News From the Bar Wars Front

Hi again ladies and gentlemen, you've come to the right place. I wouldn't dream of letting you down. So sit back and get ready for the blow by blow report of our relatively unspectacular outing at Bar Wars this week. As usual, we had our great moments, but sadly a Wipeout round and a couple of other misfortunes greeted us this week, resulting in a relatively poor set of results this time. But on the bright side, at least we have some idea on what to revise with a vengeance. Here's the damage...

17/08/2014
Venue: First Bowl Hereford Arena                   Team: Me + 3 others
Score: 53/81 (7th)                                          Final Fling: 9/15 - 1st (but no cash)

I need not remind my more regular readers that 7th is the worst position I have posted in a quiz since I began this blog. However, this score summary might reveal the real Achilles' heels.

Picture Round: 15/15
General Knowledge: 10/10
That Wars the Week That Wars: 7/11
Wipeout: 0/15 (WIPEOUT!)
Screenplay: 8/10
Music Round: 13/20

We had 7 correct questions on the Wipeout and we contested our nemesis question to no avail. More on that below. Had we not wiped out we would have had 8/10, giving us joint 3rd place with 61. We also had our worst music round performance for some time. At last then, we get to the ones that stumped us. A * signifies a Wipeout Question.

Questions 

1) Which boys name replaced Harry as the most popular boy's name in England and Wales in 2013? (The new list was out this week)

2) Google has started conducting research into why which animals are eating its fibre optic cables?

3) Who won this years edition of Big Brother?

4) 10 years ago this week, which Cornish village was the victim of dreadful flooding?

5) What is the Guinness World Record for balancing spoons on the human body - 47 or 53?*

6) Which was the first British football club to win a 'major' European trophy?*

7) Identify the Robin Williams film from this quote - 'I is disgustipated.'

8) Same criteria as 7) - 'If we were interested in making money, we wouldn't have become teachers.'

Among the music questions we failed to identify were Viva Forever by the Spice Girls, something by Pharrell Williams and something else that we thought was by Take That but didn't turn out to be. We also incorrectly named the song 'Bonfire Heart' by James Blunt as just 'Bonfire'. Did those faze you?

Answers

1) Oliver
2) Sharks
3) Helen Wood
4) Boscastle
5) 53
6) Tottenham Hotspur (contested)
7) Popeye
8) Flubber

The Excuses

1) This was a little irritating as I had seen the list a few days before. We went with Jack, which is always popular, but unfortunately for us, Jack currently lurks at #2 in the chart, poised for a comeback if necessary. As it happens, Jack was the top baby name in England and Wales for 15 years (1994 - 2008).
The Know-down: Harry, Jacob and Charlie round out the England and Wales top 5 this year. The top girls name for 2013 was Amelia.

2) I have to take the blame for this one. Despite my team mate having thought he'd heard the correct

A hungry shark stalks its delicious prey

answer, I disparaged the idea that the story was about underwater cables, and lost out as a result. Our final guess of rabbit was about as far away as it could reasonably be.
The Know-down: According to this article, the first deep ocean fibre optic cable, laid in 1989, failed 4 times due to attacks by sharks, so this is hardly a new problem. Google is trying to resolve the problem by adding a Kevlar-like coating to the cables.

3) Why do you do this to us Leon? Why? I was only faintly aware that Big Brother was still going, and had no idea that it was currently airing. To be honest, I was pretty proud of our vague answer of Gemma, and I really don't have that much more to say on the matter.

Wood, delighted at taking part in the contest

The Know-down: The concept of Big Brother is taken from George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984. It was developed by John de Mol and originally aired in the Netherlands before being exported all over the world. There have been 33 total series of the UK version, 15 regular, 14 celebrity editions and 4 'special series' whatever they are. I fear it might destroy my soul if I investigate too much. The show originally aired in the UK in 2000 on Channel 4, but began being shown on Channel 5 in 2011.

Boscastle, not quite in its prime...

4) Even though I'd read this article a few days ago, I felt sure something like this would never come up in a quiz. I mean that would be a big farfetched, right? Wrong.
The Know-down: Boscastle is on Cornwall's north coast and is part of the county's Outstanding Area of Natural Beauty. Luckily, no one died as a direct result of the 2004 floods. The town is also home to a Museum of Witchcraft.

Elchiyev credits this feat to his magnetic personality

5) * Either number was impressive, so there's no point risking it on a wipeout.
The Know-down: The record belongs to Georgian kickboxing trainer Etibar Elchiyev and he broke his own record of 50 in doing so. Here's a video of him doing so.

The offending cup

6) * WIPEOUT! I suppose this one really depends on your definition of 'major European trophy'. One of our football mad team members was not happy at all. Tottenham Hotspur is the answer given as they won the now defunct European Cup Winner's Cup (a tournament of domestic league winners from European countries) in 1961. However, the tournament was not recognised by UEFA as official until the 1962/3 season, adding another web of controversy to this question. In its defence, the ECWC was later recognised as the second most prestigious European Cup after the UEFA Champions League. Celtic won this league in 1967, which was our answer and thus doomed us.


Unbelievably, Popeye is not
considered among William's best work

7) Yes, this was part of a round dedicated to Robin Williams, who of course sadly died this week. I think we did him justice, except on these two questions. We went for Flubber on this one. To be honest, I don't feel too bad about not having seen Popeye.
The Know-down: This 1980 film was directed by Robert Altman and co-stars Shelley Duvall. It was William's first ever foray into the world of cinema.

