidates seek his investment and part ownership of their new idea for a company. The UK version is now in its 10th series and the theme tune is 'Dance of the Knights' by Sergei Prokofiev.

 

3) I am sure that you now understand the quality of news that we were dealing with here. Having no idea, we went for Caroline Flack, given that she is currently dancing on Strictly. Holden posted the photo as a reference to an interview with Lady Gaga.

Fact File: Holden was born in Portsmouth in 1971. She has notably acted in Wild at Heart and Cutting It, but is probably best known for being a member of the judging panel on Britain's Got Talent. She was married to Les Dennis for 8 years, but they split in 2003 and she is now married to Chris Hughes.    

 

4) I'm not sure if anyone actually knows for sure that all Sunderland fans took 11 hours on their trip, but this was the figure widely quoted by the media and not paid any attention to by us. The team's performance was regarded as so poor that Sunderland fans have been offered refunds for the cost of their tickets.

Fact File: This match marks Southampton's biggest Premier League win and only the sixth time in the League's history that a side have lost by 8 goals or more and it is reportedly Sunderland's biggest loss for 42 years. The match took place in St Mary's Stadium.

 

5) We were split between elephant and giraffe (probably due to the height advantage). This is probably one of the more interesting news questions this week.
Fact File: This research was conducted in Namibia. Elephants are the largest animals found on land, can live to around 70 years of  and can weigh up to 7000 kg. They are usually split into 2 groups - the African and Asian/Indian elephants, but scientists are divided as to whether there are more. The Asian elephant is regarded as an endangered species. An elephant's tusks are its incisors. A male is known as a 'bull', a female is a 'cow' and the collective term is a 'herd'.

6) Again, if you don't know (and I suspect most people wouldn't have had a clue) then really you're into silly colours.
Fact File: Dr Gabriele Jordan announced this discovery this week, having been searching for this possibility for 20 years. The majority of people are born with three 'cones' in their eyes, which guide the amount of colour hues we can see - people with only two functioning cones in their eyes may see many fewer hues. The woman in question was not the only 'tetrachromat' being researched, but she was the only participant to exhibit signs of 'super colour vision'.
    

 

7) Well, there you go. I have no desire to glorify celebrities purely because of their choice of baby names, and anyway I'm watching the clock.

 

8) Not a bad choice in this case actually I think.

 

9) It's definitely better than Coco Kudrow.

 

10) Yes, you did read that question correctly. 'Beyon-Z' were the answer to a previous question, so unused to the double bluffing on this quiz, we had a stab at David and Victoria Beckham with their daughter Harper Seven.
Fact File: The couple were hoping to use the name at some point in the future to market their own line of baby products. However, they lost the case to a Boston based wedding planning company which had started in 2009. This still does not mean, however, that the power couple cannot use the name (unless they start a wedding planning business), so perhaps we'll see plenty of Blue Ivy baby merchandise in the end after all (retch).

11) Made the classic mistake of Black Sea. Still, at least this was one of those questions that I was quite happy to learn the answer to. The Caspian Sea is a sea but is also technically a lake (the world's largest).
Fact File: The Volga derives its name from the Russian for 'moisture' and is the longest river in Europe. It is formed by the Kama and Oka rivers and the most famous settlement is probably Volgograd, but it runs through many other major cities, such as Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan and Samara. It is regarded by many as Russia's national river.

12) We were surprised by this one, but nevertheless it is true. I imagine Europeans generally often don't realise how small Europe actually is compared to the rest of the world.
Fact File: You can check the time differences between various cities here at the World Clock website. Spain and Poland are both in the UTC+1 time zone, with the UK, home of Greenwich Mean Time, at 1 hour behind both. Spain extends further west than the UK, but represents the westernmost limit of the time zone, and Poland largely represents the eastern extent. The time zone covers the majority of Europe. UTC stands for Coordinated Universal Time (in French).
Bonus Fact: China has only one time zone based on the position of Beijing - UTC+8.

