You're Here for the Questions, aren't ye?

End of the P-Cup Season Ra Ra Ra

(That sub-headline's ending is not an oblique reference for the Manchester team on University Challenge failing to get any of my two-letter Scrabble word bonus questions; I mean how can QI be mistaken for XI? And they looked so sure)

Our sixth league victory in seven seasons came one game ago, and that was a close run thang dagnabbit and the best draw we will ever play in! It's always a struggle playing with a Tub O'Lard and, I swear the five hour trip to Cambridge, scrambled my mind so much that I missed out on my fourth Full House of the season because I thought there were only 11 letters in the word 'ONEDIRECTIONER" (Yes, I know that's not even a word). Man, that answer sucked asssss.

Nevertheless, game ten was a leisurely jaunt in which I missed out on my fourth Full House of the season because I said "Jacques" and not Orsino said if "Music be the Big Mac of sexytime then let's get a large meal with six chicken McNuggets on the side and some BBQ sauce" (I paraphrase). Man, that answer sucked double ass (ass-ass). However, some self-congratulatory season landmarks of the preening variety: I also broke 200 points in the President's Cup for the first time; got my first 20pt-average season and got my highest 2pt seasons average (5.90). Individually, I was alright indeed. In fact, I answered a total of 146 questions correctly. AND GRRRR IF I HAD HAZARDED A FEW BETTER GUESSES A TAD MORE EXPERTLY, I WOULD HAVE BROKEN THE 150-Q BARRIER. GRRRR... MAKES ME SO ANGRY AND GROWLY GRRRR. Nah, just kidding ... Or am I? (But it's weird when you find President's Cup far easier to negotiate than Tuesday nights in the QLL. Or should I say, totally awesome)

When Sussex (aka UC Alumni) started out, we came dead last in the league on at least two occasions. I mean, we stank up the competition with our incompetence and inability to turn out a full team. It was hilarious. Only, it wasn't. Then we improved so dramatically that we started winning the thing and we never looked back (I hope the same trend has started for the Charity Night  ... we karked major behind for the second year in a row, oh yeah ... BOOF ... come hubris, make me sad; tear this feeling of imperial glory away from my bosom. I dare you!).  Apart from the couple of times every year when Kathryn and I recall our mighty victory against Oxford with a two-person team, and rumble gently with mirth.

Friendly Time
(N.B. I type up a lot of my quizzes in Futura ... it's probably a Wes Anderson thing)

London, going second, won 45-38

President's Cup Friendly 10/03/14

R1

1 Which featured singer links the songs Take Care by Drake, Live Your Life by T.I., Remember to Forget You by Shakira and The Monster by Eminem? 

Rihanna 

2 What did Vladimir Putin call “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century”? 

The fall of the USSR

3 The Huygens Gap is found in which division of the planet Saturn's rings? 

Cassini Division

4 In Greek mythology, which Earth goddess and Uranus were parents of the Titans? 

Gaia

5 Which cryptocurrency was introduced as open source software in 2009 by the mysterious developer Satoshi Nakamoto? 

Bitcoin 

6 Which Jewish holiday is observed on the first and second days of Tishri? 

Rosh Hashanah

7 Lufthansa has its registered office and corporate HQ in which major German city?

U/A

8 Which elementary particles have up, down and charm flavours? 

Quarks

R2

1 Which 2004 film starred the real-life Dutch boxer Lucia Rijker, aka “The Most Dangerous Woman in the World”, as the dirty German WBA welterweight champion Billie “The Blue Bear”? 

Million Dollar Baby

2 Tomari is the main port city and Naha the capital of which Japanese island? 

Okinawa

3 Which Green Day album spawned the singles Wake Me Up When September Ends and Boulevard of Broken Dreams? 

American Idiot

4 Which Dominican Republic dictator is the subject of Rita Dove's poem Parsley? 

Rafael Trujillo

5 What nut flavour is the Italian gelato 'nocciola'? 

Hazelnut

6 Which inventor founded the company AT&T on October 5, 1893? 

Alexander Graham Bell

7 Which founder of the DeBeers diamond company tried to build a “Cape to Cairo” railway? 

Cecil Rhodes

8 Which town in North-Rhine-Westphalia hosts the Garry Weber Open, a grass court tennis tournament that has been won by Roger Federer six times? 

Halle

R3 

1 Maurice Jarre composed Lara's Theme for which 1965 film? 

Doctor Zhivago

2 In the only Major win of his career so far, which American golfer's record tournament score of 265 in the 2001 PGA Championship is the record for all majors? 

U/A

3 Linked to chronic alcohol abuse, the neurological disorder Korsakoff's syndrome is caused by a lack of which vitamin in the brain? 

U/A

4 The first mammals appeared during which geological era?

U/A

5 Flamingo is a “stabile” in Chicago's Federal Plaza by which sculptor? 

Alexander Calder

6 Which title character in an August Strindberg play has an affair with the valet Jean? 

Miss Julie

7 Conceived by Julie and Steve Pankhurst and their friend Jason Porter in 1999, which social networking website uses the slogan “Millions of memories all in one place”? 

Friends Reunited

8 Which jazz saxophonist named the song Naima after his wife? 

John Coltrane

R4 

1 Which 1890s conflict led to the USA's annexation of the Philippines, Puerto Rica and Cuba? 

Spanish-American War

2 Which quantity is multiplied by acceleration to give force? 

Mass

3 Which Roman poet wrote Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori? 

Horace

4 Which town features in Vincent van Gogh's painting Starry Night?

U/A 

5 Which Flavian dynasty founder was victorious during the Year of the Four Emperors? 

Vespasian

6 Rochester is the third most populous city in which US state? 

New York

7 Deriving its name from the Japanese word for cleverness, which style of arithmetic and logic puzzle was invented in 2004 by the maths teacher Tetsuya Miyamoto? 

