While the title is Moby-Dick, the whale is Moby Dick

Your targets this week:

1+ out of 9: Well done, you beat us!
2+ out of 9: We'd have won with you on our team!

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The misandrist
4) The programmer

The ones that got away
1) What is the name of Captain Ahab's ship in Moby-Dick?
2) What is the name of Quint's boat used to hunt the shark in Jaws?
3) What was the name of Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar?
4) There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) was the only UK number one single for which artist?
5) ...and who played the harmonica solo on that track?
6) What creature features in the Damien Hirst work titled The Wrath of God?
7) Who were the first Italian team to win the European Cup?
8) In cricket, what fielding position is on the off-side near the boundary behind the slips?
9) What is the combined track distance covered in the women's heptathlon?

The answers

1) Pequod
2) Orca
3) HMS Victory
4) Eurythmics
5) Stevie Wonder
6) A shark
7) AC Milan
8) Third man
9) 1100 metres (100 metres hurdles + 200 metres + 800 metres)

Our excuses

1) A round on 'famous ships' went largely our way (I think there were a further nine we got correct), but some slipped through the net. This one was on the tip of our tongues for most of the quiz, and despite my memory of it having a 'Q' in the name, we all assumed I was thinking of Queequeg. We went with the mildly creative Hell's Fury.
2) Not too bothered about missing this one (I'm not sure I've ever sat through the entire film), with "guess a girl's name" (Lucy) unsurprisingly not proving successful.
3) Easily the worst of the bunch to miss and a real kicking-ourselves moment, we put down Invincible (presumably thinking of the Falklands) and didn't give it enough of a second thought.
4) A toss-up between Eurythmics and Annie Lennox (who, it turns out, is yet to have a UK number one single), we jumped the wrong way.
5) In fairness if we'd thought about this a bit more we may well have worked it out. Instead we dismissed it as one of those throwaway, 'ungettable' ones and just put down Bob Dylan as the first harmonica player we could think of.
6) This one was particularly frustrating, as we ruled out shark (knowing that was The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living) and cow (knowing that was Mother and Child (Divided)), so we went with sheep as that was one we couldn't remember the name of. Turns out, of course, that he did more than one of each animal, and it was a different shark. Obviously we didn't know enough to get it right, but one of those where I wonder if we'd known slightly less we might have got it.
7) Yawn. While I follow football I've never been one of those who knows the history of the European Cup. Figuring it was as good a reason as any, I took inspiration from the 'old' in The Old Lady and put down Juventus (who first won the cup over 20 years later, in 1985).
8) One I'll be sure to run by our Canadian quiz team, we were left with little to go on other than a few options we could safely eliminate. Unfortunately, our guess of 'deep cover' is nowhere near, so I probably need to hand in my Englishman Licence.
9) What at first seems like a fun question is really just "do you know your heptathlon events?" in disguise. We were some way off, as while we at least knew the 800m, we swapped the 200m for the 100m and forgot that it's only the men who run the 110m hurdles.

How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (2 or more correct)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!


My alternative questions

Question 8

1) Moby-Dick was first published in London under the title The Whale. What dystopian novel's early title was The Last Man in Europe?
2) What movie franchise supposes that Jaws 19 would be playing in cinemas this year?
3) Which naval rank originates from the title given to the commander of ships at the back of a squadron during battle?
4) Eurythmics is an annoying band name to spell, because you'd think it would have an extra 'h' in it. Which American rock band, formed in 1992, also seems to have a missing 'h' in its name, the nickname of its asthmatic vocalist?
5) The Stevie Wonder single Happy Birthday was written to help Wonder's campaign to make whose January 15th birthday a national holiday in the United States?
6) The compound formaldehyde contains what three elements?
7) Which 4-time European Cup winning team are also named after a mythological Greek hero?
8) The name of this suspiciously grasshopper-looking Disney character is a minced oath for what two-word phrase?
9) Simulating the experience of a 19th century cavalry soldier behind enemy lines, which multi-discipline Olympic event sees competitors paired with horses at random?

The answers

1) (Orwell's) Nineteen Eighty-Four
2) Back to the Future (specifically, in the second movie)
3) Rear admiral (vice admirals commanded the lead ships; rear admirals were in less danger, so it's a handy way to remember the order of the ranks)
4) Weezer
5) Martin Luther King
6) Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen
7) Ajax
8) Jesus Christ (the character is Jiminy Cricket)
9) Modern pentathlon

How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!

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