Weekend Trivia Challenge: Put Your Smarts to the Test

How much of common knowledge are you holding? Dive into the following set of questions to find out.

The Queries

1 What icon of country music was nearly killed by an ostrich in 1981?

2 Sarah Mullally was named as the 106th what?

3 What first convened at Þingvellir in Iceland during the year 930?

4 In the power industry, what is EfW?

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

6 Which British television comedy has been airing for nineteen years?

7 Whose report led to the implementation of stadiums with only seats in the UK?

8 What chess piece was initially called the counsellor?

What Links

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

10 Urbión Range; Tordesillas town; Zamora city; Oporto?

11 Offspring of Cush; ninth musical variation; maritime patrol aircraft; Iranian embassy siege?

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

13 Pugilism; chariot contests; discus; javelin throw; long jump; ancient combat sport; grappling?

14 James Bond; Leamas character; Pyle figure; Adolf Verloc?

15 Blanchett actress; Penélope Cruz; Diane Keaton; Mira Sorvino; Dianne Wiest?

In deep water by the Tordesillas question?

The Answers

1 Johnny Cash.

2 Canterbury Archbishop.

3 Althing (Icelandic assembly).

4 Energy from waste.

5 Vesuvius.

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

7 Taylor Report (1990).

8 The queen piece.

9 London lanes.

10 Douro River: rises in Spain; travels through Spain; reaches Atlantic.

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

12 Islands in the Bristol Channel.

13 Events in the ancient Olympics.

14 Title spies in novels: Fleming’s The Spy Who Loved Me; Le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; Graham Greene's The Quiet American; Conrad’s The Secret Agent.

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