Weekend Trivia Challenge: Put Your Smarts to the Test

How much of common knowledge are you holding? Dive into this collection of queries to discover.

The Queries

1 What icon of country music had a close brush with death from an ostrich attack back in 1981?

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

3 What initially met at Thingvellir in the nation of Iceland in 930?

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

5 Lacryma Christi vino originates from wine estates on what mountain?

6 What British television comedy has been airing for 19 years?

7 Whose report led to the adoption of stadiums with only seats in the United Kingdom?

8 What chess piece was initially called the counsellor?

What Links

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

10 Urbión Range; Tordesillas town; Zamora; Porto?

11 Son of Cush; ninth musical variation; maritime patrol aircraft; siege at the Iranian embassy?

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

13 Pugilism; chariot racing; discus; javelin; broad jump; pankration; wrestling?

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

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

Feeling stumped over the Tordesillas clue?

The Solutions

1 The Man in Black.

2 Canterbury Archbishop.

3 Althing (parliament).

4 Energy from waste.

5 Vesuvius.

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

7 Taylor Report (1990).

8 The queen piece.

9 Lanes in London.

10 Douro River: rises in Spain; flows through in Spain; empties into the Atlantic.

11 The name Nimrod: in Book of Genesis; from Elgar’s Enigma Variations; Nimrod aircraft; codename for SAS operation.

12 Islands in the Bristol Channel.

13 Events in the ancient Olympics.

14 Spy titles in books: 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; movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Annie Hall; feature Mighty Aphrodite; Hannah and Her Sisters and Bullets Over Broadway.