And so, late to the party I arrive and whether I’ve brought the finest wine or the cheapest bottle of generic vodka will be in the eye of the beholder. The entrées have been provided by John and an intriguing little number supplied by Mike but enough of tortured party metaphors and let us talk of Bruges.

Looking back after this length of time, it is even more obvious to me that there are fundamental failing within Irish quizzing that mean that Ireland as a nation is a long way from ever appearing in the finals of the EQC. John and Mike have made most of the salient points on this issue but there are a couple more I’d like to throw into the mix

I think Mike nailed it on the head by challenging quiz setters to no longer pander to their audience. Something I’ve been accused of more than once is setting table quizzes that are far too hard and I did write half the questions for the supposed quiz from hell (see Don’t work… too hard; however, the shocking round was written by the silent-but-deadly Michelle) but I honestly believe that a) it wasn’t that hard a quiz and b) that making it a quiz where the scores are higher, the central premise of it being a GK quiz, i.e. the display of more general knowledge than your opponents, would have been lost. This is not the Special Olympics, not everyone “can be a winner” so why not accept that and reward ostentatious outbursts of intellectualism?

The dumbing down of quizzing is a real bugbear of mine going back to my own brush with TV quiz glory. I’ve always felt that Challenging Times was doomed once it moved from the intelligent time zone between Prime Time and BBC Question Time to the slot after Home & Away on Network 2. The time change seemed to influence the standard of question as in later series, the early rounds were frankly basic (Smart kids do well because they do anyway but they do really well as questions are aimed at the less smart kids). For a while it appeared Mastermind was changing tack with specialist rounds on pop culture replacing those on the classics but at least there is still a need for obscure minutiae even if the topic is ‘The Life and Works of Katie Price’. However, one show that has driven me to despair with its dumbing down is Pointless. The clue is in the title and yet most contestants are clueless. It is a show where to win cash, you need obscure, particular knowledge (Steve, quizzings’ Tony Cascarino proved this by winning the jackpot) yet when teachers can appear on it and say Mexico is a state of the USA and everyone goes “Oh what larks”, I find myself yelling at the TV “No they’re morons! Please treat them like Morons!”

Pointless becoming easier may be traced back to it moving from BBC2 to BBC1. It is significant that more intellectual programming remains on BBC2 and BBC4 (to our chagrin we cannot go on Only Connect, damn having to actually live in the UK) where viewing figures and yoof programming are not the be all and end all.

But at least they have quiz shows in the UK. It occurs to me (and I am open to correction on this) that the only regular show where Joe Soaps are asked about obscure knowledge is Ceist GAA on TG4, whose fundamental failing as a General Knowledge Quiz is quite obvious. When UK shows like 15-to-1 disappear, there is still Mastermind or Brain of Britain on Radio 4, my love/hate (love the quiz and knowledge; hate the mong contestants) Pointless or the less heralded but equally interesting The Chaser. Since the demise of WWTBAM (IRE), Irish TV and quizzing have gone their separate ways. But it was not always so. As well as Challenging Times, there was Blackboard Jungle, Rapid Roulette, Where in The World? and Murphy’s Micro Quiz-M. However, since Bunny Carr and the late Peter Murphy left our screens, there has been no consistent multi-series General Knowledge quiz on Irish TV. Yet table quizzing remains strong in the country so in theory Ireland should be producing as many international quality quiz teams as an equivalent country such as Belgium.  So why don’t we?

John’s audioboo with Stejn and Mike’s discussion with Chris from Belgium explain how different Belgian quizzing is from our own.  The non-use of pubs is a red herring as one of the British quizzing scene’s biggest threats is the closure of village pubs, something I discussed with former Mastermind winner David Edwards (in a gratuitous namedrop). As Mike has points out, it is more than just an issue of team make-up or question phraseology so  maybe Irish quizzing has within it an inherent flaw. There were thirteen countries in the Team competition in Bruges and while none of the British Isles teams were as aided by local questions as we felt the German and French were, we were surprised that there wasn’t at least one gimme question for an Irish team in any of the four major quizzes. Is that the fault of the question setters? Of course not, as it doesn’t have to be compulsory to pander to contestants. In Ireland, however, we do, not just in making questions simple but in the major failings in Irish quizzing of all forms: Hibernocentrecism and parochialism.