8) Not perhaps the most stand out quote from Flubber. We put Good Will Hunting, knowing it was wrong, but not having a reasonable alternative.
The Know-down: Flubber was released in 1997, and is a remake of the 1961 film The Absent-Minded Professor. It co stars Marcia Gay Harden and Jodi Benson as Weebo.

Final Fling

After the Wipeout, this is what we were in it for. Blank slate and all that. Unfortunately, it was not to be and the cash is once again drifting over to next time. Here are the 6 culprits. Well done to you if you got these, especially the first four.

1) Black Amish is a type of which fruit?

2) Berger's Disease affects which organ of the body?

3) In which decade of the 20th Century were women first admitted to the London Stock Exchange?

4) A rabologist is a collector of what?

5) Who presents the Channel 4 TV programme Property Ladder?

6) Which US state is known as the 'Sunflower State'?

Answers

1) Apple
2) Kidneys
3) 1970s (1973)
4) Walking sticks
5) Sarah Beeny
6) Kansas

The Excuses

1) Sometimes, it really just is best to go for the simple answer, if you don't know. Fruits are always tricky ones for us.
The Know-down: Unsurprisingly, the apple is thought to have originated in Pennsylvania.

2) We put liver. Sadly our resident doctor in waiting hadn't joined us this week.
The Know-down: Berger's disease is also known as IgA nephropathy. It should not be confused with Buerger's disease, which mainly affects the hands and feet.

The hallmark of equality

3) Not much surprises me about the position of women in past society, but I have to say that this did.

A collector's item

The Know-down: The London Stock Exchange was formed in 1773, so the addition of women took 200 years to achieve.


4) Are you having a laugh?


5) I should have got this. I even said the answer, but I hate house programmes and we ended going with Kirsty Allsopp.
The Know-down: The show has been running since 2001, and follows amateur property developers renovating houses and trying to make a profit out of them. Beeny has presented all 7 series.

6) You either know it or you don't. But we should have known it. I think panic had set in a little by this stage.
The Know-down: Kansas became a state in 1861, just as civil war was breaking out. It is named after the Kansas river. Other nicknames include 'The Wheat State', 'Midway USA', The Cyclone State' and 'Bleeding Kansas' among many others.

Let me know how you found those.

I'll have to leave things here as not only am I exhausted, but my father is determined to turn the internet off by 12 after something he read in the Daily Express (am I the only one who's a little sceptical?) and I have quite a few other things to do before that. Until later then.

Weekend Quiz

Hi again everyone, it's time for my latest weekend quiz. What with University Challenge back on the TV, I thought I'd use the opportunity to steal the format from there for a change. I'll still be using Eggheads categories for a bit of familiarity. So we'll begin with a Starter for Ten and follow that up with three bonus questions per category, though they won't perhaps be quite as tough as the ones on the box. I can only hope Jeremy Paxman would approve...

Starters for Ten
As is customary you'll have to answer the Starter for Ten before you can progress to the Bonus Questions below. If you don't answer the Starter, you can't claim the bonus points. If you're playing this properly anyway...

History
Identify the decade from the following clues - The Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in Paris, the Irish Free State gained independence from the United Kingdom, and the Wall Street Crash occurred in the United States?

Geography
Extending roughly 1500 miles, which mountain range runs from Nanga Parbat in the West to Namcha Barwa in the East?

Sport
Which Olympian, nicknamed the Baltimore Bullet, has earned a total of 22 medals at the Games, including 2 bronze, 2 silver and a record 18 golds?

Arts & Books
The village of Meryton in Hertfordshire is one of the central settings for which 19th Century novel? In 2003, it placed second on the BBC's Big Read survey designed to establish the nation's favourite book?

Science
Specifically, which prize was first awarded in 1901 to German scientist Wilhelm Rontgen, who would later have the radioactive element 111 of the periodic table named after him?

Music
Identify the famous 20th Century composer from this picture.

TV & Film
The unfinished silent film Number 13 was the directorial debut for which highly regarded director born in Leytonstone in Essex in 1889? He would later become famous for making cameo appearances in many of his films.

Food & Drink
In a text compiled for King Roger of Sicily in 1154, which Italian foodstuff was referred to as 'itriyya', about which it is reported that 'very many shiploads are sent...everywhere: to Calabria, to Muslim and Christian countries'.

Politics
By which name is the Representation of the People Act 1832 better known? It is significant for abolishing 57 'rotten borough' constituencies and widening the electoral franchise to roughly one in five men.

General Knowledge
In 1799, which General became the head of his country's Consulate government, from which position he ended the country's status as a republic after five years with his coronation as Emperor at Notre Dame Cathedral?

How about that lot then? Answers below.

Starter for Ten Answers

History
1920s

Geography
The Himalayas

Sport
Michael Phelps

Arts & Books
Pride and Prejudice

Science
The Nobel Prize in Physics

Music
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

TV & Film
Alfred Hitchcock

Food & Drink
Pasta

Politics
The Great Reform Act

General Knowledge
Napoleon Bonaparte

Bonus Questions

There are 5 points available for each of these bonus questions if you answered the Starter for Ten correctly. If you didn't manage to do that, you might as well have a go at them anyway...

History
The object of each of these bonus questions is to identify a specific year of the 20th Century from the events...
a) Nikita Khrushchev denounces Joseph Stalin's dictatorship at the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party, Japan joins the United Nations and the first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Switzerland.
b) The US launches the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba, South Africa leaves the Commonwealth of Nations and the Berlin Wall begins construction.
c) The Roe vs Wade court case permits a woman's right to abortion across the US, Salvador Allende's Communist administration is overthrown in Chile and the UK joins the European Economic Community.

