In the News
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Stephanie Bottrill
2. Ben Watson
3. Philip Patterson
4. Cash Lady
5. Nawaz Sharif
6. Ricky Burns
7. Bloodhound SSC
8. Chris Hadfield
9. Stuart Hazell
10. Arnold Peters
11. Barbara Walters
12. Long Live the King
13. Philip Hensher
14. Jamie Filan
15. Colin Brewer
16. Cuidad Blanca
17. Peter Ericksson
18. Loic Remy
19. Joyce Brothers
20. Ryan Fogle
21. Sylvain Georges
22. Instead
23. James Wharton
24. Mark Moraghan
25. Steve Harper
26. Eric Schmidt
27. Believe in Me
28. Michael Le Vell
29. Peter Fulton
In Other News
1. Who was tagged after his release from prison last week?
2. Which film was finally allowed to be shown in cinemas in China?
3. Which Cabinet Minister said he would vote for Britain to leave the EU in a referendum?
4. Which was voted the Best sitcom in the BAFTAS?
5. Who won the Spanish Grand Prix
6. Which team did Northampton beat to reach the Premiership Final in rugby union?
7. Which team did Leicester beat to win the other semi final?
8. Which Man Utd. player retired from football last week?
9. Who was evicted from HSBC HQ while making a protest film?
10. Where is the G8 summit to be held?
11. Which English rugby club have been playing tapes of their head coach making his half time team talk to scare birds away from the pitch?
12. Which US TV show is returning after a 4 year absence?
13. IN the USA who is in court asking for a retrial?
14. Who was sacked after finishing second last week?
15. How many pit stops were there in the Spanish GP last week?
16. Who is the ECB Cricketer of the Year for 2012/13?
17. Which grand slam winner did Laura Robson defeat last week?
18. Which two teams will contest the Championship play off final?
19. How much money have the EU pledged to help Mali?
20. Which two firms have been accused of fixing petrol prices?
21. What was the score between Wigan and Arsenal that saw Wigan relegated days after winning the FA Cup?
22. What was score between Man City and Reading?
23. What did Angelina Joli tell the world about last week?
24. Which British boxer had to pull out of his comeback fight?
25. Who was the UK’s highest earning musician last year?
26. Which comedian and TV presenter was arrested on suspicion of taking part in a drunken brawl in Cornwall allegedly?
27. Last week a breakthrough was announced in the field of human cloning, using which cells?
28. What was the score in the Europa League final?
29. Who scored the winning goal?
30. Who has returned to advertise Calvin Klein after a gap of 20 years?
31. A factory for ASICS products had its roof collapse in which country last week?
32. Which Hi de Hi actor passed away last week at the age of 72?
33. MP Margaret Hodge called who or what ‘evil’ last week?
34. Which World War II operation saw its 70th anniversary?
35. Which former head of both Ford ( UK) and the CBI passed away last week?
36. Newsnight issued an apology to which charity last week?
37. Who won his 100th and 101st races during the Giro d’Italia?
38. Which manager was suspended by Brighton and Hove Albion?
39. How many caps did David Beckham – who retired from football last week – win for England?
40. Who walked out of an interview with BBC Radio Scotland after branding Scots as ‘racists’?
41. Which teams are contesting the Division 2 play off?
Saturday, 18 May 2013
Friday, 17 May 2013
Answers to News Questions
In the News
Who or what are the following, and why have they been in the news?
1. Nigel Evans
2. Jo Swinson
3. Jacqueline Wilson
4. Jeffrey John
5. Defence Distributed
6. Tal –y-Fan
7. Matt O’Connor
8. Paul Mealor
9. Lara Stone
10. Tommy and Patrick Connors
11. Eddie Shah
12. Amanda Berry
Gina de Jesus
Michelle Knight
13. Ariel Castro
14. Sarah Brown
15. Geordan Murphy
16. Chetham’s Music School
17. Melanie Smith
18. Ray Harryhausen
19. Jolly Nero
20. Kyle Thomson
21. The Smiler
22. Inferno
23. Sean Lopes
24. Andrew Simpson
25. David Norris
In Other News
1. A plane crashed happened at an airshow in which European capital?
2. 50 what were stolen from a pet shop in Nottingham?
3. There is controversy over the election of whom as a Fellow of the Royal Society?
4. There has been anger in New York over plans to charge what entry fee to the 9/11 Museum, to be opened in the future?
5. What was the score between Chelsea and Man Utd?
6. Which team won the Blue Square Bet Premier Play off to gain entry to the football League?
7. Who won the first stage of the Giro d’Italia
8. Whom did Ronnie O’Sullivan defeat in the final of the World Snooker Championship?
9. It was revealed last week that who had asked, and was refused, Led Zeppelin to reform for a charity concert in aid of the victims of Hurricane Sandy?
10. Who ordered a samba band to stop playing outside the Gielgud Theatre?
11. Which former Chancellor of the Exchequer said that he wants Britain to leave the EU?
12. Which two teams made it to the League One play offs? Which teams did they beat?
13. Who was confirmed as Team Sky leader for the 2013 Tour de France?
14. What was the final score in the World Snooker final?
15. What was the score between Wigan and Swansea?
16. Who fractured his skull during a political rally last week?
17. Which comedian was facing sex abuse charges last week?
18. Which operating system did Microsoft admit that it will need to revamp?
19. Who alleged that pupils at his former school were abused?
20. A memorial to whom was unveiled at the National Arboretum in Staffordshire last week?
21. Staff of which train company expressed an unwillingness to wear their ‘see through’ new uniforms?
22. The Queen will not be attending the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference, which will take place where?
