Extremely difficult quiz questions

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This extremely difficult quiz question is possible to answer using the internet, lets see who gets the correct answer first.

What is the name of the cottage next door to The Crown & Anchor pub, near Kilnsea, East Yorkshire. ?

The Under-Butler was less than pleased at being interrupted whilst explaining the offside rule to the pantry maid, but mainly wanted to know whether Madrid are "real" (or presumably imaginary).

Names shouted from behind a closed door included Gil Merrick, England goalkeeper and William Eckersley, neither of which can be found in Debrett.

Evidently Mr Merrick is not available for questioning as he died in 2010 aged 88, damn his impertinence.

I hesitate to enquire further.  You just can't get the staff these days can you, as I'm sure readers will be aware.

This must have been the F A Cup 2nd qualifying round 2nd replay, Matlock Town versus Havant and Waterlooville in 1958. No penalty shoot-outs in them days, replay after replay if necessary and on neutral grounds. Judging from the size of the crowd, this could well have been the Middle Wallop YMCA stadium. Am I close?  

I spotted the trick part of the question. The linesman is Jeremy Corbyn, and so the cat doesn’t have a name.

I don't think that the maid should be troubling herself with the off-side rule until she can explain in detail the law on LBW - after all, we know that these days even linesmen themselves can't fathom whether a player has moved back from an off-side position in order to gain an advantage.

While your inability to recruit staff who can tackle these questions fully is not my concern, I will just point out this was the England-v-Hungary match at Wembley in November 1953 when the visitors became the first foreign team to win an international soccer match on English soil (although Eire had won in Liverpool in 1949). Finally, the third player ( wearing the number 5 shirt) is Harry Johnston of Blackpool.

The linesman's cat was called 'Tibbles' and I defy you to prove otherwise...

Ivan - you are indeed close -close to being red-carded for showing disrespect to the referee.

Something which I never did in my playing days...  

And incidentally the linesman can't be Corbyn - he is clearly standing on the right wing of the victorious team!

Percy, the Under Butler, (His name isn't Percy but I always call them that) has become inordinately interested in this novel pastime, and has requested "a go".  He seems to think that contestants will instantly recognise THIS CHAP, who has apparently gone to that great pitch in the sky recently:

He has a very 'Irish' face which was familiar when I first saw it, although a name escaped me.

But from the Bradford City shirt I have a feeling it is Bobby Campbell - and I hadn't realised he had died..

Quite so.  A more recent photo of Bobby Campbell age 60 in September -

I was struck by a curious factoid which emerged from a recent television food programme.  There really are quite a lot of food programmes on telly, aren't there?  (That's not the question).  Moving on from the kids' teatime Peanut Butter we were told that Almonds and Cashew nuts are also available in the form of a spreading-butter.

Although snack-size packets of Cashews are usually more expensive than packeted Almonds of equal weight, Cashew-nut butter at £1.65 is cheaper to buy than Almond-butter £2.32.

What's the explanation?

I'm nut sure of the answer.

But might it have something to do with the volume of nuts needed to make the different concoctions ( ie within the process do cashew nuts 'expand' more than almonds?). Or does almond butter require some more expensive additive to make it palatable as a butter spread than its 'rival'?

(At a small baker's shop near me, I am told that my favourite almond Danish pastries are so meanly topped with flaked almonds compared to the more generous topping of a few years ago, because of the very high price of the ingredient. Naturally I asked them to keep a generous topping and to put up the price, but they told me to go away...)

The programme airing such curious commercial practice was called Food Unwrapped, on Ch 4, and explained that Consumers prefer nuts to be entire for snacking, but that industrial processing, and transportation, means a proportion of cashew nuts arrive in fragmented pieces which are aesthetically less attractive. But that doesn't affect the manufacture of Cashew-nut "butter" from nut pieces mashed in their own natural oil.

Aside from all that, Retailers are usually happy to blame the politicians for increasing prices at the checkout.

Which exclusive holiday resort is being threatened by the presence of this dubious-looking ne'er-do-well?

(private photo)

Is this a trick question, or have those sunshades been nicked from Whitstable in Kent?

