Friday 2 March 2012

Answers & Results to Quizzle Puzzle # 3

Time is up for the latest Quizzle Puzzle.

I feared that we might begin to lose people over time and, alas, there were only seven entrants this time (down by sixteen on last time!). My attempt to get quizzers interested in these sorts of puzzles appear to have failed. Oh well. I might start up quizzles again soon if there is any great desire for them but there's not much point in my taking the time to write the quizzes if people don't want to play them. So this will be the last quizzle for the time being.

Anyway, the top three scores this time were:

1. Hugh Bennett 54
2=. Dom Tait 48
2=. David Stainer 48

Very well done to Hugh!


Round One – Picture Round

1. Germanium (Clemens Alexander Winkler)
2. Niger
3. The Associates (Billy Mackenzie)
4. Richard Réti (Réti opening)
5. Brazil, Indiana (Jimmy Hoffa)
6. Max Ernst (Oedipus Rex)


Round Two – Ditloids

7. 78 Popes have been Canonised by the Catholic Church
8. 8 American States have Names that Begin with the Letter ‘M’
9. 18 Groups in the Periodic Table
10. 3 Laws of Robotics
11. 7 Gold Medals Won by Mark Spitz at the Olympic Games in Munich
12. 9 UK Number One Singles for the Spice Girls


Round Three - Crossword Clues

13. Oscar Wilde
14. Yamaha
15. Cage fighting
16. Fetid
17. Mephistophelian
18. Liberté, égalité, fraternité


Round Four – What Comes Next

19. F - the first letter of the first five cardinal numbers from one to five
20. North Korea – the first five non-living things mentioned in the lyrics of ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’
21. Lines - The last five nouns mentioned in Shakespeare’s famous ‘Sonnet XVIII’ when arranged from last to fifth from last
22. CN – The (two) initials of the last five American Presidents, arranged from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama, when the first initial is shifted forward one place through the alphabet and the second initial is shifted backwards one place through the alphabet
23. Sicily – the regions that are home to the five largest cities in Italy when arranged by population according to the latest census
24. 100 Italian – the chemical number of the first five elements to have been named after a human, followed by the nationality of that (or those) human(s)


Round Five – Cryptic Film Titles

25. The Birth of a Nation
26. The Godfather
27. Taxi Driver
28. Paris, Texas
29. The Blue Angel
30. Dr. Strangelove (I’ve doctored ‘strangelove’ – clever huh!)

Friday 17 February 2012

Quizzle # 3

The deadline for Quizzle #2 is 11:59 pm on Thursday 1st March 2012.

For rules and details of how to enter please see the intial post.


Round One - Picture Round

1. Which chemical element did he discover?
2. This is an outline of which country?
3. Of which band was he the lead singer?
4. After which player is this chess opening named?
5. In which city was he born?
6. Who painted it?













































Round Two – Ditloids

7. 78 P have been C by the C C
8. 8 A S have N that B with the L M
9. 18 G in the P T
10. 3 L of R
11. 7 GM W by M S at the O G in M
12. 9 U K N O S for the S G


Round Three – Crossword Clues

13. Mincing Noel Coward is no withdrawn playwright (5, 5) _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ L _ _
14. Multinational vegetable group (6) _ _ _ A _ _
15. Carbon date combat sport (4, 8) _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ T _ _ _
16. Foul-smelling agent takes it back (5) _ E _ _ _
17. Devilish, devilish shipment overwhelms Shakespearean character (15) _ _ _ _ _ S _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
18. Febrile Attlee reiterating spurious motto (7, 7, 10) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ A _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


Round Four – What Comes Next

19. O, T, T, F, ???
20. Red China, South Pacific, Studebaker, television , ???
21. Life, eyes, men, time, ???
22. SQ, HA, CB, HA, ???
23. Lazio, Lombardy, Campania, Piedmont, ???
24. 62 Russian, 64 Finnish, 96 French, 99 German, ???