23. Which manager was sacked by Wolverhampton Wanderers?
24. What was the score in the Chelsea v. Spurs match?
25. Who has been controversially left out of the England RU Squad for a tour of Uruguay and Argentina?
26. Who was reinstated to the Parliamentary Conservative Party last week?
27. Which minister was accused of fabricating figures ?
28. Frank Field called for which change to the House of Lords?
29. Which film director died aged 87?
30. Who was appointed the new manager of Manchester United?
31. The BBC announced that it will be re making which popular 1970s drama series?
32. Des Lynam pledged support for whom last week?
33. The Derbyshire v. Lancashire cricket match was called off due to what?
Answers
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons – facing allegations of sexual assault
2. Employment minister who collapsed with severe nut allgery
3. Writer who said that British children are more illiterate than her foreign fans
4. Openly gay Dean of St. Albans – tipped as a strong candidate to be the next Bishop of Durham
5. Company marketing the gun you can make with a 3D printer – over 100,000 blueprints downloaded
6. Hill in Snowdonia now reclassified as a mountain
7. New coach of Leicester Tigers RFC
8. Composed the song ‘Lullaby’ for William and Kate’s baby – to be sung by Hayley Westenra
9. Wife of David Walliams – just gave birth to a son, their first child
10. Jailed for slavery
11. Former Today newspaper owner, on trial for alleged rape of a school girl
12. Kidnapped women found in house in Cleveland Ohio.
13. Owner of the kidnap house in Cleveland – presumed the kidnapper
14. Wife of Gordon Brown, fined for boarding train without valid travel card
15. Ireland and Leicester rugby star retiring from rugby
16. Music school at the centre of abuse claims
17. Arsonist jailed for 30 years
18. Film special effects great responsible for Jason and Argonauts – The 7th Voyage of Sinbad – et al passed away aged 93
19. Ship which struck a central tower in Genoa Harbour
20. He threw a vegemite sandwich at Australian PM Julia Gillard
21. New roller coaster at Alton Towers – with 14 loops – the most of any roller coaster in the world at the time of writing.
22. New Dan Brown novel
23. One of New York’s most wanted criminals, found working in a Sainsbury’s store in Chatham
24. Beijing sailing gold medallist – died in tragic accident
25. Lost his appeal against his conviction for the murder of Stephen Lawrence
In Other News
1. Madrid
2. Snakes
3. Prince Andrew
4. $25
5. 1 - 0
6. Newport – defeated Wrexham 2 - 0
7. Mark Cavendish
8. Barry Hawkins
9. Bill CLinton
10. Helen Mirren
11. Nigel Lawson
12. Brentford bt. Swindon – Yeovil bt. Sheff Utd.
13. Chris Froome
14. 18 – 12 to Ronnie O’Sullivan
15. 2 - 3
16. Imran Khan
17. Jimmy Tarbuck
18. Windows 8
19. Nigel Kennedy
20. The Bevin Boys
21. Virgin
22. Sri Lanka
23. Dean Saunders
24. 2 - 2
25. Chris Robshaw
26. Nadine Dorries
27. Iain Duncan-Smith
28. He called for most of the bishops’ seats in the House of Lords to be abolished
29. Brian Forbes
30. David Moyes
31. Poldark
32. UKIP
33. A fire in a nearby disused Thornton’s warehouse
Who or what are the following, and why have they been in the news?
1. Nigel Evans
2. Jo Swinson
3. Jacqueline Wilson
4. Jeffrey John
5. Defence Distributed
6. Tal –y-Fan
7. Matt O’Connor
8. Paul Mealor
9. Lara Stone
10. Tommy and Patrick Connors
11. Eddie Shah
12. Amanda Berry
Gina de Jesus
Michelle Knight
13. Ariel Castro
14. Sarah Brown
15. Geordan Murphy
16. Chetham’s Music School
17. Melanie Smith
18. Ray Harryhausen
19. Jolly Nero
20. Kyle Thomson
21. The Smiler
22. Inferno
23. Sean Lopes
24. Andrew Simpson
25. David Norris
In Other News
1. A plane crashed happened at an airshow in which European capital?
2. 50 what were stolen from a pet shop in Nottingham?
3. There is controversy over the election of whom as a Fellow of the Royal Society?
4. There has been anger in New York over plans to charge what entry fee to the 9/11 Museum, to be opened in the future?
5. What was the score between Chelsea and Man Utd?
6. Which team won the Blue Square Bet Premier Play off to gain entry to the football League?
7. Who won the first stage of the Giro d’Italia
8. Whom did Ronnie O’Sullivan defeat in the final of the World Snooker Championship?
9. It was revealed last week that who had asked, and was refused, Led Zeppelin to reform for a charity concert in aid of the victims of Hurricane Sandy?
10. Who ordered a samba band to stop playing outside the Gielgud Theatre?
11. Which former Chancellor of the Exchequer said that he wants Britain to leave the EU?
12. Which two teams made it to the League One play offs? Which teams did they beat?
13. Who was confirmed as Team Sky leader for the 2013 Tour de France?
14. What was the final score in the World Snooker final?
15. What was the score between Wigan and Swansea?
16. Who fractured his skull during a political rally last week?
17. Which comedian was facing sex abuse charges last week?
18. Which operating system did Microsoft admit that it will need to revamp?
19. Who alleged that pupils at his former school were abused?
20. A memorial to whom was unveiled at the National Arboretum in Staffordshire last week?
21. Staff of which train company expressed an unwillingness to wear their ‘see through’ new uniforms?
22. The Queen will not be attending the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference, which will take place where?
23. Which manager was sacked by Wolverhampton Wanderers?
24. What was the score in the Chelsea v. Spurs match?
25. Who has been controversially left out of the England RU Squad for a tour of Uruguay and Argentina?
26. Who was reinstated to the Parliamentary Conservative Party last week?
27. Which minister was accused of fabricating figures ?
28. Frank Field called for which change to the House of Lords?
29. Which film director died aged 87?
30. Who was appointed the new manager of Manchester United?
31. The BBC announced that it will be re making which popular 1970s drama series?
32. Des Lynam pledged support for whom last week?
33. The Derbyshire v. Lancashire cricket match was called off due to what?
Answers
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons – facing allegations of sexual assault
