Saturday Quiz: Put Your Smarts to the Test

What amount of common knowledge are you holding? Plunge into this set of questions to discover.

The Questions

1 Which country music legend had a close brush with death by an ostrich in 1981?

2 Dame Sarah Mullally has been appointed as the 106th what?

3 Which initially met at Þingvellir in the nation of Iceland in 930?

4 In the power industry, what is EfW?

5 Tears of Christ wine originates from vineyards on what mountain?

6 Which British television comedy has been running for 19 years?

7 Whose findings resulted in the adoption of all-seater stadiums in the United Kingdom?

8 Which piece in chess was initially called the counsellor?

What Links

9 Brick Lane; Chancery; Hangar; Leather Lane; Park Lane; Pudding Lane?

10 Urbión Range; Tordesillas town; Zamora; Oporto?

11 Son of Cush; ninth variation in music; naval patrol plane; Iranian embassy siege?

12 Caldey; Denny Island; Flat Holm Island; Lundy Island; Stert Island; The Wolves?

13 Boxing; chariot racing; discus; javelin; broad jump; pankration; grappling?

14 James Bond; Alec Leamas; Pyle figure; Verloc persona?

15 Cate Blanchett; Penélope Cruz; Keaton performer; Sorvino actress; Dianne Wiest?

In deep water over the Tordesillas clue?

The Solutions

1 Johnny Cash.

2 Canterbury Archbishop.

3 Althing (parliament).

4 Waste-to-energy.

5 Vesuvius.

6 Not Going Out (second longest-running UK sitcom)

7 Lord Justice Taylor (1990).

8 Queen.

9 Lanes in London.

10 Douro River: starts in Spain; flows through in Spain; reaches Atlantic.

11 The name Nimrod: from Genesis; in Elgar's Enigma Variations; Hawker Siddeley Nimrod; SAS operation codename.

12 Islands in the Bristol Channel.

13 Events in the ancient Olympics.

14 Spy titles in books: Ian Fleming's The Spy Who Loved Me; John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; Greene’s The Quiet American; Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent.

15 Won acting Oscars in Woody Allen films: Blue Jasmine; Vicky Cristina Barcelona; classic Annie Hall; feature Mighty Aphrodite; Hannah and Her Sisters, Bullets Over Broadway.