The Quizmaster

I'm afraid the dullness of the day continued into the quiz last night, whereas last week we may well have set a record for the number of questions we got right, this week it could be a record for the number we got wrong as we slumped to 5th place. Here's the list of the offending questions, see if you could have helped us out:

1. In which UAE did MCC play Durham in the opening match of the 2010 English cricket season?
2. Which soft drink has been advertised using Maniac as the backing track?
3. Other than cricket in which sport was the annual match between Oxford and Cambridge Universities held at Lord's for a 22-year period up until 1990?
4. During which decade of the 20th century was the Samaritans founded?
5. What number university boat race was rowed on Saturday?
6. Which TV theatrical talent show offers hopefuls the role of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz?
7. For which group was Van Morrison the lead singer in the 1960's?
8. In which Wallace and Gromit cartoon is Wallace duped by a criminal penguin?
9. What is the name of Melbourne's F1 Grand Prix circuit?
10. Which far-Right South African politician was hacked to death on Saturday?
11. Which Gabriella Cilmi song begins: "Ooh watching me hanging by a string this time / Ooh easily the climax of the perfect lie / Ooh watching me hanging by a string this time / Ooh easily smile worth a hundred lies"?
12. Forty years after publication of his most famous novel The Tin Drum, which German author was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999?
13. What did God create on the fifth day?
14. Young Soul Rebels released I Got Soul as a War Child charity single in 2009. It was based on All These Things That I Have Done, a song by which group?
15. Which boyband has had a recent hit single entitled Gave It All Away?
16. Spell benefited. (no prizes for getting that one right, we'd have benefitted from seeing it in writing!)

The quiz is well & enjoyably run by Andrew, pictured above. As his website says "If you're in London, Essex, Herts, Beds or Bucks - Want to hold a quiz event but can't find a quiz master? - Want a fun evening?" Then give him a call. You could also ask him to put in a few more Scottish questions. Here's two we actually got right:

17. Equivalent of John O'Groats to Land's End, the NE to SW extremities of mainland Britain, Dover is the SE equivalent of Land's End; which cape is the NW equivalent of John O'Groats?
18. Scapa Flow is a stretch of sea surrounded by which group of Scottish islands?