Round Five – Cryptic Film Titles

25. The Hatching of Turkey, perhaps
26. Cronus (but not Rhea)
27. Fred Housego
28. Hilton State
29. Smutty Gabriel, for instance
30. Longest rave

Remember to e-mail your answers to quizzlepuzzles@hotmail.co.uk


Themed Round One - Alliterative Footballers

1. Which Serbian sweeper scored his team’s only goal when Ajax lost 2-1 to Real Madrid in the 1966 European Cup Final and, again, scored his team’s only goal when Ajax lost 4-1 to AC Milan in the 1969 European Cup Final?
2. In 1995, Blackburn Rovers coach Ray Harford wanted to sign which alliterative footballer only for team owner Jack Walker to respond with the immortal line "Why do you want to sign ________ ______ when we have Tim Sherwood?"
3. Former French captain Didier Deschamps led which team to the Champions League Final as coach in 2004?
4. The first winner of the Onze d'Or, a football award handed out by French magazine Onze Mondial to the world’s best footballer at the end of each year since 1976, which Dutch left winger scored 143 goals for the great Anderlecht side of the 1970s?
5. The second winner of the Onze d'Or (in 1977) was which footballer who was to be handed the first of two European Footballer of Year awards the following season?
6. Currently playing for Sporting Lisbon, which 6’5” central defender is the tallest outfield player ever to have played for the USA national team?
7. For which club was Argentine forward Claudio Caniggia playing when he received a 13 month ban for testing positive for cocaine in 1993?
8. Which defender scored West Germany’s last minute equaliser to take the 1966 World Cup final into extra time?
9. Having won 119 caps, which goalkeeper, who has played for Antalyaspor, Fenerbahçe, Barcelona and Beşiktaş J.K in an eventful career, is the Turkish international team’s record appearance holder?
10. In 1999, Manchester United signed Mikaël Silvestre after pulling out of a deal to buy which African central defender because of concerns about his history of knee injuries?


1. Velibor Vasović
2. Zinedine Zidane
3. Monaco
4. Robert Rensenbrink
5. Kevin Keegan
6. Oguchi Onyewu
7. AS Roma
8. Wolfgang Weber
9. Rüştü Reçber
10. Noureddine Naybet


Themed Round Two - Non-Greek Gods

1. Often depicted as a terrible creature with an angry blue face, which sky god was the chief deity of the pre-Islamic Turkic peoples such as the Huns, Bulgars, and Magyars?
2. The daughter of Ra and Atum and originating as the patron goddess of Lower Egypt, Bastet is commonly depicted with the head of which animal?
3. Because he was feared for his ability to send hail, thunder and lightning, children were drowned annually as a sacrifice to him. Which Aztec deity, commonly depicted with goggle eyes and fangs, was the god of rain, fertility, and water?
4. Said to never break or to miss its target, what is the name of the magical spear carried by Odin?
5. The state deity of Phrygia, which Anatolian Earth Mother was adopted by the Romans who renamed her Magna Mater and who claimed her conscription as a key religious component in their success against Carthage during the Punic Wars?
6. Represented as wearing the sun for a crown, with thunderbolts in his hands, and tears descending from his eyes as rain, Viracocha is the great creator god in the pre-Inca and Inca mythology. He is better remembered by what alternative name that was appropriated as the name of a sea-going vessel?
7. To which Hindu god was the Angkor Wat dedicated when it was built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century?
8. A trickster god who can shape shift, most often into the praying mantis, and noted for his creation of the first eland, Cagn is the supreme god of which African people?
9. Giving her name to a large trans-Neptunian object in our solar system, who was the Inuit goddess of the sea and marine animals?
10. Which late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon rose to the position of the head of the Babylonian pantheon when Babylon became the political centre of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi?