2. Employment minister who collapsed with severe nut allgery
3. Writer who said that British children are more illiterate than her foreign fans
4. Openly gay Dean of St. Albans – tipped as a strong candidate to be the next Bishop of Durham
5. Company marketing the gun you can make with a 3D printer – over 100,000 blueprints downloaded
6. Hill in Snowdonia now reclassified as a mountain
7. New coach of Leicester Tigers RFC
8. Composed the song ‘Lullaby’ for William and Kate’s baby – to be sung by Hayley Westenra
9. Wife of David Walliams – just gave birth to a son, their first child
10. Jailed for slavery
11. Former Today newspaper owner, on trial for alleged rape of a school girl
12. Kidnapped women found in house in Cleveland Ohio.
13. Owner of the kidnap house in Cleveland – presumed the kidnapper
14. Wife of Gordon Brown, fined for boarding train without valid travel card
15. Ireland and Leicester rugby star retiring from rugby
16. Music school at the centre of abuse claims
17. Arsonist jailed for 30 years
18. Film special effects great responsible for Jason and Argonauts – The 7th Voyage of Sinbad – et al passed away aged 93
19. Ship which struck a central tower in Genoa Harbour
20. He threw a vegemite sandwich at Australian PM Julia Gillard
21. New roller coaster at Alton Towers – with 14 loops – the most of any roller coaster in the world at the time of writing.
22. New Dan Brown novel
23. One of New York’s most wanted criminals, found working in a Sainsbury’s store in Chatham
24. Beijing sailing gold medallist – died in tragic accident
25. Lost his appeal against his conviction for the murder of Stephen Lawrence
In Other News
1. Madrid
2. Snakes
3. Prince Andrew
4. $25
5. 1 - 0
6. Newport – defeated Wrexham 2 - 0
7. Mark Cavendish
8. Barry Hawkins
9. Bill CLinton
10. Helen Mirren
11. Nigel Lawson
12. Brentford bt. Swindon – Yeovil bt. Sheff Utd.
13. Chris Froome
14. 18 – 12 to Ronnie O’Sullivan
15. 2 - 3
16. Imran Khan
17. Jimmy Tarbuck
18. Windows 8
19. Nigel Kennedy
20. The Bevin Boys
21. Virgin
22. Sri Lanka
23. Dean Saunders
24. 2 - 2
25. Chris Robshaw
26. Nadine Dorries
27. Iain Duncan-Smith
28. He called for most of the bishops’ seats in the House of Lords to be abolished
29. Brian Forbes
30. David Moyes
31. Poldark
32. UKIP
33. A fire in a nearby disused Thornton’s warehouse
A comeback and a jackpot
Well, I hope you’ve had a good week. I’ve had a busy one, although I certainly can’t say that it’s been a bad one. Last night I was paid a backhanded compliment by Terry of Lemurs – the top team in the Thursday night quiz in the rugby club. “I see that you’re not going senile then.” he said, or words to that effect. Of course he was referring to my less than stellar performance as question master last Thursday, about which the less said the better. Last night, though, I redeemed myself when my team had one of the best comebacks since Lazarus.
The way it works in the club is that you have 8 rounds of (usually) 10 questions, and a handout. The handout might have 30 answers but you only get points for the position in which you come. So when there are 6 teams, the team with the highest score in the handout will get 6 points, and the team with the lowest score will get 1. Now the thing is that Lemurs are very good at the pictures . . . and we’re not. So we know that even on the occasions when we manage to pip them on the questions there’s every good chance we’ll lose out when the picture scores are added on. With two rounds left we were 3 points behind with the picture scores yet to be added on. It was a connections quiz last night, and in round 7 the link which needed to be found was between these answers - Therm - Bath Oliver – Bar Code – the Norse Goddess Hel. If you said – ometers, well in the words of Roy Walker, it’s good but it’s not right. Right at the death inspiration struck, and I said that they can all come after – iso - lines of equal whatever. We were the only team to get that connection, and we wiped out the three point lead on that one round. The next and last round there were two I wasn’t sure of. I zigged correctly, Lemurs zagged incorrectly, I guess, and we ended the questions with a two point lead. Now, me, I’m usually satisfied if we can win the questions but lose on the pictures. But we only scored one less on the pictures, and a rare foray into the W column ensued. Loved it.
Now there’s lots of things I enjoy about quizzing. One of them is going to a quiz I’ve never been to before, discovering that it’s a good, fun little homemade quiz, and if possible winning. A few weeks ago I was invited to go to the Dillwyn in Pontardawe by Brian’s wife Gail, who’d been invited a few times by another friend and had really enjoyed it. The Dillwyn in Pontardawe – now thereby hangs a tale. By coincidence I used to play for the Dillwyn in the now sadly defunct Swansea Independent Quiz League. We moved out of the Dillwyn when they went the way of a lot of pubs in going in for more of a restaurant/hotel sort of thing.
I rang Gail up on Tuesday, full of the joys of Spring having won in Newport on Monday night, but the weather was foul, and she didn’t want to know. Fair enough. I had made up my mind that I was going anyway, and so my daughter Jess (youngest of 4 girls and 1 boy) piped up with “D’you mind if I come, Dad?” To which the answer is always – no, I don’t mind. After all, you never know when they’re going to stick in something about modern music, do you? The pub’s phone was out of action, so I couldn’t get through to them to ask the starting time. Gail told me she thought it was about 8:30. So we arrived at 8:15 to find that the small bar where they held it was packed, and they were already on the 6th question of the first round. Well, we put our money down, and they let us join in, kindly telling us the questions we’d missed at the end of the round.
First round was ‘in the news’ and the second was TV and Entertainment. Then we had a handout with the flags of 10 African countries to identify. Thank you Sporcle – I’ve played that flags game a lot so we did well. In fact at this stage of the game we had a 5 point lead. The third actual round was pop music – 10 songs, point for the singer and point for the song. We managed about 16 points out of 20, more by luck than judgement. The general round fell our way, which left only the second handout. In this one we were given a map of the Shipping Forecast areas, and asked to identify each number on the map. We had a few wrong, but the vast majority right. All of which meant that we won by a comfortable 11 points.
Now, had that been that, and no prizes been handed out, or only a bottle of wine which I wouldn’t drink anyway, then all well and good, it wouldn’t have bothered me at all, thank you very much. But no. Having won the quiz, this qualified us for a chance to go for the jackpot. I’m sure you’ve seen things like this before. You’re given a choice of three envelopes – one has the real jackpot, one has a consolations prize – one has a booby prize. I’m utterly hopeless at this sort of thing, so I told Jess to pick – knowing full well that we would get the booby prize . . . and she picked the jackpot! We won’t exactly be retiring on what we won, but it was a nice end to what had been a terrific little quiz.