Geography
These bonus are all on mountains in the Himalayas.
a) Part of the Karakoram sub-range of mountains, Mount Godwin Austen is best known by which name?
b) Located on the border with Nepal, which mountain, the tallest in India, is also the third highest in the world?
c) Who was the leader of the British expedition to climb Mount Everest in 1953 which saw Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reach the summit?

Sport
These bonuses are all on multiple Olympic gold medal winners.
a) Phelps set a record at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in achieving 8 golds at a single Games. Which fellow swimmer's record did he surpass by one gold medal in doing so?
b) The most decorated female competitor at the Olympic Games with 9 gold medals, at which sport did Larisa Latynina compete for the Soviet Union?
c) Which 9 times gold medal winning athlete did the International Olympic Committee decorate with the title 'Sportsman of the Century' in 1999?

Arts & Books
These bonuses are all on estates featured in the novel Pride and Prejudice.
a) Serving as the home of Mr Darcy, in which English county is the Pemberley estate located?
b) The Rosings estate in Kent is the home of which wealthy widow, who is obsessed with social standing, much to the irritation of Elizabeth Bennett?
c) What is the name of the hall that is rented by Mr Bingley upon his move to Hertfordshire? A ball held there is the setting for the initial meeting between Mr Darcy and Elizabeth.

Science
These bonuses are all on Nobel Physics Prize winners in the interwar years.
a) In 1922, which Danish scientist received the prize 'for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them'?
b) In 1932, German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg won the prize for his instrumental role in devising which branch of physics?
c) Which Italian physicist, often hailed as one of the 'fathers of the atomic bomb' won the prize in 1938?

Music
These pictures bonuses are all of significant European composers.
a) Identify this Austrian composer, most prominent in the 18th Century.

 

 

b) Identify this 19th Century Czech composer.

 

 

c) Identify this German composer.

TV & Film
These bonuses are all on Alfred Hitchcock films.
a) Which 1948 film is the first of Hitchcock's repertoire to be filmed in technicolour? It is also notable for being filmed in real time.
b) Based on a stage play by Frederick Knott and starring Ray Milland and Grace Kelly, which 1954 Hitchcock film was his first to be made in widescreen?
c) Which Hitchcock film replaced Citizen Kane as the best film of all time according to the Sight & Sound poll by the British Film Institute in 2012?

Food & Drink
These bonuses are all on Italian cuisine.
a) What is meant if a foodstuff is referred to as 'al forno'?
b) Which meat based sauce is first recorded as being served at Imola and derives its name from a nearby city?
c) Which city in Emilia-Romagna is renowned for its prosciutto and its distinctive cheese?

Politics
These bonuses are all on pieces of British legislation known as the 'Reform Acts'.
a) Which Whig Prime Minister is responsible for seeing the Great Reform Act of 1832 through Parliament? He also gives his name to a blend of tea.
b) Which Chancellor of the Exchequer and future Prime Minister convinced his colleagues to vote for the Second Reform Act 35 years later, on the premise that the electorate would be grateful and vote Conservative in return?
c) In which year did William Gladstone's government succeed in passing the Third Reform Act, which widened the franchise to over 5,500,000 voters? It would later be replaced by the Representation of the People Act 1918.

General Knowledge
a) On which island was Napoleon born in 1769? It ceased to be an independent republic that same year.
b) Which 1805 battle brought about the effective end of the Holy Roman Empire and is hailed as one of Napoleon's greatest victories?
c) Which notably bloody 1812 battle forced Napoleon into retreat and ended his goal of successfully invading Russia?

Bonus Answers

Here are the answers to this overwhelming amount of trivia. Be grateful as it took me forever to write out all of these...

History
a) 1956           b) 1961           c) 1973

Geography
a) K2    b) Kangchenjunga   c) Colonel John Hunt

Sport
a) Mark Spitz      b) Gymnastics     c) Carl Lewis

Arts & Books
a) Derbyshire   b) Lady Catherine de Bourgh    c) Netherfield Hall

Science
a) Niels Bohr    b) Quantum mechanics      c) Enrico Fermi

Music
a) Joseph Haydn     b) Antonin Dvorak     c) Ludwig van Beethoven

TV & Film
a) Rope      b) Dial M For Murder      c) Vertigo

Food & Drink
a) It has been baked in an oven   b) Bolognese sauce   c) Parma

Politics
a) Earl Grey       b) Benjamin Disraeli      c) 1884

General Knowledge
a) Corsica       b) The Battle of Austerlitz     c) The Battle of Borodino


I hope you still feel like you know your stuff. There are a potential 250 points up for grabs here, so let me know how you do and be honest! You're only fooling yourself otherwise. I'm exhausted after this bonanza so until we meet again. Hope to see you again soon!

A Spirited Defeat

Hi again everyone. You're just in time for my round up of our weekly foray into the Victory's halls of quizzing. We weren't quite up to our usual standards of magnificence this week, but we were still at least credible. As usual, please have a glance at the ones that stumped us, and let me know if you could have helped us walk away with some cash. I have now added the much awaited snowball questions.


12/08/2014
Venue: The Victory Stadium (or pub for short)        Team: Me + 3 others
Place: Joint 4th  87/100 (1st place - 94)                    Snowball: Not chosen

As I mentioned above, this was not the best we have ever played, but you can't win them all I suppose. I'm not feeling the best today, so I'll cut the chatter and get on with the goods.

Questions

1) This week, goalkeeper Mark Oxley scored the winning goal for which Scottish team?

2) Criminals stole £8 million worth of oil from a pipeline underneath the home of which MP this week?

3) Often served with haggis, what are neeps and tatties? (1 point for each)

4) What type of creature is a gadwall?

5) Barbara Gordon was the secret identity of which superhero?