1. Tengri or Tengger or Tangra
2. Cat or lioness
3. Tlaloc
4. Gungnir
5. Cybele
6. Kon-Tiki
7. Vishnu
8. Bushmen or San
9. Sedna
10. Marduk

Answers & Results to Quizzle Puzzle # 2

Time is up for the second Quizzle Puzzle and the scores are in. Six entrants scored over 50 and so they shall be the chosen few to have their scores listed (again, about 20 entrants in total).

1. David Stainer 60
2. Trevor Montague 58
3. Dom Tait 56
4.= Mark Grant 52
4.= Mark Walton 52
6. Hugh Bennett 51

David's score is truly exceptional (as are the scores from Trevor and Dom, in particular) but it reflects the fact that I was feeling kind :-). Quizzle #3 will not be so generous and will be available from tomorrow. Be afraid, be very afraid...


TO THE ANSWERS:


Round One – Picture Round

1. Tenrecidae (Lesser Hedgehog Tenrec)
2. Maryland (The Awakening)
3. Mysterious Skin (Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet)
4. Casa Milà or La Pedrera (Barcelona)
5. Colombian (Alejandro Falla)
6. Indonesia (Suharto)


Round Two – Ditloids

1. 50 Cities in England (also accepted 50 Countries in Europe as several references cite this number as correct)
2. 4 Australians have Won the Men’s Singles Title at Wimbledon in the Open Era
3. 116 is the Number of Years that the Hundred Years’ War Lasted
4. 12 Episodes of Fawlty Towers were Broadcast
5. 47 is the Number of Chromosomes in the Body of a Person with Klinefelter’s Syndrome
6. 83 is the Age at which a Jewish Man can Celebrate his Second Bar Mitzvah


Round Three – Crossword Clues

1. Bright
2. Laocoön
3. Retail
4. Alone
5. Lionel Messi
6. Orange


Round Four – What Comes Next

1. Greenwich Palace – the birthplaces of Kings Henry of England from Henry IV to Henry VIII
2. 2010 Southampton – the cities of birth of the winning acts of ‘X Factor’ from 2006 until 2010
3. BB2 – the first half of the postcode of the first five teams to have played in football’s Premier League when arranged in alphabetical order
4. ATOOTP – the abbreviated titles (minus the first two words) of the first five book in J.K. Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter’ series
5. Oceanus, Haemonius, Olenos, or Melisseus – the father of the mythological characters after which the five largest moons of Jupiter are named when ranked according to diameter (from Ganymede to Amalthea). Each of the four answers given is accepted according to one tradition or other and so each is acceptable as an answer. Also, the order in which the first four in the sequence were given is also the order of the largest moons of Jupiter by mass; the next moon in this sequence is Himalia and as no parentage is recorded for Himalia, in any tradition, I have also accepted any answers along the lines of ‘unknown’. On reflection, this question had too many 'correct' or 'kind of correct' answers. You live and learn.
6. Boise – the five westernmost state capitals in the contiguous United States running from westernmost to fifth westernmost.


Round Five – Cryptic UK number 1s

1. Puppet on a String
2. Don’t Cha
3. Two Tribes or Israelites
4. Israelites or Two Tribes
5. Wooden Heart
6. Yellow River

Friday 3 February 2012

Quizzle # 2

The deadline for Quizzle #2 is 11:59 pm on Thursday 16th February 2012.

For rules and details of how to enter please see the intial post.



Round One – Picture Round

1. To which family does this animal belong?
2. In which American state could you see it?
3. This is a scene from which film?
4. What is the name of this building?
5. What is his nationality?
6. Of which country was he President?







































Round Two – Ditloids
7. 50 C in E
8. 4 A have W the M S T at W in the O E
9. 116 is the N of Y that the H Y W L
10. 12 E of F T were B
11. 47 is the N of C in the B of a P with K S
12. 83 is the A at which a J M can C his S B M


