Top 5 Regular Quiz Nights of 2017 #4

 

#4 - Tipsy Cow

Sunderland

9pm Tuesdays

 

 

 

There is a good solid circuit of quizzes in Sunderland at the moment, the only problem being a lot of them are on the same night! I attended the quiz at the Tipsy Cow one night earlier in the year without much expectation, but over the weeks the quiz grew into one of the finest in town. The pub hires a local entertainer in to do the quiz and every week he produces a set of quality and testing questions for the ever growing number of teams. The format is nice and simple....30 GK questions, a music round and a themed round of 10 with some pictures thrown in. The host is present throughout the quiz, walking round the tables and hence cheating simply does not happen!

 

In addition to the normal quiz, there are rounds of card bingo and a great last man standing game which always adds excitement to the end of the night and another chance to win. Sadly, after moving home in August, and with another good quiz on Tuesday on my doorstep, I have had to give up the Tipsy Cow, but if you are in the city centre on a Tuesday night, you won't regret giving it a whirl!

 

 



Useful Books of the Year - The Book of The Year

Put together by the team behind the "No Such Thing as Fish" podcast, this book covers some of the odder stories of 2018, and looks at the news events of the year through from a different slant. Presented in an A-Z format the book has that "just one more page" feel and is a great summary of 2017 (well...January to October) and will certainly remind you of some of the stories you may have missed.

Ideal Xmas gift too for any quizzing buddies!

Quiz Questions

In a bit of a writing splurge at the moment so here are another 15 questions to get stuck into. Answers tomorrow...

1.       Lying 2,000km from St Helena and 2,400km from South Africa, which Archipelago is the most remote in the world?

2.       Which actor, born in 1941, and Oscar nominated for his most famous role in the 1970s, played Max, the father of the title character in the TV series “Bones”?

3.       The New York Yankee’s No.1 jersey is retired in honour of individual who managed the team on 5 separate occasions including the 1977 World Series victory?

4.       In the description of the “Elite social class who trace their ancestry back to the colonial period” what does WASP stand for?

5.       What does the R stand for in the name of “Love Letters” playwright AR Gurney?

6.       Tatum O Neal was married to which sports star from 1986 until 1994?

7.       Which Stanley Kubrick film is based on a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray and tells the tale of a fictional 18th Century Irish Rogue?

8.       In 2015, who became the first footballer to have scored hat tricks in the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A?

9.       Who was the first Belgian born singer to top the US Billboard Singles chart?

10.   In which country was Bianca Jagger born?

11.   Which musical tells the tale of Kevin Price and Arnold Cunningham  on a trip to Uganda?

12.   In 1968 who became the first Indigenous Australian to win a boxing World Title?

13.   Featuring a protagonist named Harry, “Only Time Will Tell” is the first novel in which series of books?

14.   The answer to a common quiz question involving Gazza and the 1991 FA Cup Final, who was the first Spanish player to score in the English Premier League?

15.   The Tees Valley Giants, a planned series of sculptures across the region, has stalled which only one sculpture in place – “Temenos”. Who designed it?

Best Quiz Books of 2017 #2

Second on my list of quiz books to recommend from this year is another BBC Title....this time from Only Connect. There have been apps and online games prior to this year, but it was good to see that they finally got round to releasing something in print. Again, as with the Brain of Britain book, if you have ever seen the show you know what to expect here. Packed full of all the usual rounds from the show, the book will certainly test you and great time and effort has been taken into producing something that will be fun for all!  Certainly, this was well worth the wait!

