Sunderland Echo Quiz League Sets

For various reasons, its not often that any of the questions from the Sunderland league get posted up, other than my own which I post here. I have however noticed a set from 2 weeks ago, written by league leaders Ashbrooke has been added to the site so here it is :) Remember, the league is always team questions hence they may seem harder than some other leagues...

Set B to go follow in a couple of days

QUESTIONS A

ROUND 1

A1.      In 2017, Panasonic launched a washing machine in India which has a special setting for removing which food related item?

                                                                                    CURRY

 

A2.      At which battle in 202 B.C. was Hannibal defeated by Scipio Africanus? 

ZAMA

 

A3.      The Mistral is a wind which, because of the Venturi effect, blows down the valley of which river?

 

                                                                                                                                                         RHONE

 

A4.      In 2017, which country won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time after 53 years of participation?

 

                                                                                                                        PORTUGAL

ROUND 2

A5.      Which then 100-year-old actress became the oldest woman ever to become a dame in the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honours?

                                                                                    Olivia de HAVILLAND

 

A6.      Which 2017 Rita Ora hit song shared its title with a 1971 Elton John hit?

                                                                                                            YOUR SONG

 

A7.      Which English football club has on its crest a tree and two stars? 

NOTTINGHAM FOREST

A8.      What was the name of the secret society, whose name in Latin means “the enlightened ones”, which was founded in Bavaria in 1776 and included the poet Goethe among its members?
                                                                                                                        ILLUMINATI

 

ROUND 3

A9.      Dying in 2018, who was the only astronaut to fly on Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle missions? 

                                                                                                                                                            John YOUNG

A10.    Scalesia affinis is a flowering plant endemic to the Galapagos Islands which has a tree-like habit. It is related to which common, small, meadow plant?

                                                                                                DAISY

 

A11.    In March 1953, while in West Germany working as a Morse code operator for the U.S. army, Sergeant Johnny Cash (Yes, that one!) was the first American to learn of whose death? 

Josef STALIN

 

A12.    Which female trainer joked that Sizing John’s win in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2017 was “beginner’s luck”?

                                                                                                Jessica HARRINGTON                    

ROUND 4     

A13.    Which duo first appeared in the Reginald Hill novel A Clubbable Woman?

(Andrew) DALZIEL and (Peter) PASCOE

A14.    Which mountain in the Lake District is 828 metres high and named after the Roman road which ran between forts at Brougham and Ambleside? 

HIGH STREET

 

A15.    Widely regarded as the greatest mathematician of all time, who, born in 1777, published little    during his lifetime but said of those works he did release that they were “Few, but ripe”?

Carl Friedrich GAUSS

 

A16.    Who famously sang “Let the Bright Seraphim” at the Royal Wedding of Charles Windsor and Diana Spencer?

                                                                                                            Kiri te KANAWA

 

ROUND 5

A17.    In 1532, who was made Marquis of Pembroke? 

Anne BOLEYN

 

A18.    Launched in 2005, the MRO has orbited Mars since 2006 and is expected to do so until 2030. For what does the “R” in MRO stand?

RECONNAISSANCE (Orbiter)

 

A19.    “Women and children first” became a standard drill after the sinking of which ship in 1852?

 

HMS  BIRKENHEAD

 

A20.    Which Australian scored a hundred before lunch against Pakistan in January 2017?

                                                                                                David WARNER

ROUND 6

A21.    The U.S.Vice-President, Mike Pence, has a family pet Marlon Bundo, known as Botus. What type of animal is he?

                                                                         RABBIT (Bunny Of The United States)

A22.    BRICS is the acronym for an association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and which other nation?                       

                                                                                                            SOUTH AFRICA

A23.    Which New Zealander is the only combatant soldier to have been awarded two VCs?

                                                                                                            Charles UPHAM

A24.    Theresa May has been MP for which constituency since 1997?

                                                                                                            MAIDENHEAD

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Cash Show App UK

Cash Show is one of the many apps that are going round now where you can win cash for free by entering 12 Trivia questions. The major difference with Cash Show to others is that the money is won after question 6, so even if you get 8 right and then fall out, you will win a small prize. Some quizzers are making very good money from this, and even the odd win here and there is a bonus, after all its free!

Search for Cash Show Uk on the Android store and you will see it. If you use my invitation code below when you sign up you will also get a free life (as will I) that can come in very very handy

I have been playing for a few weeks and didn't want to promote it until I knew it was legitimate and now that others I know, as well as myself, have been paid I can vouch for it!

Brain of Brains

 

Just in case you missed it, Brain of Brains was broadcast on Radio 4 yesterday and the episode can be found here on the Iplayer.

 

The show pits the last three winners of Brain of Britain together, with the highest scoring runner up, to compete for the Brain of Brain title and a place in the once-every-9-year event Top Brain which is due to be broadcast on Monday 19th February.

 

Well worth listening to! 

