Questions and stuff

100 #1 update

Received some entries for the first 100 quiz - not as many as I was expecting, though. I'll extend the deadline for a few days to allow anyone who hasn't had a chance to enter yet to do so. Some very good scores so far. 

Click here if you're interested.

Reading
Been reading Simon Jenkins's excellent A Short History of England, which is a book I bought in an even more obsessive quiz phase (yes, I've become rather lax and lazy recently, not bothering to work as hard as I should). Suffice to say, I've learnt a fair few things so far - never knew that the family name Plantagenet comes from the broom plant (planta genista) which was supposedly a symbol of the House of Anjou. And there's a load of other stuff I'd not known or forgotten.

I'd recommend the book highly as an introduction to English history for anyone who's fairly poor on that sort of stuff (like me).

Lancaster City Quiz League
The new season starts in two weeks! Not sure where that time's gone; procrastinating has a lot to answer for. Not that I'll be a regular feature, what with starting university, but I'll be playing the first game for definite for The Pub - if they want me after some of my mediocre performances last season (!). Getting four (4) in the last game of last season was a particular low point. We're away at Slyne Lodge anyway, who I remember playing last year. It's perhaps my least favourite venue of all those used in the quiz league, a Deliverance-style trip into a remote Lancastrian backwater. OK, it's not that bad. Just not a fan of the venue compared to some of the others. No offence to anyone who lives there or plays there who may be reading this!

Questions
Here are some questions. All collected from browsing various websites. Mixture of topics.

1 Replacing Lord Patten in the role, which former head of the Financial Times Group is to become the first woman to chair the BBC Trust?
2 What was the name of the Haitian paramilitary force created in 1959 by the country's dictator Francois Duvalier?
3 The 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera occurred in which country?
4 Dressed to Kill (1980), Blow Out (1981), and Body Double (1984) were all 1980s thriller films directed by whom?
5 The Battle of Tinchebray resulted in a victory for which English monarch?
6 Tennyson's 1849 poem, In Memoriam A.H.H., is a requiem for which friend and fellow poet, who died suddenly in Vienna sixteen years earlier?
7 Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum, author Ernest Hemingway, and Lewis and Clark's native guide Sacagawea were all born in which US state (or territories that now lie within its borders)?
8 A station on which city's metro system has the longest escalator in Europe?
9 Which five words feature prominently (and are occasionally used as part of the title) in the 1954 doo-wop song, "Sh-Boom"?
10 Accounting for only 0.2% of the country's territory, what is the smallest state in Mexico?

QM Quiz #13

1 Pictured on the cover of The Verve's debut album, in which English county is the tourist spot known as Thor's Cave?

2 The tennis player Milos Raonic represents which country?

3 Who was the first husband of actress Lauren Bacall?

4 William Tuthill is best-remembered as the architect of which New York City landmark?

5 Canada's highest mountain, Mount Logan, is located within which of the country's territories?

6 Which horse did Red Rum beat to win his first Grand National - in 1973 - despite being thirty lengths behind with just a few fences to go?
7 What name, in honour of the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, was originally used by Europeans to describe what we now call Tasmania?
8 Which company manufactured the Vulcan bomber, operated by the RAF from 1956 to 1984?
9 What is, at 343m, the tallest bridge in the world?
10 Which constituency did James Callaghan occupy during his time as British prime minister, as well as for thirty years outside of that position?
11 Capital of its namesake canton, what is the largest city in Switzerland?
12 Who directed the 2010 film, The Social Network?
13 What name was given to the rural guerrilla fighters during the French Resistance of World War Two? They took their name from a type of shrubbery.
14 Which German philosopher - the founding father of the Vienna Circle - was assassinated on the steps of the University of Vienna by a former student in 1936?
15 Saladin, Nizami, Mohamed Pasha Jaff, and Ahmet Kaya were all people of which ethnic group?
16 Which British monarch awarded Malta the George Cross?
17 Which convicted US murderer dubbed himself "Son of Sam" in a note to the New York Police Department, a nickname with which he has been associated since?
18 Who was the only Chancellor of the Exchequer not to deliver a Budget?
19 What was the fourth of Buddha's Four Noble Truths, prescribing the way to enlightenment?
20 Give a year in the life of Nicolaus Copernicus.




