Quiz League - Set B

....and here is the second set from the Sunderland Quiz League last week. As mentioned this is a team based quiz and hence up to 6 brains would have been working on each question. 2 points for a correct answer and a bonus point if you were to get a question on a pass-over from the other team. 45 was the highest score with 30 the lowest. Again, I did have a version with corrected grammar which I cannot find so apologies for any errors.

Gowan Scott Memorial Trophy 2014

Set B

Set by Museum Vaults

^13th August 2014

Round 1

1.       Which former management accountant took over from the Owen Patterson as Environment Secretary in the July 2014 Cabinet reshuffle?	Liz Truss
2.       Which 1960s singer was the first female soloist to have three no. 1 hits in the UK?	Sandie Shaw
3.       After which man, who died in 1953, is the international airport in Donetsk, Ukraine named?	Sergei Prokofiev
4.       Frederic  Henry, Rinaldi and Catherine Barkley are the main characters in which Ernest Hemmingway Novel?	Farewell to Arms

Round 2

1.       Regularly in the news in 2014, Najib Razak is the current Prime Minister of which country?	Malaysia
2.       Which of Shakespeare’s comedies has a heroine named Hero?	Much Ado About Nothing
3.       Which of Henry VIII’s marriages was the shortest?	Anne of Cleves
4.       Born in New York City in 1918 and dying in 1988, which Physicist was the youngest member of the Manhattan Project?	Richard Feynman

Round 3

1.       In which US state is the Joshua Tree National Park?	California
2.       Which boxer, nicknamed “The Blackpool Rock”, twice challenged for the World Heavyweight Championship, losing to Floyd Patterson in 1959 and to Muhammad Ali in 1966?	Brian London
3.       Which world famous entertainer was shot and killed in 1964  at the age of 33 by Bertha Franklin, the manager of the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles?	Sam Cooke
4.       The ancient Phoenician city of Tyre, birthplace of Dido Queen of Carthage, lies in which modern day country?	Lebanon

Round 4

1.       Who was the leader of the USSR when Yuri Gagarin became the first man to go into space?	Nikita KRUSHCHEV
2.       Only five golfers have won all four current majors in their careers. Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Ben Hogan are four. Who is the other?	Gene Sarazen
3.       The Chorleywood Process is used in the commercial production of which everyday product?	Bread
4.       Which British Band, formed in Birmingham in 1984 by lead singer Roland Gift, topped the US and UK album charts in 1989 with “The Raw and The Cooked”?	Fine Young Cannibals

Round 5

1.       Which Liverpool born Author, also a Dame, died in 2010? She was nominated 5 times for the Booker Prize for works including  “Master Georgie” and “Every Man for Himself”?	Beryl Bainbridge
2.       Which lake was created when the Hoover Dam was built?	Lake Mead
3.       The song “June is Bustin’ Out all over” comes from which Rodgers and Hammerstein musical?	Carousel
4.       What is the name of the school that Simon, Jay, Will and Neil attend in the TV series The In-betweeners?	Rudge Park

Round 6

1.       Which politician who was Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1993 to 1997, was three times defeated in Tory leadership elections, in 1997, 2001 and 2005?	Kenneth Clarke
2.       In which film did Sir Michael Caine play the role of Dr Frank Bryant?	Educating Rita
3.       Give a year from the life of composer Antonin Dvorak	1841-1904
4.       Which team did Everton defeat in the final to win the European Cup Winners Cup in 1985?	Rapid Vienna

Week In Quizzing....

This week I have been reading a great book on Norse Mythology, which is an area of quizzing I need to improve on. This Penguin book is well worth a read and having tried a few books on the subject this is by far the most useful and engaging I have come across.

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Wednesday Night involved me being on setting duties for the League so we are back in action next week in an away tie to The Prior. Could really do with a win to boost our chances of making the final again. This weeks league fixtures are -

The Isis vs Penshaw

The Prior vs Museum Vaults

Hastings Hill vs Ashbrooke

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If you have an Apple device and are interested in Sports Quizzing then have a look at Sports Quest. A free app released a few months ago. Similar to Quiz Up in many ways, updated often and very fun to play. Has passed a lot of time on my commute lately

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If you are in the Liverpool area you may be interested in this. The biggest outdoor Pub quiz! Click HERE for info.