It's not Whitstable...the sun shades merely advertise an ale which is available pretty well anywhere...

Broadstairs. On the terrace of the Royal Albion Hotel.

Printed on the Menu. (Male model not identified)

http://www.albionbroadstairs.co.uk/

The eagle-eyed have it again!

Didn't go to *pec*avers, received (possibly unfair) assistance from Under-Butler, who was almost insubordinate when I suggested it was Middlesbrough.

Need to keep an eye on these clever-clogs people, doncherknow?  Where is Kent, by the way -  Duke of it lives nowhere near Broadsteps. Bit draughty up the Channel there today, apparently.

Broadstairs has a wonderfully 'down at heel' way about it -as do many British seaside resorts, but it is comfortable and welcoming. Worth a trip or two each year to take the air for a few days.

Just down the beach is located the Broadstairs Sailing Club , where Edward Heath and his Morning Cloud once attracted attention.

Earlier, Charles Dickens spent much time there and Bleak House overlooks Viking Bay...

Students of German domestic architecture of the mid-20th. Century may visit Bruno Taut's
Bauhaus terrace houses or the country cottage estate commissioned by Heinrich Himmler, both to be found in a Berlin suburb served by a U-Bahn station located in the Zehlendorf district.

The name of the Station comes from a classic American novel of the 19th. C.

What's the name of that station, please? Your answer can be in German or English.

It is Uncle Tom's Cabin , I believe - thanks to a clever friend whom I shall blame if it's not!

And who says the Germans don't have a sense of humour?  

 Natürlich, mein freund. Onkel Toms Hütte.

Where is this and what was it?

06/08/2008 · "Lubnaclach in splendid isolation. It prompted me to think of the poem, “Ozymandias”, where Shelley says, “Round the decay / Of that colossal wreck, ..."

Well, not "me" as Oftenwrong, nor even as Ozymandias, but the bloke wot took the picture, Pip Rolls.

Don't know what Mr Royce was doing at the time.

A bit more background is here: https://canmore.org.uk/site/117291/lubnaclach

It's in a wonderful remote spot, close to the 'antique land' of the West Highland railway line, which has a rich history.

Those Victorian navvies who toiled to build the line might have said : " Look on my works ye Mighty - but don't despair...!"

I loved the anecdote about students who coerced the train guard (and presumably the driver) into slowing right down as they approached that shieling in order to toss out their luggage - so as to avoid lugging it back from the station some three miles up the line.

Seeing that sort of landscape photographed helps us understand why Scotland's principal export in the past was Scots people.

Danny Dyer is well-known for his performances in the BBC TV pot-boiler East Enders, and recently appeared in a different programme which explored his family tree.  It turned out that he can claim direct ancestry all the way back to King Edward III.  (Can't we all?)

One of the opening sequences was of Danny meeting his Dad in a pub, and starting the conversation thus: Hello Dad, I hear you've got some smudges for me.

Today's extremely difficult quiz question accordingly is, "What's a smudge?"

My dear old Dad was from near the East End of London (Stratford New Town) and I have a recollection of the word being something to do with photographs - if so, maybe it was because the early ones became 'smudged' all too easily when being handled after processing?

'Inky smudge' is slang for a judge.

Not having seen an episode of 'Eastenders' for about twenty years, I am not familiar with the character played by Danny Dyer, but I would guess that Phil is right and this is about photographs. Maybe it's about photos taken to incriminate people and make them targets of blackmail - photos to 'smear' them, hence the 'smudge'?

That's a better explanation - if it is anything to do with photos...

I hadn't come across the word used that way before, and in any case Cockneys are required to speak in rhyming slang, so Ivan has the edge. As to "smudge" being related to photos, I'd guess (due to my extraordinarily great age) it harks back to the kerbside photographers with a camera on a tripod who would sell you a candid "snap" which they produced by means of a suspended bag of developer chemicals.

Not a lot of people know that.

Now here's a really difficult quiz question. It is for me anyway, as I don't know the answer , despite wondering for simply years.