Answers:
1 Staffordshire
2 Canada
3 Humphrey Bogart
4 Carnegie Hall
5 Yukon
6 Crisp
7 Van Diemen's Land
8 Avro
9 Millau Viaduct
10 Cardiff South East
11 Zurich
12 David Fincher
13 Maquis
14 Moritz Schlick
15 Kurds
16 George VI
17 David Berkowitz
18 Iain MacLeod
19 Eightfold Path
20 1473-1543

100Quiz #1

OK, so here's the first 100-question quiz I mentioned earlier. You don't have to submit your answers, but it's free (!) and makes it a bit more interesting to see where you are in relation to others (I hope). There'll be a mix of difficulties, varied questions, etc. I hope they're decent, interesting questions - let me know if they're not.

How to enter
Simply answer the 100 questions below - without outside help - and send your answers by email to quizmusings@gmx.com - please also clearly give your full name (if you don't mind) so I can add you to the standings. I'll reply letting you know I've got your email.

Deadline: Saturday, 30th August (a week from now, basically).

I'll let everyone know their score when I put everyone's up for the week.

Good luck!

The questions:
1 St. Thomas Church in Leipzig is best-known as the final resting place of which famous composer?
2 Andre Agassi's first Grand Slam victory came at Wimbledon in which year?
3 Which wading bird of the genus Numenius is recognisable due to its long, down-curving bill, and can frequently be seen probing for food in sediments?
4 Coming Up for Air is a lesser-known 1939 novel by which writer, born in 1903?
5

The photo to the left shows the Bahla Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in which country?










6 The supercontinent Pangaea eventually rifted to form two separate landmasses. One was Laurasia; what was the other?
7 Which US drama of the 1990s, starring Kyle MacLachlan and Sheryl Lee, took its title from the fictional Washington town in which it was set?
8 Which Argentine urban guerrilla group of the 1970s claimed allegiance to Peronism, and staged terrorist actions against the military regime then in power, before being utterly defeated in 1979 by the same military dictatorship?
9 What was the capital of Kazakhstan prior to Astana replacing it in 1997?
10 Known as El Viejo (The Elder), which Spanish conquistador and rival of Pizarro is credited as the first European discoverer of Chile?
11 Which town in the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area has seen civil unrest as a result of the shooting of Michael Brown two weeks ago?
12 Searching for Sugar Man is a 2012 Swedish-British documentary detailing the efforts of two South African music fans to find which American folk musician, said to have been as popular as Elvis Presley in South Africa but with very little acclaim in his native US?
13 The Louvre was built in 1546 - as its current purpose - for which French king?
14 Which term was supposedly invented by Ivan Turgenev to describe the character Bazarov in his novel Fathers and Sons?
15 The 1945 film Brief Encounter substantially features the Piano Concerto No. 2 by which composer?
16 In which English county is the so-called English Riviera, given this name due to its mild climate, sandy beaches, and many tourist attractions?
17 Originally published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly, who wrote the 1875 bildungsroman Roderick Hudson?
18 Located on the east coast of Streymoy, what is the capital and largest town of the Faroe Islands?
19 Considered one of the four great haiku masters, which Japanese author and poet wrote works including Meiji Nijūkunen no Haikukai and Utayomi ni Atauru Sho?
20 The first king of Persia's Achaemenid Empire, who supposedly met his death in a fierce battle with the Massagetaens, a tribe from the southern deserts of the Khwarezm and Kyzyl Kum?
21 Born in April 1947, which American singer-songwriter released the albums Blue Kentucky Girl (1979), Thirteen (1986), and Hard Bargain (2011)?
22 Heracles' sixth labour involved defeating the birds of which lake in Arcadia?
23 Which tree of the genus Salix is known for its strong and resistant roots that often cause problems when planted in residential areas?
24 The UK's oldest extant daily newspaper, in which city has The News Letter been published since 1737?
25 Early in Bobby Vee's career, a musician named Elston Gunnn toured with his band. How do we now know Elston Gunnn?
26 “The father of us all” was how Matisse and Picasso described which French Post-Impressionist painter, notable for works such as L'Estaque and Château Noir?
27 Literally meaning “spelled-out sounds”, what is the official system for transcribing the Mandarin letters into the Latin alphabet?
28 Who was the father of Cnut the Great?
29 ETA is a group campaigning for independence of which region?
30 Which Finnish architect and designer (1898-1976) was responsible for inventing bent plywood furniture, designed Finlandia Hall, the Essen opera house, and co-designed the KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg?
31 Atomic number 4, which element was discovered by Louis Nicolas Vauquelin in 1797?
32 Mademoiselle Rose, The Barque of Dante, and The Death of Desdemona are among the works of which French painter (1798-1863)?
33 With seven titles, which club is the most successful in the history of the Copa Libertadores?
34 The band Radiohead took their name from a song by which other band, formed in New York in 1975?
35 The name of which constellation comes from the Latin for 'air pump'?
36 Which British pub name comes from Edward IV's heraldic symbol?
37 Organised by UNESCO to celebrate “the virtues of jazz”, on which date does International Jazz Day fall?
38 Ramón Mercader became known in 1940 for assassinating whom?