Quiz League Set - A

As promised here are the questions I set for the Sunderland Echo Quiz League last week. Each team gets a different Set and this is Set A. There were winners on both sets, the highest score of the night was 45 and the lowest was 30. Its 2 points for a correct answer and 1 point if received on a bonus (i.e. if other team fails). I did do a version with some grammar fixed but can't seem to find it so apologies for any errors.

Gowan Scott Memorial Trophy 2014

Set A

Set by Museum Vaults

13^th August 2014

Round 1

1.       Which politician, who was labour Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979, was twice defeated in Labour leadership elections, in 1976 and 1980?	Denis Healey
2.       The song “People will say we’re in love” comes from which Rodgers and Hammerstein musical?	Oaklahoma
3.       At the beginning of World War 1 there were only two independent nations in Africa, name either?	Liberia or Ethiopia (Abyssinia)
4.        The first episode of which classic BBC sitcom involves the main character “having a bit of trouble with the coal shed door”?	Some Mothers Do Ave Em

Round 2

1.       British Athlete Holly Bleasedale, is a leading competitor in which event?	Pole Vault
2.       In which Welsh resort, located on Cardigan Bay, was the National Library of Wales opened in 1911?	Aberystwyth
3.        Which Scottish Author, also a Dame, died in 2006? She was nominated for the booker prize in two occasions for Loitering with Intent and The Public Image.	Muriel Spark
4.       The ABC islands are located in the Netherland Antilles. If A is Aruba and B is Bonaire. What is C?	Curacao

Round 3

1.       What is the name of the lake created when the Aswan High Dam was built?	Lake Nasser
2.        The Archers is set in which fictional county?	Borsetshire
3.       Which nation has topped the medal tables at every Commonwealth Games between 1986-2010?	Australia
4.       Which country’s national flag features images of a book, a garden hoe and a Kalashnikov assault rifle with bayonet	Mozambique

Round 4

1.       New York State lies on one side of the Niagara Falls, which Canadian Province lies on the other?	Ontario
2.       The 'Father of Chicago Blues', McKinley Morganfield is better known by which name?	Muddy Waters
3.       Paul Pennyfeather, a student at the fictional Scone College, is the protagonist in which Evelyn Waugh novel?	Decline and Fall
4.       Which former corporate solicitor took over from               Michael Gove as Education Secretary in the July 2014 Cabinet               reshuffle?	Nicky Morgan

Round 5

1.       Which boxer, nicknamed “The Leamington Licker”, caused a sensation when he outpointed the legendary “Sugar” Ray Robinson to become World Middleweight Champion in 1951? He lost the return flight 64 days later.	Randolph Turpin
2.       Give a year from the life of composer George Frederic Handel	1685-1759
3.       What is the surname of Carrie in the classic 1970s horror movie?	White
4.        Golf: At the 2014 US Masters, who became the first Father and Son to play in the tournament at the same time? (Surname only required)	Stadler (Craig and Kevin)

Round 6

1.       After which man who died in 1886 is Budapest’s international airport named?	Franz Liszt
2.       Flourishing between 900BC and 200BC, the Chavin Civilization was based in which Country?	Peru
3.       In the Old Testament, what is the name of the second wife of Abraham with whom he fathered Ishmael?	Hagar
4.       Who became the first female to be appointed to role of Master of the Queens Music in June 2014?	Judith Weir

This Week I Didn't Know...

No league game this week, as I was on setting duties but again the local pub quiz threw up a few surprises and the picture round (which always costs us in this particularly quiz due to the fact its 35% of the quiz itself) again proved a stumbling block....

Picture Questions

1.

Rather annoyed with this one as it is a face I knew but simply couldn't place the face. I think most teams seemed to get it so this was probably a costly point to loose.