In our fund-raising quiz, I asked a question about who were the 2010 Galway Senior hurling champions, using the logic that that Clarinbridge were also All-Ireland champions. But this very simple question highlights one of the faults of Irish table quizzes. GAA questions only appear in Ireland but, as such a central tenet to Irish life, it would be difficult to leave out any mention of GAA in an Irish quiz. However, given that they won’t come up in international quizzing (and that has to be the context in which this whole diatribe is seen) it is time that parochial and Irish questions be set aside for more worldly topics. After Bruges, I know I don’t know Central European literature, the myths of India, South American geography and the flora and fauna of Asia. These topics don’t come up in Irish quizzes but Gráinne Seioghe always seems to.

If Ireland wishes to make an impact on world quizzing, then we need to abandon the insularity and accept that unless we embrace Polish harpsichordists, or classical music as a whole.  Compare Challenging Times’ and University Challenge’s music rounds – we will never impact the finals.

RTÉ Radio One’s Mooney Show featured a guest called Olan McGowan who spoke about his experience as a question writer on the (short-lived) Irish version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He also discussed some funny incidents from the world of tv/radio quizzing.

Have a listen here:

Are you ready for some answers? In a moment, I will give you the solutions to those (pretty hard) questions from the Pairs event at the European Quiz Championship that I posted yesterday.

First though, I’d like to point out that, with all the excitement over the weekend, I’ve only just gotten around to putting up the podcast of last week’s After the Fact radio show.  The theme of the show is fire and you can listen to it at this address: www.mixcloud.com/claremorrisfm/after-the-fact-fire/

Anyway, back to those questions.  Click continue reading to see the answers.

Answers:

1. What was the two-word nickname of Beatrix Kiddo, aka ‘The Bride’, played by Uma Thurman when she was still part of the ‘Deadly Viper Assassination Squad’ in the Kill Bill movies? A> Black Mamba
2. From 2003 until 2006, .cs was the country code top-level domain name for Serbia and Montenegro.  Before 1993 .cs had been the country code top-level domain of another country. Which? A> Czechoslovakia
3. Its neighbouring island is named Blefusco, the capital of the island is Mildendo and it is ruled by an Emperor: Golbasto Momarem Evlame Gurdilo Shefin Mully Ully Gue.  What island are we talking about? A> Lilliput
4. Which progressive rock band (1967 – 1972) recorded three albums and split up before the last, ’666′, was released? Its lead singer would also have a great solo career. A> Aphrodite’s Child
5. This alternative name for Northern Italy, derived from the name of its most important river, was sparsley used until 1990 when the separatist Italian political party ‘Lega Nord’ proposed it as the name of an independent Northern Italy.  Which name? A> Padania
6. In 1993, the book A Suitable Boy was published, a story that plays in the fictional city of Brahmpur.  With 591,522 words it was the largest book ever published as a single volume in the English language.  It was the second novel of what Indian poet and novelist? A> Vikram Seth
7. Which French football coach, who celebrated his biggest success in 1984, shares his surname with an eastern Mexican state, a member of the Spanish nobility, a minor planet discovered in 1920 and a county in south-western New Mexico? A> (Michel) Hidalgo
8. Derived from a city in southern France, what is the name of the 2009 third-person video game, for Xbox and PS3, by Platinum Games, known for its time slowdown or ‘Witch Time’? A> Bayonetta
9. She has flaming locks of auburn hair, ivory skin and eyes of Emerald green, her smile is like a breath of Spring and her voice is soft like Summer rain.  Whose beauty is beyond compare? A> Jolene
10. The name of which German philosopher and mathematician (1646 – 1716) appears in tribute in the name of a brand (in two varieties) of German biscuit that is rectangular in shape and has 52 ‘teeth’ around its edge? A> (Gottfried) Liebniz
11. At the end of the 16th century, Annibale Carracci was commissioned to decorate it with frescoes, which he spent 11 years completing.  In 1992 it served as one of the locations for a live, real-time, worldwide satellite broadcast of Puccini’s opera Tosca.  Rome’s Palazzo Farnese, which actually featured as a location in Puccini’s original work, is now home to which EU member state’s embassy in Italy? A> France
12. If both coaches use their full allocation over the course of a regular game, what is the maximum number of ‘time-outs’ in an American Football game (assuming no overtime)? A> 12
13. Although born and raised in Peru and retaining his nationality, residency rules permitted him to play for the USA in the Davis Cup.  1959 was his annus mirablis.  Who was runner-up in the men’s singles final of the US Open, won the men’s singles in the Australian Open, and became the first Latin American to win the Wimbledon’s men’s singles title? A> (Alex) Olmedo
14. Now giving their name to the airport of Palermo, what was the profession of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, who were murdered in 1992? A> Judges
15. Which guide book, that was first published by Megadodo Publications, one of the great publishing houses of Ursa Minor, advises its owners never to lose their towel? A> The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Of those above, David and I got 11 correct, missing #4, #9, #10 and #13.  No 9 is the only one that I did know but couldn’t get out of my brain.  Of the correct ones, I will admit that #3, #5, #11 and #14 were educated guesses.

