Quiz League Set A

On an old memory stick I came across a League pair I set way back in January 2016 for the Sunderland Echo Quiz League which I don't think I have posted up yet. So here it is....

As mentioned before the Sunderland Quiz League involves team based questions (as oppose to some Leagues which focus on individual questions) so up to 6 brains are working on these at any one time.

I will post Set B up tomorrow.

Questions A

Round 1                                                                                                                        Answers

1.       The title of which Beach Boys song is also the title of the autobiography of Jacqueline Gold, the founder of Ann Summers?	Good Vibrations
2.       Which Government organisation is housed in a building known as the “Doughnut”?	GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters)
3.       Lady Isobel Barnett, considered one of the first TV celebrities,  became a household name on which show?	What’s My Line?
4.       Which landlocked country lies between Ukraine to the North and Romania to the South?	Moldova

 

Round 2

1.       Which daily newspaper was launched in 1986 by Andreas Whittam Smith?	The Independent
2.       When Walter Raleigh introduced tobacco to England in the early 1600s, which King wrote a pamphlet arguing against its use?	James I
3.       There are only two British Female Solo Artists to have 5 number 1 hit singles in the UK. Name either?	Jess Glynn OR Cheryl Fernandez Versini (Accept Cheryl on its own, Cheryl Cole or Cheryl Tweedy)
4.       Flowing through France, Germany and Luxembourg which river joins the Rhine at Koblenz?	Moselle

 

Set A - Round 3

1.       In 1982, who went missing for 6 days during the Paris/Dakar rally?	Mark Thatcher
2.       Much in the news in January 2016, which famous model and actress appeared on the cover of Roxy Music’s album “Sirens” dressed as a mermaid?	Jerry Hall
3.       Since the addition of Italy, which team have won the 6 nations title on the most occasions?	France
3.       Which current Labour MP is married to the former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thronging Schmidt?	Stephen Kinnock

 

Round 4

1.       Who was the first (and only) tennis player born in the 1990s to have won a Grand Slam, a feat she achieved for the first time in 2011?	Petra Kvitova
2.       Frank Blackmore introduced which specific features to UK roads in 1969. They were so confusing to drivers that he initially stood by the side of the road with a loudspeaker to direct traffic?	Mini Roundabouts (Do not accept roundabout)
3.       Who is the only person to win 2 unshared Nobel prizes in 2 different fields?	Linus Pauling
4.       Which band, formed in the 1980s in Sheffield, took their name from a fictional band in the novel “A Clockwork Orange”?	Heaven 17

 

 

 

 

 

Set A - Round 5

1.       Name EITHER of the two countries that joined the EEC at the same time as the UK in 1973	Denmark or Republic of Ireland
2.       Which composer’s 1st Symphony is nicknamed “Winter Daydreams”?	Tchaikovsky
3.       The top Test wicket takers are Mutiah Muralitharan with 800 and Shane Warne on 708. Which Indian leg spinner is third with 619 wickets in 132 test matches?	Anil Kumble
4.       The answer is not sausages. In the 1980s, a national newspaper launched the “Save our Sizzlers” campaign to prevent a ban on what?	Page Three (The Sun) Accept: Topless Models

 

Round 6

1.       Which former Soviet state is the only European country in which capital punishment is still practised with more than 250 executions since 1992?	Belarus
2.        Which Ayrshire golf course has both the longest and shortest holes on the Open Championship roster and will stage the event this year?	Royal Troon
3.       Which is the largest island in the Outer Hebrides?	Lewis and Harris
4.       Which Queen of England married Louis VII, King of France in 1137 before marrying Henry II of England in 1152?	Eleanor of Aquitaine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quiz League of London Sets

Many of you reading this will be aware of, and potentially play in, the Quiz League of London. By far the largest, most active league in the country with a website second to none. Last week I posted about the Fabulous SF Quiz Archives. Although great, the QLL has an even wider selection available on their site which can be found here.