2.

Massive miss here. This was picture number 1 and I simply didn't look at it properly and hence put the wrong answer down. So many mistakes I have made by doing a quick whiz through getting the "easy ones" and failing to check them.

3.

Didn't really get close with this one.


4.

Knew who she was. Knew the big story she was involved in at a certain awards ceremony recently but the name just wouldn't come.


Answers:

1. Mary Kate  Olsen (Would Olsen have been accepted I wonder?)
2. Marlene Dietrich
3. Lord
4. Idina Menzel



Questions

1. Which comedian starred in the 1996 movie "Flipper"?

Usually when it comes to 1990s movies I can work it out but, despite having seen Flipper, the word "comedian" really put me off in this question and although the correct answer was mentioned on the table, it was dismissed (by me!)

2. How many questions does a player need to answer to earn £1 million on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire"?

I assume you can be the problem here? After some discussion we decided to go with the "classic" answer of 15. Having no idea when the question was wrote and the quizmaster being little help. The answer given was 12...obviously reflecting the newer versions. I think every team went for 15.

3. What is the name of the milky sap of the rubber tree?

On reflection this was a bad miss. Was spending a lot of a time on a football list question so never gave this question the thought it deserved otherwise I may have come to the answer.


Answers: 

1. Paul Hogan
2. Questionable!
3. Latex

Sunderland Echo Quiz League - Knockout Trophy Week 2

This week was the second week of the Gowan Scott Memorial Trophy which is a knockout tournament that takes place before the Sunderland Echo Quiz League season in full.

I was acting as setter this week and headed into town to read the questions at Chaplins for their match against Hastings Hill. I found the setting to be very enjoyable and bar one or two questions which, during the quiz I realised, should have been dropped I was over the moon with the results.

The results of Week 2 were -

Chaplins 30 v 40 Hastings Hill
Newbottle 44 v 45 Ashbrooke
Penshaw 37 v 41 The Prior


Mostly close games and as a setter I took pride in the fact there were winners on different sets. The match at Chaplins was a very close run game on the whole. Hastings Hill were actually down for the first three rounds and shot back in the second half to take the win.


Ashbrooke, last seasons champions, keep up their winning streak with a second win, but otherwise the league (see below) is looking very open. The top 4 qualify into the Semi's.

I will post the set up over the weekend.

This Week I Didn't Know.....

Again, the picture round was a source of undoing this week as I missed some sitters. As I have mentioned before, a quiz I attend has a 20-point picture round in a quiz out of 60-65 points and it is always my downfall. Coped fine with the questions but left too much to do after a picture round especially after these two sitters were missed -

Pictures missed -



Now this woman had haunted me for some time. I am usually the sort of person who may get an easy question wrong once....but never again. That's how I tend to make sure I improve. It simply has not worked with this woman as, although I know what she is famous for, who she is and her character name, I simply struggle every time to get her name. Faced with 20 other pictures this week I simply couldn't recall it. A bad miss!



Happens to me a lot in quizzes. A footballer/sports star comes up who I have seen time and time again on TV and I just cannot place them. The picture used in the quiz didn't make it clear who he played for.


Answers
1. Jane Lynch
2. Negeredo

Mastermind Wiki Challenge

I was quite pleased with the results of last weeks Mastermind Wiki Challenge (see relevant posts for description).

The Battle of Lepanto
Knew very little other than the basics about this prior to the show last week. After 30 minutes or so reading up online I scored 6 which was way better than I imagined. Quite an interesting Battle actually and, as if one of my main reason for doing this challenge, gave me quite a lot of side-reading to do around the period!

Yes Minister
TV shows are always hard to prepare for the Mastermind Wiki Challenge but I used mainly my knowledge of watching the boxsets perhaps twice in the last two years to score another 6. Nothing new was added from reading the Wiki page that helped me here. Although this set confirmed my opinion that when I try again for Mastermind, its TV shows of around this length that are best to aim for! I noticed the set is very cheap on Amazon (see below) and regardless of quizzing its a joy to watch if you have never seen it!

