tablequiz.net

It’s quizzing season in Claremorris once more and last night the McWilliam Park played host to a quiz in aid of the Unicef Ireland / Garda Challenge. Myself and my mate Ger are becoming regulars in the quizzes around Claremorris but we haven’t as yet nailed down two regular team-mates to fill out our four. Last night we were joined by Ger’s mother and his brother-in-law Andy.

Just four weeks after being in a quiz where 88 points was only good enough for tenth, last night we scored 78 – and won! That fact tells all about the relative difficulty of the questions.

So, this week I’ve got a bumper collection of questions we didn’t get right.

Questions:

1. The words kiosk, tulip and caviar all come from which language?
2. In which year did the BBC first broadcast Wimbledon on live TV?
3. What is the fear of fear called?
4. In the motor industry, what is the “procon-ten”?
5. What first did Bernard Harris achieve when he went on a spacewalk in 1995?
6. How many squares are there on a Scrabble board?
7. Where can you find the Hell Gate bridge?
8. Which is the largest country to use a single time zone?
9. How many counties are touched by the river Shannon?
10. Which country boasts the world’s highest density of sheep?
11. Which river is longer: Amazon, Nile or Mississippi?
12. Which is the world’s saltiest ocean?
13. Which of these cities is most southerly: Perth, Melbourne or Sydney?
14. Name the film from the quote: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry”.
15. Name the film from the quote: “Story of my life! I always get the fuzzy end of the lollipop”.
16. In boxing, where does a ‘Rabbit punch’ land?
17. Name the five judges who have stood in for Dannii Minogue in this year’s X-Factor TV programme.
18. In which animated Disney movie will you hear the song ‘Little April Showers’?
19. What was the name of Westlife’s first No. 1 single with a one word title?
20. English man Sir Rowland Hill created what in 1839?
21. Sir Christopher Cockerell launched which invention in 1959?

Picture round:

The first 13 of those questions come from rounds 1 and 3 (in which we scored 4/10 and 3/10 respectively). Obviously, at that point, we didn’t think we’d any chance of being in the running for the win.  However, the leader board wasn’t revealed until half-time, at which point it turned out we were joint-first on 35/50. A pleasant surprise that.

Also, it was nice to know that we weren’t the only ones who found the questions really tough… 🙂

Congrats to the organising committee on a well-run quiz. The 7.45pm listed on the poster was a wee bit optimisitic (in reality, the quiz kicked off just before 9pm) but it was a speedily-run affair, featuring ten rounds, food at half-time, a raffle at the end and still finished by 11pm.

Update: answers here.