We all have to guess from time-to-time.  As long as you have some pertinent knowledge, you’re in with a chance of getting it right. As an example, consider question #14 above. We didn’t know the answer, hadn’t heard of the men involved but we figured they must have been victims of the mafia. After that, it was just a case of deciding between judges, lawyers and journalists and we felt that judges rang a small bell somewhere.

Norway and Finland face-off in the Nations Cup final

Our weekend of quizzing is over and I have returned home from the land of expensive tea*. Tired I may be, but I’m also slightly wiser and delighted to have made a slew of new friends.

Sunday morning offered no respite for those with fragile heads as the Pairs event kicked off at 10am. David and myself entered this ‘Duo quiz’ with one aim in mind – try and break the 40 point barrier that had bedevilled our two previous team performances. Big news: we did it! In fact, we scored 52.

This quiz was more akin to the Individual qualifier than the team quizzes. At the start of each round, we received a sheet with 12 questions.  One of these was usually linked to an audio clip which would be played on the PA. The sheets also included small, black-and-white versions of pictures related to (on average) three or four of the questions. Whilst, these pictures were also displayed on the big screen, I did find it surprising throughout the weekend that, at such a well-organised event, no-one was able to find a colour photocopier for the question sheets.

As I’m now back at home, I will return to traditional form and include some of the questions from this quiz at the end of the post. You better get your game face on though!

The Pairs event didn’t feature a second round.  Pat Gibson and Kevin Ashman, surely the two best quizzers in the world right now, were (unsurprisingly) the winners.  Their score of 80 was three clear of two teams in second place.  You can check out the full list of scores here: www.eqc2011.be/site/teams/4/sort

After lunch, the event the weekend had been leading up to arrived: the final of the Nations Cup. I’d be pretty confident that everyone who was still around was in the hall to watch a marathon knockout quiz between the surprise finalists Norway and Finland.  Whilst the semi-finals had featured a board with 20 categories, the final was based on a board with 30 of them.  Some seemed obvious (‘One hit wonders’, ‘The great war’, ‘Baroque’), others were a touch more cryptic (‘Keys’, ‘Vandalism’ and ‘No sex please”), whilst some were amazingly specific (‘Civilisation IV’ springs to mind here).