St Pauls Cathedral
Struggled with this one and I even missed some of the gimmies to only score 2 on Gareth Kingstons set. I did manage to find a useful free Kindle Ebook on the subject which I intend to read over the next few months a when you delve deep into the history of this building, it really is rather fascinating.

JM Barrie
After reading the Wikipedia page I turned what would have been a 3 into a 6. More importantly, I have eventually now decided to read the biography I bought of Barrie a while ago but never have managed to find time to read. (See Below)







At this point I would usually post up the next set of subjects but with a 2 week break Iplayer won't tell me what they are yet!

Week in Quizzing

Unfortunately I have been rather ill this week forcing me to miss The Quiz in the North in Rochdale which I was supposed to attend. Coupled with the fact my partner is in her second week in hospital and there has not been a great deal of quizzing to report at all!

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By all accounts the Quiz in the North was a terrific event and I hope to see a follow up. I will keep you posted with any details I receive on the issue. It is great to see a well attended event (won by none other than Kevin Ashman) taking place in the North, an area much rejected by the British Quizzing Association events. To be fair the BQA have started to put on satellite events on Edinburgh but nevertheless a series of regular northern quizzes would be most welcome.

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The best and the worst of TV quizzing this week. The 21st Question made its ITV Debut and is perhaps one of the worst/least exciting quiz shows I have ever sat through. On the other hand Mastermind returned and although it is a 2 week break until it returns, its great to have it back! (See relevant blog posts).

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Had very little time for revision this week but I have been reading through this excellent work. I may have mentioned it before but Dominic Sandbrooks history tomes are always worth reading. This one especially....fact heavy and a great overview of the period.



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The 21st Question

 

 

Settled down with a cup of tea last week expecting to see The Chase and I was presented with Gethin Jones and the new ITV daytime quiz show - The 21st Question. ITV are very much of the mindset, when it comes to game shows, throwing as much against the audience and seeing what sticks. Over the few years I have been doing this blog the amount of times I have used the phrase "latest ITV game show" is off the scale! The 21st Question may though be one of the worst.

 

I thought from the title there must be some trick. Surely this "The 21st Question" refers to some final shootout where you have to score 21 or suchlike. Sadly not, in 60 minutes The 21st Question gives us...yes...only 21 questions. That straight away set the alarm bells ringing.

 

 

Gethin Jones makes a terrible presenter of this show, it is as if he knows how bad it is, so he has given up himself. The premise of the show involves contendors fighting it out to face The 21st Question where they can win money. Head to head battles on questions commence with one contestant being on the "hot spot" until they are defeated when indeed their conqueror takes over and so on. The aim being to face The 21st Question.

 

The questions are poor multiple choice, the contestant standard is low, there is way too much time spent "getting to know the contestants" and they have all clearly been told to overact as much as possible. Throw Gethin Jones' woeful performance into the mix and you have one of the most tedious quiz shows around.

 

The 21st Question is best avoided...bring back The Chase soon!

Mastermind 2014/2015 - Heat 1

 

 

Mastermind returned on BBC 2 on Friday with a cracking opening episode. Gareth Kingston, top-ranked UK player and previous Mastermind contestant, was a familiar face right from the off in what turned out to be a great episode.

The specialist subject rounds left little room to separate the players with everyone coping easily with the questions thrown at them. It was all going to boil down to General Knowledge. Mark Eaves came to the chair with 26 to beat and always looked likely to take the lead and set a score for Gareth to chase. Mark, I discovered after the show, is a highly regarded player in the Quiz League of London which his performance testified too. 30 was always going to be hard to beat once Mark set the pace and Gareth looked likely to do it for the most part, but a few toughies here and there resulted in Mark taking the victory.

Congratulations to Mark Eaves on his victory and 28 should also be enough, based on recent years, to see Gareth Kingston through as well!


