Tuesday 23rd October 2012
Set by Groundhogs (Northern)

Round 1
1a Which Englishman scored 766 runs in the 2010-11 Ashes series in Australia?
ALAISTAIR COOK
1b In 2012 which town became-the first in Essex to-be granted city status?
CHELMFORD
2a For what crime was Robert Hubert hanged in the 17th century?
STARTING THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON (it was a
false confession)
2b Which rock, formed by the solidification of thin layers of molten lava, comprises much of the surfaces-of Mercury, Venus, Mars and the Moon?
BASALT
3a Which political party has ruled Syria since 1970?
BA'ATH
3b Shelina Permalloo won which TV show in 2012?
MASTERCHEF
4a In 2011, who became the first artist to win the Mercury Music Prize twice, first winning it in 2001?
P J HARVEY
4b Which high street chain is named after a character in Moby Dick?
STARRUCKS

Round 2
1a Which is the most northerly of Britain's 15 National Parks?
THE CAIRNGORMS
1b Who became the first British cyclist since Tom Simpson in 1967 to win the classic Paris Nice 'race to the sun' in March 2012?
BRADLEY WIGGINS
2a What name is given to the original single continent on Earth that has split into the continents we have today?
PANGEA
2b What irrevocable step was taken by Caesar in 49I3C?
CROSSING THE RUBICON
3a Name either of the team captains in the BBC comedy panel show 'Would I Lie To You'.
DAVID MITCHELL OR LEE MACK
3b Which"former national leader held the following titles? The Eternal Bosom of Hot Love', 'The, Greatest Deity of the Planet' and 'The Supreme Commander at the Forefront of the Struggle
against Imperialism and the United,States'
KIM JONG IL
4a Which book is set in the 1930s and features Pinkie as the leader of a gang?
BRIGHTON ROCK
4b Which English singer/songwriter, born in 1974, was an officer in the Life Guards regiment and served with NATO in Kosovo in 1999?
JAMES BLUNT

Round 3
1a Which national anthem features in Schumann's 'Viennese Carnival Pranks' and in Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture?
LA MARSEILLAISE (accept French)
1b Who wrote 'The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner'?
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
2a Shooting, swimming, riding, cross-country running and what comprise the modem pentathlon?
FENCING
2b Which river meets the Rhine at the 'German Comer'?
MOSELLE
3a Who was King of Libya when it gained independence from Italy on Christmas Eve 1951?
IDRIS
3b Which substance interrupts the conduction of impulses in nerves and has the chemical formula C17 H21 NO4?
COCAINE
4a Which leader of the British National Party appeared on Question Time in October 2009?
NICK GRIFFIN
4b In 2012 who became the oldest winner of an Oscar, for his role in 'Beginners'?
CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER

Round 4
1a What links Indolence, Psyche, Nightingale, Melancholy and Autumn?
ODES OR POEMS BY KEATS
1b Which popular song did Stravinsky incorporate into 'Greetings Prelude' in 1955 unaware that he was in breach of copyright?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY (to you)
2a How is French Somaliland now known?
DJIBOUTI
2b Which female swimmer from Merseyside became the first to qualify for the 2012 Olympic games in 3 individual Olympic disciplines?
FRAN HALSALL
3a Gout is caused by the crystallisation of which acid in the, body?
URIC
3b Of which country was President Sukarno the first president? He became president on 18 August 1945?
INDONESIA
4a In 1994, who made her film debut in 'Heavenly, Creatures', a film based on a true, story set in Christchurch, New Zealand?
KATE WINSLET
4b Which protest movement which began in 2011, had as its slogan 'We are the 99%'?
OCCUPY