KenKen / KenDoku

8 Which football club's 1980 FA Cup win is the most recent victory by a team from outside the top division? 

West Ham United

R5

1 The 2013 rugby league Man of Steel award winner Danny Brough is a scrum-half for which Yorkshire Super League team? 

Huddersfield Giants

2 Which Kurdish Muslim general recaptured Jerusalem in 1187? 

Saladin

3 Which Australian film director is best known for his 'Red Curtain' trilogy? 

Baz Luhrmann

4 Mrs Alba Campeol of Treviso has been credited with inventing which dessert in c.1971? 

Tiramisu

5 Ranked at number five in the world, the Malawi Queens is Malawi's most successful ever international sports team. Competing against such other African teams as the Uganda She Cranes, they play which sport? 

Netball

6 Which American poet was known as the “Belle of Amherst”? 

Emily Dickinson

7 All You Need is Lunch, The Fool on the Pill, Denny Lane and W.C Fields Forever are songs by which band? 

The Rutles

8 Formed by a merger on November 30, 1999, which Irving, Texas-based oil and gas company is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company?

U/A

R6

1 Nicknamed the “Diver's Cemetery”, The Blue Hole is the deadliest dive site in the world and is located off the coast of Dahab in which sea? 

Red Sea

2 Raphael painted a portrait of which Pope with the Cardinals Giulio de Medici and Luigi de Rossi? 

Leo X

3 Designed by Pierre Janssen and Gustave Eiffel, an observatory on which mountain collapsed in 1906? 

Mont Blanc

4 Which Salman Rushdie novel follows the Indian actors and plane crash survivors Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha?

The Satanic Verses

5 Which current TV show, starring Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy, features the activities of the Chesapeake Ripper? 

Hannibal

6 Which actor played Headmistress Millicent Fritton in the two recent St. Trinian's films? 

Rupert Everett

7 Which dessert cake, made with layers of almond and hazelnut meringue and whipped cream, derives its name from a spa town in the Landes department in south-western France? It comes in a long and rectangular form known as the marjolaine.

U/A

8 Which Vietnamese city was renamed in honour of Ho Chi Minh? 

Saigon

R7

1 For his role in the Great Locomotive Chase during the US Civil War, Private Jacob Parrott became the first army recipient of which military award? 

Medal of Honor

2 What is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument? 

Double bass / Bass violin

3 Which US linguist composed a sentence in which “colorless green ideas sleep furiously”? 

Noam Chomsky

4 Which composer based his song cycle To The Distant Beloved on the text of physician Alois Jeitteles?

U/A

5 Suryavarman II is best known as the 12th century builder of which 'Temple City'? 

Angkor Wat

6 Which Conservative was the first Prime Minister of the 20th century? 

3rd Marquess of Salisbury

7 Who is the director of the films Rushmore, The Darjeeling Limited and Moonrise Kingdom? 

Wes Anderson

8 Which significant "first" did Jem Mason achieve in the history of horse racing? 

U/A

R8

1 Recounting his time in the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Centre, which British author's autobiography Miracles of Life: From Shanghai to Shepperton was published in 2008?

JG Ballard

2 In 1985, which pasta sauce brand was first introduced in Australia as 'Alora' before a name change four years later? 

Dolmio

3 Cybertron is the homeworld of which robots?

U/A

4 Convicted of the murder and rape of 33 boys and young men, which American serial killer often dressed up as Pogo the Clown? 

John Wayne Gacy

5 Which 2000 single by the Baha Men sold 715,000 copies and was the biggest selling single of the Noughties not to reach Number One? 

Who Let the Dogs Out?

6 Which Monopoly property is a building and not a street? 

The Angel, Islington

7 Which Procter & Gamble brand had a disastrous flop with the 1979 release of its Touch of Yogurt shampoo, partly because buyers thought it was edible?

U/A

8 Which type of Greek mythical creature gave its name to NASA's so-called "Workhorse in Space", a rocket used in over 200 missions from Voyager and Viking to Cassini and New Horizons? 

U/A

B

R

E

A

K

Answers to the Unanswered Questions

R1 7. Cologne

R3 2. David Toms

R3 3. Thiamine / B1

R3 4. Mesozoic

R4 4. Saint-Rémy-de-Provence

R5 8. ExxonMobil

R6 7. Dacquoise (from Dax)

R7 4. Beethoven

R7 8. 1st jockey to win the Grand National (on Lottery)

R8 3. Transformers

R8 7. Clairol

R8 8. Centaur

Spares

1 Given the German name for a capital city, which 1806 treaty was signed in the aftermath of the Battle of Austerlitz and ended the Holy Roman Empire? 

Peace of Pressburg

2 Which Egyptian god of the sun was represented by the Mnevis Bull? 

Ra / Atum-Ra

3 Which US President authorised the overthrow and eventual assassination of the South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem? 

JFK

4 Named after an Italian town, which strait connects the Ionian and Adriatic Seas? 

Strait of Otranto

5 Mithridates the Great ruled which ancient kingdom? 

Pontus

6 Which double A-side release by Will Young was the biggest selling single of the Noughties? 

Evergreen / Anything is Possible

7 Which three words link a 1978 song by The Who and a 2011 album by Jessie J? 

Who You Are / Who Are You