The way it works in the club is that you have 8 rounds of (usually) 10 questions, and a handout. The handout might have 30 answers but you only get points for the position in which you come. So when there are 6 teams, the team with the highest score in the handout will get 6 points, and the team with the lowest score will get 1. Now the thing is that Lemurs are very good at the pictures . . . and we’re not. So we know that even on the occasions when we manage to pip them on the questions there’s every good chance we’ll lose out when the picture scores are added on. With two rounds left we were 3 points behind with the picture scores yet to be added on. It was a connections quiz last night, and in round 7 the link which needed to be found was between these answers - Therm - Bath Oliver – Bar Code – the Norse Goddess Hel. If you said – ometers, well in the words of Roy Walker, it’s good but it’s not right. Right at the death inspiration struck, and I said that they can all come after – iso - lines of equal whatever. We were the only team to get that connection, and we wiped out the three point lead on that one round. The next and last round there were two I wasn’t sure of. I zigged correctly, Lemurs zagged incorrectly, I guess, and we ended the questions with a two point lead. Now, me, I’m usually satisfied if we can win the questions but lose on the pictures. But we only scored one less on the pictures, and a rare foray into the W column ensued. Loved it.
Now there’s lots of things I enjoy about quizzing. One of them is going to a quiz I’ve never been to before, discovering that it’s a good, fun little homemade quiz, and if possible winning. A few weeks ago I was invited to go to the Dillwyn in Pontardawe by Brian’s wife Gail, who’d been invited a few times by another friend and had really enjoyed it. The Dillwyn in Pontardawe – now thereby hangs a tale. By coincidence I used to play for the Dillwyn in the now sadly defunct Swansea Independent Quiz League. We moved out of the Dillwyn when they went the way of a lot of pubs in going in for more of a restaurant/hotel sort of thing.
I rang Gail up on Tuesday, full of the joys of Spring having won in Newport on Monday night, but the weather was foul, and she didn’t want to know. Fair enough. I had made up my mind that I was going anyway, and so my daughter Jess (youngest of 4 girls and 1 boy) piped up with “D’you mind if I come, Dad?” To which the answer is always – no, I don’t mind. After all, you never know when they’re going to stick in something about modern music, do you? The pub’s phone was out of action, so I couldn’t get through to them to ask the starting time. Gail told me she thought it was about 8:30. So we arrived at 8:15 to find that the small bar where they held it was packed, and they were already on the 6th question of the first round. Well, we put our money down, and they let us join in, kindly telling us the questions we’d missed at the end of the round.
First round was ‘in the news’ and the second was TV and Entertainment. Then we had a handout with the flags of 10 African countries to identify. Thank you Sporcle – I’ve played that flags game a lot so we did well. In fact at this stage of the game we had a 5 point lead. The third actual round was pop music – 10 songs, point for the singer and point for the song. We managed about 16 points out of 20, more by luck than judgement. The general round fell our way, which left only the second handout. In this one we were given a map of the Shipping Forecast areas, and asked to identify each number on the map. We had a few wrong, but the vast majority right. All of which meant that we won by a comfortable 11 points.
Now, had that been that, and no prizes been handed out, or only a bottle of wine which I wouldn’t drink anyway, then all well and good, it wouldn’t have bothered me at all, thank you very much. But no. Having won the quiz, this qualified us for a chance to go for the jackpot. I’m sure you’ve seen things like this before. You’re given a choice of three envelopes – one has the real jackpot, one has a consolations prize – one has a booby prize. I’m utterly hopeless at this sort of thing, so I told Jess to pick – knowing full well that we would get the booby prize . . . and she picked the jackpot! We won’t exactly be retiring on what we won, but it was a nice end to what had been a terrific little quiz.
Sunday, 12 May 2013
Only Connect - 8:30 - Monday
I'm delighted to see Only Connect returning to our screens a little earlier than normal. In fact it starts at 8:30 on BBC4 tomorrow night. I'm posting this just in case you didn't know, and might have ended up missing this.
Quiz Fatigue?
Nothing stays the same forever. I reflected some time ago on the relative paucity of charity quizzes in my local area in recent years. Back in the day, when I began my quiz career in the late 80s and early 90s they were a fairly regular occurrence in Port Talbot and surrounding district. The Bay View Club, the Seaside Labour and Social Club, the Gas Club, Aberavon Quins rugby club and other venues all held at least a couple a year, and when you added venues in Neath into the mix you wouldn’t have to let many months go by without playing in one if you wanted to. Well, some of the venues I’ve mentioned aren’t there any more, and some of them use other ways of raising money for causes. So when a charity quiz does come up, it’s something of the exception rather than the rule.
That’s why a week like last week, where I participated in two charity quizzes in three days, is something a little out of the ordinary these days. On Wednesday it was the evening of the annual May Day in Melincrythan charity quiz. I won’t go on about this one since I’ve mentioned it in the blog every year since 2009. But I will just say reiterate that this was the quiz that made me into a born again quizzer. I hadn’t attended a quiz in a good year or so before being asked to put a team of kids from my school into the 1994 quiz. We won, the itch had been scratched, and I was a quizzer again. The decision was made a couple of years back to rename the trophy the David Clark Mastermind 2008 Trophy, and ever since I’ve set the questions and hosted the quiz.
For I think the last three – and possibly four – years the trophy and the quiz have been won by a team led by the redoubtable Rob Merrill. I’ve mentioned Rob many times in the blog before, but if I remind you that Rob was joint runner up in Brain of Britain 2012 then that should give you an idea of his credentials. Last year I think his team had 100% of their answers correct. Does that mean the quiz I set was too easy? For them, yes, but for the rest of the teams, relatively few of whose members are quizzers in any way shape or form, I would argue no. On Wednesday Rob and the guys were unable to play, and so for the first time since the quiz was resurrected in 2007, the quiz was going to have a winning team that did not contain either me or Rob. As it was it came down to a struggle between two teams containing former friends from the old Neath Quiz League. The winners in the end were the Broken Wheel – who for several years have been the bridesmaids rather than the brides. A good fun evening – which to be honest was the only other thing apart from raising money for the May Day in Melincrythan Charity – which really mattered.
