Kevin was modelling the new 2016 Seasonal Egghead Cosy 2016:1 1. Editorial, Treasurer’s and Membership News 3. Notice of Mastermind Club 2016 AGM 4. Museo Automovilistico 8. Cyprus A to Z Quiz 9. An Earlier Marco Polo Cruise 11. Club Christmas Events – North West

12. Master Quiz 2016 Round 2 - Questions 15. Club Christmas Event – London 18. Master Quiz 2016 Round 1 – Answers 20. Paired Anagrams Quiz IBC. From The Times BC. Composers Homophones Quiz

Officers and Committee

President Alan D. BlackburnHon. Vice-President and Editor of pass Tony Dart

Secretary Gavin Fuller Treasurer Susan LengWebmaster Mel Kinsey Other Committee Members Ken Emond Phillida Grantham

Mastermind Club website: www.mastermindclub.co.uk Follow the Mastermind Club group page on Facebook (mastermindclub 2014)

Club Shopping

Please send a cheque with your order, payable to the Mastermind Club, and including the cost of postage and packing, to: Phillida Grantham

* New and exciting items now available *

* Club tote bags – Navy and Natural - £7 (+£2 p&p) ** Club jute bags – Natural - £7.50 (+£3 p&p) ** Club ties – Navy and Maroon - £16 (+£2 p&p) ** Club scarf (Suprafleece dolomite) – Charcoal Grey and (new) Navy - £8 (+£3 p&p) *

We also have in stock all of the following:

Excellent Quality Lined Windbreakers – all at £25 (+£3 p&p) Sizes L and XL in Red, Black and Navy Sweatshirts – all at £15 (+ £3 p&p) Sizes L and XL in Navy, Red, Green and Burgundy Fleece Hats – all at £8 (+ £1 p&p) Bottle Green, Black and Navy Polo Shirts – all at £15 (+ £3 p&p) Sizes M, L and XL in Navy, Red, Green, and Purple Jackets – all at £15 (+ £3 p+p) Waterproof Fleece in Blue only (Sizes M and L) Polar Fleece in Red (Size M); Blue (Size M); and Maroon (Size S) Jewellery – all at £6 (+ £2 p+p) Tie pins, tie clips, and cufflinks (just one pair left!)

(Any purchases made in person will of course not incur p+p.) Polo shirts and sweatshirts areavailable in other colours on request. Where an item size is not in current stock we will order it for you in our next re-stock. Please email Phillida to discuss any other insignia queries.

PASS and its contents are ©2016 by the Mastermind Club except where noted. Contributions are welcome but may be edited or held over owing to space limitations. Check with the Editor for advice on the format of contributions. All material is published at the sole discretion of the Editor and Committee. Copy deadlines are the last days of January (Issue 1), April (2), July (3), and October (4). Publication is normally 4–6 weeks later. Please notify the Secretary of any problems in receiving PASS (allow an extra week or two for printing and postal delays).

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Editorial

Tony Dart, Editor elcome to the first 2016 edition of PASS. Once again I am able to report (personally) on yet another successful Club Christmas lunch organised by Gavin Fuller , this time at the Sanctuary House Hotel in Tothill Street, Westminster. He assures me that it is pure coincidence that the Sanctuary belongs to

Fullers Ltd. Thanks to Glenys Hopkins we can also report on Christmas (a date fairly loosely interpreted in at least one city) events in both Manchester and Liverpool.

You are probably all aware that the pioneering website “Friends Reunited” finally closed down in January. We in the Mastermind Club, however, seemed to have developed a version all of our own, just for PASS. For example, our back-cover quiz has been provided this time by a member with the lowest (and best) number still current – our own “special agent 007” Richard Snailham. Even he, however, must be trumped by someone who actually took part in the pilot version of Mastermind, as well as the first broadcast series, and that is Doreen Simmons (member 79), who has contributed an article on a Marco Polo cruise she took even before the one described by Stewart Cross in PASS 2015:1. Without giving away too many of Doreen’s secrets, I can say that she lives in Tokyo, and at a stage of life when many would be retired, holds four part-time jobs, one of which is as a commentator on Sumo wrestling. At the other end of our membership list, Duncan Mitchell (number 996) has produced a clever A-to-Z quiz about the island of Cyprus, and Chris Payne (1058) has given us a rare Spanish title, with his illustrated article on the fascinating Museo Automovilistico in Málaga.

“It was twenty years ago today . . .” sang the Beatles on “Sergeant Pepper”. Twenty years ago, this Club held its Annual Function at the Teesside Airport Hotel, and a journalist and photographer from The Times attended, recommended by one of our members. They produced a report for the paper’s Saturday supplement, and it is probably fair to say that that article was not received with unbounded rapture by all who had been present on the occasion. Somewhat to the disgust of our worthy Secretary, who works for the Daily Telegraph, I hold a membership subscription at The Times, and thus found myself attending that paper’s charity Christmas Carol Concert at St Bride’s, Fleet Street, in early December last. At that event, journalists gave readings between the carols and socialised afterwards at a restaurant. One foreign correspondent had been posted away on a story, and her place was taken at short notice by a certain Robert Crampton. We had quite an entertaining conversation – once he was reassured that I was not intent upon assault - and he wrote of it, once again in The Times Saturday magazine. Robert was kind enough to grant permission for the Club to reproduce his feature for PASS, and you may read it, just as originally printed, inside the back cover of this issue. The picture above, therefore, shows your Editor - with a gentleman from The Times.

