Perfect Pub Quiz

Perfect Pub Quiz
is the ideal companion for all general knowledge nuts. Whether you’re organising a quiz night in your local or you simply want to get in a bit of practice on tricky subjects,
Perfect Pub Quiz
has all the questions and answers. With topics ranging from the Roman Empire to
Little Britain
and from the Ryder Cup to Alex Rider, this easy-to-use quiz book will tax your brain and provide hours of fun.

The
Perfect
series is a range of practical guides that give clear and straightforward advice on everything from getting your first job to choosing your baby’s name. Written by experienced authors offering tried-and-tested tips, each book contains all you need to get it right first time.

Answers:

1. Sir Isaac Newton

2. Greenland

3. Soya Beans

About the Author

David Pickering, an English graduate of St Peter’s College, Oxford, is an enthusiastic quiz team member as well as being an experienced reference book compiler, freelance since 1992. He has worked for many prestigious British and US reference publishers, contributing (often as sole author or chief editor) to around 200 books, most of them falling within the categories of general reference, English language, the arts, history, folklore, entertainment and popular interest. He has also broadcast many times on a variety of subjects on radio and television. He lives in Buckingham with his wife and two sons.

Other titles in the
Perfect series

Perfect Answers to Interview Questions
– Max Eggert

Perfect Babies’ Names
– Rosalind Fergusson

Perfect Best Man
– George Davidson

Perfect CV
– Max Eggert

Perfect Interview
– Max Eggert

Perfect Numerical Test Results
– Joanna Moutafi and Ian Newcombe

Perfect Personality Profiles
– Helen Baron

Perfect Psychometric Test Results
– Joanna Moutafi and Ian Newcombe

Perfect Punctuation
– Stephen Curtis

Perfect Readings for Weddings
– Jonathan Law

Perfect Wedding Speeches and Toasts
– George Davidson

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge the help he has received from fellow members of the Periodicals quiz team, drawn from members of the Old Gaolers Drama Group, and to all others involved in the quizzes contested at the Whale Pub in Buckingham. He would also like to thank Sophie Lazar and Emily Rhodes at Random House Books for their patient assistance.

While every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book is accurate, there must always remain the possibility of there being the odd inaccuracy, which the author humbly acknowledges as entirely his own fault.

Introduction

The pub quiz has become an established feature of modern social life. Thousands of people make a regular journey, rain or shine, to their local for the evening to pit their knowledge against their fellows while enjoying a drink or two in convivial surroundings. Added to these jolly but competitive gatherings are the countless family and other social occasions on which people of all ages pass an hour or two testing their individual or combined knowledge by attempting a quiz of some description, whether it be in the form of a board game or a list of questions in a magazine, newspaper or a book like this one.

The quizzes in this book include a huge variety of types of question, varying from straightforward tests of general knowledge to multiple choice and true-or-false posers. Each quiz begins and ends with a pot luck round covering a random selection of themes and is completed by two specialist rounds as well as by half-time teasers and jackpot questions. Subjects covered in the specialist rounds include all manner of topics, from current affairs, history, the arts and culture to science and nature, sport, entertainment, people and places. Easier questions are mixed in with harder ones, meaning that everyone has a chance of knowing an answer, regardless of age and ability. Later on in this section you will find suggestions for diverting interval rounds, and as well as the 100 general mixed quizzes there are a further 10 themed quizzes designed for use on special dates through the year.

How to use this book

This book is virtually unique in offering a complete quiz of 42 questions on each double-page spread. Quizmasters may choose to deliver the quizzes as presented, complete with half-time teaser and jackpot questions and perhaps with the addition of their own interval round, or else select rounds from different quizzes and compile their own combination of questions. Of course, there is absolutely no reason why enthusiastic quiz players should not use the book simply to test their own knowledge to their own satisfaction or to brush up their question-answering skills for future quizzes.

Half-time teasers

After the first two rounds, the teams are presented with a half-time teaser, which is designed to be used as a tie-breaker in the event that one or more teams finish with the same total. It will be noted that these questions generally have quantitative answers in which the winners are those who get closest to the solution (this makes the chance of an outright winner more likely).

Jackpot questions

The hardest questions are reserved for the jackpot round (though some are easier than others, and a question is only hard if you don’t know the answer). There are various ways in which the jackpot question can be used. It can be employed to settle the final result of the quiz should the half-time teaser fail to produce a winner or, alternatively, it can be offered to the team that has won the basic quiz (as decided if necessary by the result of the half-time teaser): if the winning team gets the jackpot question right they win a pot of cash built up over the weeks or some other extra prize over and above what they win for the quiz itself. This system offers the exciting possibility of a fairly impressive sum being contested at the jackpot stage if no team has managed to answer the jackpot for several weeks.

Fascinating facts

Another unique feature of this book is the addition of a fascinating fact relating to one question in each quiz. Indicated by an asterisk (
) after the question, such glosses are designed purely for the enjoyment and elucidation of quizmaster and contestants alike. If the sharing of such priceless information allows the quizmaster to look much cleverer and well informed than he or she really is, this is entirely intentional!
¹

Adding your own touches

The number of questions in the typical pub quiz varies. Most tend to comprise between 40 and 50 questions, which may take from around an hour to an hour and a half to go through, at a pleasantly relaxed pace. Quizzes in this book include 40 questions each, together with the extra half-time teasers and jackpot questions, so there remains ample opportunity for the quizmaster, if he or she wishes, to insert a round of their own devising, perhaps when the quiz reaches the halfway stage.

The interval round provides the quizmaster with the opportunity of expanding the range of questions for the evening by introducing a set of self-compiled questions that may have particular relevance to the locality or other context in which the quiz is taking place. Alternatively, these questions may deal with current affairs or topical issues that inevitably cannot be covered in a book such as this.

Points won during this round may be added to the overall total, or else treated separately and rewarded (at the quizmaster’s discretion) with a special prize.

There are numerous alternatives for interval rounds, but the following pages suggest just a few ideas that might inspire quizmasters to think about adding a round or two of their own devising.

Current affairs quiz rounds

Although every effort has been made to introduce plenty of recent material in questions for this book, quiz teams are usually surprised and entertained to be asked questions about events that have taken place in the last few weeks, days or even hours. Ideas for possible questions on such diverse topics as politics, sport, gossip, television and the royal family quickly suggest themselves from a cursory read of the day’s newspapers or through other branches of the media. Ten carefully chosen questions on current affairs arranged on the pattern of other rounds in this book are sure to go down well.

Local knowledge quiz rounds

Quiz teams always enjoy and appreciate questions that relate to the place where they live. Such questions are beyond the scope of this book, but may prove a very popular choice for interval rounds. Consider compiling a round of 10 questions that test the local knowledge of those present – but try not to get too bogged down in questions that focus primarily on local history: there are many other kinds of questions that may be asked about the typical town or village, as the following suggestions indicate.

What is the name of the river that flows through the town?

In which year did the town receive its charter?

What is the name of the current mayor?

Which school stands at [location]?

What would you buy at [name of local store]?

Which road connects [name of local landmark] and [name of local landmark]?

Whose statue stands in [location]?

What disaster befell the people of the town in [date]?

Which [animal, symbol, etc.] is featured on the town crest?

Which celebrity was born in [local place]?

What is the name of our twin town in [country]?

Which day of the week is market day?