Saturday Quiz: Put Your Smarts to the Test

What amount of common knowledge are you holding? Plunge into the following collection of queries to discover.

The Questions

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

2 Sarah Mullally was named as the one hundred and sixth what?

3 Which initially met at Þingvellir in Iceland in 930?

4 In the power industry, what is EfW?

5 Lacryma Christi vino comes from wine estates on what mountain?

6 Which BBC sitcom has been airing for 19 years?

7 Whose findings led to the implementation of stadiums with only seats in the United Kingdom?

8 What chess piece was initially called the counsellor?

Common Connections

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

10 Urbión Range; Tordesillas town; Zamora; Porto?

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

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

13 Pugilism; chariot racing; discus throw; javelin; broad jump; ancient combat sport; wrestling?

14 Agent 007; Alec Leamas; Alden Pyle; Adolf Verloc?

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

In deep water over the Tordesillas clue?

The Answers

1 The Man in Black.

2 Canterbury Archbishop.

3 Althing (parliament).

4 Waste-to-energy.

5 Vesuvius.

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

7 Taylor Report (1990).

8 The queen piece.

9 London lanes.

10 River Douro: starts in Spain; flows through in Spain; empties into the Atlantic.

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

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; Le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; Graham Greene's The Quiet American; Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent.

15 Oscar wins in Woody Allen movies: Blue Jasmine; movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Annie Hall; Mighty Aphrodite; Hannah and Her Sisters, Bullets Over Broadway.