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Please keep your items for PASS – articles, photographs and quizzes if you can – coming in, and I look forward to meeting as many of you as can make it to our AGM (the Agenda is at Page 3) and Annual Reunion at Lincoln in April. Closing date for booking is 29 February, so those of you who receive the on-line version of PASS (but probably not the others) will still have time to sign up.

Membership matters

Gavin Fuller am delighted to welcome the following contender from the current Mastermind series to the Club:

• 1115 Andrew Diamond of London

and I hope he enjoys his time with us. Meanwhile Christine Moorcroft (member 532) has moved across Hexham, David Penfold (725) has moved to Inverness and Mike Kane (974) to Worksop.

I am sorry to report the death in September 2015 of Dr. Richard Coast-Smith (member 250), who took the specialist subject “74-gun Ships of the Royal Navy” in the 1980 series, and also that in July 2015 of Chris Gonet (member 665) who took “The Lives and Films of the Marx Brothers” in 1991. The Club’s condolences go to their families.

As there have been fairly few membership changes this year, we will not issue a schedule of amendments this time.

From the Treasurer

Susan Leng

hank you to all those members who have paid their 2016 Club membership subscription by Standing Order or cheque – all duly received and recorded. If you are among the few who haven’t got around to it yet, would you please send a £12 cheque payable to “Mastermind Club” to me at my home address, which is

always shown on the inside front cover of PASS. I am afraid that, if your payment has not been received by the end of March, your name will be deleted from the membership list.

Thank you also for all your letters. It is always good to hear from you.

London Meetings

e have previously reported the sad demise of our former meeting places Grape Street Wine Bar and Davy’s Tapster. However, our 2015

Christmas lunch at the Sanctuary House Hotel was successful enough for us to consider making that our new base, and we will be meeting there from 6pm on the third Wednesday of each month. It’s more of a pub than a wine bar, and can be very busy with the Whitehall brigade immediately after work, so make sure to fight your way in and look for us somewhere near the back!

Phillida and Simon Grantham waiting to enter

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Annual General Meeting 2016

Notice is hereby given that the thirty-eighth Annual General Meeting of the Mastermind Club will be held in the Lincoln Room, Lincoln Hotel, Lincoln, on Sunday 3 April 2016 at 10.45am.

1. Apologies for absence 2. Minutes of 37th AGM, Durham, 12 April 2015 (published in PASS 2015:2) 3. Matters arising 4. Membership Report 5. Annual Accounts and Treasurer’s Report 6. President’s Report 7. Insignia 8. Election of the Club Committee for 2016-2018* 9. PASS 10. Annual Functions 2016-18 11. Magnum Competition 12. Mugnum Competition 13. Any Other Business *Note to Item 8: All Committee posts fall due for re-election at this AGM. Committee members are elected to serve for a period of two years. Any Club member in good standing is welcome to nominate himself or herself, and may do so in writing to the Secretary. No proposers or seconders are required. The last date for receipt of nominations to the Secretary is 21 March 2016. Gavin Fuller, Secretary 24 January 2016

A view of Lincoln Castle

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MUSEO AUTOMOVILISTICO

The Malaga Classic Car Museum

Chris Payne

Does anyone still holiday in Spain?

ask because everyone I know seems to go on cruises now and doesn’t bother with hotels; in fact even I have been tempted by the idea of visiting multiple exotic locations on one of these behemoth sized ships.

I must be a bit of a dinosaur though, because I’ve been in love with Spain since my first visit on a family holiday to Callella in the early 1970s, and that affair has caused me to return numerous times over the last forty years: to Mallorca, Menorca, Seville - on a memorable trip to see Ayrton Senna win the 1989 Spanish Grand Prix (in the days when there used to be Formula One races in Europe and my friend Robert and I saw the Portuguese race the week before on the same trip), Madrid, when I chased two pickpockets down a metro station platform and was invited to a gay nudist bar because I was half of a supposed gay couple, all in the space of twenty minutes (but what happened in Madrid stayed in Madrid!).

I digress! On August Bank Holiday Monday 2015 Sarah, my beloved partner of twelve years, passed away in James Cook Hospital after a long illness and I was left utterly bereft. I organised the funeral, was her executor, and then had the grisly business of having to deal with her possessions.

After all that and doing what I could to look after her father, who had lost his daughter and brother in the same week, and so was a shadow of his former self, I felt I should have some time for myself, having lost not just my partner and best friend but also my brother at Easter and a close work colleague in June.

The old grim reaper’s earned his money this year all right, hasn‘t he?

So, on a whim and by way of recuperation, I booked a week in Fuengirola, which is in the South of Spain. The attraction, apart from a week’s sunshine, was the chance to visit Gibraltar, which I’d always wanted to do. Whenever I think of ‘the Rock’ I hear Peter Ustinov’s marvellous voice:

“Of course one misses the rock when one isn’t on it’ (from the Grand Prix of Gibraltar in which the great man does all the voices).