The match was the definition of nip-and-tuck. Throughout the quiz, there was never more than six points between them – and this in a quiz where right answers were worth 2 points (first half) and 3 points (second half). At the start of the final round, Norway led by 69 points to 67.  Finland had control of the board and faced the only topic remaining: ‘Wildflowers’. Neither they nor Norway could answer the first quesion correctly. Finland did manage to get the second one right though, so they overtook Norway by a single point. It all came down to the last question. A picture was shown of a blue flower with white speckles. Finland didn’t recognise it so it passed over to Norway who had a final chance to nick the title! Alas, they didn’t give the right answer either, so the title was won by Finland and that single point. It was breathless stuff!

For us, that was the end of the weekend.  It was off to the train station and back to Brussels to stay with our friend Brian. We arrived back in Ireland at lunch time today.

We all had a great weekend.  Even though we didn’t come within an ass’s roar of winning one of the title quizzes, we did enjoy finding out how we measure up. Not bad at all, really.  We’re definitely mid-table. None of us studies for quizzing so we’re happy to be there right now.  In the future, who knows?

Questions from the Pairs Quiz (a mix, to showcase the range of knowledge and difficulty):

1. What was the two-word nickname of Beatrix Kiddo, aka ‘The Bride’, played by Uma Thurman when she was still part of the ‘Deadly Viper Assassination Squad’ in the Kill Bill movies?
2. From 2003 until 2006, .cs was the country code top-level domain name for Serbia and Montenegro.  Before 1993 .cs had been the country code top-level domain of another country. Which?
3. Its neighbouring island is named Blefusco, the capital of the island is Mildendo and it is ruled by an Emperor: Golbasto Momarem Evlame Gurdilo Shefin Mully Ully Gue.  What island are we talking about?
4. Which progressive rock band (1967 – 1972) recorded three albums and split up before the last, ’666′, was released? Its lead singer would also have a great solo career.
5. This alternative name for Northern Italy, derived from the name of its most important river, was sparsley used until 1990 when the separatist Italian political party ‘Lega Nord’ proposed it as the name of an independent Northern Italy.  Which name?
6. In 1993, the book A Suitable Boy was published, a story that plays in the fictional city of Brahmpur.  With 591,522 words it was the largest book ever published as a single volume in the English language.  It was the second novel of what Indian poet and novelist?
7. Which French football coach, who celebrated his biggest success in 1984, shares his surname with an eastern Mexican state, a member of the Spanish nobility, a minor planet discovered in 1920 and a county in south-western New Mexico?
8. Derived from a city in southern France, what is the name of the 2009 third-person video game, for Xbox and PS3, by Platinum Games, known for its time slowdown or ‘Witch Time’?
9. She has flaming locks of auburn hair, ivory skin and eyes of Emerald green, her smile is like a breath of Spring and her voice is soft like Summer rain.  Whose beauty is beyond compare?
10. The name of which German philosopher and mathematician (1646 – 1716) appears in tribute in the name of a brand (in two varieties) of German biscuit that is rectangular in shape and has 52 ‘teeth’ around its edge?
11. At the end of the 16th century, Annibale Carracci was commissioned to decorate it with frescoes, which he spent 11 years completing.  In 1992 it served as one of the locations for a live, real-time, worldwide satellite broadcast of Puccini’s opera Tosca.  Rome’s Palazzo Farnese, which actually featured as a location in Puccini’s original work, is now home to which EU member state’s embassy in Italy?
12. If both coaches use their full allocation over the course of a regular game, what is the maximum number of ‘time-outs’ in an American Football game (assuming no overtime)?
13. Although born and raised in Peru and retaining his nationality, residency rules permitted him to play for the USA in the Davis Cup.  1959 was his annus mirablis.  Who was runner-up in the men’s singles final of the US Open, won the men’s singles in the Australian Open, and became the first Latin American to win the Wimbledon’s men’s singles title?
14. Now giving their name to the airport of Palermo, what was the profession of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, who were murdered in 1992?
15. Which guide book, that was first published by Megadodo Publications, one of the great publishing houses of Ursa Minor, advises its owners never to lose their towel?

