Great Brain Quiz 112

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( ) % of correct answers (including tie breakers) when section attempted

  1. Sir Patrick Mayhew (100)
  2. John Maynard Keynes (99)
  3. Virginia Mayo (95)
  4. Louisa May Alcott (99) of "Little Women" fame. The March family
  5. Willie Mays (95) baseball legend
  6. Peter Mayle (92) "A Year in Provence" etc
  7. Garfield (99) the Jim Davis created fat cat that has been going strong since 1977
  8. Triboulet (60) in "Le Roi s'Amuse"; the inspiration for "Rigoletto".
  9. Mousmee (70) "Smee". Proved much harder than I had expected.
  10. Burgess + Maclean (95) British traitors who became Soviet agents
  11. Saab (99) "baas", ie boss
  12. Jeremy Irons (90) who played the great ballet dancer and choreographer Michel Fokine in "Nijinsky"
  13. Alison Moyet (99) singer
  14. The TV Lark (30) a short series that commenced on 25 January 1963 sandwiched between Series 3 + 4 of the long-running "The Navy Lark". In this, the cast were in charge of a commercial TV station called Troutbridge Television. The facts all apply to "The Navy Lark" as well, save the Janet Brown bit. She was not in that popular programme. A decisive question.
  15. Tintern Abbey (100) "Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey"
  16. Reese Witherspoon (80) John Witherspoon, of New Jersey. Bad luck if you tried Maud Adams or Sharon Stone
  17. SY (85) yachts, physic, synroc, slayed, senary, greasy, misery, glossy, beastly
  18. Michaela Tabb (90) first woman to referee a match in the World Snooker Championships at the Crucible, Sheffield
  19. He painted the famous Kitchener recruiting poster "Your Country Needs You" (96)
  20. Nehru (99)
  21. Bob Charles; Michael Weir (95) 1963 Open; 2003 Masters. Not Phil Mickelson who has yet to win a Major.
  22. Humphrey(s) (99) "Watch Out There's a Humphrey About"
  23. Genius (92) the equivalent for women was Juno
  24. Roy Race (85) of "Melchester Rovers". The famous "Roy of the Rovers" comic strip
  25. Arafat (97) Mount Ararat
  26. 2770 (90) 10 is 7 x 2 - 4; 25 is 10 x 3 - 5; 94 is 25 x 4 - 6; 463 is 94 x 5 - 7; 2770 is 463 x 6 - 8
  27. Adrian Bell compiled the first Times crossword puzzle (95)
  28. Ayia Napa (95)
  29. Bombardier Major Thomas Ferebee (99) I accept the wording was suspect so other answers were OK.
  30. Riggs (95) the "Lethal Weapon" films; "Oklahoma" was based on the Lynn Riggs play "Green Grow the Violets"
  31. Pachyderm (99)
  32. Signorinetta (97) Derby winners Gladiateur (1865); Smolensko (1813); Plenipotentiary (1834); Cotherstone (1843). She was the only filly among that group and the only winner in the 20th century (1908). She also started at odds of 100/1 whereas all the others were short-priced favourites. I reckoned that qualified her to be the "odd one out" but I accept that Gladiateur was the only French-bred etc and I did accept alternatives if they were "justified".
  33. Mumps (99)
  34. French Without Tears (90) by Terence Rattigan
  35. Dandelion (99) "dent de lion", ie tooth of a lion
  36. Darius (98)
  37. Ofex (92) ie Off Exchange. Had to have "Ofex" which are quoted in the FT and was the point of the question.
  38. Paris (95) whose Stock Exchange is called the "Bourse". The French word for a bear is "ours". I realize that other world stock exchanges are called "bourse" but Paris is easily the most famous. Other answers were accepted, though.
  39. The Pobble (99) Edward Lear poem
  40. Bedchamber Crisis (95) 1841
  41. Bubbles (99) Pear Soap's famous advertising poster which utilised the 1880's painting of his grandson by Millais
  42. Crony (99) Greek "cronos"
  43. Crewe (100) Sara Crewe novel; song "Oh Mr Porter, what shall I do? I want to go to Birmingham and they're taking me on to Crewe"; Crewe Alexandra's football ground which is, of course, Gresty Road, not "Grestry". Apologies!
  44. Anubis (95)
  45. Gurkhas (75) this produced some strange answers but it would seem that "Kshatriyas" are perfectly acceptable.
  46. Castle of Wizardry (98) which is part of author David Eddings's "The Belgariad". The others constitute "The Malloreon"
  47. Houdini (95) Gilmore's father Frank was almost certainly the illegitimate son of the great magician and escape artist Houdini and a spiritualist with whom he had a relationship called Baby Fay Lafoe
  48. Spout (55) in a pawnbroker's shop the lift which goods were placed in a shuttled upstairs was known as a "spout". Hence arose the expression "up the spout" for goods that were basically worthless until they had been redeemed
  49. Hong Kong (70) the Happy Valley race meeting in February 1918. A grandstand caught fire and caused over 600 deaths