Round Three – Crossword Clues
13. Zippy just after headboard (6) _ _ I _ _ _
14. Southeast Asian omnnivore is a mythological character (7) _ _ _ _ O _ _
15. Never ending story, we hear, contains European market (6) _ E _ _ _ _
16. By myself in Buffalo, New York (5)_ _ _ N _
17. See millions jostle sportsman (6, 5) _ _ _ _ E _ / _ _ _ _ _
18. Mohammad’s first follower sweeps unfinished house (6)_ _ A _ _ _


Round Four – What Comes Next
19. Bolingbroke Castle, Monmouth Castle, Windsor Castle, Pembroke Castle, ????
20. 2006 Islington; 2007 Whitburn; 2008 Islington; 2009 South Shields; ????
21. N5, B6, S71, B9, ????
22. ATPS, ATCOS, ATPOA, ATGOF, ????
23. Tros, Lycaon, Inachus, Agenor, ????
24. Salem, Olympia, Sacramento, Carson City, ????


Round Five – Cryptic UK number 1s
25. Marionette
26. Do not tea
27. Dan and Zebulun
28. Dan and Zebulun (yes, again)
29. Stilted Compassion
30. Huang He

Remember to e-mail your answers to quizzlepuzzles@hotmail.co.uk


Themed Round One – City Books

1. Which 1998 novel opens with the Foreign Secretary Julian Garmony, newspaper editor Vernon Halliday, and famous composer Clive Linley attending the funeral of Molly Lane?
2. Who wrote the 1929 novel ‘Berlin Alexanderplatz’ that told the story of a small-time criminal, Franz Biberkopf, who is drawn into the underworld?
3. Which 1999 Paul Auster novella tells of the life of a dog called Mr Bones as he attempts to come to terms with the approaching death of his master?
4. What is the name of the famous (fictional) author who serves as the protagonist of Thomas Mann’s novella ‘Death in Venice’?
5. The American attorney, politician, minor novelist and Chicano Movement activist Oscar Zeta Acosta, who disappeared in Mexico in 1974, was the inspiration for the Samoan Attorney Dr. Gonzo in which 1971 novel?
6. Which 1989 novel, set 10 years in to the future, opens with the lines, “This is the story of a murder. It hasn't happened yet. But it will. (It had better.) I know the murderer, I know the murderee. I know the time, I know the place. I know the motive (her motive) and I know the means.”?
7. Which 1994 novel by J.M. Coetzee draws heavily on Dostoyevsky’s novel ‘The Devils’? In particular, Coetzee concentrates on the chapter entitled ‘At Tikhon’s’ which was suppressed by Dostoyevsky’s editor and never reinstated.
8. Günter Grass’ novels ‘The Tin Drum’, ‘Cat and Mouse’, and ‘Dog Years’ are collectively known by what name?
9. In which 1836 novel does the protagonist, a young, quixotic Italian nobleman called Fabrice del Dongo, wander on to the field of battle at Waterloo where he is considered to have been one of Napoleon’s bravest captains?
10. Which 1989 novel by José Saramago tells the story of a proof reader who is assigned to correct the titular book?


1. Amsterdam (by Ian McEwan)
2. Alfred Döblin
3. Timbuktu
4. Gustav von Aschenbach
5. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (by Hunter S. Thompson)
6. London Fields (by Martin Amis)
7. The Master of Petersburg
8. Danzig Trilogy
9. The Charterhouse of Parma (by Stendhal)
10. The History of the Siege of Lisbon