Now, put those in your pipe and smoke!

Don’t forget, you can see some photos from the weekend here.

Update: answers here.

* €5 was the dearest. It was nice tea, to be fair, but come on… €5!

As I said yesterday, quizzing is almost constant at this event. Anyone who wants to can bring along a laptop, some answer sheets and take over the main stage. Yesterday afternoon’s event was called the ‘Totally Subjective Quiz’ and it followed the Belgian model. Before each round you were handed an answer sheet that was specific to that round. For example, round 1 featured a list of eleven European monarchs. The quiz master then proceeded to call out facts about 10 monarchs and we simply had to match E with 1, J with 2 etc.

I ended up forming an impromptu alliance with the man I asked about the quiz, Stijn, and I’m opening up this post talking about it as we went on to win the quiz! So there, I’ve won a quiz at the European Quiz Championship.

Saturday morning saw the Individual Quiz qualifier take place. This is quizzing crossed with the Leaving Cert. Before each round the paper for it (usually containing 12 questions) is handed out and you then have 12 minutes to write down your answers. Over 170 people took part so we were four to a table. This was handy as you were expected to swap answer sheets with the person opposite you.

I was paired with John Porcella, an Italian with a lovely English accent. He was the best kind of corrector, complimenting my right answers and pointing out how hard the questions I got wrong had been.

As a group, we all did much better here than we had the night before in the Nations Cup. David did best, scoring 54. I was one behind him while Mike scored 48. These scores meant that Dave had finished joint-64th, I was joint-73rd and Mike was about 103rd. Once again, the aim of not embarrassing ourselves was achieved. David even managed to finish on the same score as Barry from the Eggheads!

As with the Nations Cup, the top 10 qualified for a second stage. Unlike in the team event though, they were allowed to keep their scores. Kevin Ashman topped the scoreboard after the table quiz on 86, leading by 5 (I think). As it turned out, he didn’t need this buffer as he scored highest in the second stage as well, to win the title of European Champion.

This final phase took place on stage. The top 10 sat facing each other, in fives, with a judge each behind them. After each question they had 30 seconds to write down an answer before the judges then revealed whether they had scored a point or not. (Well, it was two points per question actually).

After dinner, we were all back in the main hall for a team quiz. This only differed from the opening night in that you were free to mix and match teams, as friendship and necessity dictated. We were joined in this by a lovely German guy called Sebastian (a team-mate of Holger from the Movie quiz). We hoped this would be the killer move that would see our scores rocket up due to the prevalence of German-based questions throughout this weekend. Alas things turned out to be similar to Friday night – as was our score of 35/100.

That said, this quiz was even harder than Friday night. My evidence? Even the winning team ‘only’ scored 62!

The night finished up late with us joining some of the Belgian quizzers in an informal couple of hours of Quiz Bowl. Think University Challenge and you have the format.

I left the Belfry at 1.30am – finally ‘quizzed out’ for the day.

The Nations Cup qualifier last night was possibly the hardest quiz I’ve ever seen, let alone taken part in. Questions ranged from obscure to the impossible. The one that sticks in my mind opened with a picture of a lady sitting at a keyboard, with her back to the camera. ‘Ok, it’s going to be about a pianist’ I thought.

“This Polish harpsichordist contributed to the harpsichord revival of the mid-twentieth century. What is her name?”

Now, I don’t know about you, but the harpsichord revival of the mid-twentieth century must have slipped under pay radar as I wasn’t aware anyone did anything noteworthy on the harpsichord since the end of the Baroque era.

As I said in my update last night, we were lucky enough to have a fourth team member for the Nations Cup. Steve Dodding is a British quizzer who had come to Bruges via bicycle, with the intention of taking part in the Individual and informal events on Saturday. Thankfully he decided to come along to the Nations Cup as a spectator and, when word of our plight reached him in the bar, he generously set off for our table to offer his services. He qualified under the Irish Granny rule!