North Face of the Rock of Gibraltar, ca 1810

There was also the attraction of the train from Fuengirola to Malaga, a cheap forty minute ride by new electric train along the coast. I’ve always loved Spanish trains - maybe it’s that Chris De Burgh song that I probably shouldn’t admit to having heard him sing live. Well, I never pretended to be cool, did I?

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At the start of this article I posed a question. The reason for my asking is that adjacent to Fuengirola stands the resort of Torremolinos, a place mocked by Monty Python in the 1970s. I wondered if Brits still holidayed there forty years later. Remember the Pythons singing ‘Tor-ray-mol-enos’ and possibly something to do with Watney’s Red Barrel?

Anyway, I had a lovely week, made some good friends including some Brummie golfers and a Dutchman called John from Eindhoven with whom I intend to keep in contact.

The highlight of the week was my trip to ‘Gib’ but I discovered a hidden gem in the classic car museum in Malaga, which is actually more of an art gallery. Tht is the point of this article. During the introductory meeting our lovely Thomsons representative mentioned a Classic Car collection, of which I had been hitherto unaware but which gave me a focal point for visiting Malaga.

I went in November but the weather was still very hot and as someone who has visited Madrid, Barcelona and Seville - to name but three - I was prepared for the peculiarly dry heat of a major Spanish city. The railway station in Fuengirola is situated close to the hotel at which I stayed, The Florida, but is well camouflaged as it is underground. It is the terminus of the line from Malaga and the run on comfortable 4-car electric units takes forty minutes, despite frequent stops, and costs just under 4 euros, excellent value. Even better is that the RENFE ticketing system is extremely user friendly.

Malaga is a sprawling city which encompasses a big seaport and roads that wind narrowly up into hills which spectacularly overlook the harbour. I had no map, so found the official tour bus which enabled me to orient myself around a city which includes the birthplace of the great Pablo Picasso.

In the Museo Automovilistico at Malaga

Having done that it was time to find this museum, which wasn’t difficult. The tour bus driver dropped me as close to it as he could and directed me to service bus number 16 which also stops at two Malaga stations. The fare was just over one euro for a journey of ten minutes on one of the ‘bendy buses’ that I love and I was there in a very short time indeed.

In fact I arrived at two o’clock though the museum re-opened at three and the delightful and most attractive young lady, as they all seem to be in Spanish museums, who greeted me, suggested I visit the collection of Russian Art which is housed just across the square from the car collection and I’m glad I did because this art collection set the tone for the classic cars.

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Sarah loved art and moreover she understood it and taught me how to read paintings. The drama of the Russian art in the Malaga collection has to be seen to be appreciated in depictions of peasants, aristocracy, royalty and military figures.

So I spent an hour marvelling at Russian art against pure white walls, then went back across to the classic car collection to find beautiful cars displayed in exactly the same way as the paintings, reverentially against white backgrounds, not merely automobiles but also works of art!

I suppose that I haven’t been to many classic car museums or collections, just the national collection at Beaulieu, Coventry Transport Museum, Oxford Motor Museum and a small one in Kent. My point is that these museums say ‘cars’, Malaga’s says ‘art’.

These aren’t your workaday classics, though there is an uncommon Tatra, which was a forerunner of the VW Beetle, and there are a couple of unusual three wheelers. The majority of the exhibits are “cars of the stars”: Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller, Princess Grace and Prince Rainier, Steve McQueen, Marlene Dietrich owned some of these models, which are cars of royalty, presidents and as well as stars.

The collection of cars itself is staggering, featuring models from 1900 to the present day. Highlights for me were two silver coloured cars which stand next to each other. The first is the Mercedes 300SL sports car which is featured on the leaflet of this Mercedes Benz supported museum, this being the road version of the car which dominated the great sports car races of the mid 1950s and is beautifully streamlined and purposeful. Next to it though stands Bond’s first Aston Martin, the DB4, similarly beautiful but also purposeful and powerful with an almost animal quality.

Then again though, that “late fifties to early sixties” section of the museum has some of the most desirable cars ever built. Pick your favourite from the breathtaking Ferrari 250 GT, a stunning Alfa Romeo sports car, a Jaguar E-type without which no collection would be complete and an early Ford Thunderbird, a car with stunningly simple clean lines for an American design.

It certainly doesn’t end there, because the art/car lover can drool over yet more beauties: the timeless Porsche Speedster, forerunner of the 911, two Jaguar XKs, stunners from the fifties as are the Aston Martin DB2 and the BMW 328, thoroughbred sports cars all. In the middle of all that beauty and not out of place is a Citroen DS coupe, a design light years ahead of its time. I wasn’t sure about John Lennon’s luridly painted Rolls though, its hippy paintwork jarring with the elegance around it.

The John Lennon Hippy Rolls-Royce

If those cars are too modern for you, then drool over cars from a more luxurious age: British Rolls-Royces, Bentleys and Jaguars, all wood panelling, hand built coachwork, running boards and enormous headlights. There are European cars of the 1930s: Bugatti, Hispano-Suiza and Mercedes, three names which simply breathe opulence while hinting at the rise of fascism.

