Click here for information on the Irish heat of the World Quizzing Championship, which takes place in Athlone on June 2nd: tablequiz.net/wqc/

Before that though, I just want to highlight a question from last Friday that I didn’t think of on Tuesday.  It could be the worst question I’ve ever heard, in terms of phrasing anyway.  Here it is:

“Who did Enda Kenny climb Croagh Patrick with last weekend?”

Do you know the answer? As it happens, we actually got a point for this one but only by getting inside the brains of the question setter to figure out who they were on about. I think we would have been within our rights to have answered John O’Mahoney, Michael Ring, John Delaney, Mayo Rose Dervla Kenny or any one of the several hundred people who climbed the mountain on Saturday, April 28th.  However, the answer they sought was Giovanni Trapattoni.

Now, on with the answers.

Picture round:

1. Delia Murphy
2. Dianna Agron
3. Gene Wilder
4. Peter Ostrum / Charlie Bucket
5. Charlie Chaplin
6. Madonna
7. Justin Bieber
8. Michael Noonan
9. Nicholas Lyndhurst
10. Audrey Hepburn
11. Frank Bruno
12. Kirk Douglas
13. Margaret Thatcher
14. Mary Robinson
15. Garret Fitzgerald
16. Michael Collins
17. William Shakespeare
18. Monica Seles
19. Rory McIlroy
20. Billy Idol

They were many and varied, weren’t they?

A final note on the quiz itself.  As a team of only two people, neither of whom were locals, we felt like we’d done quite well when we finished third, albeit 9 points behind the winners.

My wife’s people hail from Kilmaine and their name is Murphy.  That’s all I knew about Kilmaine before Friday night – the place is full of Murphys.  My lack of knowledge of other facts pertinent to Kilmaine would prove costly before the night was out though.

Firstly, we struggled to find the quiz.  “Where’s it on?” I asked Ger, as we arrived in the town.

“Murphy’s” he said.  That sounded plausible.

So, into Murphy’s Bar we went, only to find the place practically empty, just two patrons, the barman and the Late Late Show on in the corner.

“Is there a quiz on here tonight?” we asked.

“No.  It’s in the other Murphy’s – up the street there.”

Anyway, when we eventually found it, the quiz itself consisted of five rounds of 20 questions.  This is a nice idea, it certainly speeds the quiz up.  However, when one of those rounds is a ‘local’ round, it doubles the pain for those who live outside of five miles from the venue. Why publicize the quiz to the ‘outside world’ if you’re going to rig it in favour of your friends?

Some of the questions in this local round were beauts. Here’s a few I jotted down (Hint: the answer to at least one of these is Murphy):

• What does the name Kilmaine mean?
• When was the Kilmaine GAA club founded?
• What team did they play in their first ever match?
• Who went in goal for the girls’ U-15 soccer team when they won the Mayo title via a penalty shoot-out this year?
• Who played the postman in the recent production of the play The Real McCoy in Kilmaine parish hall?
• Who won this year’s Kilmaine Strictly Come Dancing?
• Which bog is being cleaned this weekend as part of Kilmaine’s Tidy Towns?

Oh yes, a question starting with the words “which bog…”

On the plus side, the quiz did feature a great picture round, again featuring 20 questions.  Have a go yourself (Hint: the answer to at least one of these is Murphy):

Update: answers here.

Finally, here is a selection of the more ‘regular’ questions we missed.

This is a solo quizzing event and is run along the lines of a day during the Junior or Leaving Certificates. Albeit, a short day at the Leaving Cert, as the two papers are only one hour long each.

Here’s the timetable for the day’s events:

• 11am: Paper 1
• 12 noon: Correction of paper 1
• 12.30pm: Lunch
• 1.30pm: Paper 2
• 2.30pm: Correction of paper 2
• 3pm: Results and presentation of local awards*
• 3.30pm: Innaugural meeting of the Irish Quiz Organisation

For more information on how the event is run, please read my report on last year’s event or visit the International Quizzing Association’s site www.worldquizzing.com.

It costs €5 per person to enter and all are welcome.  Please book your place in advance though as we have to print out a copy of the two papers for each competitor.  You can do so via email at wqc@tablequiz.net.

Footnote:

* We will have small awards for the best result in the venue in the various categories.  For more info, check out the worldquizzing site.

In the short-term, it will take care of the organisation of the Irish heat of the World Quizzing Championships and the selection of a team for the European Quizzing Championships.

In the longer-term, hopefully it will eventually oversee competitive quizzing in Ireland.  I can forsee events such as resurrection of the (formerly Rehab) All-Ireland table quiz, helping third-level students restart Challenging Times and maybe even the creation of a Belgian-style individual quiz rankings ladder.

That’s all in the far future though.  Right now, it’s me on my lonesome.

The WQC takes place on June 2 and the afore-mentioned Irish heat will take place.  I’ve yet to nail down a venue but hope to have that done by the end of the week.  At that event, we will then convene the inaugural meeting of the IQO and, all going well, elect a committee for the coming year.

That’s all I can tell you for now.  If you’d like some more info, please visit the IQO page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/IrishQuiz.