  50. John F Kennedy (98) after the PT109 which he commanded had been sunk by a Japanese destroyer off the Solomon Islands on 2 August 1943. The surviving crew were rescued after a native delivered the coconut shell to a US base nearby
  51. Emmanuel PETIT (98)
  52. Death DRUMS Along the River (98) starred Richard Todd who played Guy Gibson VC in "The Dambusters"
  53. The APPLE Cart (92) G B Shaw
  54. Stewart CINK (96)
  55. HAIL the Conquering Hero (94)
  56. TRIANGLE Shirt Company (98)
  57. FIRST Among Equals (94) Archer novel; Starr (who is not on Bill Clinton's Christmas card list!) wrote "First Among Equals: the Modern Supreme Court in American Life"
  58. Whistle Down the WIND (100) Sir Alan Bates; Hayley Mills, daughter of Sir John
  59. When Eight BELLS Toll (98)
  60. THUNDER and Lightning Polka (100)
  61. Varieties of Organ Stops over the years (70)
  62. Puget Sound (88) Pierre Puget was a 17th century French sculptor. The exhibits mentioned are in the Louvre
  63. Major John Philip Wilson (80) played for Yorkshire in 1911/12. Won on Double Chance in 1925
  64. Honore Daumier (92) who fell foul of Louis Philippe after his caricature of him as a grotesque Gargantuan figure
  65. W C Fields (98) about Mae West
  66. Paul Niehans (94) allegedly saved the life of Pious XII with his cell treatment
  67. Sydenstricker (88) surname at birth of "The Good Earth" author Pearl S Buck. Not sure why she used that pseudonym
  68. Sergio Leone (96)
  69. Mick Jagger, in a tribute to Brian Jones (90) after his friend's recent death Jagger recited a passage of Shelley's "Adonais" which had been written as a tribute to John Keats
  70. Naomi Campbell (98)
  71. All are preceded by "City of the" (80) as nicknames for Medina, Cologne, Galway, Limerick, and Athens
  72. 6 (98) The Prisoner's number on the mysterious island in that series; Caan's shirt number in the "Rollerball" matches
  73. First non Royal to appear on a British postage stamp (92) during the 1964 Shakespeare Festival that marked the 400th anniversary of his birth
  74. Mouse (90)
  75. Nelson Betancourt (40) who made his first class debut on 14 August 1905 playing for Trinidad v Jamaica. On 1 February 1930 he played for the West Indies v England at Port of Spain
  76. Body Heat (98) 31 March
  77. Symplegades; Cyanean Rocks (94) either is fine
  78. Cate Blanchett (90) the Australian actress who is married to scriptwriter Andrew Upton. Their young son is Dashiell John Upton. Ref. to West Ham's ground, Upton Park, and writer Dashiell Hammett
  79. Jesse Owens International Trophy (92) now known as the American International Athlete Trophy
  80. Emu (90)
  81. Wilhelm Maybach (100) who gave his name to the car marque
  82. Mayo Methot (94) who was married to Humphrey Bogart from 1938-1945
  83. J Bruce Ismay (100) Chairman and Managing Director of the White Star Line when the Titanic sank. He was one of the passengers on the ill-fated voyage but was saved on a lifeboat
  84. Anna May Wong (96) just about the only Chinese-American actress to succeed in Hollywood
  85. Tim Mayotte (96) took the boy Boris to five sets in a great match in 1985
  86. Lynda LeMay (80) Canadian folk singer and songwriter, mainly in French
  87. May (96) ie the month
  88. Bob Hope (94) who boxed as an amateur, unsuccessfully, under the name of Packy East. Didn't stop him making 100!
  89. Lavakan (75) the brainchild of Eduardo Segura and Andres Diaz. Had to have that name rather than "Pet Spa".
  90. They are mountains in the Falkland Islands (75) Port Stanley
  91. Eleemosynary; Henry Fielding (86) "History of Tom Jones"
  92. 1 (70) take the COUNTRY of which these are the capital cities and multiply the first and last letters of the COUNTRY by its position in the alphabet (A = 1, B = 2 etc). Thus Copenhagen = Denmark = 4x11 =44; Helsinki = Finland = 6 x 4 = 24 etc; Vienna = Austria = 1x1 = 1
  93. Amilcare Ponchielli (94) whose "Dance of the Hours" music was borrowed by Allan Sherman for his comic song "Camp Grenada". "Hullo Muddah, Hullo Faddah" etc. Those named are mentioned in the lyrics.
  94. Galere (70)
  95. They were dogs owned by President Calvin Coolidge (86)
  96. 7th Armoured Brigade (94) the tank brigade commanded by Yossi Ben-Hanan at Golan Heights during October 1973 when Israel was attacked by a combined tank force from Egypt and Syria
  97. Vaquez; Parvu (70) Edouard Vuillard
  98. Corregidor (84)
  99. 103 Floors on the Empire State Building; 496 is the Third Perfect Number; 6 Firkins in a Hogshead (86 all OK)
  100. Bon Voyage (86) one of Alfred Hitchcock's two propaganda films made for the government ostensibly to bolster the morale of the French Resistance. The displaced French actors who took part in the films called themselves the Moliere Players. The other film was called "Madagascar Landing". Neither film was publicly shown until the 1990's.

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