There is a Rolls-Royce shooting brake with a wooden rear end designed for the county set, Cadillacs with holders for golf clubs, and limousines with the inevitable drinks cabinets and phones to contact the chauffeur. I loved a Panhard with a central driving position which meant that the driver could have ‘a girl

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each side of him’. Everywhere you look there are precious woods, ivory, nacre and even ostrich skin upholstery.

The American cars of the ’roaring twenties’, the time of The Great Gatsby, the jazz age and public enemies, have that unmistakeable look of brash confidence - models from Ford, Cadillac and Packard as well as short-lived marques like Cord which produced cars too beautiful for this world.

However, this museum is not just about the automobile - oh no! Most cars are displayed with clothing of the period, all Haute Couture from designers including Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent (whose E type is on display), Christian Dior and Lanvin. Now I’m no expert, but even I could see that these fabulous creations put the cars in their contexts, matching great design in one field with great design in another and linking them through ownership. There is even a whole display of hats from different eras!

As a reminder that this is an art gallery, there is a section devoted to alternatives to petrol: a Batman derived hydro-car, as well as solar, electric and steam powered cars. The electric car was an early one and would have been a success but for the length of power cord it needed to go anywhere.

Michael Jackson’s Swarowski Rolls-Royce

There is more than a nod to modern art with an exploding Morris Minor 1000, an old car being reclaimed by nature and an eerie car that was buried during the Great War and is complete with occupants wearing gas masks.

There is some subtle background music to add to the serious mood. On my visit it was a bizarre collection of cover versions, including a female singer whom I couldn’t place, singing a slow version of I can’t get no satisfaction.

Should you decide to go, don’t miss the astonishing collection of engines presented as art, engine blocks decorated with paintings and symbols to represent the spirit of each motor; horses, flight, fire, freedom - a display that has to be seen to be believed.

The museum is physically small, it’s on one floor and is proof that ‘less is more’, as the accent is very much on quality rather than quantity. The atmosphere is serious and ascetic, thus there is no café or gift shop, just a coffee machine and small range of gifts. This is a serious collection but one not to be missed by any serious classic car enthusiast.

The gull-wing Mercedes coupé

Note: The museum costs 7 euros 50c to enter and lies on bus route 16 from Malaga Central station, a fare of one euro 30c. (Apparently it’s in the grounds of the old tobacco factory).

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A CYPRUS A-TO-Z QUIZ

Duncan Mitchell

yprus is a small island with a big history. Here’s a quiz which covers some of the island’s major events as well as its cuisine and customs. Where the answer is a name, the letter in question refers to the surname. (The answers are on Page 17).

A. Cypriot football team which caused a sensation by reaching the quarter finals of the 2012

European Champions trophy, where they lost to Real Madrid. B. Consort of Richard 1st; they were married in Cyprus in 1191, and she remains the only English

monarch never to have set foot in England. C. The last Queen of Cyprus, who abdicated in 1489. D. Author of ‘Bitter Lemons of Cyprus’ who lived on the island in

the 1950s (pictured right). E. Greek word for the movement in favour of union with Greece. F. Walled city in eastern Cyprus; fabulously wealthy in medieval

times and now home to numerous ruined churches and palaces. G. EOKA leader whose arrival in Cyprus in 1954 triggered the fight

for independence. H. Saint after whom a famous castle outside Kyreneia is named. I. General name given to the religious paintings found in all Cypriot churches. J. Popular King of Cyprus who died in mysterious circumstances in 1473. K. Cypriot national dish, consisting of slow cooked lamb with lemon and oregano; its name derives

from the Greek for ‘thief’. L. Dynasty which ruled Cyprus from 1192 to 1489. M. Name by which the Cypriot politician and cleric Michael Mouskos is better known. N. Cypriot saint and hermit who established a monastery near Pafos and lived in caves nearby. O. Empire which ruled Cyprus from 1571 to 1878. P. Apostle who visited Cyprus in AD45, being publicly scourged before successfully converting the

island to Christianity. Q. Moorish cavalry general who put down a Jewish uprising on the island in AD112. R. French poet who lived in Cyprus while overseeing building of the Governor’s residence in 1879. S. Name for a Cypriot coffee made without sugar. T. Mountain range containing Mount Olympus, the highest peak in Cyprus. U. Alternative name for Hala Sultan Tekke mosque in Larnaca, and the name of Mohammed’s aunt

who died on the site; now a place of pilgrimage for Moslems. V. Greek name for an east coast resort which thrived before the civil war, but now a ghost town in no

man’s land. W. Soldier and army reformer who in 1878 became the 1st British High Commissioner of Cyprus. X. Indigenous Cypriot grape which makes crisp, dry white wines. Y. Colloquial Cypriot word for a grandmother. Z. Stoic philosopher, born in Cyprus in the 3rd century BC.

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AN EARLIER MARCO POLO CRUISE

Doreen Simmons challenges Stewart Cross

got a very pleasant surprise when the latest edition of PASS reached me here in Tokyo a week or so ago, though without a bit of synchronicity the coincidence could have escaped my notice. Last November I had

signed up for a river tour through usually-hidden parts of Tokyo that I wanted very much to see from below.

Unfortunately the forecast was for light rain, and no umbrellas were allowed on the open boat. This meshed with my ongoing drive to clear out my cupboards - I’ve lived in the same building since 1978 and things do tend to pile up. Suddenly I remembered the large trunk in the bottom cupboard labelled “Antarctic gear” -- and voila! the red padded waterproof jacket looked just right. I had bought it for a penguin-viewing expedition 22 years ago and hadn’t worn it since. I tried it on and there, on my chest, was a battered sticker bearing the name “Marco Polo” (Orient Lines). Memories came flooding back, and so when I read Stewart Cross‘s article on the ship’s 50th anniversary cruise, my mind went back 22 years to my own trip -– though it was very different in many ways.

In three weeks I inadvertently travelled right round the world, and by the longest leg each time. I had signed up with a largely Japanese group of Friends of the Earth for a penguin-viewing trip via South America, so the cruise was only the middle of three parts. On Boxing Day 1993 our party flew out of Narita (Tokyo) corner to corner across the North Pacific, to Seattle, where thanks to the International Date Line we had Boxing Day again. We changed planes and flew right across North America from north-west to south-east for a day in Miami. The Lady in Red

In Miami we linked up with the local FoE group who took us on a memorable tour of the Florida Everglades. My favourite recollection is of an American man telling his small daughter to “Stand on that stone alligator so I can get a better picture” – fortunately just in time the creature stirred, shook off the dried mud, and lumbered back into the water.

I’ve never worked out the logistics of the next leg, which took over 24 hours – were we refuelled in mid-air? – but anyway we flew nonstop from Miami, over the Caribbean and down the west side of nearly all South America to Punta Arenas, Chile. Again we had a short tour of the area with local FoE guides and then boarded the Marco Polo.

Our first full day took us only as far as the Beagle Channel on the way to Ushuaia (“the southernmost port of the world”) at the south of Tierra del Fuego. Unfortunately the weather was bad and we couldn’t get into the harbour for two whole days. This delay later cost us our promised time inside the Antarctic Circle. A problem arose with the food served to our party at a separate table. It was said to be “Japanese cuisine” but it definitely wasn’t. Finally we led a protest, headed by our Japanese friends, who assured the officer that the cook was lying and they would all prefer what the other passengers were getting.

The highest-paying customers got a special entertainment – a lecture by Sir Edmund Hillary. The bad weather continued and the following evening the rest of us got the Hillary lecture too. I was very happy because it was on

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my 21st birthday that he and his Sherpa became the first men to climb Everest, though the news didn’t break till the Coronation a few days later. (And do you know why Hillary Clinton spells her name with two L’s?)

When we finally docked there was a free day to go ashore, but nearly all the other passengers, mostly post-retirement Americans, elected to stay on board and play in the well-appointed casino; naturally our group of birdwatchers went to the town rubbish dump, which was reputed to be the finest place in Latin America for observing large numbers of carrion eaters like condors and vultures.

That evening I got a message from my cousin in the UK that my mother in Nottingham had had a stroke and was not expected to live more than a few days. There wasn’t a thing I could do about it; the Marco Polo was finally headed south into Drake’s Passage. I split my mind into separate compartments (a trick I had found useful many years earlier when taking part in the first Mastermind series) and made the best of the trip. Penguins of different kinds in different places, on islands and on the edge of the Antarctic Peninsula. Visits to bases which sold T-shirts in Spanish or English. Diary note for January 2: “sunrise 2:57; heavy seas, strong winds, icebergs, snowy shore”. A day later, another call; my mother had died.

Memorable dinners and other entertainments went on as in a dream; behind the scenes my return to the UK was being arranged. It would be at my expense because my travel insurance covered only accidents to me.

So my own final day was on East Falkland (unforgettable King penguins, Magellanic penguins and Gentoo penguins), at the end of which I bade farewell to my travelling companions and moved into the local hotel for one night. The remainder of their Marco Polo trip would be one day in West Falkland, then one day across the South Atlantic ending when she docked in Buenos Aires. The party then flew back to Japan.

I spend a pleasant evening in the small hotel, where everybody had an accent like any regular Brit but still told yarns about the short-lived Argentine invasion of 1982; grazing sheep were still being blown up by landmines.

I was lucky as the once-a-week RAF flight to the UK was the next day. The flight covered the whole South and North Atlantic, refuelling at Ascension Island. To Nottingham by coach, where in five days my cousins and I held the funeral and wrapped up Mum’s affairs, and then I completed my journey. The cheapest way back to Tokyo was the Aeroflot flight via Moscow and over Siberia; but even here my adventures had not ended. As we were flying over Denmark (far below, it looked like a little white drawing in an atlas) there was a terrific juddering and suddenly the scene below was cars driving along a road! The windscreen in front of the pilots had cracked (fortunately it held together or we would have lost our pilots and I would not be here writing about it) but they brought their Ilyushin 86 down as fast as was safe. We were stuck for a whole day at Schoenefeld, the old East Berlin airport, waiting for another Ilyushin to be flown in from Heathrow.