6) What is a 'baldric'?

7) 'Some people call me the space cowboy, some call me the gangster of love,' are the opening lyrics to which song?

Snowballs

S1) In the film The Big Lebowski, what is the Dude's favourite drink?

S2) In the film The Bodyguard, which character does Whitney Houston play?

Good? Bad? Awful? Why not have a look?

Answers

I hope you didn't actually click the button. Here they are...

1) Hibernian
2) Nick Clegg (although you should have been able to have Philip Hammond as well)
3) Turnips and potatoes (controversial)
4) A duck
5) Batgirl
6) A belt
7) 'The Joker' by the Steve Miller Band

S1) A White Russian
S2) Rachel Marron

The Excuses

1) You know me, I don't watch football. Is there a type of football I watch even less than English Football? Yes, Scottish football. I have no idea what we went with, but it was probably Rangers (Glasgow). Oxley scored against Livingston, and it's worth a look.
Quiz lowdown: Hibernian or 'Hibs' is based in Leith in the north of Edinburgh and was founded by Irish immigrants in 1875. The club has won the top flight of the Scottish League 4 times (1903, 1948, 1951, 1952) and plays at Easter Road. They play the Edinburgh Derby against Hearts of Midlothian and one of their nicknames is 'The Cabbage' based on rhyming slang 'cabbage and ribs'.

2) I didn't remember this story at all, and I'm usually all over political stories like fingerprints on a touch screen. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg can add this to his ever increasing list of woes. Our teammate was fairly confident that the politician concerned was Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, and we had no reason to doubt him. Plus, if (we assumed incorrectly) that this was under his constituency home, Osborne in Cheshire seemed plausible as I had seen a documentary on house building where the building (in Cheshire) could not take place due to an oil pipeline in the vicinity. As it happens, the estate is in Sevenoaks, in Kent. Oh well...
Quiz lowdown: Clegg was a Member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands before joining the House of Commons as MP for Sheffield Hallam in 2005. He became leader of the Liberal Democrats in 2007 and Deputy Prime Minister in 2010.

3) This is one of those archetypal nightmare questions. These kinds of 'neeps' are actually swedes (or rutabaga in the U.S. and Canada) rather than turnips. However, in Scotland, the undisputed home of the haggis, swedes/rutabaga are commonly called 'turnips'. Though Scottish people call ordinary turnips 'turnips' as well, these are not usually served with haggis. Therefore had we been asked this question in Scotland, we would have been wrong, but as we were in England, we were swindled out of a point. ('Tatties' posed no similar problem, in case you were wondering!)
Quiz lowdown: Swede/rutabaga developed as a cross between the turnip and a cabbage.

4) You either know it or you don't. I was tempted to use Quizzer's Instinct here and put 'bird' (it's always a bird), but I think we went with 'fish' after some discussion. And sacrificed another point. Here is the offending duck in all its splendour.
Quiz info: The gadwall is generally found across North America, Europe and Asia. Gertrude Gadwall is a distant relation of Donald Duck, being the great great grandmother of his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie.

5) I have to take the blame for this one, feeling sure it was Wonder Woman. However, I missed the obvious clue in her name, since she is the daughter of Gotham City Police Commissioner Gordon. In my defence, Gordon was the second of 5 different women who identified themselves as 'Batgirl'. Cue the argument as to whether somebody with no supernatural powers is a 'superhero'.
Quiz info: Gordon debuted in issue 359 of Detective Comics in 1967 in the story 'The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl!'

6) As a big fan of TV series Blackadder, I was aghast to realise that I actually had no idea what the answer was, not even whether Baldrick was named after a baldric or the baldric was named after the character. Engrossed in thought for a long time, I came to the conclusion that it was probably the latter. A hat, jacket, trousers and even underpants went through my mind (notably bypassing belt, of course) until I came to the conclusion that it was probably a turnip (deja vu) after the massive turnip that Baldrick once bought for £1000.
Quiz info: The baldric is a belt worn over the shoulder typically to carry a weapon, such as a sword. I don't think Baldrick has ever had anything to do with one of these...

7) Despite having played this several times on Guitar Hero, this song didn't even cross my mind. As this was the last question, in a frantic scramble to put something down, we put 'Born To Run' which I opted for mainly because I have still not ever listened to it.
Quiz info: The Steve Miller Band released the song in 1973, but it didn't chart in the UK at the time. However, after being featured in an advert for Levi's, it reached No 1 in 1990, giving it the record for the longest wait for a single to top the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. In case you haven't heard the song, here is a link to it.

Now for the snowballs. No chance for us this week, but to be honest that was fine as we didn't know either of them.

S1) Another classic film to add to the 'to see' list I fear. I get the feeling that if I had actually seen the film I would have known in an instant.
Quiz info: A White Russian cocktail is traditionally made with vodka and a coffee based liqueur (such as Kahlua or Tia Maria) with cream on top. The cream is the only differentiation between a White Russian and a Black Russian, on which it is based. The White Russian appears to have been invented in America in the 1960s, and purists would serve it on the rocks in an Old Fashioned Glass (as pictured). The Big Lebowski is credited with repopularising the drink over recent years.

S2)  As if I would/should/realistically could have known this. Shame on the gentleman who earned his team £50 with the correct answer!
Quiz info: First released in 1992, The Bodyguard co-stars Kevin Costner as Frank Farmer (who happens to be the eponymous bodyguard). The soundtrack album to this film is one of the highest selling soundtrack albums in the world, but figures are unclear as to whether it has sold THE most. The Bodyguard album claims sales of 40 million, but so does Saturday Night Fever. While the Bodyguard has more certified sales than Saturday Night Fever, it has a similar number of certified sales to Grease, which doesn't make such ambitious claims. Confused? You're not alone.