At the start of the Phil Silvers Show ( starring Phil as Bilko) he is seen in cartoon form barking orders at his military subordinates.

But what is he actually saying...? If anyone can tell me, I guarantee that I shall recommend them for Pease Pottage Conservative Club Membership ( although there's a waiting list until 2020)

Take all the time you need ................


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7bGzysW-cc

I have known that much for 50 years - it's what he's saying I can't fathom!

Is it the Under-Butler's night off...?

As Commander-in-chief of the local Yeomanry I have no need of recourse to servants in respect to military matters, but to those unfortunates who have never experienced the Military Life, I am pleased to explain that the first step in training the licentious soldiery is teaching them to respond to Command. Otherwise, when you shout "Charge!", some of the buggers will wish to discuss the matter first. Hopeless.

Even the American Colonials seem to have grasped that. In the introduction to the (purely fictional in case you hadn't realised) to Sergeant Bilko, he is chanting the religious mantra of Left-right, left-right so that the bloody fools can at least go in the same direction together. This changes to "keep your dressing", reinforced by guttural barking which has no precise meaning but indicates the cadence (look it up) of the marching.... and continues until the idiots are brought to a halt with a command to "Halt".

Works every time. Surprised more people don't know that.

While on the subject of the military.....

“The duke had been appointed head of the army and lived in handsome style. He had mistresses on whom he loved to lavish riches and his favourite was Mary Anne. She had conceived the profitable idea of selling army commissions on a graduated scale according to rank, which she was able to accomplish by using her wiles upon the duke to approve the appointments.

Ultimately the duke grew tired of Mary Anne and took a new mistress. Mary Anne in fury told what had been taking place as to the army commissions, and charges were brought against the duke in the House of Commons. The duke was obliged to resign and give up all of his military honours.”

Who was the duke? Who was Mary Anne?

Was this the Duke of York and the spurned Mrs Clarke?

Well done. Frederick, Duke of York, the second son of the mad George III, was forced to resign as head of the army in 1809.

Mary Anne Clarke (nee Thompson) was married to a stonemason, but after he went bankrupt she left him. She became Frederick’s mistress in 1803, but when he dumped her it was a classic case of ‘hell hath no fury’…..

Military matters are of constant interest to the average citizen, who it is fair to say has to pay for most of them.

Unsung heroes of the Second World War must include the "I Corps" Military Intelligence personnel.  Never "mentioned in despatches" or awarded a medal, most of them were recruited from University Campuses and awarded the rank of "Private", wearing the corresponding rough army uniform including Boots AP, soldiers for the use of.

Bit ungrateful, and not a little unfair you might think, so why were the cream of our academic output apparently so undervalued?

Like the Entrance Exam for a major Uni, there can be more than one "right answer" or none.   We can be judged by our Peers.

A real puzzler! As students they would have been exempt from conscription, I assume, but that may have no relevance to their modest rank .

Is there any mileage in suggesting that such a lowly rank and failure to give any recognition was something to do with a need or desire to maintain a high degree of anonymity for these men - given the nature of their task?

I could imagine that it may even have been desirable for other private soldiers not to have too much idea of the 'origins' of these more highly-educated colleagues.

As you may detect, I really have no idea...!

I agree with that explanation, it would have been highly desirable for such specialists to melt into the background.  The virtual invisibility of yer average squaddie would not have excited anyone's attention wherever they needed to be. Some adopted the guise of Despatch Rider, which was inevitably a solo occupation and provided unremarkable but essential mobility in the form of a Royal Enfield motorcycle.

I suppose there might also have been an element of self-protection in wearing the apparel of a PBI (poor bloody infantryman) if ever captured by the enemy.  An Officer's uniform would attract greater interest and closer attention from their German counterpart.

It should perhaps be mentioned that it must have been a very lonely job.  As a species they were disliked at almost every level of the military who regarded the I Corps as parasites to be tolerated as a necessary evil.  Nobody likes a sneak, or to find out after the event that they had been hoodwinked.  Their brief included exposing misbehaviour in our own ranks, as a number of Company Quartermasters who had been flogging the rations to civilians  discovered the hard way.

Closer than I thought...!