Yesterdays Answers

 Here are the answers to the set from yesterday

1.       What Himalayan country is called “Land of Thunder Giants” by its inhabitants?	Bhutan
2.       Which Michal Frayn play is based around the historical meeting of physicist Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in 1941?	Copenhagen
3.       What is the first song in the score for the Musical “Mama Mia”?	I Have a Dream
4.       Masgouf, a meal of grilled open cut fish spiced with salt, pepper and tamarind, is a national dish of which Middle Eastern nation?	Iraq
5.       Who provided the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, which he named Megalosauraus, and coined the term ‘coprolites’?	William Buckland
6.       What is the name of the oldest medal still awarded by the Royal Society? (given for outstanding achievement in any branch of Science)	Copley Medal
7.       Formed by Simon Cowell, which boyband featuring members including Austin Porter, Nick Mara and recruits from Youtube, released their debut single “Would You Mind” in 2017?	Pretty Much
8.       In the name of Ray BLK, the first unsigned act to win the BBC Sound of 2017, what does the BLK stand for?	Building, Living, Knowing
9.       Which Scottish poet (1736 – 1796) discovered and translated an epic on the subject of Fingal originally written by Ossian?	James Macpherson
10.   Who was the first actress to win an Academy Award for a performance in a foreign-language film, a feat achieved in 1962?	Sophia Loren
11.   Which US racecourse is nicknamed “The Graveyard of Champions” due to the tendency of many high profile racehorses to loose major races at the track?	Saratoga Race Course
12.   Played by Dan Stevens who is the subject of the 2017 film “The Man Who Invented Christmas”?	Charles Dickens
13.   Which nation celebrates Errol Barrow day on the 21st January each year to commemorate the man who is regarded as the father of the nation and served as their first Prime Minister?	Barbados
14.   In which country is Henry Miller’s controversial book “Tropic of Cancer” set?	France
15.   Whose appointment as the first music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra  led to him becoming a household name in the USA?  At various other times in his career he was music director of La Scala and the Met Opera in New York?	Alberto Toscanini

Useful Books of the Year - 1001 TV Shows You Must See Before You Die

For me, the "1001.... Before You Die" series is a little hit and miss. Some books I have poured over for months on end and got lots from, others I have given up on after a few entries. This year I worked my way through the latest issues of the TV edition of the series and found it to be very useful from the first page to the last. Covering the basics of each era, the book is presented in a chronological order which I particularly liked , and the facts are thick and fast giving you a good grounding in all of the shows covered. Again, I have gained points from using this book I wouldn't have previously  managed prior to reading it...

(Ignore the daft price on the link, its available for Pennies on the Amazon store)

Quiz Questions....

Another set of 15, slightly tougher, questions to get stuck into...answers tomorrow

1.       What Himalayan country is called “Land of Thunder Giants” by its inhabitants?

2.       Which Michal Frayn play is based around the historical meeting of physicist Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in 1941?

3.       What is the first song in the score for the Musical “Mama Mia”?

4.       Masgouf, a meal of grilled open cut fish spiced with salt, pepper and tamarind, is a national dish of which Middle Eastern nation?

5.       Who provided the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, which he named Megalosauraus, and coined the term ‘coprolites’?

6.       What is the name of the oldest medal still awarded by the Royal Society? (given for outstanding achievement in any branch of Science)

7.       Formed by Simon Cowell, which boyband featuring members including Austin Porter, Nick Mara and recruits from Youtube, released their debut single “Would You Mind” in 2017?

8.       In the name of Ray BLK, the first unsigned act to win the BBC Sound of 2017, what does the BLK stand for?

9.       Which Scottish poet (1736 – 1796) discovered and translated an epic on the subject of Fingal originally written by Ossian?

10.   Who was the first actress to win an Academy Award for a performance in a foreign-language film, a feat achieved in 1962?

11.   Which US racecourse is nicknamed “The Graveyard of Champions” due to the tendency of many high profile racehorses to loose major races at the track?

12.   Played by Dan Stevens who is the subject of the 2017 film “The Man Who Invented Christmas”?

13.   Which nation celebrates Errol Barrow day on the 21st January each year to commemorate the man who is regarded as the father of the nation and served as their first Prime Minister?

14.   In which country is Henry Miller’s controversial book “Tropic of Cancer” set?

15.   Whose appointment as the first music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra  led to him becoming a household name in the USA?  At various other times in his career he was music director of La Scala and the Met Opera in New York?