So there we go, this entry has finally been rounded off. Hope you enjoyed it, and let me know if I've got anything wrong. The last person who wants anything up here to be incorrect is me!

See you all again soon.

A Scrape To Victory!

Hi again everyone! Hope you've all had a cracking weekend. I had a bit of a belter, culminating of course, in the sweet nectar of a triumph at our regular haunt of TGS Bowling. Once again, it was down to the last point. No doubt you'd rather hear about that than the rest of my chaotic weekend, so without further ado, let's get down to the good stuff.

10/08/2014
Venue: First Bowl Hereford Arena                       Team: Me + 5 others
Place: 1st - 65/82 points                                Money Round: 2nd (zilch) (9/15)

There wasn't a lot we could have done better. Not realistically anyway. But that's not what we're about here. Full dissection of our performance below.

Questions

Here are the pesky blighters that foiled us this time around. Let me know how well you did with them and we'll try and recruit you. Questions with a * denote Wipeout Round.

1) Identify this man - (not the picture used in the quiz)

2) What is the name of the European Space Agency probe that went into orbit around its target comet this week?

3) Which large creature was spotted in the Adriatic Sea this week for the first time in 70 years?

4) On this day (10th August) in 1990, the Magellan Spacecraft began mapping which planet?

5) Celebrity round: Identify the celebrity from this clue - 'I was born in 1963 in Kentucky. I had originally planned to become a musician, but Nicholas Cage, a friend of my wife, persuaded me to take up acting...'

6) How many pairs of ribs does a cat have?*

7) A hinny is a crossbreed between which two animals?*

8) Miss Abel and Miss Baker were the first animals to return from space alive. What creatures were they?*

9) A haberdasher provides materials for which profession?*

10) The Leaning Tower of Pisa leans in which direction - North or South?*

A perfect music round (which is the rarest of things) was of significant help and clinched it for us just in time. How did you find those?

Answers

1) John Hurt
2) Rosetta
3) Giant jellyfish
4) Venus
5) Johnny Depp
6) 13
7) A horse and a donkey
8) Monkeys
9) Sewing
10) South (east)

The Excuses

1) Somehow this one slipped through the net. We went with Ian McKellen, which at least isn't totally stupid, but it should have been obvious having seen them both star in several things.
Quiz gold: Hurt was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire in 1940. He was nominated for an Oscar for his role as 'The Elephant Man' John Merrick in 1980, and is also well known for his roles in 1984, I, Claudius; The Naked Civil Servant and for portraying the War Doctor in Doctor Who.

2) I never follow space stories very closely. This is a massive mistake, especially as this week was quite space heavy. I think Leon, our gracious host, is very much enthralled by space stuff and once I've got some of my other quiz pages finished and dusted off, 'Space Stuff' would be an excellent Quiz Fiend cheat sheet. I'll keep you posted. I can't remember what we put, but it was very much wrong.
Quiz gold: The last time that the ESA mounted a comet mission was the Giotto craft destined for Halley's Comet in 1986. Unfortunately it was a disaster as the experts could not decipher the pictures sent back to Earth and Giotto mysteriously disappeared before returning.

3) Another news story which none of us had seen. Apparently the last time it was recorded in the Adriatic was in 1945.
Quiz gold: The drymonema dalmatinum derives its name from where it was first seen, the Dalmatian Coast (Croatia) by German naturalist Ernst Haeckel. It is white and fuchsia in colour and can grow up to 3 feet in diameter.

4) See what I mean? Space. I think the date might actually be out by one day (9th August) but that's hardly an excuse for not knowing. Actually maybe we should have given it a try...
Quiz gold: The Magellan Spacecraft was also known as the Venus Radar Mapper (the clue's in the name!) The Magellan was named after Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese explorer who successfully organised the first circumnavigation of the Earth (although he died in the Philippines along the way) completed in 1522.

5) We didn't have enough to go on to start with, although some mega fans did. We managed to get 8 out of 10 available points on the second clue - 'My first acting roles were in 21 Jump Street and classic 1984 horror film 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'.
Quiz gold: Depp's first collaboration with Tim Burton was in 1990 with Edward Scissorhands and has since worked with him on 7 more films.

6) There wasn't a chance in hell we were going to get this and it was just as well we didn't put down the floated answer of 4.
Quiz gold: According to Wikipedia, the cat is the most popular choice of pet worldwide.

7) I had actually heard this, but we didn't put it down just to be on the safe side.
Quiz gold: Whereas a mule is the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey, a hinny is the offspring of a female horse and a male donkey.

8) Space again. It could have been anything, as NASA sent up all sorts of creatures into space and my guess would have been fruit flies. Once again, the correct decision was made not to put anything down. Here is a link to a video of the event... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKL5X1EWL7Q
Quiz gold: This news story broke in 1959, paving the way for humans to make the voyage. Miss Able was a rhesus monkey and Miss Baker was a squirrel monkey.

9) I hadn't got a clue. I suppose I should have but to me 'haberdasher' is just one of those words you hear from time to time that goes away again fairly quickly. My friend's guess of 'hats/hatting' was not too far off, but not solid enough either.
Quiz gold: The word 'haberdasher' appears in Geoffrey Chaucer's medieval work 'The Canterbury Tales'.

10) Does one dare to guess at a question like this? No, the answer is one does not.
Quiz gold: Since restoration work during the 1990s, the Tower leans at an angle of 3.99 degrees. It was completed in 1372.