Final Placings -

Mark Eaves - 30
Gareth Kingston - 28
Alice Mennel - 26
Howard Towner - 23

Sunderland Echo Quiz League - Week 1

The Gowan Scott Memorial Trophy kicked off this week, the usual knockout curtain raiser prior to the start of the season in full. A simple format involving all teams playing each other once with the top 4 advancing to knockout Semi-Finals. Last year we put together a great run and made the final, loosing narrowly.

 
The first round of matches took place on Wednesday and we had a home tie against Newbottle. Since I started playing in the league, results against Newbottle have been mixed so I never quite know what to expect. However, learning earlier in the day that Newbottle had recruited Michael McPartland (a 2014 Mastermind Finalist) may have lowered my expectations a little.

 
The first round set the tone and after going behind 8-4 it was an uphill struggle from there. We scored throughout each round but with every miss we had Newbottle picked them up for the bonus points and gave very little away themselves. We were never really in it and the lead built throughout ending 46-33. Newbottle will be tough to beat this season if this match is anything to go by!


As always the set from league Chairman Chris Brewis was entertaining and interesting, always one of the best sets of the season. A good opener all round and although the result didn’t quite go our way the Sunderland Quiz League continues to be enjoyable!

 

Other results on the night:

Ashbrooke 44 – 41 Chaplins

The Prior 38 – 52 The Isis

 
Cracking score from the Isis. If you get all your own question right it’s a maximum of 48 points, so they must really have been on form. Last seasons League winners Ashbrooke, lead by 2014 Brain of Britain Semi Finalist Dave Taylor, continued their winning form.

 

Next Weeks Fixtures: (Wednesday 13^th August)

 
Penshaw vs The Prior

Newbottle vs Ashbrooke

Chaplins vs Hasting Hill

 

It is my questions next week. Last time I set the full sets it produced some pretty close games with winners on both sets so I am hoping for similar this time around. I will post the sets up with the scores later in the week!

 

If anyone is interested in joining the league please email fully234@hotmail.com and I will pass on your details to the League Chairman.

Pub Quizzing: Fitzgeralds, Sunderland

Fitzgeralds, Sunderland - Thursdays 8.30pm

Each year on the blog I like to mention a few of the regular venues I visit playing pub quizzes. Fitzgeralds, located in the heart of Sunderland City Centre, has for a long time been my favourite pub quiz. Not only is it one of my favourite pubs in Sunderland, with a great selection of real ales, but the quiz that takes place every Thursday is one of the best pub quiz nights in Sunderland.

What makes it so good? Well firstly there are 8-10 regular teams which means there is a good element of competition. I prefer quizzes where you know some of the teams and can gauge from their performance how you are doing and get a little bit of added competition. I also like the mid-round quiz chat!

The quiz starts off with a handout with 20 written questions. I love hand out rounds of this format and for the half an hour you are permitted to work at this, it really does give time for you to stick your teeth into. The range of difficulty is well balanced with few teams ever scoring above 17 (it is out of 21+ as the last question is always worth 2 or more points) with plenty of every subject in there ranging from last weeks TV to mythology to Science to celebrity news. Something for everyone!

The second round is the one downside of the quiz.....pictures. The problem isn't that I don't like picture rounds. It is just here there are 20 of them. The whole quiz is only usually out of between 62-66 points (depends on bonuses etc) so to have almost a third based on pictures makes it a crucial round. And they are tough! again rarely do teams manage above 14 on these and there are countless times the quizmaster says "...and no one got this one". Most of the team there are 10 easy ones and then its down to who gets the most of the obscure ones meaning the lowest team usually scores 11 with the highest around 14. Doesn't sound like a lot but in a close quiz it makes a difference. A bad night on pictures and its game over.

What is called "the Trivial Pursuit Round" follows next whereby you are presented with 12 questions, 2 each "loosely" from the 6 Trivial Pursuit Categories. Right up my street! 12 points up for grabs and a good chance to catch up. 

The final round of ten is based on one subject each week: Geography, 80s music, History, Wars etc. Again the subject choice can make or break your night but when a good quizzy subject comes up it can usually outweigh any ground lost over pictures.

