Questions and that's it really...

... so here's my first Prez Cup friendly of the year. Played after the Westminster match. This was written at an incredible pace (let's say 153 minutes), ergo it's rough and ready and random. And it still probably maybe contains a few errors that come from not verifying stuff. Which is very unprofessional of me.

Fun for you

The unanswered questions have been left blank to encourage your sense of abstract competitiveness

Other notes:

The Japanese drum question was written before the EQC Nations final.

I wrote the Lou Reed song two days before he died. What a vaguely interesting coincidence. I'll avoid writing friendly questions on the likes of John Cale, Tom Waits, David Crosby and Richard Thompson for the foreseeable future. Just in case.

If I had put up the 'Coppola' Sicilian headwear question earlier than Tuesday, we BHs may not have won that night's QLL match against Nomads. Procrastination in posting = awesome victory - assuming our opponents would have read my blog (probably not, but it's nice to conceive fatuous and pointless theories).

Date to be entered here when I look up stuff

R1

1. Said to have appeared to an indigenous peasant named Juan Diego on 9 December 1531 at the village of Teyepac, the Virgin of Guadelupe is which country's patron saint?

MEXICO

2. Begun in 1953, the Division de Honor is the top Spanish league competition for clubs playing which sport?

3. Lieutenant Pigeon had a number one with which instrumental song in 1972 - the only British chart-topper in history to feature a mother and a son playing instruments?

MOULDY OLD DOUGH

4. The mythical robber known as Procrustes was killed by which Greek hero?

5. Which English actor links the films In the Bedroom, Batman Begins, The Full Monty and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel?

TOM WILKINSON

6. Based in Bielefeld, Germany, which 'Doctor' is known for its ristorante and culinaria pizzas?

DR. OETKER

7. Which chronic gambler, who died of TB aged 35 in Denver in 1887, was married to a girl named Big Nose Kate?

DOC HOLLIDAY

8. Who played the boxer James J. Corbett in the 1942 film Gentleman Jim?

ERROL FLYNN

R2

1. Which toy designer applied for a patent on something he called Mechanics Made Easy in 1901?

FRANK HORNBY

2. Donna Tartt's third novel The Goldfinch is named after a rare surviving painting by which Dutch painter, who was killed in the 1654 Delft Explosion?

KAREL FABRITIUS

3. The WBA controversially stripped Muhammad Ali of its belt when he gave which boxer a rematch in 1965?

SONNY LISTON

4. In 1932, manager Joe Jacobs famously shouted "We wuz robbed!" when which boxer lost a decision to Jack Sharkey for the heavyweight championship of the world?

5. Brewed by Grupo Modelo, which pale lager is the top-selling beer brand in Mexico and the top-selling imported beer in the US?

CORONA EXTRA 

6. The name of which fruit comes after 'Malay', 'mammee', 'Elephant' and 'custard' to give the name of other fruit?

APPLE

7. Which three-word title links a 1977 song by Elvis Costello and Bret Easton Ellis's debut novel?

LESS THAN ZERO

8. Which chocolate company owns the brand Brookside, which makes dark chocolate-covered fruit candies?

HERSHEY 

R3

1. Which special administrative region of 582,000 people has the highest population density of any sovereign state or dependent territory in the world?

2. Which Russian city is the northernmost city in the world with a population of over 250,000?

ARCHANGEL / ARKHANGELSK

3. Which term for a formidably powerful woman comes from a a female oriental villain in the comic strip ‘Terry and the Pirates', drawn by the US cartoonist Milton Caniff?

4. Which country is the most successful at the World Polo Championships with four golds out of a total 7 medals?

ARGENTINA

5. Canada is the world's most successful country in the women's (15 golds) and men's form (31 golds) of which winter sport?

6. Which country is the world's largest producer of tobacco, mushrooms and truffles, asparagus, apples, peanuts, tangerines and cabbage?

7. "Plucked her eyebrows on the way. Shaved her legs and then he was a she" is a line from which Lou Reed song?

WALK ON THE WILD SIDE

8. Later starring in Jackie Brown, who played the title role in the Blaxploitation films Coffy and Foxy Brown?

PAM GRIER

R4

1. Which Venetian painter's Sleeping Venus aka the Venus of Dresden was an important inspiration for Titian's Venus of Urbino?

GIORGIONE

2. Which Irish-born composer, whose songs include In darkness let me dwell and Flow my tears, became a lutenist at the English court in 1612?

JOHN DOWLAND

3. Which NFL quarterback won the first of four Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers in 1982?

JOE MONTANA

4. Which 1974 horror film by the director Tobe Hooper used the tagline: "Who will survive and what will be left of them?"?

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE

5. The composer Morton Stevens is best known for writing the theme tune to which US cop show that was heard on the first of 279 episodes in 1968?

HAWAII FIVE-O

6. Which 2013 film is about the 2009 hijacking of the Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates?

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS 

7. Which astronaut, who performed the first American space-walk on June 3, 1965, was killed during pre-launch testing for the Apollo 1 mission?

ED WHITE

8. What nationality was Jorge Chavez, the aviation pioneer who became the first man to fly over the Alps in September 1910?

R5

1. Which soprano from New Zealand released her first internationally published album Pure in 2003?

HAYLEY WESTENRA

2. Which London football ground is located on Zampa Road, Bermondsey?

THE DEN, MILLWALL

3. Which company marketed tap water in the UK using the brand name Dasani?

COCA-COLA

4. Designed by Jean Rene Pierre Litoux, Sager Palace at Stromgatan 18 is the official residence of which country's Prime Minister?