A couple of projects which have been filling my time are coming to an end within the next week.  I’ll then be free to put more time back in to the blog.  I’ll also have to get cracking on organising the Irish heat of the World Quizzing Championship.  If you glance at the calendar, you’ll see that the date has now been picked.  It’s June 2nd.  Hopefully, I’ll have a venue sorted out with the next two weeks and will announce it (with great fanfare, no doubt) here on the site.

Until then, here are your answers…

Picture round 1:

1. Adele
2. Beyonce Knowles
3. Derval O’Rourke
4. Lyndon B. Johnson
5. Ryan Giggs
6. Mick Wallace
7. Maria Sharapova
8. Oprah Winfrey
9. Turkey
10. Coldplay
11. Family Guy
12. Johnny Doyle
13. Nigella Lawson
14. Daniel Radcliffe
15. Michelle Obama

Picture round 2:

1. Tom Cruise
2. Lady Gaga
3. Sweden
4. The Script
5. Enda Kenny
6. Matt Cardle
7. Rachel Allen
8. Bernard Brogan Jr
9. Grace Kelly
10. Daniel Radcliffe
11. Brendan Howlin
12. Craig Doyle
13. The Parthenon
14. Nike
15. Justin Bieber
16. Stewie Griffin
17. Angela Merkel
18. Sean St Ledger
19. Katie Taylor
20. Lindsay Lohan

Once again, thanks Pat!

On another (totally unrelated) issue, apologies to those of you discommoded by the recent problems with the Quiz Rankings page.  This was due to an issue relating to a recent update to the site’s theme.  It has now been taken care of so you can now get back to taking on the interactive quizzes.

Ok, enough outta me.  On with the picture rounds…

Picture round 1:

Picture round 2:

I’ll let you stew with those for a day or two and will post the answers then.

Bye for now.

Update: answers here.

In other, surprising, news last week’s episode of After the Fact wasn’t, it turns out, the final show in the series.  In honour of today’s significant anniversary, tonight will see a special Titanic-themed episode of the show being broadcast on Claremorris Community Radio at 7pm.  Visit the website around then and click on the Listen Live link to hear the show.

It should be an interesting show.  For a start, I’m going to be on the receiving end this week and a guest host will be asking the questions!

Food-related film titles:

1. American Pie
2. Ratatouille
3. A fish called Wanda
4. Fried green tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café
5. Hard Candy
6. Breakfast on Pluto
7. Mystic Pizza
8. Duck Soup
9. Seabiscuit
10. Tea with Mussolini

Identify the drinks brand:

1. Jägermeister
2. Absolut Vodka
3. Groslch
4. Paul Masson
5. Connemara
6. Duvel
7. Jose Cuervo
8. The Dalmore
9. Chartreuse
10. Maker’s Mark

Hope you liked those.

What a great night! Everything worked, the crowd were lovely (and copious – there were 31 tables!) and the questions hit the right standard (the winning score was 88/100). The King’s Head itself is a great venue for a quiz as its large screen is visible from both floors and the front of the bar can be curtained off, so as to allow non-quizzers to revel away without bothering everyone else.

I was only given one brief when asked to create a quiz for a food festival: make it general enough that the chefs aren’t guaranteed to win. Well, I didn’t quite manage that as the winning team, the Bronze Turkeys, was made up of the staff from The Kitchen, the restaurant in the Galway City Museum. They were delighted with their achievement and told me that they intend to display the Galway Crystal trophy* in the restaurant for the coming year!

To decrease the inherent advantage of food experts, I included a music round (where the song titles included a food term), a round featuring the posters from 10 films which have food in their titles and a round featuring 10 uniquely shaped bottles.  You can see the last two at the end of this post.

However, to boost up the foodies, I did include an interactive round in which each team received a plate with five small bun cases.  Within each case was a seed, herb or spice and the teams had five minutes to identify the substances.  Everyone seemed to love that and most teams got all five correct!  Obviously, I won’t be including this round here on the site.

Right, so you probably want to sample some of the rounds.  First up, here are the picture rounds.

Food-related film titles:

Identify the drinks brand:

Finally, here’s an interactive quiz for you to try.  It’s one of the rounds from last night.

Food Quiz round:

That is all.  Have a good Easter everyone.

A picture round:

1. Richard Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan
2. Pádraic Ó Conaire
3. Claire Daines
4. Aisling O’Sullivan
5. Derval O’Rourke
6. Emma O’Driscoll
7. Roisin Shorthall
8. Kenny Daglish
9. David Kelly
10. Paddy Moloney

Identify the logos:

1. John West
2. John Deere
3. Subaru
4. Lyons Tea
5. Schweppes
6. Weetabix
7. Smithwicks
8. Finish
9. Whiskas
10. Porsche

Actors and Shakespearean characters:

1. Ian McKellan as MacBeth
2. Judi Dench as Lady MacBeth
3. Al Pacino as Shylock
4. Kenneth Brannagh as Hamlet
5. Kate Winslet as Ophelia
6. Laurence Olivier as Henry V
7. Marlon Brando as Mark Antony
8. Claire Danes as Juliette
9. Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo
10. Ralph Fiennes as Coriolanus

Identify the monarchs (see below for help):

With that last round, I also included the following list, which only includes all their names! However, I give with one hand and (slightly) take back with the other as there are 11 names on the list, so you still need to know your stuff to get full marks.

I hope you enjoyed them!