The Saga Magazine August Pub Quiz - mythical creatures, mountains and railway stations

Saga Magazine Pub Quiz questions

Question 1

Which footballer, now actor, in a fax to ask his manager for a transfer in 1992, wrote: ‘The salmon that idles its way downstream will never leap the waterfall’?

Question 2

Samuel Johnson’s dictionary had 42,773 definitions, but none starting with which letter of the alphabet?

Question 3

Between 1981 and 1991, who won 21 women’s doubles titles at Grand Slam tournaments, almost all of them partnering Martina Navratilova? She then spent six years married to a former James Bond.

Question 4

If you ‘cc’ someone on a letter or an email, indicating that they are to be copied in on it too, what does ‘cc’ stand for?

Question 5

Which 80s band took its name from an old US newspaper headline announcing that a well-known singer was embarking on an acting career?

Question 6

Which mythical animal had the head of an eagle and the body of a lion? 

Question 7

Which old English coin, worth four old pence, was withdrawn from circulation in 1662?

Question 8

What name connects a native American language, a wind that blows in the Rocky Mountains, a kind of salmon, and a twin-engine helicopter manufactured by Boeing?

Question 9

Which movie, released in the UK in 1996, was the first full-length feature film with entirely computer-generated animation? It did rather well, with three sequels.

Question 10

Mix seven parts saltpetre with five parts charcoal and five parts sulphur. What does it make?

Question 11

Who voiced Mickey Mouse from 1928 to 1947?

Question 12

In which British city would you find railway stations called Haymarket, Park and Waverley?

Question 13

What dish, a speciality of Welsh cooking, consists of seaweed boiled to a spinach-like purée?

Question 14

Walter Frederick Morrison sold the rights to his ‘Pluto Platter’ in 1955, but under what name did this toy become popular?

Question 15

A house called Mendips, found at 251 Menlove Avenue, Liverpool 25, is one of the city’s main tourist attractions. 

Who grew up there?

Question 16

What was the name of the 1960 stage musical by Lerner and Loewe made into a film in 1967 and based on the life of King Arthur?

Question 17

Who wrote, for television, the series Cardiac Arrest, Bodies, Line of Duty and Bodyguard, among others?

Question 18

What is the world’s highest free-standing mountain – that’s to say, the highest mountain that isn’t part of a range?

Question 19

Wallace Hartley, born in Colne in Lancashire in 1878, was a violinist and bandleader who worked primarily on ocean liners.

What was his last engagement?

Question 20

In 1979, Marks & Spencer launched the UK’s first-ever chilled ready meals. There were four in the range, including beef bourguignon and chicken cordon bleu.

Neither of these caught on, but one chicken dish, then very fashionable, leapt off the shelves. What was it?