Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Programme 7, 2017-18

The cryptic quiz features Marcus Berkmann and Paul Sinha of the South of England against Val McDermid and Alan McCredie of Scotland. Tom Sutcliffe is in the chair.

(7/12)
In a special programme recorded at last summer's Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the South of England take on Scotland, with both teams hoping to score a victory this time after a draw the last time they met. Marcus Berkmann and Paul Sinha play for the South of England while the Scots are Val McDermid and Alan McCredie.

Tom Sutcliffe asks the cryptic and complex questions, which include: Why might Private Atkins, the Marble Man and Clive Dunn find themselves working with Agent J? The more help the teams need from Tom in unravelling the solutions, the fewer points they'll get.

Tom will also have the answer to the teaser puzzle he set before Christmas.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.

28 minutes

Last on

Sat 6 Jan 2018 23:00

Last week's teaser

Tom asked for the significance of the sequence: Washington - Washington - Buffalo - Dallas.

Sorry if you got side-tracked into American football or baseball tournaments - this is in factÌýa much less light-hearted sequence than that, being the locations of the four assassinations of US Presidents.

Abraham Lincoln was shotÌýin Ford's Theater in Washington in 1865. James Garfield was killed at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington in 1881. William McKinley was killed while attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY, in 1901. The last is, of course, the shooting of John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963.

Well done if you spotted the solution. There'll be another teaser question at the end of today's programme.

Rankings so far in this series

All of the teams have now played twice. The league table at the half way stage in the series, before today's contest (ranked in order of number of wins)Ìýis as follows.

Ìý

1Ìý WALESÌý Played 2Ìý Won 2Ìý Drawn 0Ìý Lost 0Ìý Total points 40

2Ìý SOUTH OF ENGLANDÌý P2Ìý W1Ìý D1Ìý L0Ìý Pts 41

3Ìý MIDLANDSÌý P2Ìý W1Ìý D0Ìý L1Ìý Pts 38

4Ìý NORTH OF ENGLANDÌý P2Ìý W1Ìý D0Ìý L1Ìý Pts 36

5Ìý SCOTLANDÌý P2Ìý W0Ìý D1Ìý L1Ìý Pts 38

6Ìý NORTHERN IRELANDÌý P2Ìý W0Ìý D0Ìý L2Ìý Pts 31

Questions in this programme

Q1Ìý Why might Private Atkins, the Marble Man and Clive Dunn find themselves working with Agent J?

Q2 (from Natasha Griffiths)Ìý Can you detect a titular link between The Lady of Shalott, Macbeth's second witch, and the King in his counting-house?

Q3Ìý Music - For whom would these three play cricket?

Q4Ìý A bantam and other birds of a feather fly, by the light of day, to the middle of the ocean to land on a cruiser in heavy weather. On which day of the year would this be appropriate?

Q5Ìý How are Don Fabrizio Corbera, Balram Halwai and King Henry II related to a pink diamond?

Q6Ìý Music - In what sense might the first of these thwart the efforts of the other two?

Q7Ìý Why could there once have been fellow feeling between James Herriot, the composer of the Carmina Burana, and a newspaperman in Indo-China?

Q8Ìý What might you get if you paired the following: a Kentucky Colonel with a Chicago bluesman; the near-neighbours of the lover of madeleine with the former Mrs Rod Stewart; and The Snow Goose with a beknighted union leader?

This week's teaser

Where, historically, might one have been subject to an intergalactic smuggler, the Emperor of Mongo, a Sapiential book and a component of a sword?

Don't write to us as there are no prizes - but Tom will provide the solution at the beginning of next week's edition.

Broadcasts

  • New Year's Day 2018 15:00
  • Sat 6 Jan 2018 23:00

Download this programme

Listen to this programme anytime...anywhere.