Of course, it doesn't all end there you lucky, lucky devils. Here are the 6 questions that cheated us out of our destiny (£100). If you knew four of these, then you would have been of invaluable help. Actually, you would have been valuable to the tune of £16.66 each...

Final Fling

Questions

1) In which country would you find the Rimutaka Railway Tunnel?

2) After her wedding to Prince William in 2011, Kate Middleton laid her bouquet of flowers on whose memorial?

3) The rationing of which foodstuff ended in Britain in 1953?

4) Which rugby union player was nicknamed 'Squeaky'?

5) Mount Apo is in which country?

6) Mechanic's Bay Airport serves which New Zealand city?

Did you enjoy those? Here are the complimentary answers.

Answers

1) New Zealand
2) The Unknown Warrior
3) Sugar
4) Rob Andrew
5) The Philippines
6) Auckland

The Excuses

1) We made the classic mistake of mixing up a Maori word with Japanese. That definitely wouldn't be the first time that's happened, not even at Bar Wars.
Quiz gold: The railway tunnel goes through the Rimutaka mountain range on North Island, near Wellington.

2) The Unknown Warrior. I didn't remember this at all, but this is actually a tradition, going back to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon's marriage to the future King George VI in 1923. We went for Princess Diana.
The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior was unveiled on 11th November 1920, at Westminster Abbey in recognition of all unknown war dead. This occurred simultaneously in France, at the Arc de Triomphe.

3) I was a little bit surprised to hear this, but I shouldn't have been. I had never been clear on when sugar rationing ended, and I thought bread was much later than it turned out to be. Bread was our answer.

4) I had never really heard much about him. The name 'Squeaky' comes from his 'squeaky clean' public image. We went for Laurence Dallaglio, who I thought had a similar reputation before he was forced to resign his team captaincy over drug allegations in 1999.
Quiz gold: Assuming the role of Fly Half (No. 10), Christopher Robert Andrew played for England in the 1987, 1991 and 1995 World Cup Tournaments and also had a brief career in first class cricket.

5) I have only myself to blame for this one after talking one of my teammates out of the answer being the Philippines. Not one I'll live down for a while, I'm sure, as it stopped us competing for the tie-break for a shot at the money. I think we went for Thailand.
Quiz gold: Apo is the highest mountain in the Philippines and is situated on Mindanao, the second largest island.

6) Do I detect another theme for something that I am rubbish at? Unfortunately, my knowledge of airports has never extended to that side of the globe. We put down Wellington.
Quiz gold: The airport was originally used to serve flying boats rather than aeroplanes.

I think that dissection was quite galling enough for tonight. Let me know how you did, and as always, tell me if I've got anything incorrect here. Until we meet again!

List of Phobias

Phobias can be the bane of your quiz performance. Ancient Greek and Latin are not topics that an amateur quizzer tends to want to jump into just for the sake of a point, but phobias come up an awful lot, and worst of all is the feeling that you ought to know them. I hope that, after a quick browse of the net, I can put an end to some of our head scratching. I'll try to group them where I can, but it's not always easy. This list will not contain all phobias or anything like that number. There is an awful lot that people can be afraid of, so I've tried to limit phobias that are either obvious or combined with other phobias.

This list is nowhere near finished. I've added some more categories, but there are a lot more to follow later.

Essentials

Here are the ones that you need to know if you're going to have credibility on these things:

Heights - Acrophobia (not 'vertigo' which is the dizzy sensation often associated with looking down), also Altophobia
Spiders - Arachnophobia
Snakes - Ophidiophobia, also Snakephobia (but you won't get asked that!)
The Dark - Nyctophobia, Lygophobia, Scotophobia, Achluophobia
Fire - Pyrophobia, also Arsonphobia
Water - Hydrophobia
Flying - Aviophobia/Aviatophobia, also Pteromerhanophobia, Aerophobia
Open spaces - Agoraphobia
Enclosed spaces - Claustrophobia
Men - Androphobia, also arrhenphobia, hominophobia
Women - Gynophobia/gynephobia
People - Anthropophobia
Social/public situations - Social Phobia
Clowns - Coulrophobia
Dentists - Dentophobia
Animals - Zoophobia
Vomiting - Emetophobia
Death/dead things - Necrophobia
Cancer - Carcinophobia, Cancerophobia
Ghosts - Phasmophobia, Spectrophobia
Cemeteries - Coimetrophobia
Being buried alive - Taphephobia
Hell - Hadephobia, also Stygiophobia
God(s)/religion - Theophobia, also Zeusophobia
Multiple things - Polyphobia
Everything (apparently this is possible) - Pantophobia, also panophobia
Phobias - Phobophobia

Animals

Animals are always good ones to be aware of, and can also probably be of value in other quiz questions.

Animals (generally) - Zoophobia
Wild animals - Agrizoophobia
Spiders - Arachnophobia
Snakes - Ophidiophobia
Bats - Chiroptophobia
Mice - Musophobia, Muriphobia
Dogs - Cynophobia
Cats - Ailurophobia/Elurophobia, Felinophobia
Horses - Hippophobia, Equinophobia
Cows - Bovinophobia
Bulls - Taurophobia
Sheep - Ovinophobia
Otters - Lutraphobia
The Great Mole Rat (yes, I know) - Zemmiphobia
Frogs - Ranidophobia
Toads - Bufonophobia
Birds - Ornithophobia
Chickens - Alektorophobia
Fish - Ichthyophobia
Sharks - Selachophobia
Shellfish - Ostraconophobia
Insects - Entomophobia, Insectophobia
Moths - Mottephobia
Ants - Myrmecophobia
Bees - Apiphobia, Melissophobia
Wasps - Spheksophobia
Lice - Pediculophobia

Weather

This category is probably a lot more popular than you might think. Or at least, it is if you come from where I do.