Top 5 Regular Quiz Nights of 2017 - #5

As always at the end of the year on the blog, as well as looking at my favourite quiz books and reference works of the year, I will be putting together a little list of my favourite five regular quiz nights of the year. I have been to various different quizzes this year, some great, some that I wish I hadn't bothered, and I will start my top 5 off with....

#5 - The Grange

Sunderland

Tuesday Nights - 9pm

 

 

 

I am starting off the list with a Redtooth quiz. Over the past 12 months, I have played in and enjoyed Redtooths "Its Your Round" at several locations across the region and wanted to include one here. Due to the, shall we say, inconsistencies in the Redtooth standards when it first started to branch out into quizzes and become by far the biggest pub quiz provider in the country, it picked up something of a bad reputation in terms of quiz quality. In the past number of years, this has changed dramatically an the quiz setting has for some time been in the hands of one of the finest setters in the country. I can't remember the last time I didn't enjoy a Redtooth quiz, and if you still have that negative impression it is perhaps worth reconsidering and giving it another go.

 

The quiz in the Grange, despite having my pet hate of a bar man just stepping off the bar at 9pm to present the quiz, is cheat free and well attended. It runs at a good pace and there is a nice price of a £30 meal voucher to win. The Its Your Round format is in place (current affairs, pictures, Top 5, Trivial trail, connection and wipeout) and the quiz runs without fail every Tuesday!



Recent Theatre Quiz Answers

As promised....the answers from yesterdays quiz about recent theatre...

1.       ‘The Ferryman’ by Jez Butterworth  is set during one day, largely in the kitchen of a farmhouse in which country?	Northern Ireland
2.       Which play tells the tale of a 16 year old boy from Sheffield who wants to wear a dress to his school prom?	Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
3.       ‘Girl from the North Country’, which premiered in 2017, is a play written by Conor McPherson using the music and lyrics of which legendary singer songwriter?	Bob Dylan
4.       They 2017 play ‘Quiz’ tells the tale of an infamous event of which TV show?	Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?
5.       The plot of ‘Ink’, which opened in 2017, tells the story of the birth of which publication?	The Sun
6.       Opening in September 2017, what is the profession of the main character in ‘Labour of Love’?	MP
7.       Which playwright wrote the plays mentioned in the last three questions….’ink’, ‘Labour of Love’ and ‘Quiz’?	James Graham
8.       25 years after last acting on stage, who Glenda Jackson returned to the stage in 2017 in which Shakespearian role?	King Lear
9.       Which 33 year old playwright and poet wrote the ‘Barber Shop Chronicles’?	Inua Ellams
10.   In the Mike Bartlett play of 2017 ‘Albion’…..what is ‘Albion’ the name of?	A Garden

Quiz Questions - Answers

Here are the questions from yesterday with the answers included

1.       Which former Lebanese Prime Minister was killed along with 21 others in a bomb blast in Beirut in February 2005?	Rafic Hariri
2.       Wijngoed Thorn was in the news in 2017. It is the first Wine growing region to be given PDO status in which nation?	Netherlands
3.       Who rode Calder Prince to second place in a 2017 Charity race at Ascot?	Michael Owen
4.       Which nations flag appears on the title screen of the BBC sitcom “Citizen Khan”?	Pakistan
5.       Which author is played by Dan Stevens in the 2017 film "The Man Who Invented Christmas"?	Charles Dickens
6.       Who plays Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King in the 2017 movie “Battle of the Sexes”?	Emma Stone and Steve Carell
7.       Mustaz Essa Barshim won the IAAF Athlete of the Year for 2017. Which track and field event does he compete in?	High Jump
8.       What is the name of the highest volcano in Antarctica?	Mount Sidley
9.       Which Danish Architect designed St Catherine’s College, Oxford and the Danish Embassy in London as well as being famous for furniture designs including the ant chair?	Arne Jacobson
10.   What is the name member of the Rhizome Family that is often known as “Thai Ginger” or “Siamese Ginger”?	Galangal