There is a tiebreak every round to win beer tokens and indeed beer tokens are given to the winner of every round (teams can't win both)....so most people leave with something. Throw in a rolling jackpot where you have to be the only player to get the question right and you have a fun 2 hours!

All in all if I was to only attend one pub quiz a week...this would be my choice.

Pros: No cheating, scores read out every round, excellent venue, regular teams, plenty of prizes, great first round

Cons: Picture round carries too much weight

This Week I Didn't Know....

In a new feature I am going to be posting up some of my own quiz failings from the week gone by, mainly so I don't make the same mistakes again!



Picture Round

1. 

The picture round in a local quiz I attend weighs a huge burden on the outcome of the quiz as it counts for almost a third of all points. With 20 pictures (10 of which are gimmies) identifying the harder names is vital to winning the quiz itself. After racing through 10, managing to get 2 of the harder sports one, I got stuck for most of the round on this woman. I knew what she did, knew I had seen her several times on the One Show and knew her areas of expertise. Would her name come? Not even close. "Lucy" got stuck in my mind and would not go. Picture rounds can be the most frustrating of rounds and this is a prime example. 

2. 

This one was even more annoying! At the end of the round the quiz master mentioned "No one got this...." and I knew I must have been close. Firstly, I knew she was in a superhero movie but took time to place her as being in Spiderman 3 as Gwen Stacey. I knew early on she was in The Village and was using that to try and bring her name to the front of my mind. I had a feeling it was a three-part name but none of this helped and I ended up putting nothing. A sin I know.....

3. 

Usually I rub my hands when I see the round has a lot of sports pictures. This was the same picture used in the quiz - however the picture used was in black and white and cut off just above the adidas logo - so I assumed it was West Brom and could not place the face. I went for Peter Odenwinge (sp?) without any conviction. Had I realised it was Hull it may have led me to the right answer.

Answers

1. Ellie Harrison
2. Bryce Dallas Howard
3. Curtis Davies


Questions

1. In which US State is Big Bend National Park?

Something I had never heard of. Couldn't think of a way to begin working it out but having since read up about it I really should have known this! At least I know for next time

2. In 1977, which pop star became the first non DJ to present Top of the Pops?

Don't like the way this question is worded but either way I wasn't even close to the right answer. Have a little feeling this could be a chestnut.

Answers

1. Texas
2. Elton John

Mastermind Challenge

Mastermind returns to our screens this week, with the first episode as usual heading out on BBC 2 on Friday Night. Something I have been doing for the past few series is the Wiki Challenge. This was inspired by Dave Clark over at the LAM blog. Basically the Challenge involves using Wikipedia to read up on the Specialist Subjects due to come up on that weeks Mastermind and see how many points a brief reading/revision spell can earn you.

I have found it adds to the fun watching the show, has given me a great range of knowledge in fields I have not really read up on and also leads into many other areas of reading.

So I intend to do it again for the new series and the first weeks subjects on Mastermind are -

Yes Minister
The Battle of Lepanto
JM Barrie
St Pauls Cathedral

Let me know if you try the Challenge and how you get on.

Week in Quizzing

I can hardly believe we are into August already but here we are!

The one good thing about the summer is that it means the return of the Sunderland Echo Quiz League. I had to miss the pairs event last week, and there has been a re-jig in the setting order, so our first game in the knockout match will be taking place this week followed by my turn setting the week after. That means those questions I promised to post will have to wait until at least the 14th! It's an opening game against Newbottle in our home - the Museum Vaults. Lets hope for a good start! We made the final last year so fingers crossed.

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My reading this week has been the fantastic Science 1001. My Kindle is getting a lot of us now I am commuting further and its a great chance for me to work on my week areas. Science has always been my weakest areas as evidenced in any quiz I have ever done. This book is  gold dust for helping me understand and learn useful facts and information that I need to brush up on.





Mastermind is back this week - Friday 8pm BBC 2

Hope you all have a great week!