Themed Round Two – North American un-Great Lakes

1. Its name an abbreviated combination of the Latin words for ‘truth’ and ‘head’, which glacial lake in northwestern Minnesota is considered to be the source of the Mississippi River?
2. How are Otisco Lake, Skaneateles Lake, Owasco Lake, Cayuga Lake, Seneca Lake, Keuka Lake, Canandaigua Lake, Honeoye Lake, Canadice Lake, Hemlock Lake, and Conesus Lake collectively known?
3. The largest lake entirely within New York State, it is commonly referred to as the ‘thumb’ of the Finger Lakes. Which lake?
4. Lake Xochimilco in the Valley of Mexico is best known as the world’s last remaining native habitat for which amphibian?
5. New Orleans lies along the south and eastern shore of which lake, the second-largest inland saltwater body of water in the United States, after the Great Salt Lake?
6. Which river drains the deepest lake in North America?
7. The "Old Man of the Lake", a tree stump that has been bobbing vertically more than a century, is a well known feature of which American lake that was formed around 7,700 years ago by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama?
8. Utah’s Great Salt Lake is the largest remnant of which ancient pluvial lake which covered much of western Utah in prehistoric times?
9. The Lake of the Woods separates mainland Minnesota from the only part of the USA outside of Alaska to lie north of the 49th parallel. What name is given to this region?
10. A remnant of the prehistoric Glacial Lake Agassiz, which is, after the Great Bear Lake and the Great Slave Lake, the third largest lake to lie entirely within Canada?


1. Lake Itasca
2. Finger Lakes
3. Lake Oneida
4. Axolotl
5. Lake Pontchartrain
6. Mackenzie River (drains the Great Slave Lake)
7. Crater Lake
8. Lake Bonneville
9. Northwest Angle
10. Lake Winnipeg

Answers & Results to Quizzle Puzzle # 1

Ok, so the deadline is up for Quizzle Puzzle #1.

There were just under 20 entrants (we can do better than that surely?!) but, as promised, I will only publish the results of the exalted few. On this occasion, it so happened that 3 scores stood out rather from the pack, and so the top three were (out of 60 points):

1. David Stainer 56
2. Dom Tait 52
3. Mark Grant 50

Well done to all three of you.

TO THE ANSWERS

Round One – Picture Round

1. Australia (Thorny Devil)
2. Pierre Bonnard (Dining Room in the Country)
3. The Great White Hope (James Earl Jones)
4. Myanmar or Burma (Kyaiktiyo Pagoda)
5. Napoli (Ezequiel Lavezzi)
6. Chile (Sebastián Piñera)


Round Two – Ditloids

7. 26 Cantons in Switzerland
8. 15 Red Balls are Potted in a Maximum Break in Snooker
9. 666 is the Sum of the Numbers on a Roulette Wheel
10. 8 Paintings in A Rake’s Progress by William Hogarth
11. 69 is the Atomic Number of Thulium
12. 9 Series (or Seasons) of Celebrity Big Brother have been Broadcast in the United Kingdom


Round Three – Crossword Clues

13. Asleep
14. Hoopoe
15. Harry
16. Slog
17. Autostrada
18. University Challenge


Round Four – What Comes Next

19. Sweden (1931) – birthplace and birth year of the last five winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature
20. Two – the first word of the first track on each of the last five studio albums released by the Beatles
21. 17 E2 – the sum of the four one-digit numbers in the year that the last five British monarchs have come to the throne, followed by an abbreviation of the name of the monarch taking the form of the first letter of the regnal name, followed by the regnal number in Arabic numerals. So, 1952 Elizabeth II becomes 1+9+5+2 = 17 E2. Yes, naughty, I know :-)
22. Baghdad – the capital cities of the first five members of OPEC when arranged alphabetically.
23. Sarajevo – the capital cities of the first five fully-independent nation states to have a star (or stars) on their flags when arranged alphabetically.
24. Rainbow (also accepted ‘iris’) – the etymological roots of the names of chemical elements running from holmium to iridium when arranged alphabetically.


Round Five – Cryptic Literary Titles

25. Hard Times
26. Mr. Norris Changes Trains
27. The Remains of the Day
28. Prozac Nation
29. The Story of Tracy Beaker
30. The Walrus and the Carpenter

Thursday 19 January 2012

Quizzle #1

Please read the previous post for details of how to play.

The deadline for Quizzle #1 is 11:59 pm on Thursday 2nd February 2012.


