Saturday Trivia Challenge: Put Your Smarts to the Test

How much of general knowledge do you possess? Dive into the following collection of queries to find out.

The Queries

1 What icon of country music was nearly killed by an ostrich in 1981?

2 Sarah Mullally has been appointed as the 106th what?

3 Which first convened at Þingvellir in Iceland in 930?

4 In the power industry, what does EfW stand for?

5 Tears of Christ vino originates from vineyards on what mountain?

6 What BBC sitcom has been running for nineteen years?

7 Whose report resulted in the implementation of stadiums with only seats in the United Kingdom?

8 Which chess piece was originally known as the counsellor?

What Links

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

10 Sierra de Urbión; Tordesillas town; Zamora; Oporto?

11 Offspring of Cush; ninth musical variation; naval patrol plane; Iranian embassy siege?

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

13 Boxing; chariot contests; discus throw; javelin; long jump; pankration; grappling?

14 Agent 007; Leamas character; Pyle figure; Adolf Verloc?

15 Blanchett actress; Cruz star; Keaton performer; Mira Sorvino; Dianne Wiest?

Feeling stumped by the Tordesillas question?

The Answers

1 The Man in Black.

2 Canterbury Archbishop.

3 Althing (Icelandic assembly).

4 Waste-to-energy.

5 Mount Vesuvius.

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

7 Lord Justice Taylor (1990).

8 Queen.

9 Lanes in London.

10 River Douro: starts in Spain; travels through Spain; empties into the Atlantic.

11 Nimrod: from Genesis; in Elgar's Enigma Variations; Nimrod aircraft; codename for SAS operation.

12 Bristol Channel islands.

13 Ancient Olympic events.

14 Spy titles in books: Fleming’s The Spy Who Loved Me; John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; Greene’s The Quiet American; Conrad’s The Secret Agent.

15 Oscar wins in Woody Allen movies: film Blue Jasmine; movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona; classic Annie Hall; Mighty Aphrodite; Hannah and Her Sisters, Bullets Over Broadway.