With Steve’s help we exceeded our initial goal – not to finish last in the top division. In fact we finished 11th (of 13) with 35 points, only one point behind Germany in 10th. The top 10 qualified for knock out quizzing so we were very close to that.

At the very top, Beligum pipped England in the ranking by a single point, with a phenomenal score of 86. Both of these were over 20 ahead of the next teams: Norway (62) and Finland (60).

Knockout quizzing sees two teams taking on each other in a match, with the teams taking turns to choose categories from a large board (on the big screen). Each category then included three questions. The quiz continued until all the categories were used. Amazingly, both Finland and Norway showed that the 20 point gaps from the qualifier weren’t that accurate as they defeated the top two in their semi-finals. They will face each other in tomorrow’s final.

Aside from meal times, quizzing is almost constant here. Last night saw a movie quiz, organised by the local Belgian group. Nationality doesn’t matter in these fun events and there was much mixing and matching in evidence. We didn’t feel so outgoing and sat down together, the three of us. A tall German called Holger approached us though and asked if we needed a fourth, which of course we did, so he joined us.

The production values of the quiz were excellent. Almost every question involved a video clip and it was both tough and fun at the same time. With Holger’s help we improved on our ranking within this crowd of quizzers, finishing seventh. We had actually been fourth at half-time but a picture round in which we had to match flags with screen shots cost us dear. We even managed to miss the connection between 101 Dalmatians and Croatia.

The Movie Quiz ended about 1am and I had to call it a night. I say it like that as the quizzing wasn’t finished! The Latvian team took over the stage and we’re about to start a Russian-style quiz as I left. I did hear the first question: “A science-fiction series begins with a short story by Frank [somebody]. What four word sentence was stated by the hero of this series at its end?”

Yikes!

You may have noticed that these posts are devoid of pictures. I’m sorry about that; I’m finding it hard to get photos from my phone to the blog. I have created a picasa folder which you can view here: picasaweb.google.com/106157431169709169744/EuropeanQuizChampionships.

I’ll be back online shortly with a report on how we got on in this morning’s Individual Quiz. Until then I’m off to watch the Individual final.

My mate Ger is next week’s quiz master at Gilligan’s but I’m afraid I won’t be there to report on his quiz.  A ticket to next week’s big European Championship qualifier between Ireland and Armenia has come my way so, obviously, I’ll be in Dublin on Tuesday night.

Hopefully, the Ireland team won’t catch the grabbing-defeat-from-the-jaws-of-victory bug that’s going round.

Answers:

1. What is the highest rank in the British Army? A> Field Marshall
2. What do the letters CT stand for in a CT scan? A> Computed Tomography
3. In which town were the Clancy brothers brought up? A> Carrick-on-Suir
4. Iliana Mironoff is the birth name of which famous actress? A> Helen Mirren
5. Which headland in county Antrim features in the shipping weather forecast? A> Fair Head
6. Who invented the crossword? A> Arthur Wynne
7. What is the actual first name of jockey Ruby Walsh? A> Rupert
8. What event happened on April 26, 1986? A> The Chernobyl disaster
9. Which two teams will contest this year’s Mayo county football final? A> Castlebar Mitchells and Ballintubber
10. What do the letters CNN stand for? A> Cable News Network *
11. How many toes does a dog have? A> 14 18
12. What is the maiden name of Michael D. Higgins’ wife? A> Coyne
13. Who are the new presenters of Crimecall? A> Gráinne Seoige and Philip Boucher Hayes
14. Slieve Donard is the highest peak in which mountain range? A> Mourne Mountains
15. What film was Grace Kelly shooting when she first met Prince Ranier of Monaco? A> To Catch a Thief
16. What is the fifth book of the New Testament? A> Acts of the Apostles
17. Which TV personality got into trouble recently with some comments about work practices in RTÉ? A> Gráinne Seoige
18. On what (Sky) channel did Midwest Radio recently launch a TV programme? A> 201
19. What was the surname of the Belmullet family who recently won the Lotto? A> McIntyre
20. Who is the CEO of the Health Service Executive? A> Cathal Magee
21. Which Galway businessman recently featured in an episode of RTÉ’s The Secret Millionaire? A> John Concannon

No picture round and yet there are still two mentions featuring the clan Seoige.  I could nearly pick them as my specialist subject at this stage, so much have I learned about them through quizzes!