Round 5
1a To which, position did Joachim Gauck succeed Christian Wulff in spring 2012?
PRESIDENT OF GERMANY
1b In the 'Archers' which character fell off a roof and died while trying to take down a Happy New Year banner in January 2011?
NIGEL PARGETTER
2a Which singer's real name is Arnold George Dorsey?
ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK
2b Pashtu and Dari are the official languages of which country?
AFGHANISTAN
3a Which Serbian football club is the only one from that country to win an UEFA completion?
RED STAR BELGRADE
3b In which English City is Robert Adam's celebrated Pulteney Bridge?
BATH
4a Which country's royal family can trade its ancestry to 960 AD making it the oldest in the world?
DENMARK
4b What name, referring to a fluid or membrane, is given to joints that are freely movable?
SYNOVIAL

Round 6
1a Steve Delaney created and plays the role of which former variety star who makes malapropisms and has delusions of grandeur?
COUNT ARTHUR STRONG
1b Who is the President of Ireland as at April 2012?
MICHAEL D HIGGINS
2a What is the Cornish name for Cornwall?
KERNOW
2b Patsy Kline, Kenny Rogers, Sea, Eternal and Gnarls Barkley all had hits with which song title?
CRAZY
3a Which chain of volcanic islands is the westernmost part of the USA and is in the northern end of the Pacific 'Ring of Fire'?
ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
3b Which sport has the highest ratio and officials to players?
(LAWN) TENNIS
4a What subatomic particle was postulated in 1931 to account for energy that seems to be missing when an atomic nucleus undergoes beta decay but wasn't detected for more than 20 years because it only interacts weakly with matter?
NEUTRINO
4b Which English King had nicknames of 'Lackland' and 'Softsword'?
JOHN

Round 7
1a Which variety of tea is known as 'the champagne of tea'?
DARJEELING
1b Which vegetable has varieties including 'Prince Albert, Champagne and Victoria'?
RHUBARB
2a Who founded the penny post?
SIR ROWLAND HILL
2b What is the maximum number of characters in a single SMS (text) message?
160
3a How-many possible moves can be chosen from to start a game of chess?
20
3b The groundhog celebration in America has its origins with settlers from which country?
GERMANY
4a 2009 saw the death of Omar Bongo, Africa's longest serving leader. Of which oil rich nation had he been President for over four decades?
GABON
4b Born in 1813 which philosopher is widely considered to be the progenitor of modern existentialism, most notably expounded in his work 'Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the
Philosophical Fragments'?
SOREN KIERKEGAARD

Round 8
1a Writing in 1620, Francis Bacon noted that three things-had Changed the whole face and state of things throughout the world'. One was the compass, name either of the other two.
PRINTING (PRESS)/GUNPOWDER
1b Which adjective, meaning treacherous or untrustworthy was applied originally in French to 'Albion' 'an old name for England) by the Marquis de Ximenez in a poem in 1793, and later by Napoleon when he departed for exile on St Helena?
PERFIDIOUS
2a What natural product consists of a vertical lattice of rhombic decahedra with a hexagonal cross sectional at the open end and walls less than 0.1mm thick?
HONEYCOMB
2b Which member of the cat family shares its name with a unit of weight?
OUNCE
3a A tangelo is the result of crossing a tangerine and with other fruit?
GRAPEFRUIT
3b Sometimes known as 'kasha' which flour is used in North America and Eastern Europe for making pancakes?
BUCKWHEAT
4a The internet craze of taking pictures of yourself lying face down in unusual locations is known by what name?
PLANKING
4b In classical history what number was indicated by the word 'myriad'?
TEN THOUSAND

Spare Questions
1 Which former national leader held the following titles 'Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea', 'Conqueror of the British Empire' and the 'Last King of Scotland'?
IDI AMIN
2 What movie's tagline was "They'll never get caught. They're on a mission from God"?
THE BLUES BROTHERS
3 Which brewery-recreated Higsons Best Bitter in 2011?
LIVERPOOL ORGANIC
4 Hero, Reuben and Submarine are all types of what?
(AMERICAN) SANDWICH
5 In diving, for what does the S stand for in "scuba"?
SELF (Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus)