The Night Owl Quiz   2011 - 2012       

Information & News

Remember Utoeya	47		Recycled Empties			46
Pangaea Reunification Party	44		Tinker Tailor Soldier Mollusc			43
Terror Firma	44		Old Speckled Sven			40
The Penguin Question	49		We Try Fat Owls			40

After the sophistication of the Handicap Cup we're back to the 'Bread & Butter' of the Main Quiz, with the fairly good weather over the past few weeks we can hope for another 'Arab Spring', in that on 14th January last year 'Tunisia's' government fell in a relativity unbloody happening. But if not, you may wish to drown your sorrows with a glass or two of either 'Landlord' produced by Timothy Taylor' or 'Black Sheep' the brewery was set up by Paul Theakston when he fell out with Theakstons in 1991. They may also help those little grey cells in recalling that 'St Nazaire' the French port and Nazi submarine base was raided by the British in 1942, when HMS Campbelltown rammed the dock gates; then blew up, destroying their dry dock. However when teams were asked 'What name is given to the Military operation code-named Operation Shingle which began on January 22nd 1944 and was commanded by Major General John P Lucas?' the teams were lost at sea, the allies suffered over 40,000 casualties; it was 'Anzio'.

Round two, the topics were 'Planets' which small planet has two moons Phobos and Deimos? (Mars) and Titan is the largest of over 60 moons around which planet? (Saturn). 'Word Derivations' asked for the name of the land agent in Ireland, a former captain in the British Army who was the centre of a major agrarian rights campaign in which the locals refused to have anything to do with him (captain Boycott) pause for breath! We all knew that Robert Peel gave his name to the Police nickname of 'Bobbies'. 'Books' Sir Percy Blakeney was the central character in 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' while Charles Darney was the central character in 'A Tale of two Cities'. To finish off, and for some it certainly did 'Commercial Companies' so not too bad was that Sir Allen Lane, who died in 1970, founded 'Penguin Books' but who knew that William Vestey, the first baron Vestey, originally a shipping magnate, later established 'Dewhurst (the Butchers).

The first of the Individual Alternates (3-2-1) round saw the defining characteristics of a halophyte plant (a Salt/ Saline area), Military Wives who had a Christmas No1: conducted by ' Gareth Malone' and a true chestnut 'chemical formula' this time for Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) and common salt (NaCl). There were also American painters 'Roy Liechtenstein' who painted Whaam! and 'Edward Hopper' who painted Nighthawks. To end this round, it was 'Michael Buble' who's album 'Christmas' was a best seller at Christmas 2011 and 'Gladioli' a member of the Iris family gets its name from the Latin for sword (gladiolus).

After the break, Team alternate, Heraldry gave us 'Argent' used to refer to the colour silver or white and 'Sable' for Black. Disorders, but not of sheep ( I'm sure you remember 'Call my Bluff') but this time the foot and lower leg (Podiatry) followed by the Intestines, the middle section which joins the duodenum to the ileum is called 'the Jejunum', it's enough to put you off your Aloo Gobi the indian dish consisting of 'Potatoes and Cauliflower'. Or even a chinese meal with 'Hoisin sauce' which literally means sea food, even though it was traditionally made using sweet potatoes and has never had any fish in it. It was then full speed ahead for 'Honda' who recently (2009) relaunched their Insight model as a cheap hybrid, while 'FIAT' came out with the '500' a relaunch of a model they made from 1957 to 1975.

The second of the (3-2-1) rounds had individuals and teams reminiscing about 40's and 50's comedy films 'The Lavender Hill Mob' where Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway attempt to smuggle gold from a robbery by using models of the Eiffel Tower. While 'Passport to Pimlico' sees The Duke of Burgundy reclaim part of London. Equally nostalgic was 'Rock & Chips' shown in 2010, the prequel to Only Fools and Horses. Whereas 'Ray Mears' BBC adventure programs .... Goes Walkabout, and .... Northern Wilderness can still be seen on 'Dave'. Foreign players in a British Football team, take your pick, Liverpool have Daniel Agger from 'Denmark' while Manchester City's Vincent Kompany comes from 'Belgium'. Mixed in with these are a couple of pure Britishness, 'Rosebury' took over from Gladstone when he made his final appearance as Prime Minister, resigning in 1894. While 'Palmerstone' was Prime Minister from 1855 to 1858 and 1859 to 1865, he was particularly well known for his foreign policy (As Foreign Secretary he played a key role in establishing the independence of Belgium (1830–31) and Greece (1832) and secured Turkey's integrity against France (1840). Appointed Prime Minister in 1855, he brought an end to the Crimean War, approved the creation of the independent Kingdom of Italy, and supported a policy of neutrality in the American Civil War.)

To the final round, it is often said for some questions you either know the answer or do not have a clue, and so it proved with the questions on 'The Lord of the Rings' the dwarf who helped on the quest was 'Gimli' and the Elf Prince was 'Legolas' . In this the Olympic year, teams are primed for such questions as 'Who won the men's 400 metres at consecutive Olympics in 1996 and 2000'? (Michael Johnson) and 'Which Finnish athlete won gold in both the 5000 and 10,000 metres at the 1972 Olympics?' (Lasse Viren). Geography as we know is not everyone's forte, so working out that 'Shenton' is close to the railway and Ambion Hill, lying 2 miles due west of the Bosworth Battle centre, and that 'Wistow' has the Nooks country park and a Hall, situated halfway between Newton Harcourt and Fleckney. Gave teams a mind set for the final two questions, just to say that the answers were 'Heligoland' and 'Nantes', the actual questions taking up half a page, by the time you get to these final questions, the QM could well be on their last legs, so keep it simple I say.