13) I knew I had heard this slogan before, but probably not since the 1990s. I think we went with Kia Ora, so we weren't so far away.
Fact File: Lilt is a soft drink that has been sold by the Coca-Cola Company since 1975. Despite being marketed as though it is from the Caribbean, it is not widely available outside the UK and Ireland.


So there we go. As always, don't forget to comment or tweet me (@MPRTaylor) if you think I've got anything wrong or if you could have helped us out here Until next time, everyone!    

    

 



The Outstanding Comeback



After two weeks in a row of not being able to report our Thursday quiz feats, we decided that it would be third time lucky this week. What we didn't realise was quite how fortunate we would turn out to be. After coming joint 4th after the first half, we managed to pull out all the stops and squeak a win by a margin of 1 point. There were only 9 pitfalls this week and to be honest, when allowing for mistakes, it doesn't get much better than that. We now where we'll be going next week! Don't worry, I will still be going through all of our incorrect answers, so don't forget to comment below or tweet me at @MPRTaylor and let me know how you did.

Venue: The Queens Arms                                                                 Team: Me + The Teacher
Score: 72/81 - Win                                                                             Prize: £20

Best Team Name

Here's the return everybody's favourite competition. We have 6 candidates excluding our last minute 'Seasiders' name. Get voting, again by commenting or tweeting, and I'll announce the result next week.

- I'm Not a Gynaecologist, But I'll Take a Look

- Birdfest

-Les Quizerables

- Quizzly Bears

- Quizlamic State

- I Have Ebola and You Are Screwed 

 

 

 

Questions

 

Identify these well known faces.

 

1)                                                                                2)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3) Who sings the opening line in the recent BBC music video of the Beach Boys' hit 'God Only Knows'? 

 

4) Which sport at the 2012 London Olympics was played at the Riverbank Arena?

 

5) Which footballer is the only player to have won the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers and Manchester United?

 

6) In the song 'My Favourite Things', what colour are the ponies? 

 

7) Combine your answers to 4), 5) and 6) with 'Cap', 'Age Discrimination', 'Cube', 'Rat Pack', 'The Bucket List' and 'Bath'. Which word links all of these?

 

8) Identify the artist behind this song (Click this link and close your eyes - watch out for adverts)

 

9) Which actor played Mr. Freeze in the 1997 film Batman and Robin?

 

 

Answers

 

 

1) Timothy West

2) Peter Snow

3) Pharrell Williams

4) Hockey

5) Henning Berg

6) Cream

7) Ice

8) Alphaville

9) Arnold Schwarzenegger

 

Post Match Analysis
 

 

1) We knew we had seen Timothy West before, but we weren't really sure where from. It was decided very early on that we should cut our losses and focus on the other questions, which were generally more in keeping with our capabilities. We were so stumped on this one that we didn't even put down an answer.

Fact File: Timothy Lancaster West was born in Bradford in 1934. He began his acting career on the stage, and became known for his Shakespearean roles. His first major television role was in the series Edward the Seventh in 1975, but he is currently best known for his recent role as Eric Babbage in Coronation Street and for currently playing Stan Carter in Eastenders. West is married to actress Prunella Scales and is the father of Samuel West. He is the President of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

 

2) This was particularly annoying as I committed one of quizzing's most common errors - mixing up the Snows. This was really me being too hasty, I was fully aware of who Peter Snow was and have seen him on many TV programmes. If I had bothered to go over this question as much as some of the others I would have avoided this all too frequent mind trap. Naturally, I opted for the Channel 4 newsreader Jon Snow, who is Peter's cousin. 

Fact File: Peter Snow was born in Dublin in 1938. He is best known for his work at ITN (Independent Television News) during the 1960s and 70s, and for presenting Newsnight and later Tomorrow's World. He is noted for his long standing general election coverage (in one form or another) spanning 11 elections from 1966 to 2005, where he helped to popularise the 'Swingometer'. He has also hosted a number of history shows with his son, the historian Dan Snow, notably Battlefield Britain in 2004. 