Thunder and lightning - Astraphobia/Astropophobia, also Ceraunophobia/Keraunophobia, Brontophobia
Thunder (only) - Tonitrophobia
Heat - Thermophobia
Cold - Cheimaphobia/Cheimatophobia, also, Frigophobia, Psychrophobia
Extreme cold - Cryophobia
Snow - Chionophobia
Ice or frost - Pagophobia
Rain - Ombrophobia, Pluviophobia
Floods - Antlophobia
Fog -- Homichlophobia, Nebulaphobia
Wind - Anemophobia, Ancraophobia
Clouds - Nephophobia
The Sun - Heliophobia
Daylight - Phengophobia
The Night - Noctiphobia/Nyctophobia

Nationalities

Yes, unfortunately it seems there are people who are afraid of whole nationalities. A lot of these are pretty straightforward, so here are a handful to give you a flavour...

The English - Anglophobia
Americans - Americophobia
The French - Francophobia/Gallophobia
The Dutch - Dutchphobia
Germans - Germanophobia, Teutophobia
Russians - Russophobia
Indians - Indophobia
The Chinese - Sinophobia
Japanese - Japanophobia
Foreigners (in general) - Xenophobia



I'll can announce that after much procrastination, I will actually be back with more phobias over the next few days. If you can handle them.

World War I Quiz

Monday marked the 100th anniversary of the British Empire declaring war on Germany. In view of that, I decided it would be appropriate to theme this quiz on the First World War. The topic is of course so vast that 100 questions wouldn't scratch the surface of how important the impact of the war is, and it is estimated that around 17 million people (both soldiers and civilians) lost their lives as a result of the conflict. But how much do you know about it?

This quiz uses the same format as my previous Friday Quiz, but with another round of extra tough questions. I should probably warn all my international friends that this is a pretty heavily Anglo-centric quiz, but why not give it a go anyway?

Standard

Historical Events
1) The assassination of which royal figure provoked the start of the World War?

Geography
2) The city of Ypres, over which many battles took place, is in which country?

Science
3) The Battle of the Somme featured the debut of which military weapon?

Music
4) Which music hall song written in 1915 by brothers George Henry Powell and Felix Powell, became a significant hit in the trenches?

TV & Film
5) The 4th series of which well known 1980s sitcom was set during the First World War?

Sport
6) During Christmas 1914, about 100,000 British and German troops ceased fighting and many used the occasion to play which sport?

Arts & Books
7) 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' is a work by which well known war poet?

Food & Drink
8) Which canned foodstuff usually made up most of the meat element of British soldiers diet?

Politics
9) Which UK Prime Minister was regarded as 'the Man Who Won the War'?

General Knowledge
10) Which General (later Field Marshall) commanded the British Expeditionary Force from 1915 - 1918?

So how did you do?

Answers

1) Archduke Franz Ferdinand
2) Belgium
3) The tank
4) Pack Up Your Troubles (In Your Old Kit-Bag and Smile, Smile, Smile)
5) Blackadder (the series is called Blackadder Goes Forth)
6) Football (soccer)
7) Wilfred Owen
8) Corned beef (or bully beef)
9) David Lloyd George
10) Sir Douglas Haig

0-3) I hope at least you take something away from this!
4-7) Not bad, but could do better
8-10) That's the spirit

If those were a little bit basic for you, then why not have a go at this next lot?

Harder

1) Which member of the Black Hand organisation shot and killed Ferdinand and his wife Sophie?

2)  How many Battles of Ypres were there in total during World War I?

3) In 1917 which French company, (best known for making cars) produced the FT model of the tank, one of the most revolutionary tank designs in history?

4) The chorus of 'Pack Up Your Troubles' refers to a 'lucifer', but what was a lucifer?

5) Who played Field Marshall Haig in the final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth?

6) Which English football team won the First Division title for 1914-15, the only season to be played during the war?

7) Which Nobel Prize winning author joined the Imperial War Graves Commission after the death of his son John during the war?

8) Which word for cheap wine is thought to have been introduced to the English language around this time?

9) What was the name of the British Foreign Secretary at the outbreak of the war, who said 'The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime'?

10) Which Field Marshall did Haig replace as Commander of the BEF?

I hope you're still breezing through these. Below are the answers.

Answers

1) Gavrilo Princip
2) 5
3) Renault
4) A match
5) Geoffrey Palmer
6) Everton
7) Rudyard Kipling
8) Plonk
9) Sir Edward Grey
10) Sir John French

1-3) Useful in a tight spot
4-7) Impressive
8-10) You should be doing this instead of me...

Still feeling pretty smug? Try these mind-knackering pieces of informational gold that will never come up in a pub quiz anywhere, but will make you look and feel like a tower of omnipotence...

Tough As Old Boots

1) What was the name of the state sponsored militia that Austria-Hungary created in order to persecute Serbs, and did so with relish after Ferdinand's death?

2) What is the name of the war memorial in Ypres dedicated to Commonwealth soldiers who died in the battles for control of the city?

3) What is the name of the British prototype Mark I tank that today is the oldest surviving individual tank in the world?

4) In order to adapt the song for the front, the time signature of 'Pack Up Your Troubles' was changed from 6/8 time to what?

5) In the episode 'Goodbyeee', Blackadder is credited with saving Douglas Haig's life during the Battle of Mboto Gorge, from a man carrying a particularly vicious what?

6) Which captain of the rugby league team Northampton Saints headed the Sportsman's Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment?

7) Which British army unit was responsible for producing the Wipers Times, a satirical newspaper whose title is based on the British pronunciation of Ypres?