Not only do the archives go back to include all the league, cup and buzzer contests that the QLL organise but also the newest quizzes from the current season are uploaded very promptly. Hours of fun to be had, great questions and a fantastic resource!

Connections Quiz Anwers

Here are your answers from Yesterday

1.      Who lead the Liberal Democrats into the 2017 General Election?	Tim Farron
2.      Which is the third film in the Ice Age series coming between “The Meltdown” and “Continental Drift”?	Dawn of the Dinosaurs
3.      Which British footballer has won the champions league 3 times in the last 4 years?	Gareth Bale
4.      What saint’s day falls on the 1st of March?	St David
5.      What is the connection between the above answers….	The Office (The main 4 characters – Tim, Dawn, Gareth and David)

1.      What is the name of the famous play by Eugene O Neill tells the story of a Salesman called Hickey with a budding passion for reform?	The Iceman Cometh
2.      Every year, the city of Nottingham hosts a fair dedicated to which bird?	Goose
3.      Also the name of a BBC TV show, what is the name of the Wizard most associated with the tales of King Arthur?	Merlin
4.      Which 1994 movie, a remake of an earlier TV series, sees Mel Gibson playing a character trying to raise the funds to play in a lucrative Poker Tournament?	Maverick
5.      What connects the above 4 answers?	Top Gun Characters (Iceman, Goose, Merlin and Maverick)

Book Suggestion

I stumbled across "The Title" by accident on Amazon, just released this year. It is a very good, fact filled look back at the pre-Premier League era of the First Division, written in an entertaining manner from Scott Murray (who according to the book writes for the Guardian). Certainly picked up a lot of facts and question material about the early days of the league. Who was the first team to win the league and won every game at home along the way? Who was the first person to win the league title with two different clubs? All these questions answered and more.

Well worth it for football fans and quizzers alike, and an ideal Xmas gift...




Speaking of ideal Xmas gifts and books that are a great read for Football fans, the benchmark is still "The Ball is Round". Not only one of the best Football books on the market, but one of the most enjoyable titles I have read full stop...

Connections Quiz

A couple more pretty straight forward Connections rounds from some of my pub quizzes set a few months back....Answers tomorrow.

1.      Who lead the Liberal Democrats into the 2017 General Election?

2.      Which is the third film in the Ice Age series coming between “The Meltdown” and “Continental Drift”?

3.      Which British footballer has won the champions league 3 times in the last 4 years?

4.      What saint’s day falls on the 1st of March?

5.      What is the connection between the above answers….

1.      What is the name of the famous play by Eugene O Neill tells the story of a Salesman called Hickey with a budding passion for reform?

2.      Every year, the city of Nottingham hosts a fair dedicated to which bird?

3.      Also the name of a BBC TV show, what is the name of the Wizard most associated with the tales of King Arthur?

4.      Which 1994 movie, a remake of an earlier TV series, sees Mel Gibson playing a character trying to raise the funds to play in a lucrative Poker Tournament?

5.      What connects the above 4 answers?

SF Quiz Archives

The Southport and Formby Quiz League's website was one of the first I came across some years ago when I was dipping into Quiz League's and trying to gauge an idea of the standard, revise some questions and test myself. Many quiz leagues have taken to adding questions to their site (more on that later) to give players a taste of what is involved and for the past 6 years the SF Quiz League have been uploading there's. The archive is now rather vast and is ideal for picking up on those quiz chestnuts that come up time and time again, and there is certainly something to learn in each quiz. The site can be found here.


By the way, if you enjoy testing yourself on League style questions then I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Several times over the years I have mentioned it on the blog, but for volume of questions and quality involved, its always worth a mention...

QLL Buzzer Tournament Final

Last weekend many of the finest quiz brains in the country headed to London for the QLL (Quiz League of London's)  Annual Buzzer Tournament. Always a popular tournament from what I gather (based on quizzers universal praise on Facebook) and one I hope to attend at some point.

Anyway, here is the final from this year....Eggheads Pat Gibson and Kevin Ashman, The Chase's Anne Hegerty and many faces you will recognise from various successful TV appearances.