 

3) We had both seen this video more than once over the last few weeks, and we knew more or less all the talent involved, but the order in which they performed was beyond us. The Teacher suggested Florence Welch (of Florence + the Machine fame), who is in the video, but sings the 7th line ('My life would still go on, believe me'). Pharrell's line is 'I may not always love you'.
Fact File: Pharrell Williams was born in Virginia Beach in 1973. One half of the Neptunes record production company and lead singer of the band N*E*R*D, in 2013, Pharrell appeared on 3 songs selling over 1 million copies in the UK (Get Lucky, Blurred Lines and Happy), propelling him to stardom. The 1966 Beach Boys' hit has been recently released on the BBC channels to promote the new BBC music website, and the video also features co-author Brian Wilson, among many others.  

 

4) We were able to rule out a few sports, but hockey didn't even cross our minds. The best we could come up with was 'Wrestling', in that 'Mud' could be the common link, but this was quickly disproven. Had we known this crucial answer we could have got the connection, and then possibly worked out the others in time.

Fact File: Costing £19 million, the Riverbank Arena opened in Hackney Wick, contained two venues for hockey and was also used to host 5 and 7-a-side football matches during the Paralympics. The arena has since been dismantled and moved to Eton Manor, where it is now known as the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre. It is the home of Wapping Hockey Club and will host the EuroHockey Nations Championships in 2015.   

 

5) I was only about as much use as a chocolate fireguard for this one, so it was really down to the Teacher to remember every member of Blackburn Rovers' winning squad in 1995. Unsurprisingly, this was a pretty big ask and our eventual answer of Andy Cole didn't cut the mustard (plus it made things more difficult for our connection). Massive plaudits if you got Henning Berg.

Fact File: Henning Stille Berg was born in 1969 in Eidsvoll, Norway and played from 1988 to 2004. He played for Blackburn Rovers from 1993-97 and for Manchester United 1997-2000, before returning to Blackburn until 2003, In doing so he became the first player to win the Premier League with two different clubs. A defender, Berg scored 7 goals for Blackburn and 2 for Manchester United, and later returned to Blackburn as a manager (though only for 57 days) in 2012. 

 

6) We clearly had plenty of ideas, but we couldn't improve upon 'White', which essentially assured our doom in trying to guess the connection.

Fact File: The song was written by Richard Rogers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein (lyrics) for the 1959 musical the Sound of Music. It was later immortalised in the 1965 film of the same name which starred Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer), though the song's order is repositioned for the movie, taking the place of 'The Lonely Goatherd'. You can hear the full song here.  

 

7) Our wrong answers were critical in this unfortunately. We may have been able to get the connection with time, but we spent about 10 minutes on it and nothing was coming. Disappointed, we opted for 'House'. As soon as the Teacher googled the football answer during the half time break, we had that simultaneous wave of realisation. It was after this that we were announced to have been in joint 4th place, and set out with all guns blazing on the second half.

Fact File: You know what ice is.

 

8) We assumed that the artist must be very obvious, but to our immense relief it seemed that most of the pub didn't know, and unusually for us, we stormed the rest of the music round. Special plaudits to the Teacher for his 'David Gray' answer'.

Fact File: Alphaville are a new wave band that were formed in Munster, West Germany in 1982 and are still performing. They were originally called 'Forever Young', which is also the name of one of their hits.

 

9) I assumed that it would be someone very well known (correct) and who had received high critical acclaim (debatable). Having very little idea, and possibly inspired by Samuel L Jackson playing the part of Frozone in the Incredibles, we went for Morgan Freeman.

Fact File: Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was born in Thal, Austria in 1947 and first found fame as a body builder, winning the titles of 'Mr. Universe', 'Mr. Olympia' and International Powerlifting Champion. 'Arnie' is probably best known for his franchise roles as 'The Terminator' and as 'Conan the Barbarian' and for starring opposite Danny DeVito in 'Twins' in 1988. When Gray Davis was recalled as Governor of California in 2003, Schwarzenegger won the election to replace him. He served until 2011, and has since returned to the world of film. 

 

 That's it folks. Did you beat us on those? Don't hesitate to comment or tweet. Until next time then...