A blog on Monday night’s movie quiz will follow later today. Until then…

Footnotes:

* We really did over think this one. How can you go wrong with only three words… and you know the first word begins with a C!

None more obvious than the fact that, in both of them, my team were in a leading position at the start of the final round before throwing it all away.  Of course, nemesis rounds do happen from time to time but they seem particularly cruel when they occur in round 10*.

As a post on the movie quiz will require some work (stills and audio clips etc), I’m going to take the easy way out and report on these in reverse order.  Thus, let’s start with the opening evening of this year’s Gilligan’s Tuesday quiz night.

I’ll begin at the end.  Having been leading at half-time by two points, my table (myself, another John and a nice man called Seamus) carried on our good form through the second half.  Nothing phemomenal, just a successions of 8s and 9s.  However, the last round turned out to be a total bust.  We scored a shocking 3/12!  We all knew that our only hope of hanging on was for everyone else to have struggled as we did.  It wasn’t that surprising when the scores were called out and we were in joint-third.

I popped up to check the scoresheet afterwards.  We’d been leading by two points going into that last round (from Ger’s team, as it happens).  We scored 3, they got 5 – hence the tie for third.  However, two teams shot past us with brilliant 10- and 9-pointers.

A 2-point lead transformed into a 4-point defeat.

There was no picture round so here are the questions we missed:

1. What is the highest rank in the British Army?
2. What do the letters CT stand for in a CT scan?
3. In which town were the Clancy brothers brought up?
4. Iliana Mironoff is the birth name of which famous actress?
5. Which headland in county Antrim features in the shipping weather forecast?
6. Who invented the crossword?
7. What is the actual first name of jockey Ruby Walsh?
8. What event happened on April 26, 1986?
9. Which two teams will contest this year’s Mayo county football final?
10. What do the letters CNN stand for? **
11. How many toes does a dog have?
12. What is the maiden name of Michael D. Higgins’ wife?
13. Who are the new presenters of Crimecall?
14. Slieve Donard is the highest peak in which mountain range?
15. What film was Grace Kelly shooting when she first met Prince Ranier of Monaco?
16. What is the fifth book of the New Testament?
17. Which TV personality got into trouble recently with some comments about work practices in RTÉ?
18. On what (Sky) channel did Mid-West Radio recently launch a TV programme? ***
19. What was the surname of the Belmullet family who recently won the Lotto?
20. Who is the CEO of the Health Service Executive?
21. Which Galway businessman recently featured in an episode of RTÉ’s The Secret Millionaire?

That’s a lot to keep you going.  It’s a sobering thought that nine of them came from one round alone.

There are some good questions in there.  I’d never before even wondered about who invented the crossword!

Update: answers here.

Footnotes:

* It was actually round 9 (out of nine) in Gilligan’s.  They were laid out at 8 x 11 plus 1 x 12.

** The quiz mistress stressed that the order was important here.  We still managed to get things backwards!

*** A three-digit Sky channel number was sought here.

Dear readers, sorry if I have been a bit sparing with the blog posts in the last week.  I have been busy preparing for the start of a new quiz show I am hosting on Claremorris Community Radio.  It’s called After the Fact and it’s broadcast on Thursday evenings at 7pm.

The first episode went out last Thursday and it’s now available online via the Claremorrisfm account on mixcloud.com.  Alas, I haven’t yet found a way of embedding mixcloud files directly into this site so the best I can do is point you in the direction of the specific programme. I hope you enjoy it!

Listen here: www.mixcloud.com/claremorrisfm/after-the-fact-alcohol/

How much would this set you back?