I wasn’t the question master for the quiz organized by the Friends of Coed Hirwaun Primary School on Friday evening. This was none other than Ken , of the Ken’s Quiz website. If you don’t know what I mean, click on the link below: -
Ken’s Quiz
There’s a lot of free quizzes and handouts on the site.
The team for whom I was guesting was called Three’s a Crowd, for the rather obvious reason that there were just three of us, and we were by some distance the smallest team there. We either top scored, or joint top scored all of the rounds apart from the pop music intros round, and had a fantastic performance on the pictures handout. In particular we benefited from a novel arrangement, whereby we were asked to guess the ages of all the people in the photographs – some of them, like Karl Marx, for example, had been dead for a very long time – and add them all up. The team whose total was closest to the correct answer would get a 10 point bonus. We were, I think, about 20 years out altogether, which is less than a year per photo, and so what had been a useful but by no means unassailable lead became unbeatable by the last round.
Sandwiched between these two charity quizzes was my turn as QM for the rugby club. Now, thereby hangs a tale. I compiled the two quizzes – the May Day quiz and this one for the rugby club – on Bank Holiday Monday, when I was suitably fresh, and had the time to spare. I’ve delivered at least one quiz a month in the club for the last 18 years, so I’ve probably done this a couple of hundred times in the past. For some reason, though, everything seemed to go wrong on Thursday night. Actually, scratch that. I seemed to go wrong. I kept reading out the quiz, and missing questions out of the rounds – jumping from question 4 to question 6, stumbling over a couple of the questions, getting one team’s score for one of the rounds completely wrong. None of which I can honestly say I’ve never done before, but not so often, and not all in the same quiz. And the harder I tried to pull myself together, the worse it got.
In mitigation, last week was a very hard and stressful one once I returned to work on Tuesday. I was ill last weekend, and while I’m much better than I was my chest is still not quite 100%. Julie, my Head of Department at work, has had it worse than I have, and hasn’t been in school all week, which has left it to me to manage two students and provide work for all of her classes. Last week was the last week of school for my year group – year 11, and as well as all of that I have been organizing and overseeing extra study sessions for them. In fact I did study and exam skills all day with them myself on Thursday, and that was a high energy session.Add that to the fact that I’d been QM just the previous evening as well. So I’m hoping that I was just knackered come last Thursday evening, and that was the excuse.
As a postscript, I had the best round of applause I think I’ve ever had in the quiz when I finished on Thursday night. I think that they were just all relieved that I’d managed to get through it in the end. Not as much as I was.
That’s why a week like last week, where I participated in two charity quizzes in three days, is something a little out of the ordinary these days. On Wednesday it was the evening of the annual May Day in Melincrythan charity quiz. I won’t go on about this one since I’ve mentioned it in the blog every year since 2009. But I will just say reiterate that this was the quiz that made me into a born again quizzer. I hadn’t attended a quiz in a good year or so before being asked to put a team of kids from my school into the 1994 quiz. We won, the itch had been scratched, and I was a quizzer again. The decision was made a couple of years back to rename the trophy the David Clark Mastermind 2008 Trophy, and ever since I’ve set the questions and hosted the quiz.
For I think the last three – and possibly four – years the trophy and the quiz have been won by a team led by the redoubtable Rob Merrill. I’ve mentioned Rob many times in the blog before, but if I remind you that Rob was joint runner up in Brain of Britain 2012 then that should give you an idea of his credentials. Last year I think his team had 100% of their answers correct. Does that mean the quiz I set was too easy? For them, yes, but for the rest of the teams, relatively few of whose members are quizzers in any way shape or form, I would argue no. On Wednesday Rob and the guys were unable to play, and so for the first time since the quiz was resurrected in 2007, the quiz was going to have a winning team that did not contain either me or Rob. As it was it came down to a struggle between two teams containing former friends from the old Neath Quiz League. The winners in the end were the Broken Wheel – who for several years have been the bridesmaids rather than the brides. A good fun evening – which to be honest was the only other thing apart from raising money for the May Day in Melincrythan Charity – which really mattered.
I wasn’t the question master for the quiz organized by the Friends of Coed Hirwaun Primary School on Friday evening. This was none other than Ken , of the Ken’s Quiz website. If you don’t know what I mean, click on the link below: -
Ken’s Quiz
There’s a lot of free quizzes and handouts on the site.
The team for whom I was guesting was called Three’s a Crowd, for the rather obvious reason that there were just three of us, and we were by some distance the smallest team there. We either top scored, or joint top scored all of the rounds apart from the pop music intros round, and had a fantastic performance on the pictures handout. In particular we benefited from a novel arrangement, whereby we were asked to guess the ages of all the people in the photographs – some of them, like Karl Marx, for example, had been dead for a very long time – and add them all up. The team whose total was closest to the correct answer would get a 10 point bonus. We were, I think, about 20 years out altogether, which is less than a year per photo, and so what had been a useful but by no means unassailable lead became unbeatable by the last round.
Sandwiched between these two charity quizzes was my turn as QM for the rugby club. Now, thereby hangs a tale. I compiled the two quizzes – the May Day quiz and this one for the rugby club – on Bank Holiday Monday, when I was suitably fresh, and had the time to spare. I’ve delivered at least one quiz a month in the club for the last 18 years, so I’ve probably done this a couple of hundred times in the past. For some reason, though, everything seemed to go wrong on Thursday night. Actually, scratch that. I seemed to go wrong. I kept reading out the quiz, and missing questions out of the rounds – jumping from question 4 to question 6, stumbling over a couple of the questions, getting one team’s score for one of the rounds completely wrong. None of which I can honestly say I’ve never done before, but not so often, and not all in the same quiz. And the harder I tried to pull myself together, the worse it got.