One final night in Moscow, then eastward over the whole of Siberia, and I duly arrived at Narita airport only one day behind my original schedule -- though from the opposite direction. The January sumo tournament had just turned the halfway point, I was due to give a live sumo commentary the next day.

Needless to say I strictly warned the play-by-play man not to ask me my opinions of the first week’s sumo, as I had been occupied with other matters.

Doreen with sporting friend

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CLUB EVENTS

Christmas 2015 (late) in Manchester and Liverpool

Glenys Hopkins

ttendance at the Club’s North-Western post-Christmas meals was rather sparse! On Wednesday 13 January a select few of the Manchester members of the Mastermind Club met for a Post-

Christmas meal at the Koreana Restaurant. Unfortunately, expected numbers were reduced by illness, family commitments, and awful weather. So the four intrepid souls who turned up were obliged to drink several toasts to Absent Friends. We had an excellent meal, a Korean Banquet, unusual and subtle flavours, spices and textures. After the ritual exchange of gifts we set off for home early enough to avoid the football crowds. Many thanks to Mike Chivers for finding an excellent restaurant and organising the whole event.

Left to right: Hilary Forest, space formerly occupied by Glenys, Mike Chivers, Anne Hegerty. This picture has a unique format because Glenys took it using a Kindle, a method hitherto unknown to photographic science. The Liverpool post-Christmas meal took place on Wednesday 20 January. We met as usual in the foyer of the Liner Hotel, which has been a favoured venue ever since we had the AG there a (good) few years ago. To mark the occasion, we left the Liner and the Head of Steam Wetherspoons which have been our recent venues, and at Neil Wright's suggestion, went to the Kerala, which specialises in South Indian cuisine. We had an excellent and somewhat eye-watering meal and agreed that we had enjoyed the Mastermind Company so much that we were now motivated to rush home and book for Lincoln. Left to right: Mike Formby, Glenys Hopkins, space representing Margaret Howe, Neil Wright, Sue Wright

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MASTER QUIZ 2016

Gavin Fuller introduces the Round 2 questions

s is usual in the first issue of the year, I present the second half of our annual quiz competition. This time, in accordance with the discussion at the Durham AGM, it is somewhat shorter than in previous years, at just 60 questions. However, as is my wont, I have kept it as a random gleaning

of my fevered brain.

Instructions Round 2, as usual, has two entries.

Head your first paper “U” for UNSEEN, and answer the questions in your own time. When you have finished please sign the entry as being your own work, but of course should you by chance come across any other answers feel free to add them.

Head another sheet “R” for REFERENCE and check, alter or expand your “U” entries should it be necessary, quoting your sources if you wish.

Put your name and membership number at the start of the U entry, and the R if that should be sent separately. 80% of the marks are awarded for the “U” entry and 20% on the “R”, with the latter as ever not being obligatory. Please note again that all decisions made by Phillida and myself are final and no correspondence shall be entered into by either of us about the questions and answers.

Address for Round 2 Entries

Gavin Fuller

Flat 4, 57 Birdhurst Rise,

SOUTH CROYDON,

Surrey.

CR2 7EJ

Telephone: 020 8405 6182 (home), 07875 384778 (mobile)

Email: gavin_fuller@hotmail.com

Closing date: 21 March 2016 The kindly Mr Fuller

I look forward to your entries, and putting the top nine who are present in Lincoln to the test again. Now all I have to do is to try to make it less of a nightmare for them this year . . .

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MASTERQUIZ ROUND 2 2016: QUESTIONS

1) “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” is the opening to which classic Russian novel?

2) If all the cities in the United Kingdom are listed alphabetically, which one comes first?

3) Which President of the USA gave the Gettysburg Address?

4) Sb is the symbol for which chemical element, with the atomic number 51?

5) In which Shakespeare play does the fool Touchstone appear?

6) Chablis, Côte de Nuits and Mâconnais are among the areas of which French wine-growing region?

7) Which ballet by Sir Arthur Bliss concerns a game of chess between Love and Death, and takes its title appropriately from a term in that game?

8) What were the surnames of the titular stars of the sitcom Terry and June?

9) Which one of Robin Hood’s merry men shares his surname with a colour?

10) Which Lincolnshire resort is situated between Gibraltar Point and Ingoldmells Point?

11) Who holds the record for scoring in the most consecutive Premier League matches, achieved when he scored against Manchester United in November 2015?

12) How many pairs of ribs are there in a normal human body?

13) In Greek mythology, who constructed the labyrinth at Knossos (pictured right) for King Minos of Crete?

14) What is the predominant colour of the cap of the fly agaric toadstool?

15) In the 1960s who appeared on screen as Archie Rice in The Entertainer, The Mahdi in Khartoum and Field Marshal Sir John French in Oh! What a Lovely War, among other roles?

16) Who was the commander of the Grand Fleet at the battle of Jutland?

17) Founded in 1766, what is Europe’s leading auctioneer of racehorses?