It’s time for a bumper post.  This one will include all the answers to those mentioned in Spot the ball-room and one more.

No, I haven’t remembered what the tie-breaker question was that we answered correctly with “3″.  However, I have remembered a spot prize question, which the quiz master posed mid-way through the night.  Here it is:

• Name either of the Westmeath men who have played at centre-field in an All-Ireland football final in the last 15 years.

I’ll give you the answer to that at the very end of the post.  If I was to give you a clue, I’d say don’t take it too seriously…

The quiz master delighted in a bit of word play.  Whether this was intentional or not, I’m not sure.  At one point he created a hubbub by mistaking the ‘l’ for an ‘r’ in a question relating to venue of the Pope’s election.  I’m sure that was deliberate.  However, his introduction of the raffle prize (a ticket to the All-Ireland football final) as one of the “most converted” items around probably wasn’t.

Have some answers:

1. True of false: Kerry defeated Mayo by nine points in this year’s All-Ireland football semi-final. A> True (1-20 to 1-11)
2. T/F: Cassata is an Italian dessert. A> True
3. T/F: In Who wants to be a Millionaire?, contestants have to answer 12 questions correctly to win the million. A> Both *
4. The Mitchelstown Caves are located in which Irish county? A> Tipperary
5. Who won the Mercury Music Prize in 2010? A> The xx
6. The town of Emly is located in which Irish county? A> Tipperary
7. What type of animal is a Rhodesian Ridgeway? A> Dog (although it’s actually called a Rhodesian Ridgeback)
8. In Father Ted, what was the name of the ‘Dancing Priest’? A> Liam Finnegan
9. Who is the current Ceann Comhairle of Mayo County Council? A> Austin Francis O’Malley
10. The world’s largest soccer stadium is the Rungrado May Day.  It holds 150,000 people.  In what country can it be found? A> North Korea
11. Kerry footballer Colm Cooper represents what club? A> Dr. Croke’s
12. Who did Charlestown defeat in the 2009 Mayo county senior football final? A> Knockmore
13. Which Dublin theatre was co-founded by Micheál Mac Liommóir and Hilton Edwards? A> The Gate Theatre
14. What is Ireland’s second-smallest county? A> Carlow

Spot the Ball:

1. B
2. B
3. B
4. B
5. A
6. C
7. A
8. B
9. C
10. B

Picture round:

1. Bryan Cullen
2. The Saturdays
3. Omar Sharif
4. Joe McQuillan
5. Mundy
6. Caroline Wozniacki
7. Ludwig van Beethoven
8. Dominique Strauss-Kahn
9. Tasmanian Devil
10. Dan Carter
11. Tony Buckley
12. Mary McEvoy

The biggest cheer of the night came when a wrong answer was given.  During the audio round, we were asked “How much had the bike cost?” in this song here:

The answer given was €92.  However, most people in the room must have known that was wrong as heckling started.  Ordinarily, if there’s a challenge, the quiz master has to send someone off to check the definitive, correct answer.  Not so on this occasion – he just lined up the song on the CD player and we all listened to a bit more of it than he’d played earlier.  When the appropriate line “…he asked me of a hundred, I gave him eighty-two…” was broadcast the room erupted into a massive ovation.  You’d have thought Seamus Moore himself had just walked in!

Tie-breakers:

1. In what year did Ireland host the Ryder Cup? A> 2006
2. Which Emma starred in and wrote the screenplay for the film Sense and Sensibility? A> Emma Thompson
3. A.N. Other question A> 3
4. What is normally served from a tureen? A> Soup (or vegetables)
5. What was the name given to the process of compelling men to join the navy? A> Press Gang

Finally, here’s the answer to the question at the top of the post.  You could have said either Foster or Allen.  I told you not to take it too seriously!

Footnote:

* The answer initially called out was “False.  It takes 15 questions.” Someone challenged this and it turned out they were also right – since 2007 the newer format now only features 12 questions. So everyone got a point for this particular question.