Sport and games

1. Who won the 2006 Isle of Man Tourist Trophy (Superbike category)?
   John McGuinness.
2. Which footballer, after being transferred to an Italian club, said he found it difficult to settle because it was “just like a foreign country”?
   Ian Rush.
3. What are the names of the British mixed doubles badminton pair that won bronze at the Sydney Olympics?
   Joanne Goode and Simon Archer.
4. Which former England rugby union captain bragged about snorting cocaine – then claimed afterwards he had been lying?
   Lawrence Dallaglio.
5. Which equestrian sport must be played right-handed?
   Polo.

Music, art and literature

1. “Who’s the black private dick that’s a sex machine to all the chicks?”
   Shaft! (Damn right.)
2. Whose Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 is much more famous under another name?
   James Abbott McNeill Whistler. The painting is popularly known as Whistler’s Mother.
3. “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, ………” What is the next word in Shakespeare’s Hamlet?
   Horatio.
4. “A school of Victorian artists, often painting literary or historical subjects, generally in a highly sentimental style.” Name the group.
   The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
5. Which performer once recorded the Beach Boys’ “I Can Hear Music” under the name Larry Lurex?
   Freddie Mercury.

History and current affairs

1. Who was the first woman to win a seat in the House of Commons?
   Constance, Countess Markiewicz. She won a seat for Sinn Féin in the November 1918 General Election (a year before Lady Nancy Astor was elected) but refused to swear allegiance to King George V.
2. After which Italian explorer is America named?
   Amerigo Vespucci.
3. A “chad” in the US Presidential election is a piece of paper punched out of the ballot slip. What was it in wartime Britain?
   A cartoon of a man peering over a brick wall, with the caption “Wot no (whatever happened to be in short supply at the time)”.
4. Which member of the shadow Cabinet denied at the end of November 2000 that he was about to quit politics?
   Michael Portillo.
5. Who admitted in court in November 2000 that he had spent £290,000 on flowers in 18 months?
   Elton John.

History and current affairs

1. Which international airport has the code DXB?
   Dubai.
2. What plant gives tequila its flavour?
   The agave.
3. In 1958 the USS Nautilus made a famous journey. Where?
   To the North Pole, under the polar ice cap.
4. What is the northernmost point of the British Isles?
   Out Stack, a rocky outcrop just north of the marvellously named Muckle Flugga, a slightly larger rocky outcrop at the extreme north of the Shetlands.
5. How was the length of the metre originally defined?
   One ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator via Paris.

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