18) Completed about 1518, Mandragola, a comic play about a seduction, was written by which political theorist?

19) What is the largest city in the American State of New Jersey?

20) By what name is navigator Fernão de Magalhães better known to posterity?

21) Christian Ludwig Hohenzollern was the name of the dedicatee of which works by Johann Sebastian Bach?

22) Jenna Coleman left Doctor Who in 2015 to play which monarch in an upcoming series on ITV?

23) What sort of foodstuff is a Lincolnshire Poacher?

24) The Egyptian God of wisdom, Thoth, was either depicted as having the head of a Baboon or having the head of which bird?

25) The play A Month in the Country and the novel Fathers and Sons are among the works of which nineteenth-century Russian writer?

26) Which painter, born in Lincoln in 1726, shares his name with the protagonist of the Uncharted series of video games?

27) Bob Fosse holds the record, with 8, for Tony Awards in which category?

28) Which disgraced star of the silent film era (pictured right) had the forenames Roscoe Conkling?

29) What was the surname of 15th/16th century Venetian artists Jacopo and his sons Gentile and Giovanni?

30) For which constituency is Jeremy Corbyn the MP?

31) What aid to Londoners and visitors to the city was developed by Phyllis Pearsall?

32) Which type of pasta takes its name from the Italian for “to cut”?

14 pass

33) Which New Romantic band only had one chart-topping single and album in the UK, both entitled True, in 1983?

34) Which British energy drink brand is owned by Japanese firm Suntory?

35) Which cricketer made 11 appearances for Scunthorpe United between 1980 and 1985?

36) Whose Symphony number 36 in C major is known as the Linz symphony as it was composed and first performed there in 1783?

37) Which is the largest of the seven emirates which comprise the United Arab Emirates?

38) Which singer-songwriter released Shadows in the Night, a 2015 collection of covers of songs associated with Frank Sinatra?

39) In geography, what term is given to a vent in a volcano through which steam and volcanic gases are emitted?

40) The Four Books of Architecture was an influential work published in 1570 and written by which Italian Renaissance architect?

41) Which German artist, a founder of Dada, invented the technique of pencil rubbings on canvas known as Frottage?

42) What two words are condensed to make the military abbreviation DEFCON?

43) Which French politician, nicknamed “The Tiger,” (portrait by Manet, left) observed “America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization”?

44) Where in the Solar System can you find the Maxwell Gap?

45) In which Yorkshire Dale is Hardraw Force, the highest single-drop waterfall in England?

46) Which English football club is nicknamed “The Bees”?

47) From which Rimsky-Korsakov opera does the Flight of the Bumblebee come?

48) Tim Hart, born in Lincoln in 1948, published the first English-language guide to La Gomera in the Canary Islands but is better known for being as a founder member of which folk-rock band in 1969?

49) Which television presenter also produced the Queen’s Christmas Message between 1986 and 1991?

50) Which bird’s beak changes through spring into summer into either a blue base with orange and yellow stripes, yellow with orange tip or orange with brown or grey base, depending on the species?

51) Gorm the Old, who reigned in the first half of the tenth century, is the first historically recognised King of which country?

52) Which is the further north of the Pacific Island states of Nauru and Tuvalu?

53) Justin Trudeau, who was elected Prime Minister of Canada in 2015, is the leader of which political party?

54) The plural of which vegetable follows Green in the title of a Booker T and the MGs hit 1979 hit single?

55) Which American composed A Lincoln Portrait, premiered in 1942?

56) Which medium-sized African antelope, scientific name Aepyceros melampus, gives its name to a family car made by Chevrolet?

57) Which 1971 song included the line “drove my Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry”?

58) Into which chamber of the human heart do the vena cava veins carry blood?

59) Who did Archbishop Stephen Langton describe as the greatest knight that ever lived in a eulogy after that knight’s death in 1219?

60) The last words of which ancient Greek mathematician (portrait by Domenico Fetti, left) are reputed to be “Do not disturb my circles” to a Roman soldier?

2016:1 15

CLUB EVENTS: Christmas 2015 in London Lunch for 21 organised by Gavin Fuller at the Sanctuary House Hotel

Left to right: Rachel Leonard, Wendy Forrester, Nadia Nour (guest of Wendy), Kevin Ashman

In front of the splendid mural – left to right: Anne Ling, Susan Leng, Robert Leng

16 pass

Ken Emond with Rachel Leonard

Left to right: Ray Ward, Leo Stevenson, Bob Jones, Bob Collier, Simon Grantham, Leslie Grout

The whole party!

2016:1 17

London Pictures Courtesy of:

Editor and daughter Kate, plus . . .

Robert Jones (left) and Michael Davison (right)

Answers to quiz questions . . .

18 pass

MASTER QUIZ ROUND 1 2016: THE ANSWERS Phillida Grantham These questions were published in Pass 2015: 4) 1. At Runnymede. Note the inverted commas on “signed” as John could not sign his name.

2. Agincourt.

3. Quito, Ecuador (coat of arms pictured right).

4. The England cricket sweater.

5. Aberdeen.

6. The 60th.

7. 1905.