39 Which revolutionary's dying words were supposedly 'take my baggage on board the frigate'?
40 Which long, hooded coat – often worn by voyageurs of New France - shares its name with a prominent American author of the twentieth century?
41 William Le Baron Jenney was behind the building of the world's first what in 1884?
42 Becoming golf's first number-one player in 1986, which German was one of the world's leading golfers during the 1980s and 1990s and won the Masters Tournament twice?
43 Which soft drink was created in the 1880s by Charles Alderton?
44 Which Central Asian capital was known as Poltoratsk between 1919 and 1927?
45 Who wrote the Arthurian fantasy novel, The Once and Future King?
46 Portrayed by Emily Deschanel in the Fox series Bones, who created the forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan?
47 What was the original name of Operation Torch, the British-American invasion of French North Africa in 1942?
48 Widely credited with rebuilding Beirut after the fifteen-year civil war, who was Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998? He was assassinated in 2005 as his motorcade drove through Beirut.
49 Which abnormality in the tissue of an organism comes from the Latin word for 'injury'?
50 Nicknamed “The Marble Man”, who commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War?
51 In which country can you see the waterfalls below, supposedly the most powerful in Europe?

52 Luciano Michelini's Frolic is the theme tune to which US sitcom?
53 Acquired by Condé Nast, which website was founded by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian in June 2005?
54 Under what name was illustrator Hablot Knight Browne better known?
55 Pemphigus is a rare autoimmune disease that affects which part of the body?
56 There are two doubly landlocked countries – one is Liechtenstein, what is the other?
57 Since 2007, rugby union's Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy is competed for annually between Italy and which other country?
58 Benjamin Braddock appears in which 1963 Charles Webb novel, and the subsequent Mike Nichols film?
59 Kalamazoo, mentioned in the title of a Glenn Miller song, is in which US state?
60 Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa is the king of which Middle Eastern country?
61 Who became the first black footballer to represent England in a full international match?
62 Michael Herr's 1977 account of the Vietnam War, Dispatches, was adapted for which 1987 film about the same conflict?
63 Released on the Polydor label, The Scream was which post-punk band's debut album?
64 Which company did Giovanni Agnelli found in 1899?
65 Fujie Eguchi, Deng Yaping, and Angelica Rozeanu are names associated with which sport?
66 Who played Mr. Roarke in the TV series Fantasy Island and Zachary Powers in The Colbys, a Dynasty spin-off? 
67 The songs “A Fine Romance”, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”, and “The Way You Look Tonight” were all composed by which American writer of popular musical theatre?
68 The M69 motorway connects Leicester with which other Midlands city?
69 Winner of the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which Anne Tyler novel follows Ira and Maggie Moran as they travel from Baltimore and back to attend a funeral?
70 What did the W stand for in the name of the poet W. H. Auden?
71 Who won the 2007 Formula One World Drivers' Championship, his only victory to date?
72 Who won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Carol Connelly in As Good as It Gets?