In mitigation, last week was a very hard and stressful one once I returned to work on Tuesday. I was ill last weekend, and while I’m much better than I was my chest is still not quite 100%. Julie, my Head of Department at work, has had it worse than I have, and hasn’t been in school all week, which has left it to me to manage two students and provide work for all of her classes. Last week was the last week of school for my year group – year 11, and as well as all of that I have been organizing and overseeing extra study sessions for them. In fact I did study and exam skills all day with them myself on Thursday, and that was a high energy session.Add that to the fact that I’d been QM just the previous evening as well. So I’m hoping that I was just knackered come last Thursday evening, and that was the excuse.
As a postscript, I had the best round of applause I think I’ve ever had in the quiz when I finished on Thursday night. I think that they were just all relieved that I’d managed to get through it in the end. Not as much as I was.
Saturday, 11 May 2013
In The News
In the News
Who or what are the following, and why have they been in the news?
1. Nigel Evans
2. Jo Swinson
3. Jacqueline Wilson
4. Jeffrey John
5. Defence Distributed
6. Tal –y-Fan
7. Matt O’Connor
8. Paul Mealor
9. Lara Stone
10. Tommy and Patrick Connors
11. Eddie Shah
12. Amanda Berry
Gina de Jesus
Michelle Knight
13. Ariel Castro
14. Sarah Brown
15. Geordan Murphy
16. Chetham’s Music School
17. Melanie Smith
18. Ray Harryhausen
19. Jolly Nero
20. Kyle Thomson
21. The Smiler
22. Inferno
23. Sean Lopes
24. Andrew Simpson
25. David Norris
In Other News
1. A plane crashed happened at an airshow in which European capital?
2. 50 what were stolen from a pet shop in Nottingham?
3. There is controversy over the election of whom as a Fellow of the Royal Society?
4. There has been anger in New York over plans to charge what entry fee to the 9/11 Museum, to be opened in the future?
5. What was the score between Chelsea and Man Utd?
6. Which team won the Blue Square Bet Premier Play off to gain entry to the football League?
7. Who won the first stage of the Giro d’Italia
8. Whom did Ronnie O’Sullivan defeat in the final of the World Snooker Championship?
9. It was revealed last week that who had asked, and was refused, Led Zeppelin to reform for a charity concert in aid of the victims of Hurricane Sandy?
10. Who ordered a samba band to stop playing outside the Gielgud Theatre?
11. Which former Chancellor of the Exchequer said that he wants Britain to leave the EU?
12. Which two teams made it to the League One play offs? Which teams did they beat?
13. Who was confirmed as Team Sky leader for the 2013 Tour de France?
14. What was the final score in the World Snooker final?
15. What was the score between Wigan and Swansea?
16. Who fractured his skull during a political rally last week?
17. Which comedian was facing sex abuse charges last week?
18. Which operating system did Microsoft admit that it will need to revamp?
19. Who alleged that pupils at his former school were abused?
20. A memorial to whom was unveiled at the National Arboretum in Staffordshire last week?
21. Staff of which train company expressed an unwillingness to wear their ‘see through’ new uniforms?
22. The Queen will not be attending the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference, which will take place where?
23. Which manager was sacked by Wolverhampton Wanderers?
24. What was the score in the Chelsea v. Spurs match?
25. Who has been controversially left out of the England RU Squad for a tour of Uruguay and Argentina?
26. Who was reinstated to the Parliamentary Conservative Party last week?
27. Which minister was accused of fabricating figures ?
28. Frank Field called for which change to the House of Lords?
29. Which film director died aged 87?
30. Who was appointed the new manager of Manchester United?
31. The BBC announced that it will be re making which popular 1970s drama series?
32. Des Lynam pledged support for whom last week?
33. The Derbyshire v. Lancashire cricket match was called off due to what?
Who or what are the following, and why have they been in the news?
1. Nigel Evans
2. Jo Swinson
3. Jacqueline Wilson
4. Jeffrey John
5. Defence Distributed
6. Tal –y-Fan
7. Matt O’Connor
8. Paul Mealor
9. Lara Stone
10. Tommy and Patrick Connors
11. Eddie Shah
12. Amanda Berry
Gina de Jesus
Michelle Knight
13. Ariel Castro
14. Sarah Brown
15. Geordan Murphy
16. Chetham’s Music School
17. Melanie Smith
18. Ray Harryhausen
19. Jolly Nero
20. Kyle Thomson
21. The Smiler
22. Inferno
23. Sean Lopes
24. Andrew Simpson
25. David Norris
In Other News
1. A plane crashed happened at an airshow in which European capital?
2. 50 what were stolen from a pet shop in Nottingham?
3. There is controversy over the election of whom as a Fellow of the Royal Society?
4. There has been anger in New York over plans to charge what entry fee to the 9/11 Museum, to be opened in the future?
5. What was the score between Chelsea and Man Utd?
6. Which team won the Blue Square Bet Premier Play off to gain entry to the football League?
7. Who won the first stage of the Giro d’Italia
8. Whom did Ronnie O’Sullivan defeat in the final of the World Snooker Championship?
9. It was revealed last week that who had asked, and was refused, Led Zeppelin to reform for a charity concert in aid of the victims of Hurricane Sandy?
10. Who ordered a samba band to stop playing outside the Gielgud Theatre?
11. Which former Chancellor of the Exchequer said that he wants Britain to leave the EU?
12. Which two teams made it to the League One play offs? Which teams did they beat?
13. Who was confirmed as Team Sky leader for the 2013 Tour de France?
14. What was the final score in the World Snooker final?
15. What was the score between Wigan and Swansea?
16. Who fractured his skull during a political rally last week?
17. Which comedian was facing sex abuse charges last week?
18. Which operating system did Microsoft admit that it will need to revamp?
19. Who alleged that pupils at his former school were abused?
20. A memorial to whom was unveiled at the National Arboretum in Staffordshire last week?
21. Staff of which train company expressed an unwillingness to wear their ‘see through’ new uniforms?
22. The Queen will not be attending the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference, which will take place where?