A fascinating watch.

Quote Unquote - Latest Series

No sooner does one of the fantastic Radio 4 quiz shows come to an end (Grand final of Counterpoint last week.....click HERE to listen) than the next one starts. This time of year brings Quote Unquote which it took me some time to appreciate, but after sticking with it for a few series, it has became one of my favourites. The new series starts this Monday on Radio 4 at 3pm.

Eggheads Contestant Call

Eggheads are currently looking for teams (aren't they always!) to compete in the upcoming series. All the information can be found HERE

Eggheads was the first TV show I tried out for back in 2013, and entering with a team of local pub quizzers, we didn't manage to win the £40k on offer (won by a team if students on the very next show). But we had a great day up to Glasgow and I would suggest anyone to give it a whirl. The team, and the Eggheads themselves, are all very friendly and its certainly a worthwhile experience.

Great Lives

Posting up the podcast suggestion yesterday (BBC's Great Lives Series) reminded me of a great Book I have been working my way through this year. Great Lives by The Times. This is a huge tome of obituaries of 124 famous people from History. All fact filled and easy to read. Perfect to get a decent overview into the lives of people who appear in quizzes time and time again. I certainly picked up a lot of interesting facts (and being a question writer, a heck of a lot of material for future questions). The £30 new price tag is hefty, but click the link and head to the Amazon Marketplace section and you will see its available for pennies!

There are several other editions which I intend to dip into (such as Great Scottish Lives) too!

Useful Podcasts for Quizzing - Great Lives

Over the next few weeks I am going to post up some links to some of the best podcasts currently available that are either directly Trivia focused or are extremely helpful/interesting to quizzers. Many of which you will have heard of and be avid listeners of, but as a huge podcast fan, I know it can be time consuming finding consistently good shows. Hopefully I can help you find one or two more...

I am going to start with one that I am sure you have come across before...Great Lives from the BBC. The link to the shows site is HERE




Each show, as the title suggests, involves an expert, a famous-fan and the presenter discussing the life of a famous figure. The sheer breadth of personalities they have covered over the years is astounding and the show is always consistent with high quality, fact driven discussion.

There is many a time, since I started listening to this religiously, that I have been able to scrape out answers in quizzes because of what I had heard on the show. The archive is huge (currently standing at around 420 episodes on the iplayer radio app/site) all of which can be downloaded for ease of use.

I will recommend many podcasts over the coming weeks that are worth trying, but very few will exceed this in terms of usefulness to quizzing.

Book Suggestion: TV Cream Toys

Another great and very useful book I have read this week (useful for both facts and helping me devise some cracking quiz questions) is TV Cream's: Toys. TV Cream is a site you may have seen before (and if not, its well worth a look) and focuses on the 1960s-1980s. It originated as a site for TV Shows but it now cover's just about everything you could want in terms of nostalgia.

I picked this up from the Amazon Marketplace for pennies (see below link) and its basically and A-Z of Toys and Games from the 1960s to 1980s. Loads of great facts included (including learning who the father of current MP Jesse Norman is? The place Tom Stone, of the parachute regiment has in history?) and a fun book all round.

Well worth a look and would also a be great gift too....

Counterpoint Grand Final

Just in case you missed it, this week saw the Grand Final of the latest series of Counterpoint. One of my favourite quiz shows, and well a listen if you have never tried the series before this is a perfect point to dive in! The show can be heard here for the next few months.

The site itself has a couple of useful quizzes on too!

Sunderland Echo Quiz League Archive

I have kept meaning to mention on the blog, that the Sunderland Echo Quiz League have been, for the past few seasons, adding some extra sets to the website for people to see. The direct link can be found HERE.

Unlike most leagues, the Sunderland Echo Quiz League is based on team questions with up to 6 brains working at any one time to get the points. I always add my sets to the blog which you may have seen, but the site will give you a flavour of the league. We have some fantastic setters and I am sure you will enjoy them :)