73 Fiordland National Park is the largest in which country?
74 The Likely Lads, Porridge, and Going Straight were all sitcoms written by which comedy-writing duo?
75 Known for his witty aphorisms, which US writer's third novel, The City and the Pillar, was slammed by critics due to being one of the first major American works to feature unambiguous homosexuality?
76 “Left a good job in the city / Working for the man every night and day” are the opening lyrics to which Creedence Clearwater Revival song?
77 What is the third-largest island in the world?
78 Which Norwegian won the 1994 Winter Olympic gold medal in the Alpine skiing combined event?
79 Who voiced many characters on The Simpsons, including Grampa Simpson, Barney Gumble, and Krusty the Clown?
80 Which fictional detective – created by author Michael Connelly - was named after an early Dutch painter?
81 Who composed the music for the film Zorba the Greek?
82 "Dinner by ... ...". Which famous chef's name fills the blanks to give the name of the London restaurant that was voted the fifth-best in the world in April 2014? Its signature dish is perhaps a chicken liver mousse created to look like a mandarin orange.
83 Best-known for her children's book, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, who was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature?
84 In Norse mythology, which daughter of Loki was assigned by Odin to rule the underworld, with which she shares her name?
85 One of the rarest mammals on earth, to which island is the silky sifaka native?
86 Acquired by Twitter in 2012, which video-sharing app allows users to record seven-second-long video clips, which will then play in a loop?
87 On which river – the longest entirely within the state – does the Texan city of Fort Worth stand?
88 Which Austrian-born violinist and composer created the operetta Apple Blossoms, which became a Broadway success?
89 The Argentinian city of La Plata was, from 1952 to 1955, named after which major figure?
90 Currently under construction, Oyala is planned to replace Malabo as the capital of which African nation?
91 Francesco Gullino was named by The Times newspaper in June 2005 as the main suspect in which case, dating back to the 1970s?
92 With which club did Johan Cruyff begin his football career, staying there for nine years?
93 The Marrakech Agreement of 1995 founded which organisation?
94 Who starred as Ellen Brody in the 1975 film Jaws?
95 Lake Havasu City in Arizona features a replica of which British landmark?
96 The volcano Mount Karthala is the highest point of which island nation?
97 The oldest in Germany, which university's alumni includes prominent Nazi Joseph Goebbels, chemist Fritz Haber, and mathematician Otto Hesse?
98 Which French sculptor has a museum dedicated to him in his hometown Colmar, in which several of his smaller works can be found?
99 Which dishevelled detective made his first TV appearance in the 1992 episode “Care and Protection”?
100 Comprising over 27%, what is the second-most abundant element in the lithosphere?

100-question quizzes

Had an idea - not mine, but the excellent EQC revision quizzes here inspired me - to start writing some 100-question quizzes, of varying difficulty, that people can enter by email. I'll then keep a league table of everyone's scores.

There would probably be around a week to complete each one, though I'm happy to go with whatever people want.

Would anyone be interested? Please comment if so with any suggestions, and I'll add some details as to how it'd work. 