Round One - Picture Round

1. In which country is it found?
2. Who painted it?
3. For which film was he nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor?
4. In which country could you visit it?
5. For which club side does he play?
6. Of which country is he President?


























Round Two - Ditloids

7. 26 C in S
8. 15 R B are P in a M B in S
9. 666 is the S of the N on a R W
10. 8 P in A R P by W H
11. 69 is the A N of T
12. 9 S of C B B have been B in the U K


Round Three - Crossword Clues

13. Please, shaken but not stirred (6) _ _ _ E _ _
14. American author chases water bird (6) _ _ _ _ O _
15. Two redheads after highly available young wizard (5) _ _ R _ _
16. Plug James Last record (4) _ _ O _
17. Cars have unfinished business with a motorway (10) _ _ _ _ _ T _ _ _ _
18. Hint: a genius cleverly changes show (10,9) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ A _ _ _ _ _ _


Round Four - What Comes Next

19. Iran (1919), France (1940), Romania (1953), Peru (1936),???
20. Magical, Back, Yellow, Come, ???
21. 11 E7, 11 G5, 19 E8, 19 G6, ???
22. Algiers, Luanda, Quito, Tehran, ???
23. Algiers, Luanda, Canberra, Baku, ???
24. Stockholm, Water-producing, Indigo, Violet, ???


Round Five - Cryptic Literary Titles

25. Laborious Moments
26. Chuck Amends Convoys
27. Residue of a 24 Hour Period
28. Fluoxetine Finland, for example
29. The Tale of Dick Ed Milliband
30. Barry White and Joseph


Remember to e-mail your answers to quizzlepuzzles@hotmail.co.uk


Themed Round One - Fruity Bands

1. Who replaced Niall Quinn (no, not THAT Niall Quinn) as lead singer of The Cranberry Saw Us in 1989?
2. Which American alternative rock band are best known for their 1993 hit ‘Into Your Arms’ and their cover of ‘Mrs Robinson’ released a year earlier?
3. What was the name of Blind Melon’s lead singer who died in 1995 following a cocaine overdose?
4. Which band, whose name was inspired by a line in the Beatles song ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’, released the 1973 album ‘Atem’, named Album of the Year by John Peel ?
5. Fronted by Adam Green and Kimya Dawson, the Moldy Peaches are best known for their song 'Anyone Else but You' after it was sung by Michael Cera and Ellen Page in which 2007 film?
6. Black Grape was founded in 1993 by two former members of which band?
7. Which film star was the original subject of the Bananarama hit ‘Robert De Niro’s Waiting’ before it was decided that Robert De Niro scanned better?
8. Their only UK top 50 hit being the 1984 song ‘Since Yesterday’, how were Jill Bryson and Rose McDowall collectively known?
9. Perhaps best-known for his 1994 solo hit ‘A Girl Like You’, who was the lead singer with the Scottish post-punk band Orange Juice?
10. Named for an American actress of the early cinema, what was the title of the Smashing Pumpkins' debut album released in 1991?


1. Dolores O’Riordan (and she changed the band's name to The Cranberries)
2. Lemonheads
3. Shannon Hoon
4. Tangerine Dream
5. Juno
6. Happy Mondays
7. Al Pacino
8. Strawberry Switchblade
9. Edwyn Collins
10. Gish