8) What type of foodstuff was Maconochie, described by one soldier as 'a war crime'?

9) Name either of the two Cabinet ministers who resigned from Herbert Asquith's Government upon the declaration of war upon Germany.

10) Under the authority of which French Commander-in-Chief did Lloyd George place Haig in 1917?

You must be exhausted. Here are the answers.

Answers

1) Schutzkorps
2) The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing
3) Little Willie
4) 2/4 time
5) Slice of mango
6) Edgar Mobbs
7) 12th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Nottingham and Derbyshire Regiment), 24th Division
8) Meat stew
9) John Morley and John Burns
10) Robert Nivelle

1) Fair play to you
2) You must be a professional
3+) Or else you cheated...

That's definitely enough for now. Hope you appreciate my efforts and please let me know how you did. Also, as usual, don't hesitate to correct me if I've gone wrong.

The Great Victory Blitzkrieg

Last night was definitely one of the highlights of the quizzing career. An absolute storm of a performance, and we needed it. With only two questions wrong, this week's round up would probably seem a little sparse, so I am going to include the snowball questions to beef this post up a bit. So sit back ladies and gentlemen, while I fill you in on our once in a blue moon triumph.

05/08/14
The Victory Superdome (Pub)    Team: Me + 3 others
Rank: Joint 1st (Win on the tiebreak)           Points: 96/100           Snowball: Not chosen

We absolutely needed all guns blazing to clinch our narrow win this week. We finished the first half with a roaring 50 out of 50 which drew some envious groans from the other tables, but obviously a good start is no guarantee, and one fault on the first half would have lost it for us. Below are our pains in the proverbials:

1) Which capital city stands on the Han river?
2) In Hamlet, what was Yorick's profession?

Tiebreak: In centimetres, what height is Tom Cruise?

Snowballs

1) The alien ALF came from which planet?
2) Which famous author drowned in the river Ouse in 1941?
3) What was the name of the 'aristocratic' owner of the manor in the sitcom To the Manor Born?
4) Charles Darwin died in which year?
5) Which celebrity will be attending the Flavours of Herefordshire Food Festival this year?

I'm not entirely sure how many of these we would have got, but it's all academic anyway. Our great (but not bitter!) rivals who we beat on the tiebreak won £100 on Question 5. We also saw some friends lose out on question 3, due to some ambiguity over the meaning of the question. Details below.

How did you do on those?

Main Quiz Answers

1) Seoul
2) Jester

Tiebreak: 170 cm

Snowballs

1) Melmac
2) Virginia Woolf
3) Richard DeVere
4) 1882
5) Mary Berry

The Excuses

Main Quiz

1) We went with Hanoi, but I had my doubts. I knew that one of the main two cities in Vietnam was on the Red River and I underthought it. I realised that I should change my mind when I went for a pee, but our answer paper had been collected by the time I came back.
Quiz Bread and Butter: The mouth of the river Han separates North and South Korea and as such forms part of the Korean Demilitarised Zone. There is a River Han in Vietnam, but Hanoi is on the Red River and Ho Chi Minh City's principle river is the Saigon.

2) We went with gravedigger, which is not as off the mark as it first sounds. Yorick's skull was found by a gravedigger in the final act of the play, so this must have caused the confusion. I think I might need to go and see Hamlet though, as it causes us a lot of grief in quizzes at present.
Quiz Bread and Butter (sort of): Polish pianist Andre Tchaikowsky donated his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company (after he'd already died of colon cancer, obviously) with the express purpose that it be used to portray Yorick. In fact, here he is starring opposite David Tennant in 2008.

Tiebreak: We went with 164, pipping the other teams guess of 160.
QBAB: Born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV in Syracuse, New York in 1962, all 3 of Cruise's wives - Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes - have been taller than him. Kidman was the tallest at 180 cm, then Holmes, (175 cm) and Rogers the shortest at 174 cm.

Snowballs

1) Apparently ALF is an American sitcom that ran from 1986 - 1990. The general theme of the show is that he crash lands on Earth and gets taken in by a middle class family, the Tanners.
QBAB: ALF stands for Alien Life Form. The actual name of the character is the totally space age Gordon Shumway. I think.

2) Best known for her books 'Mrs Dalloway' and 'To the Lighthouse', Woolf is understood to have had bipolar disorder, which caused her to commit suicide in this way.
QBAB: Born Adeline Virginia Stephen in 1882 in Kensington, Woolf and her husband Leonard founded Hogarth Press in 1917, which is now an associate company of Chatto & Windus.

3) This question raised a few eyebrows as the premise of To the Manor Born is that Richard DeVere is a self-made millionaire and not an aristocrat, as opposed to the female lead Audrey fforbes-Hamilton. Sadly this put our friends on the wrong track.
QBAB: To the Manor Born originally ran from 1979 - 1981 and starred Penelope Keith as Audrey and Peter Bowles as Richard DeVere.

4) Anybody who loves money ought to know this really as Darwin takes pride of place on the reverse of the £10 note. Darwin was born in Shrewsbury in 1809 and died at Down House in Kent (now part of Greater London). Down House is now owned by English Heritage and open to the public.
QBAB: In 2017, Darwin is set to be replaced on the £10 note by Jane Austen, after a campaign to ensure that a woman other than the Queen remains on UK banknotes.

5) Best known for the Great British Bake Off, Mary Berry was probably the obvious candidate even if you didn't know. Not that I'm sour that our rivals won the money or anything!
QBAB: Since 1970, Berry has released over 70 different cookbooks. Her autobiography is called Recipe for Life.

That's enough for today I think. Let me know how you found those, and see you all again soon!