QM Quiz #12

1 Which US city is home to a basketball team known as the Nuggets and a football team known as the Broncos?

2 On which island is the Timanfaya National Park?
3 The Battle of Dettingen was the last time a British monarch personally led troops into battle. Who was the British monarch?
4 Which Carson McCullers novel was adapted into a 1968 film starring Alan Arkin and Sondra Locke, for which both earned Academy Award nominations?
5 Which leader of Uganda before and after the dictatorship of Idi Amin fled to Zambia after being deposed in 1985, before dying in South Africa twenty years later?
6 Which Italian region forms the "heel" on the "boot" of Italy?
7 What was the world's tallest building from its completion in 2004 to the opening of the Burj Khalifa in 2010?
8 Who gave the longest Academy Award acceptance speech in history when accepting a Best Actress award for Mrs. Miniver?
9 "There are known knowns" is a line from a now-infamous speech by which US political figure?
10 Which detective was mystery writer Rex Stout's most famous creation?
11 A match at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships was the longest tennis match in professional history. After over eleven hours of play, the American John Isner defeated which French player?
12 Located on the state's longest river, what is the capital of Michigan?
13 Supposedly the world's oldest continuously inhabited city, the ancient trading port of Byblos is in which modern-day country?
14 Who has been the president of Germany since March 2012?
15 The US company Shure predominantly manufactures what?
16 The 1996 documentary film, Looking for Richard, was the directorial debut of which major Hollywood actor?
17 In Pakistan, 9th November is a national day dedicated to which major philosopher and poet of the country, whose efforts to establish a separate Muslim state contributed to the formation of the country?
18 On which river does Barnsley stand?
19 Weston Loomis were the middle names of which US poet, best known for The Cantos?
20 Named after a Swedish physicist, what is the SI unit of dose equivalent?




Answers:
1 Denver
2 Lanzarote
3 George II
4 The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
5 Milton Obote
6 Apulia
7 Taipei 101
8 Greer Garson
9 Donald Rumsfeld
10 Nero Wolfe
11 Nicolas Mahut
12 Lansing
13 Lebanon
14 Joachim Gauck
15 Microphones
16 Al Pacino
17 Muhammad Iqbal
18 River Dearne
19 Ezra Pound
20 Sievert

Well...

I got into Liverpool University to do Law. I'm obviously really pleased. Was shitting myself waiting to check results, though. I'm not going away for another month, and I'll still update the blog as regularly as I can with new stuff while I'm there.

Meanwhile, some questions...

1 Which country held its first direct national presidential election last week? 

2 Who is the current chairman of Aston Villa FC?

3 First awarded in 1903, what is the most prestigious French literary prize?

4 Veisalgia is the medical term for what?

5 The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is the venue for which country's F1 Grand Prix, due to be held there next week?

More questions will follow, of course.

Answers:

1 Turkey

2 Randy Lerner

3 Prix Goncourt

4 Hangover

5 Belgium

Name the year #1

Generally I'm reasonably decent at remembering dates and years... it's the detail and important stuff that I struggle with. Anyway, here are ten questions - each has five events and you need to name the year that all those events in the question occurred in. There'll be a couple of harder ones and then a couple of easier ones to stop it from being too obscure. Answers, as usual, at the end of the post.

1 

- Adolf Hitler is born at Braunau am Inn, Austria

- Pennsylvania's South Fork Dam collapses, killing more than 2,200 people

- London's Savoy Hotel opens

- North Dakota and South Dakota are admitted to the US as the 39th and 40th states

- Spain's oldest football club - Recreativo de Huelva - is formed

2 

- The First Balkan War concludes

- Ambrose Bierce disappears without trace on Boxing Day

- Woodrow Wilson becomes US president

- The Woolworth Building opens in New York City

- The Second Balkan War begins

3 

- Cyprus and Malta adopt the euro

- Spanair Flight 5022 crashes immediately after take-off 

- Hurricane Ike makes landfall on the southern United States, killing at least 27

- Mountaineer Edmund Hillary dies at the age of 88

- Queen Elizabeth II makes her final voyage, from Southampton to Dubai

4 

- The Power of Sympathy, the first American novel, is published

- The Mutiny on the Bounty occurs

- German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth discovers uranium

- US writer James Fenimore Cooper is born

- The Dutch anatomist Petrus Camper dies

5 

- Revolt leader Jack Cade is slain

- Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch is born

- The Battle of Formigny takes place, with a decisive French victory over the English