23. Which manager was sacked by Wolverhampton Wanderers?
24. What was the score in the Chelsea v. Spurs match?
25. Who has been controversially left out of the England RU Squad for a tour of Uruguay and Argentina?
26. Who was reinstated to the Parliamentary Conservative Party last week?
27. Which minister was accused of fabricating figures ?
28. Frank Field called for which change to the House of Lords?
29. Which film director died aged 87?
30. Who was appointed the new manager of Manchester United?
31. The BBC announced that it will be re making which popular 1970s drama series?
32. Des Lynam pledged support for whom last week?
33. The Derbyshire v. Lancashire cricket match was called off due to what?
Friday, 10 May 2013
Answers to News Questions
In the News
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Get Lucky
2. Menelik Watson
3. Sohel Rana
4. Andrew Cassidy
5. Gerard Butler
6. Down Hall Country House Hotel
7. Julio Diaz
8. Neonictinoids
9. Lee Bradley Brown
10. El Celler de Con Roca
11. Jason Collins
12. Abdelkadir el Janadi
Alex Wilson-Fletcher
13. Christian Benteke
14. Kim Little
15. Henning Berg
16. English Defence League
17. Allan Arbus
18. Fuentes Eufemio
19. Reginald D. Hunter
20. Philip Goodeve-Docker
21. James McCormick
22. Natalie Coleman
23. Chris Kelly
24. Viva Forever
25. Dan Llewellyn Hall
26. Joanne Chesimard
27. Jeff Hanneman
In Other News
1. IN the University League Table – Cambridge was 1st – Oxford 2nd. Which came third?
2. Who called UKIP ‘fruitcakes and closet racists’
3. Who won the awards for Best actor and Best Actress at the Oliviers?
4. Whose stolen red Chevrolet convertible has been found after 20 years?
5. Who won the PFA Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year?
6. Which cyclist won the Tour of Romandie?
7. Which were the first two teams relegated from the Premier League?
8. What was the score between Toulon and Saracens in the Heineken Cup?
9. What was the score between Man Utd and Arsenal?
10. Which world stadium was reopened after 3 years?
11. What was the score in the Heineken cup semi final between Clermont and Munster
12. City and Guilds test papers are being sent where to be marked?
13. Name both previous winners of both PFA and Young player of the Year awards in the same year
14. Which is the top UK restaurant in the world’s top 50?
15. Which group are sponsoring Rhwbina children’s rugby team in Cardiff?
16. Which city has Britain’s tastiest tap water?
17. What was the score in the Villas v. Sunderland match?
18. What announcement did Sir Bradley Wiggins make this week?
19. Which University won University Challenge?
20. Who was announced as the captain of the British and Irish Lions?
21. Who resigned as honorary FIFA president
22. What was the score in the Champions League semi final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund?
23. Who abdicated on 30th April?
24. Who is the new King of the Netherlands?
25. What is to be dried after 30 years of work?
26. How many representatives in the Lions squad do each of the home unions have?
27. Who said that he does not have an MP3 player?
28. Who has been charged with raping a girl in 1967?
29. Who is to face a retrial in a military court?
30. Former Hollywood actress passed away aged 91?
31. What was the score in the Bayern Munich v. Barcelona Heineken cup semi final?
32. Who announced his retirement from boxing?
33. Who met Ronnie O’ Sullivan in the semi final of the world snooker championship?
34. Which mountain is about to be named a world heritage site?
35. Who admitted indecent assault charges?
36. Which two fairy tales were named Britain’s favourite?
37. Star Wars is to be redubbed in which language?
38. How much did the plebgate bike fetch on ebay?
39. What was the score in the Chelsea v. Basle Europa League semi final?
40. What was the score in the Benfica v. Fenerbahce Europa League semi final?
41. How many local council seast were won by UKIP?
42. Which bomber is being raised from the Goodwin Sands?
Answers
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. 1st UK number 1 for Daft Punk
2. Brit picked by Oakland Raiders
3. Owner of collapsed factory building in Bangladesh
4. 20 stone ‘Welsh Maradona’ Youtube sensation
5. 2nd trainer investigate for steroid use on horses
6. Hotel where a couple were found dead in the swimming pool
7. Knocked down Amir Khan before losing on points
8. Pesticide banned by EU in order to save bees
9. He passed away in police custody in Dubai
10. World’s top restaurant – Girona Spain
11. NBA star for Washington – 1st US sports star active in a major sport to come out as gay
12. Jailed for raping a 14 year old boy in the toilets in Debenhams, Manchester
13. Scored a hattrick for Villa against Sunderland
14. PFA Woman Player of the Year
15. Blackburn Rovers were ordered to pay him £2.25 million
16. Far right organization targeted by Islamist extremists
17. Played Major Freeman in MASH – passed away
18. Cycling ‘doping doctor’ received one year suspended sentence
19. Comedian slammed in media for using the N word at the PFA awards ceremony 20. Adventurer who died in a snowstorm in Greenland
21. Jailed for 10 years for selling fake bomb detectors
22. Masterchef Winner
23. Rapper – half of Kris Kross – passed away
24. Spice Girls Musical to close after 6 months
25. His portrait of the Queen has been compared to a Spitting Image puppet
26. First woman ever to feature on the FBI most Wanted list
27. Founder of the group Slayer who passed away
28. In Other News
1. London School of Economics
2. Kenneth Clarke
3. Luke Treadaway – Helen Mirren
4. Quentin Tarantino
5. Gareth Bale
6. Chris Froome
7. QPR and Reading
8. 24 - 12
9. 1 - 1
10. The Maracana – Rio de Janeiro
11. 16 - 10
12. India
13. Andy Gray and Christiano Ronaldo
14. Heston Blumenthal’s Dinner
15. Def Leppard
16. Coventry
17. 6 - 1
18. He announced that he wants to win the Tour de France again this year, not just the Giro d’Italia
19. Manchester
20. Sam Warburton
21. Joao Havelange
22. 2 – 0 (Borussia win 4 – 3 on aggregate)
23. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
24. Willem Alexander
25. The Mary Rose
26. 15 Welsh – 10 English – 9 Irish – 3 Scots
27. Keith Richards
28. William Roache
29. SAS Sniper Danny Nightingale
30. Deanna Durbin
31. 3 – 0 ( 7 – 0 ) on aggregate
32. Audley Harrison
33. Judd Trump
34. Mt. Fuji
35. Stuart Hall
36. Snow White and Cinderella
37. Navajo
38. £10,600
39. 3 – 1 ( 5 – 1 on aggregate)
