Quiz

Events, dear boy In 2025: 1. Name the singer of ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It for You’ whose concert in Perth, Australia, was cancelled because a fatberg had blocked a main sewer. 2. What hub of intelligence did Blaise Metreweli take over? 3. In which capital city did state media warn people weighing less than 8st to stay at home during a spell of windy weather? 4. A swarm of what shut down a nuclear power station at Gravelines in France? 5. At the end of a summit in Alaska, who said in English: ‘Next time in Moscow’? 6. Why did Aalborg Zoo in Denmark appeal for guinea pigs and horses? 7. In which country did the ruling regime ban chess? 8. In which lake did a man from Billericay catch a world-record 105lb carp? 9.

Events, dear boy In 2024: 1. Twenty-two tons of what were stolen from Neal’s Yard in London? 2. Down which steep, grassy hill in Gloucestershire was a Double Gloucester cheese wildly pursued by competitors? 3. Which film from 1964 had its classification changed from U to PG because the eccentric character Admiral Boom exclaims: ‘We’re being attacked by Hottentots!’ 4. How did the black horse Quaker and the grey Vida attract wide attention? 5. A dental plate with seven false teeth set in gold was bought at auction for £23,184. To whom had it belonged? 6. Which London gallery escaped harm when a fire broke out in Somerset House? 7.

Fairly odd 1. What had for 50 years been the name for Fanta Pineapple & Grapefruit before it was changed this year? 2. Why did the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Justin Welby, have to pay £510 in fines and costs? 3. Which country overtook France as the biggest buyer of Scotch whisky, despite imposing an 150 per cent import tariff? 4. For whose visit did Papua New Guinea declare a public holiday, only to find he decided instead to fly straight home from the G7 summit in Japan? 5. Which parents named their new son Frank Alfred Odysseus? 6. In which country were six children and two adults rescued by helicopter and zipwire after hours stuck in a cable car dangling 900ft in the air? 7.

Rather odd In 2021: On which planet did Nasa fly a small helicopter called Ingenuity, bearing a fragment of the Wright brothers’ first aeroplane?A pair of trainers worn by which US basketball star during his first season with the Chicago Bulls in 1984 went for $1.47 million at auction?Which bridge got stuck with its bascules up after opening to let a sailing ship through?Twelve women became drivers on which capital city’s metro after a ban imposed in the 1980s was lifted?What killed 16 people taking selfies on top of a watch-tower in Jaipur? Who had painted a picture sold by Angelina Jolie for £7 million at auction in London?

Out of the ordinary In 2020:1. The town of Asbestos voted to change its name to Val-des-Sources. In which country does it lie?2. What town between Dunstable and Milton Keynes was hit by four earthquakes in a fortnight?3. In a heatwave in America where was a temperature of 130˚F recorded? 4. In April a volcano erupted on an island in the caldera of its predecessor, which exploded in 1883 and went by what name?5. Which Mediterranean island nation gave each of its citizens €100 to spend in bars?6. Chad began to send 75,000 cattle as repayment of a debt of $100 million to which other African country? 7. In February, who won the New Hampshire Democratic primary?8.

You don’t say In 2018, who said: 1. ‘I have the absolute power to PARDON myself, but why should I do that when I have done nothing wrong?’ 2. ‘A piece of cake, perhaps? Sorry, no cherries.’ 3. ‘Frankly, Russia should go away and should shut up.’ 4. ‘It is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes.’ 5. ‘I always say that the river flows well to its destiny because of the guidance of a solid rock.’ 6. ‘There are men out here that do a lot worse, but because I’m a woman, you’re going to take this away from me?’ 7. ‘My wife is Japanese. My wife is Chinese. Sorry, that’s a terrible mistake to make.’ 8.

Say so In 2016, who said: 1. ‘Brexit means Brexit.’ 2. ‘We’ve got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain. Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world.’ 3. ‘The Prime Minister — I should be pleased about this I suppose — seems to think he should be in Chippenham, paying homage to the town where I was born.’ 4. (On discontinuing his Twitter account for six months): ‘Too many people have peed in the pool.’ 5. ‘The UK is going to be in the back of the queue.’ 6. ‘Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum.’ 7. ‘Watching Django Unchained — A Bally-murphy Nigger!’ 8.

On the record In 2015, who said: 1. We must get the cow off the ice. 2. It’s decision time — that’s what pumps me up. 3. Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. Three things happen when they are in the lab: you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticise them they cry. 4. Let us build a kinder politics, a more caring society together. 5. Only a mad person or someone in a dream could think that Russia could one day attack Nato. 6. I find it hard to apologise for removing Saddam. 7. We must not pretend to know what we do not know. 8. Am I tough enough? Hell, yes. 9. If these exit polls are right, I’ll publicly eat my hat. 10. One can have a mental brain fade. Animal magic In 2015: 1.

So they say In 2014, who was quoted as saying: 1. ‘There is no status for the partner of a head of state, and there has never been one.’ 2. ‘He’s there to serve a very important ceremonial function as David Cameron’s lapdog-cum-prophylactic protection device.’ 3. ‘Money is no object in this relief effort.’ 4. ‘I smoked pot as a kid. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.’ 5. ‘If Jesus Christ was alive today, I cannot see him, as the Christian person that he was and the great person that he was, saying this could not happen.’ 6. ‘Rush, O Muslims, to your state, because hijrah to the land of Islam is obligatory.’ 7.