- Caen surrenders to the French 

- The University of Barcelona is founded

6

- Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the US government

- The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican-American War

- Yerba Buena is renamed San Francisco

- Jane Eyre is published

- German composer Felix Mendelssohn dies

7

- The Battle of Saraighat takes place in modern-day India

- The Ottoman Empire declares war on Poland

- Philippe de Champaigne's Still Life with a Skull is completed

- Frederick IV of Denmark is born

- Thomas Fairfax dies

8

- The band Queen release "Don't Stop Me Now"

- Whiddy Island Disaster occurs

- Brenda Spencer opens fire at a San Diego school, inspiring the song "I Don't Like Mondays"

- Sid Vicious is found dead of a heroin overdose

- Rubstic wins the Grand National

9

- Konrad Adenauer survives an assassination attempt

- Sun Records begins operation in Memphis, Tennessee

- Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap opens in London

- CS Lewis publishes his theological work, Mere Christianity

- The barcode is patented in the US

10

- Ignacy Moscicki becomes Polish president

- Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel

- Dali's The Basket of Bread is completed

- Ernest Hemingway publishes The Sun Also Rises

- The Hercilio Luz Bridge opens in southern Brazil

Hope they're not too difficult; some of the events may be quite obscure.

Answers:

1 1889

2 1913

3 2008

4 1789

5 1450

6 1847

7 1671

8 1979

9 1952

10 1926

Music clip quiz

A new feature for the blog - not that revolutionary to be able to play music on the internet, I know, but all the same...

The following ten files are around thirty seconds long - the last is around fifteen seconds longer (not for any particular reason, but just because the bloody thing wouldn't save properly) and are clips from popular music songs (the definition of popular may have been stretched a little in some instances). Naming most of the artists should be fairly straightforward, but I'd be surprised if anyone got all ten of the song titles as well. The answers are below the final clip.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Answers:
1 Black - Wonderful Life
2 Blondie - A Shark in Jets Clothing
3 Bob Dylan  - Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)
4 Chuck Berry - Deep Feeling
5 Massive Attack - Angel
6 Sixto Rodriguez - Hate Street Dialogue
7 XTC - Senses Working Overtime
8 Talking Heads - And She Was

QM Quiz #11

1 Which Greek island is home to the Ionian University?
2 The Gokstad ship, a Viking ship found in a burial mound, is on display in which capital city?
3 Who was the first presenter of the British television talent show, New Faces?
4 An image of it appears on the country's flag, the resplendent quetzal is the national bird of which nation?
5 In 2012, LonelyPlanet.com listed which north-eastern Italian city as the world's most underrated travel destination?
6 He died in 1453; who was the last reigning Byzantine emperor?
7 In which country is the most northerly point of South America?
8 Which former US Secretary of State gives his name to the airport of Washington, D.C.?
9 Who is the youngest male to win a Best Actor Oscar?
10 Who did John Howard replace as Prime Minister of Australia in 1996?
11 Who did Yigal Amir assassinate in 1995?
12 Intended to provide a human-like interface to the internet, which company created the intelligent personal assistant known as Mya?
13 A ferry sunk this week in which major, dissecting river of Bangladesh?
14 By what infamous name is Japan's Aokigahara forest known? It lies at the north-western base of Mount Fuji.
15 Which musical instrument connects a song by Perry Como, the nickname of a Vivaldi concerto, and a novel by Louis de Bernieres?
16 Which Argentine composer scored the films Brokeback Mountain and Babel?
17 Which Cistercian monastery stands in the gardens of Studley Royal Park in Yorkshire?
18 What is the largest island of the Philippines?
19 Which eldest daughter of Henry VII of England was also the mother of James V?
20 Which vicious creature of Greek mythology - killed by Heracles - lived at Nemea?