5. Telling the story of the five bombers of the ill-fated Navy Flight 19, the writer Vincent Gaddis was the first person to suggest that which area was cursed?

BERMUDA TRIANGLE

6. According to legend, when Pope Leo IV died in 855 he was succeeded by an Englishman named John of Mainz, who during a procession two years later, did what before dying?

GIVE BIRTH to a son

7. Which of the 12 Tribes of Israel formed the Kingdom of Judah with the tribe of the Judah?

8. Today, about 16 million people carry genes that can be traced to which 13th century conqueror?

GENGHIS KHAN

R6

1. Located at the top of Medicine Mountain in the Bighorn Mountain Range, the Bighorn Medicine Wheel is a 75-foot-wide stone circle in which US state?

WYOMING

2. Though temperatures at the visible surface reach 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which part of the Sun's outer atmosphere has temperatures that then shoot up to between 2 million and 9 million degrees Fahrenheit?

CORONA

3. Two months after her abduction by the Symbionese Liberation Army, which heiress was seen robbing a San Francisco bank with her SLA captors?

PATTY HEARST

4. A bispectral index monitor or BIS monitor is used to observe brain waves to measure a patient's pre-surgery level of what?

AWARENESS

5. The Ordovician-Silurian, about 440 million years ago, and the Cretaceous-Tertiary, 65 million years ago, are the first and fifth great... what? 

6. Also called the king of herrings, which giant sea serpent lookalike, usually measuring 36-feet long, has recently made news headlines by washing up on shores? It is also the world's longest bony fish

GIANT OARFISH / REGALECUS GLESNE

7. Which restorative water source is the explorer Juan Ponce de Leon said to have searched for in Florida?

FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH

8. The Coppola is a type of cap that is considered traditional headwear on which Mediterranean island?

SICILY

R7

1. The United Arab Emirates won its first ever Olympic medal when the Dubai royal family member Ahmed Al Maktoum won gold in which sport?

[DOUBLE TRAP] SHOOTING

2. Containing the world's oldest lyrics in a national anthem, the Kimigayo is the national anthem of which country?

JAPAN

3. Sidney Cotton, Patrick Dalzel-Job and Wilfred 'Biffy' Dunderdale have been cited as inspiration for which fictional character?

4. Born at West Horsley, Surrey in 1911, which advertising executive wrote the best-selling 1963 book Confessions of an Advertising Man?

5. Kirsty Roper, the wife of Switzerland's richest man, the biotech billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli, is best known for writing the song Black Coffee, a number one for which group?

ALL SAINTS

6. Which electro-mechanical root cipher machine was invented by the German engineer Arthuer Scherbius at the end of World War One?

ENIGMA 

7. Which Scottish engineer became surveyor general of all British metropolitan roads in 1827?

JOHN MACADAM

8. Which South Korean auto manufacturer makes the Optima and Picanto?

KIA

R8

1. The title of which James Jones World War Two novel is a reference to the stand of the 93rd Regiment in the Crimean War?

THE THIN RED LINE

2. Kodo, Gocoo and Ondekoza are troupes that play the taiko, a Japanese form of which musical instrument?

DRUM

3. Who won successive Oscars for his work on Gigi and Porgy and Bess in 1958 and '59, and won again for Irma La Douce and My Fair Lady?

ANDRE PREVIN

4. Which Premier League club shares its name with a Chilean Primera Division football team who are based in the Pacific coast city of Vina del Mar?

EVERTON

5. Having the most toxic venom of any land snake in the world, the Fierce Snake is more commonly called the Inland what?

TAIPAN

6. Which country's local version of the Guinness Book of Records is called the Limca Book of Books?

INDIA

7. Which term for the art or science of promoting 'health and beauty' using oils extracted from plants was coined in 1937 by the chemist and perfume maker Rene-Maurice Gattefosse?

AROMATHERAPY

8. The symphonic poem The Ballad of Blanik and the 1891 opera The Beginning of a Romance are works by which Czech composer?

LEOS JANACEK

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Spares

The Gaza Strip has an 11km border to its southwest with which country?

EGYPT

The idea to make an area by the campus of Skolkovo Moscow school for business management the Russian equivalent of which Californian region was announced by President Dmitry Medvedev in 2010?

SILICON VALLEY

Virunga, Africa's oldest national park, straddles the equator in which country? 

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

The nine-day Kura Karnival has been held on which Indonesian island since 2002?

BALI

Whose song Maniac featured on the Flashdance soundtrack?

MICHAEL SEMBALLO

The abbreviation T.U.R.P. is used for the surgical operation known as a Trans Urethral Resection of what? 

PROSTATE

A choli is a bodice worn by women underneath which common Asian garment?

SARI

In which country did the Siege of Daraa begin in April 2011?

SYRIA  

ANSWERS TO THE UNANSWERED

R1 2. RUGBY UNION

R1 4. THESEUS

R2 4. MAX SCHMELING

R3 1. MACAU

R3 3. DRAGON LADY

R3 5. CURLING

R3 6. CHINA

R4 8. PERUVIAN

R5 4. SWEDEN

R5 7. BENJAMIN

R6 5. EXTINCTIONS

R7 3. JAMES BOND

R7 4. DAVID OGILVY