Themed Round Two - Animals in Art

1. Which Renaissance artist’s best-known works include a watercolour of a hare and a woodcut of a rhinoceros?
2. Which animal is seen musing over a sleeping woman in Henri Rousseau’s 1897 painting ‘The Sleeping Gypsy’?
3. 'Fate of the Animals', 'Tiger', and 'The Yellow Cow' are three of the best-known paintings by which animal-obsessed German Expressionist and founding member of Der Blaue Reiter?
4. One of Rembrandt’s most gifted pupils, Carel Fabritius is best known for a 1654 painting of which bird?
5. Which three animals appear in Picasso’s ‘Guernica’?
6. What was the name of the Marquess of Rockingham's racehorse that was famously painted by George Stubbs in c. 1762?
7. ‘Flight of the Swallows’ and ‘Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash’ are two paintings depicting the movement and speed of animals by which Futurist?
8. What type of animal was The Monarch of the Glen in Edwin Landseer’s famous painting of the same name?
9. Which famous portrait by Leonardo da Vinci is displayed at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, where it is described as the first truly modern portrait?
10. Which famous sculpture was the subject of a court battle in 1927 due to the piece being taxed by U.S. Customs upon arrival for display at New York’s Brummer Gallery? Customs officials refused to believe that it was a work of art despite the fact that, at the time, it held the record for the world’s most expensive sculpture.


1. Albrecht Dürer
2. Lion
3. Franz Marc
4. The Goldfinch
5. A horse, a bull, and a bird (it's probably a dove but no-one's certain)
6. Whistlejacket
7. Giacomo Balla
8. A stag
9. Lady with an Ermine
10. Bird in Space (by Constantin Brâncuşi)

Wednesday 18 January 2012

Welcome to Quizzle: a new online quiz

So then, what is a Quizzle? It's a combination of quizzes and puzzles, or a puzzling quiz, or a quiz-heavy puzzle. Best of all, it's fun.

Every two weeks I will be posting here a 30 question Quizzle which anyone can enter.

The Quizzle will consist of 5 rounds of 6 questions each:

Round 1: Picture Round - I show you 6 pictures, with a question related to each. A picture of Mozart asking 'In which city was he born?', for example.

Round 2: Ditloids - I show you 6 ditloids in the form of '1 X in a Y Z' and it is up to you to complete the phrase. '1 Xebec in a Yemenised Zanzibar', for example.

Round 3: Crossword Clues - I show you 6 cryptic crossword clues and you have to provide the answer. To help you on your way, one letter of the correct answer is always shown.

Round 4: What Comes Next - I show you a sequence of five items, the last item being 'hidden' from you and it is up to you to complete the sequence by finding the fifth and final item. I might ask you, what comes next '1,2,3,4,???', for example, but I suspect you may find the real questions a touch more difficult.

Round 5: Cryptic Names: I will ask you to give me 6 answers in a particular subject, for example pop bands, book titles, mythological figures, etc. and provide you with a cryptic clue for each. For example, to use some well-worn internet classics, if I wanted 6 pop groups I might ask you 'Prosperous city vermin' (Boomtown Rats) and 'Armadas oak coat' (Fleetwood Mac). This is a little like the Crossword Clues round but is a little more relaxed rule-wise, so expect the unexpected.

The questions are essentially un-Googleable. Although if, for example, you were to work out the sequence in one of the Round 4 questions but did not know what came next, you might choose to Google to find out. This is fine by me as the challenge is in working out the sequence (and as I have no meaningful way of stopping people Googling I might as well allow it). The questions are all original (although it is likely that occasionaly someone else will have had the same 'original' idea as me).

Once you have answered as many questions as you can, e-mail your answers to quizzlepuzzles@hotmail.co.uk prior to the given deadline (always two weeks after the quiz is published) along with your full name. There is, of course, no charge for entering. I will award 2 points for each correct answer and will award 1 point to answers that are almost correct. I won't be publishing tables of results (so don't worry about coming last, no-one but me will ever know) but I will publish a top 3 or, perhaps, top 5. At the moment there is no prize for winning but I might be tempted to introduce one if we can get participant numbers up.

Each fortnight, I will also provide two themed quiz rounds of 10 questions each which are for your enjoyment only and are not part of the main quiz.

The first Quizzle will be published here shortly. Don't worry if you don't score that many - I doubt anyone will get anywhere near full marks (although there are enough easier questions to allow everyone to score a few points straight away) but you will, no doubt, find you score improves the more often you enter. Enjoy!