Latest questions: 24 August 2021

These questions were mainly inspired by those set for use in the Cup and Plate Quarter–Finals of the 2011–12 season in Stockport Quiz League, by the Tiviot (Questions 3 to 17) and the Alexandra (18 to 32). Questions 1 and 2 were among the Spares from Week 17 of that season, set by the Smart Alex.

Which novelty act (linked to a popular children's television series) was the most successful chart act in the UK in 1974, with four Top 10 singles hits (total 65 weeks in the chart) and three Top 20 albums?		The Wombles
The world's four longest railway platforms are at four different locations in which country?		India
Which song, popular with British troops in the First World War, was written in 1912 by West Midlands–born Music Hall artiste Jack Judge – reputedly in 24 hours, to win a five shilling bet?		It's a Long Way to Tipperary
Herb–Robert is a wild variety of which popular garden plant?		Geranium or cranesbill
Leptis (or Lepcis) Magna was a prominent city of the Carthaginian and Roman Empires, and its ruins are among the best–preserved Roman sites in the Mediterranean. In which modern–day country are they?		Libya
A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, first published in 1926, is often known simply by its author's surname. Who was he?		H. W. Fowler
What word, derived from the Spanish word for a 'rogue' or 'rascal', has been used in English since the early 19th century for a genre of fiction depicting the adventures of a roguish, but "appealing" hero, usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corrupt society? The genre was popular in the 16th century, and satirised by Cervantes in Don Quixote		Picaresque
Which Dutch philosopher and Christian scholar, born in Rotterdam around 1466, was said (originally by Catholic monks in the early days of the Pretestant Reformation) to have "laid the egg that Luther hatched"		Desiderius Erasmus

The second verse of the UK's National Anthem is rarely, if ever, sung in modern times. What are the opening words to the third and last verse?		Thy greatest gifts in store / On her be pleased to pour
What is a march brown?		A type of mayfly, or an artificial fishing fly that imitates it

Once described as the "dean of the Impressionist painters", who was the only one to display at all eight Paris Impressionist exhibitions (between 1874 and 1886)?		Camille Pissarro
Which Savoyard dish, often served as an après–ski meal, is made with potatoes, local cheese, lardons of bacon or pork fat, and onions?		Tartiflette
Who composed the Radetzky March?		Johann Strauss (Sr.)
Whose band had Top Ten hits in the early 1960s with Midnight in Moscow, March of the Siamese Children, The Green Leaves of Summer and Sukiyaki?		Kenny Ball (& his Jazzmen)
Once the county town of a smaller administrative county, in which current English county is the town of March?		Cambridgeshire
First broadcast in the UK on BBC Four in 2013, and later on Dave, which American sitcom stars Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope, "a perky, mid–level bureaucrat" in Pawnee, a fictional town in Indiana?		Parks and Recreation
Which tourist attraction in Cambridge shares its popular name with a similar structure in Venice?		The Bridge of Sighs
What was the stage name of Johann Hölzel (also known as Hans), who in 1986 became the first Austrian act to score a UK No. 1 hit?		Falco
In 1962, an American advertising executive named Martin K. Speckter proposed a punctuation mark that would express excitement or disbelief when asking a question. He designed it to combine a question mark and an exclamation mark. What name is most commonly given to this character?		Interrobang
Which former Governor of the Bank of England shares his name with a Suffolk–born darts player (BDO World Championship runner–up in 2002 and 2004) and a Norfolk–born bowls player (World Indoor Singles champion 2006, and three times doubles champion)?		Mervyn King
The adjective 'plantar' refers to which part of the body?		The sole of the foot
Blondie, Angel Eyes and Tuco are the three title characters in which 1966 film?		The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Which interjection, possibly of Yiddish origin but popularised since 1994 through its use in The Simpsons, was defined by Chambers Dictionary in 2014 as "expressing indifference or boredom"?		Meh
Which girl's name was coined by Jonathan Swift for his pupil, lover and correspondent Esther Vanhomrigh?		Vanessa
Whose body was stolen from his grave in Switzerland in March 1978, three months after his death? It was found two months later, buried in a field a few miles away, after the culprits had been caught (having attempted to extort a ransom from his widow).		Charlie Chaplin
Which 1963 film was set in the real–life seaside town of Bodega Bay, California – although the story on which it was based was set in Cornwall?		The Birds
Band–Aid, Listerine, Neutrogena, Nicorette and Sudafed are among the brands owned by which American multinational pharmaceutical and consumer goods company?		Johnson & Johnson
Her brothers were all born at Buckingham Palace, but in which royal residence was Princess Anne born?		Clarence House
Born in 1956 in the nearby village of Darfield, which poet and broadcaster is sometimes refrerred to as 'the Bard of Barnsley'?		Ian MacMillan
Which brand of vodka was developed in the 1990s as a luxury variety for the American market, and is produced in France?		Grey Goose
The composer Johannes Brahms was born in 1833, in which German city?		Hamburg
Nuremberg is the second largest city in which German state, or Land?		Bavaria

© Haydn Thompson 2021