8. Christine Lagarde.

9. New York World.

10. Stirling Moss.

11. Lusitania.

12. All Old Etonians.

13. Napoleon.

14. The Matterhorn.

15. Laughing gas.

16. 9th September 2015.

17. Bradford.

18. Ninette de Valois.

19. The Duke of Wellington.

20. Hungary.

21. Kellogg.

22. Queen Victoria’s birthday.

23. Carmen.

24. The initial letters of their first names: Agnetha, Björn, Benny, Anni-Frid.

25. Singapore.

26. Robert the Bruce.

27. The UK’s membership of the EC.

28. Romeo.

29. Rock Salmon.

30. Lunar Roving Vehicle (right).

31. Gabarone.

32. Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary.

33. 1965.

34. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

35. Actually there were three: Sibelius, Glazunov and Nielsen.

36. The N.E.C., Birmingham.

2016:1 19

37. A reflex angle.

38. Colorado.

39. Benjamin Franklin.

40. Walloon French.

41. Holland Park.

42. A sapphire wedding anniversary.

43. Caroline Flack.

44. George Stubbs.

45. Captain Frederick Marryat (John Simpson portrait, right)

46. 2005.

47. A skulk.

48. The beaver.

49. Sir John Mortimer.

50. Hampton Court.

51. Ian Botham.

52. Clyde Tombaugh.

53. A blue moon.

54. William IV.

55. Pillar boxes.

56. Cybermen. Daleks could also have frightened timid children.

57. The Proms.

58. The Netherlands.

59. Champagne.

60. A bull fighter.

61. The D-Day landings.

62. The Daily Telegraph.

63. Diabetes.

64. Raymond Blanc.

65. Lady Butler (nee Elizabeth Thompson). For the sake of realism, she had the cavalry charge towards her as she sat at her easel.

66. Either the world or peace. 67. Fred Hoyle.

68. In the Bering Strait.

69. Kent, Essex and Warwick.

70. Alois Alzheimer.

71. 12.

72. The Women’s Institute in Anglesey at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobllllantysiliogogogoch! (station name board above)

73. Adhesive postage stamps.

74. 8 May 1945.

75. The grave of Copenhagen, the Duke of Wellington’s horse. He is buried at Stratfield Saye next to the housekeeper.

20 pass

PAIRED ANAGRAMS QUIZ

Geoff Thomas The answers (a) and (b) to the following pairs of clues are anagrams of each other, e.g. (a) an hypnotic state…………………………………………………TRANCE

(b) gait of a horse, between trot and gallop…………….CANTER

1(a) Oldest Swiss university situated here

(b) Heraldic colour

2(a) Large, mainly black bird of the family Corvidae

(b) Roman emperor (96-98), between Domitian and Trajan

3(a) Doomed Shakespearean hero

(b) Irish poet, (“The Minstrel Boy”, “The Last Rose of Summer”)

4(a) Nationality of Nobel Lit. Prize winner Patrick White.

(b) Roman feasting and celebrations commencing December 17th

5(a) Come together to meet at a given point

(b) Restoration dramatist

6(a) Large, pale-skinned pig with pendulous ears, bred for bacon

(b)The Julian one held sway in Catholic Europe until 1582

7(a) The hero of a 12th century epic French chanson de geste

(b) Surname of one of Lytton Strachey’s “Eminent Victorians” 3(b)? 8(a) South American capital city

(b) African republic, once known as French Sudan

9(a) The “rose-red city, half as old as time”

(b) Victorian aesthete, author of “Marius the Epicurean”

10(a) English racecourse where Frankie Dettori rode seven winners in a day

(b) Italian opera (1899) based on a story by Victorien Sardou

11(a) Figure of speech: emphasis by understatement

(b) Poet born in St Louis, Missouri, 1888

12(a) Another word for a miniaturist painter (e.g. Hilliard)

(b) Type of small European falcon

13(a) County in Northern Ireland

(b) Forename of eponymous Dickensian hero

14(a) A knight of Arthurian legend, husband of Enid

(b) Moroccan seaport occupied by the Spanish in World War Two

15(a) Scottish golf course, with a hole called the “postage stamp”

(b) Surname of playwright murdered by lover in 1967 15(a)? (Answers are on Page 17)

FROM THE TIMES, SATURDAY 12 DEC. 2015

© Robert Crampton (by kind permission of the author)

COMPOSERS: A HOMOPHONES QUIZ

Richard Snailham 1 Scarcely in debt 2 The skill of designing water defences for castles 3 The second letter’s the first 4 Get this expert in when the screen on your box goes blank 5 Dogs frequently do 6 Louboutin or Choo or Lobb? 7 Two cards (the second one a picture card) make 14 8 Between money holder K and money holder M 9 Sets fire to northern river The composer himself! 10 On this to nothing 11 The new address of an annex built by No. 4 12 Sixty minutes of retail 13 Pub conversation 14 Sticky stuff? Don’t think so

15 Only a hankering after a small bay 16 Keep your corn in it 17 Pre-Columbian Central American ale 18 Innkeeper 19 He fertilises the ground with clay 20 Belongs to top cook Smith Number 19 perhaps?

(Answers on Page 17)