1) The statistician
2) The doctor
The ones that got away
1) What were the names of the three tunnels in The Great Escape?
2) What is the name of Channel 4's longest running sitcom? Airing during the 90s, it was set in a Peckham hairdresser.
3) What song wakes up Bill Murray on his radio alarm clock every morning in Groundhog Day?
4) Which 1998 hit song had words from its chorus replaced with 'Anna Friel', much to the amusement of most of the British public?
5) Which badly behaved French striker was signed by West Bromwich Albion last week?
6) Which football team's ground is on White Hart Lane?
7) What does John Major only have one of when most men have two?
8) Which two countries sit either side of Ireland in the UN General Assembly? (You need both for the point.)
The answers
Update: Poll results! 7 votes with 1 scoring 5/8, 2 scoring 3/8, 2 scoring 2/8, 1 scoring 1/8, and 1 joining us on zero.
The average voter scored 2 out of 8.
The excuses
1) No idea on this one, but obviously a film we'd both seen more than once. We went for the rather boring Alpha, Bravo, Charlie.
2) I had at least heard of it, but all I could think of at the time was Bread, which was on the wrong channel, in the wrong city, but still....
3) Curiously, I make this the third Bill Murray-related question I've had to stick on this blog in the last few months, and the second one about Groundhog Day. I guess we should watch that film again.
4) Not the tightest of questions, and no-one in the pub got it. Our answer was, coincidentally, another Madonna song: Don't Cry for me Anna Friel...
5) A frustrating miss given the number of football clubs I follow on Twitter, but as I wasn't aware Anelka was particularly badly behaved he didn't even come to mind.
6) Almost a trick question, mitigated by the pub being a couple of bus stops away from the stadium. The other White Hart Lane is on a rather generic High Road.
7) The deliberate inclusion of the word 'men' in this one threw us, as we assumed it must be testicle. If it was a deliberate bit of misdirection on the part of the quizmaster I'd say it was a tad unnecessary.
8) It's been a long time since I've been so disappointed to miss a question, especially when we then missed the money by one point. Obviously the 'trick' here is to realize the UN is ordered alphabetically, which got me to Iraq and Italy quite quickly. Countries of the world are one of my quiz specialties, and I've little doubt that had I been thorough (by going through the world geographically rather than just trying to think of countries at random) I'd've got Israel eventually. Unfortunately, I was too quick to assume there wasn't a country starting Is and ultimately it cost us. Lesson: if you know you have the knowledge to be certain an answer, don't be lazy!
The alternative questions
2) What was the first programme aired on Channel 4 when it launched in 1982?
3) In which Pennsylvanian borough is Groundhog Day set?
4) Madonna's 2005 hit Hung Up sampled from which Abba song?
5) A couple of years ago there were three teams, along with West Brom, who between them fought 12 midland derbies in the English Premier League each season. Name all three, please.
6) What type of animal is a hart?
7) Who succeeded John Major as leader of the Conservative Party?
8) Along with Ireland, two other countries have flags consisting of only green, white and orange. Name one of them (or both, I can't really stop you).
The answers
Be very careful with "leaders of political parties" questions; the answer depends on whether they resigned pending the election of a replacement or with immediate effect (or died, which generally has immediate effect). If they resign with immediate effect, then there's an acting leader.
ReplyDelete[Major did indeed resign pending a replacement being elected, but I spent an age trying to decide on whether Michael Heseltine was acting leader until Hague was elected]
Quizmasters really do need to make it clear; if you routinely say whether you're including or excluding acting leaders even when there wasn't one, then you make life a lot easier:
Q: Who was the leader of the Labour Party immediately before Tony Blair?
A: Margaret Beckett.
I had a big row with a quizmaster over that one, as he wanted John Smith.
Ha, I think in one of the previous posts in this very blog that exact same question (re: Labour leadership) comes up as one we got 'wrong', for exactly the same reason you encountered.
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