Squizzed

Last week, I competed in my first ever proctored Squizzed event which runs all across the continent on a monthly basis. I have seen the questions and played along many times but this is the first chance I have had to take part in a proper event. Rather than me explain I asked the organiser of the event for a blurb about what is entailed and he kindly sent me the below. Well worth getting in touch!

 

 

SQUIZZED is an internationally-flavoured individual written quiz, played once a month, consisting of 101 questions in 55 minutes (60 minutes if English is not your first language), with a participation fee of £5 per person, and around 20 (!) countries and some of the world's strongest quizzers participating on a regular basis.

 

It's played anytime from that month's third Friday up until eight days from that, whenever the local proctor and his players find it the most convenient, starting in January 2018. All the 2018 dates are already announced so everyone can plan ahead.

 

The season lasts for a year (January to December) and the cumulative scores are counted relatively (not absolutely), meaning that the highest scoring person will regardless of their score get 100 points while everyone else's scores will be calculated as a percentage comparing to that.

 

Everything you need for participating in SQUIZZED is a couple of interested players (a minimum of 3 would be nice) and a proctor who will look after them and after the quiz, and that's pretty much it - you can organize it anywhere you want, so please let us know if you want to be a part of it.

 

If you can't make it to the proctored event, you can also play it unproctored from your home (though you won't enter the score table) - just let us know, here or at squizzed101@gmail.com.

 



SpeedQuizzing..



...perhaps I should have mentioned yesterday that you can find a list of local SpeedQuizzing events at the following link.



Might also be worth mentioning that the above is the logo you may see being used to advertise these events!

Quiz Review - SpeedQuzzing in Sunderland

As always each year om the blog, I post an updated review of local quizzes I attend. Chances are things in that time change and it keeps the information up to date, and is of course good for any readers who are new to the site.

 

Chesters, Sunderland

Tuesday Nights

SpeedQuizzing - 1st Tuesday of the Month

9pm

 

 

From when I first experienced it last year, I have raved about SpeedQuizzing many times on the blog and last night was the first time of 2018 I managed to take part....and it was great to be back.

 

SpeedQuizzing is a pub quiz that uses your mobile phone as a keypad and allows for a much more interactive, fun and cheat free game with a much higher element of competition. Some tweaks have been made to the quiz in the Chesters since my last mention and given that the host simply buys the software and question packs from the company, and then can tinker with other elements of the format, the quiz relies on having a good quiz host.

 

The format currently issues involves the opening keypad round which are a mixture of letters, numbers, picture and multiple choice rounds. (The letter questions involve basically pressing the first letter of the answer). The new bonus system was in play last night and rather than being 10 points for correct with 5 for the fastest, a new system of 10 for correct and 3 for fastest, 2 for seconded fastest and 1 for third fastest made it much more competitive.

 

Round 2 is a buzzer round....buzz in when you know and have a go. If you are right, you get the points....otherwise you are frozen out of the questions. It was back on keypads with a standard round and a music round before the final make or break buzzer section. This differs in that you are punished for being wrong and can also pick up points by agreeing with the answer of others.

 

All in all, the changes continue to make this one of my favourite quiz nights on the calendar and SpeedQuizzing is something you need to sample for yourself to get the most of....and if you are in the Sunderland area then there is no better place than the Chesters! 

 

 

Worlds Biggest Pub Quiz

 

 

After success last year, Pub Aid is back with the Worlds Biggest Pub Quiz taking place in hundreds, if not thousands of venues across the country in March. The premise is to raise money for charity so you are competing only against people in your venue, rather than any sort of national competition, but don't let that put you off. I did the quiz last year and it was fun, well put together and had some original questions to get stuck into!

 

The site can be found HERE were you can take a look at local venues running the event. 

Fifteen to One

Applications are currently being taken for Series 11 and 12 of Fifteen to One. I have just been up in Glasgow myself filming for Series 10 (Series 9 still yet to air) and had a great experience, being treated really well by the team and having fun playing the game. Check out this site to apply

Mastermind Subjects Banned

I am assuming many of you saw This Story when it appeared in papers last week. As any regular viewer knows, the inconsistencies in the subject lengths and breadths is just a natural part of the show, but it seems like they have finally had enough of people trying the same subjects time after time.

Worth a read!

HQ Trivia

In the last few months, a trend has started amongst Quiz Apps....Live quiz shows to win cash! Right now, there at least half a dozen on the App stores that give quizzers the chance to win real $$$ at assigned times throughout the days. I have no idea which actually came first, but the most popular, and the one that has the most awareness and players (up to 1.5 million a game) is HQ Trivia.

I have mentioned these apps to several people "in the real world" and their first question is always "What's the Catch?". Winning money without any sign up fee's, no adverts and by simply logging into your phone and answering trivia seems too good to be true? Whatever the long term plan of these games and however they intend to make money, I have no idea, but at this moment in time I can you tell you from first hand experience, they are as advertised.

That is not to say I have won anything....

