Saturday Trivia Challenge: Put Your Smarts to the Test

What amount of common knowledge do you possess? Dive into this set of questions to find out.

The Questions

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

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

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

4 Within the energy sector, what does EfW stand for?

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

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

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

8 What piece in chess was initially called the counsellor?

What Links

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

10 Sierra de Urbión; Tordesillas town; Zamora; Oporto?

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

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

13 Pugilism; chariot contests; discus; javelin; long jump; pankration; grappling?

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

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

Feeling stumped by the Tordesillas question?

The Solutions

1 Johnny Cash.

2 Canterbury Archbishop.

3 Althing (parliament).

4 Energy from waste.

5 Vesuvius.

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

7 Lord Justice Taylor (1990).

8 Queen.

9 Lanes in London.

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

11 Nimrod: from Genesis; from Elgar’s Enigma Variations; Nimrod aircraft; codename for SAS operation.

12 Islands in the Bristol Channel.

13 Ancient Olympic events.

14 Title spies in novels: Fleming’s The Spy Who Loved Me; 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; Annie Hall; Mighty Aphrodite; Hannah and Her Sisters, Bullets Over Broadway.