40. 3 – 1
41. 136
42. Dornier Do17
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. Get Lucky
2. Menelik Watson
3. Sohel Rana
4. Andrew Cassidy
5. Gerard Butler
6. Down Hall Country House Hotel
7. Julio Diaz
8. Neonictinoids
9. Lee Bradley Brown
10. El Celler de Con Roca
11. Jason Collins
12. Abdelkadir el Janadi
Alex Wilson-Fletcher
13. Christian Benteke
14. Kim Little
15. Henning Berg
16. English Defence League
17. Allan Arbus
18. Fuentes Eufemio
19. Reginald D. Hunter
20. Philip Goodeve-Docker
21. James McCormick
22. Natalie Coleman
23. Chris Kelly
24. Viva Forever
25. Dan Llewellyn Hall
26. Joanne Chesimard
27. Jeff Hanneman
In Other News
1. IN the University League Table – Cambridge was 1st – Oxford 2nd. Which came third?
2. Who called UKIP ‘fruitcakes and closet racists’
3. Who won the awards for Best actor and Best Actress at the Oliviers?
4. Whose stolen red Chevrolet convertible has been found after 20 years?
5. Who won the PFA Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year?
6. Which cyclist won the Tour of Romandie?
7. Which were the first two teams relegated from the Premier League?
8. What was the score between Toulon and Saracens in the Heineken Cup?
9. What was the score between Man Utd and Arsenal?
10. Which world stadium was reopened after 3 years?
11. What was the score in the Heineken cup semi final between Clermont and Munster
12. City and Guilds test papers are being sent where to be marked?
13. Name both previous winners of both PFA and Young player of the Year awards in the same year
14. Which is the top UK restaurant in the world’s top 50?
15. Which group are sponsoring Rhwbina children’s rugby team in Cardiff?
16. Which city has Britain’s tastiest tap water?
17. What was the score in the Villas v. Sunderland match?
18. What announcement did Sir Bradley Wiggins make this week?
19. Which University won University Challenge?
20. Who was announced as the captain of the British and Irish Lions?
21. Who resigned as honorary FIFA president
22. What was the score in the Champions League semi final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund?
23. Who abdicated on 30th April?
24. Who is the new King of the Netherlands?
25. What is to be dried after 30 years of work?
26. How many representatives in the Lions squad do each of the home unions have?
27. Who said that he does not have an MP3 player?
28. Who has been charged with raping a girl in 1967?
29. Who is to face a retrial in a military court?
30. Former Hollywood actress passed away aged 91?
31. What was the score in the Bayern Munich v. Barcelona Heineken cup semi final?
32. Who announced his retirement from boxing?
33. Who met Ronnie O’ Sullivan in the semi final of the world snooker championship?
34. Which mountain is about to be named a world heritage site?
35. Who admitted indecent assault charges?
36. Which two fairy tales were named Britain’s favourite?
37. Star Wars is to be redubbed in which language?
38. How much did the plebgate bike fetch on ebay?
39. What was the score in the Chelsea v. Basle Europa League semi final?
40. What was the score in the Benfica v. Fenerbahce Europa League semi final?
41. How many local council seast were won by UKIP?
42. Which bomber is being raised from the Goodwin Sands?
Answers
Who or what are the following and why have they been in the news?
1. 1st UK number 1 for Daft Punk
2. Brit picked by Oakland Raiders
3. Owner of collapsed factory building in Bangladesh
4. 20 stone ‘Welsh Maradona’ Youtube sensation
5. 2nd trainer investigate for steroid use on horses
6. Hotel where a couple were found dead in the swimming pool
7. Knocked down Amir Khan before losing on points
8. Pesticide banned by EU in order to save bees
9. He passed away in police custody in Dubai
10. World’s top restaurant – Girona Spain
11. NBA star for Washington – 1st US sports star active in a major sport to come out as gay
12. Jailed for raping a 14 year old boy in the toilets in Debenhams, Manchester
13. Scored a hattrick for Villa against Sunderland
14. PFA Woman Player of the Year
15. Blackburn Rovers were ordered to pay him £2.25 million
16. Far right organization targeted by Islamist extremists
17. Played Major Freeman in MASH – passed away
18. Cycling ‘doping doctor’ received one year suspended sentence
19. Comedian slammed in media for using the N word at the PFA awards ceremony 20. Adventurer who died in a snowstorm in Greenland
21. Jailed for 10 years for selling fake bomb detectors
22. Masterchef Winner
23. Rapper – half of Kris Kross – passed away
24. Spice Girls Musical to close after 6 months
25. His portrait of the Queen has been compared to a Spitting Image puppet
26. First woman ever to feature on the FBI most Wanted list
27. Founder of the group Slayer who passed away
28. In Other News
1. London School of Economics
2. Kenneth Clarke
3. Luke Treadaway – Helen Mirren
4. Quentin Tarantino
5. Gareth Bale
6. Chris Froome
7. QPR and Reading
8. 24 - 12
9. 1 - 1
10. The Maracana – Rio de Janeiro
11. 16 - 10
12. India
13. Andy Gray and Christiano Ronaldo
14. Heston Blumenthal’s Dinner
15. Def Leppard
16. Coventry
17. 6 - 1
18. He announced that he wants to win the Tour de France again this year, not just the Giro d’Italia
19. Manchester
20. Sam Warburton
21. Joao Havelange
22. 2 – 0 (Borussia win 4 – 3 on aggregate)
23. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
24. Willem Alexander
25. The Mary Rose
26. 15 Welsh – 10 English – 9 Irish – 3 Scots
27. Keith Richards
28. William Roache
29. SAS Sniper Danny Nightingale
30. Deanna Durbin
31. 3 – 0 ( 7 – 0 ) on aggregate
32. Audley Harrison
33. Judd Trump
34. Mt. Fuji
35. Stuart Hall
36. Snow White and Cinderella
37. Navajo
38. £10,600
39. 3 – 1 ( 5 – 1 on aggregate)
40. 3 – 1
41. 136
42. Dornier Do17
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