Over the next few days Ill post up information about a variety of these apps with my thoughts as to whether they are worth your time.

HQ Trivia certainly is. As I said, of all the live quiz show apps this is the busiest, which can lead to the occasional connection issues, however I am yet to be affected. Every question is a multiple choice question with three answers and if you get all 12 questions correct you win a share of the jackpot. Depending on how many win I have seen this be anything for $20 to last nights UK only game which was $875. Looking at the leaderboard some people (including known quizzers) are into four figure winnings!

Obviously, with money on the line once you get past question 5 or 6 there is luck involve and some questions will come down to guesswork. There are features such as extra lives available if you get friends to sign up using your code but essentially to take home cash you need good solid knowledge to get past the 5-6 questions that are gettable, and then Luck to guide you through the rest. Some games vary and will have 8-10 gettable ones but even when you are eliminated you can watch the game and see how many winners there are.


I would be interested to know how fellow quizzers are getting on with the app and how much success they have had, but it is certainly worth a go and with 4-5 games per day (including UK only games), there is plenty to keep you busy!

Popmaster Live

 

 

 



Just a quick mention of an event I have noticed listed in the latest edition of Classic Pop Magazine (always worth a read by the way). As an avid fan of Master, but having scores so inconsistent I am yet to try my hand at it, this sort of event certainly appeals. I don't think I realised this existed until I saw the advert but seemingly it has been going on for a number of year. More information here

 

 

p.s. For fans of Popmaster the latest edition of the Quiz Book is always worth a look. Fun, challenging and well written. Many of the music quiz books out there are stuffed with filler and chestnuts, but they seem to have made a real effort with the Popmaster series!

 

 

 





Books of the Month

January has been a busy month but I have managed to get through a few excellent book titles that I wanted to mention.


The first is Jonathan Eigg's recent biography "Ali".  As a huge boxing fan, and knowing in the past the sheer amount of Ali based questions I have got wrong, I thought it might help me quizzing wise but also the book has rave reviews. Simply put, this is one of the finest biographies, and most enjoyable non-fiction books, I have read in years. I am struggling to think of a biography I have enjoyed more. Yes, it has been useful for the quizzing purposes mentioned above, but even without that and even if you know everything about Ali already, I am sure than anyone who enjoys a good biography will enjoy this...







Another great biography I have just finished is Robert Capa: Blood and Champagne. An easy to read concise and straight forward account of Capa's live from the people who knew him and spent time with him. From the travels around wars, to the high profile acquaintances and the founding of Magnum, this kept me engaged throughout.






Finally, "Symbols: A Universal Language" by Joseph Piercy, is a short (under 2 hours in all) book covering a range of symbols we see everyday and looking at where they came from and providing interesting facts that have helped me devise a great number of questions. Although some of the book you will already know about (the origins of the Bluetooth symbol) for example, there is a ton of other information about symbols you will see every day that may be news to you...

Moneyball - Contestant Call

 

 

 

The BBC are currently looking for contestants for a new show called Moneyball. Details are scant but the end game seems to be answering General Knowledge questions as the money ball drops.

 

Some of the team have been answering to comments on Facebook and the only downside for some people reading this, is that they aren't looking to cast people who have been on TV in the last 6 months or are due to be on in the next 6 months. That rules me out but for anyone who is eligible follow the link here

Book Suggestion

Any quizzer will know that no matter where you live in the UK, the stations on the London Underground tend to be a popular selection for question topics amongst quiz masters. It is always something I have struggled with but late last year I came across this cracking book which focuses not only on the Underground, put also on other transport facts about London. Easy to read, set out well and giving some great facts that will be useful to players and setters alike. And of course, it covers the basics of the stations, lines and all those "Which is the only station that...." type questions that I tend to struggle with.

Well worth a look.

Quiz Review

 

Bank Street Bar

Glasgow

Sunday Nights 8pm

 

 

I found myself up in Glasgow for a few days recently, more on that to come, and was invited by a friend to join them for a Pub Quiz in Bank Street Bar in the City Centre. For one reason or another, mainly due to the usual quizzes I attend being cancelled, this was my first actual pub quiz of the year.

 

 

The quiz begins at 8pm with a limit of 6 players per team. It was standing room only with around 15 teams taking part. Each round is broken down into subjects (the basics...TV, Film, Sport, General Knowledge, Music etc etc) with 5 questions in all but the Current Affairs round. However, each round is worth 10 points and many of the questions are for multiple points. Throw in a picture round and a music audio round and that gives you a very well put together quiz night.

 

 

You can always tell going to any new quiz, whether the person putting together the questions is a quizzer or not, and it is obvious from the high quality involved here that a quizzer is behind it! The questions were pitched at the right level, unique and interesting without a reliance on chestnuts or lazy writing. Superb selection of questions!

 

 

If you happen to find yourself in Glasgow on a Sunday Night, then head over to the Bank Street Bar. Only downside for me is I won't get to play again!