Answers:
1 Corfu
2 Oslo
3 Derek Hobson
4 Guatemala
5 Trieste
6 Constantine XI Palaiologos
7 Colombia
8 John Foster Dulles
9 Adrien Brody
10 Paul Keating
11 Yitzhak Rabin
12 Motorola
13 Padma River
14 Suicide forest
15 Mandolin
16 Gustavo Santaolalla
17 Fountains Abbey
18 Luzon
19 Margaret Tudor
20 Lion

Stockport GP

I attended the Quizzing Grand Prix in Stockport on Saturday, my third IQA event. Given that I'd attend two events prior to this, I knew what to expect in terms of the day and the standard of the questions, though I found those on Saturday to be a tad harder than those I've done before. Despite that, I managed to increase my score slightly from Stafford in May.

The venue itself was very good, right outside/inside Stockport FC's ground, Edgeley Park, and the turnout was the biggest ever seen at a domestic GP as far as I know. Certainly the biggest I've ever seen at a quiz. Perhaps some of that number was due to the Fifteen to One auditions taking place in the afternoon, which I took part in. I might not get on the show, but thought I might as well try if I was there to begin with. I was eliminated fairly early in the mini-game thing we did thanks to not knowing who played Scarlett O'Hara's father in the film Gone with the Wind - apparently it was Thomas Mitchell (I'm still none the wiser).

The individual quiz itself marked a slight improvement for me, though I thought it was harder than the WQC and the Stafford GP in May, particularly the Art & Culture and Physical World sections. I would think that, being as young as I am, some of the more obscure events of the past, such as current affairs from past decades and the like, are harder to brush up on than stuff like English monarchs and famous battles.

Overall, though, it was a great day, featuring a decent mix of quizzes, and it was good to meet some new people in the team quiz. I'd recommend the Grand Prix events to anyone - they may not be cheap, particularly when you've factored in travel, but they're certainly well-organised days with quizzes that are almost always excellent (there are a few exceptions in terms of individual questions, but on the whole they're not bad).

QM Quiz #10

1 Which northern French city gives its name to an 1802 treaty that temporarily ended hostilities between the French First Republic and the United Kingdom during the French Revolutionary Wars?
2 The Soviet Venera 3 probe is believed to have crash-landed on which planet in 1966?
3 Who is the current leader of the Green Party of England and Wales?
4 Ludwig Guttmann - a German-born neurologist - established what in England?
5 In which US state was the ice cream company, Ben & Jerry's, founded in 1978?
6 The metical, subdivided into 100 centavos, is the currency of which African nation?
7 Owing to the area's reputation as a china and earthenware centre, what name is often applied to the area of Staffordshire comprising the towns Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton?
8 Nicknamed "the Shark of Messina", which Italian won the 2014 Tour de France?
9 Named after the Austrian paediatrician, the Schick test is a measure of someone's susceptibility to which disease?
10 The fifth-largest lake in Europe, Lake Peipus, is bordered by Russia and which other country?
11 Which Australian is the only swimmer to take the same individual title at three consecutive Olympic Games, winning the 100m freestyle in 1956, 1960, and 1964?
12 Who directed the 1967 film, Bonnie and Clyde?
13 What number was Roger Bannister wearing on his shirt when he ran the first four-minute mile in 1954?
14 Eleanor of Aquitaine was the spouse of which English monarch?
15 Which Belgian professional football club won the 1987-88 European Cup Winners' Cup, in a shock victory against AFC Ajax?
16 Kinnie is a soft drink from which European country?
17 What is the southernmost state of New England?
18 Who was US Secretary of Defence from 1961-1968, the longest-serving ever in the role?
19 Who played the title role in the 1950 film, All About Eve?
20 Which chemical element has the symbol Sb?




Answers:
1 Amiens
2 Venus
3 Natalie Bennett
4 Paralympic Games
5 Vermont
6 Mozambique
7 The Potteries
8 Vincenzo Nibali
9 Diphtheria
10 Estonia
11 Dawn Fraser
12 Arthur Penn
13 41
14 Henry II
15 KV Mechelen
16 Malta
17 Connecticut
18 Robert McNamara
19 Anne Baxter
20 Antimony