The 'mac' in Tarmac comes from the name of Scottish engineer John McAdam

The team name: Rob Ford: any colour you want as long as it's crack

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The Klingon
4) The game dev

The ones that got away
1) Asia makes up what percentage of Earth's land mass? You can be up to 5% over or under.
2) What word derives from the Greek for 'sharp dull'?
3) Vancouver is known as the Hollywood of Canada, but which of these appears the most in city nicknames: Paris, Venice or Athens?
4) What was the profession of the man killed so that Hannibal Lecter could enjoy his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti?
5) Which US State's state bird is the road runner?
6) Which word, which contains the letters OK consecutively (but not at either end), turns into a word with the same meaning if you remove the OK?
7) Which 2009 film opens with the lines "Oh, America I wish i could tell you that this was still America. But I've come to realize that you can't have a country without people. And there are no people here"
8) Rearrange the letters of the word INTERACTION to make two new related words. (So you're looking for two words which between them have the 11 letters of INTERACTION in them.)

The answers

1) 30% (so 25%-35% is good enough)
2) Oxymoron
3) Venice (apparently pretty much anywhere with a Canal will try it)
4) Census taker
5) New Mexico
6) JOKESTER -> JESTER
7) Zombieland
8) NICOTINE + TAR

Poll results: 14 votes with the average voter scoring 2/8!

The excuses

1) A frustrating miss. My initial guess was 'a lot', but got talked down to 20%, before haggling 'up' to an agonizing 24%.
2) A quizzing chestnut this, I knew I'd heard it before, but couldn't pull it out. Ended up going for 'ricochet', which is obviously French but sounded a tiny bit plausible.
3) Paris seemed 'too obvious', but any attempt at second-guessing the question setter like that is always a risky business, especially when you don't know them too well.
4) While I had actually seen the film in question, this seldom helps when it comes to quizzing. Someone thought he played the clarinet, so we stuck down 'musician' in a vain attempt at getting away with a vague(ish) answer.
5) Ah, you can't seem to do a quiz here without at least one question about an official state something-or-other. Still, having read up on road runner after our first episode of Only Connect, we were moderately close with "well, it looks a bit hot in the cartoons, right? So...Arizona?".
6) My official excuse is that 'jokester' feels rather North American, but having been as close as saying 'joke...something?' we really should have got it.
7) I was quite keen on I Am Legend, which fit the post-apocalyptic vibe of the quote, but it turns out that was two years too early.
8) After the jokester question, another word puzzle (usually my strong suit) that passed me by. On retrospect I'm not too fussed; the clue of the words being related strikes me as perhaps a touch forced, and spotting 'nicotine' out of that bunch seems pretty tough. Meanwhile, if you don't know about the pitch drop experiment, it's worth a look.

The alternative questions
1) Despite thinking for years it was a joke about the board game Risk, in which 1987 film does the quote "never get involved in a land war in Asia" actually feature? It actually derives from principles espoused by Field Marshall Montgomery in a 1962 speech to the House of Lords.
2) Which contemporary musical instrument's unabbreviated name, deriving from the Italian for soft and strong, sounds like an oxymoron? (The name of an earlier version of the same instrument has a similar property.)
3) Which celebratory event in 2012 was in part inspired by a Canaletto painting?
4) The most recent taking place in 2011, the (full) UK census has taken place every 10 years since when?
5) New Mexico is one of four US states that begins with 'New'. Name two of the others.
6) On which game show would host Bruce Forsyth say "I'm the joker in the pack, which makes me such a lucky jack, but here's 4 people that are so appealing, ok dollies, do your dealing."
7) Which BAFTA award winning computer game franchise allows teams of up to four players to co-operate in a bid to survive a zombie apocalypse?
8) Which cigarette brand sponsored the World Snooker Championship from 1976 until 2005 before advertising legislation halted the practice?

The answers

1) The Princess Bride
2) Piano(forte) (its predecessor being the fortepiano)
3) The Diamond Jubilee River Pageant (the painting in question being Lord Mayor's Day on the Thames)
4) 1801
5) New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York
6) Play Your Cards Right
7) Left 4 Dead
8) Embassy

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