50 for fun; POST PUZZLER trivia quiz.

Byline: Phil Brown's

1 Apart from the Sun and the Alpha Centauri system, which star - so faint it was not discovered until 1916 - is closest to the Earth?

2 On which piece of apparatus has Beth Tweddle just won Britain's first-ever gymnastics world championships gold medal?

3 Which two American teams are currently contesting baseball's World Series?

4 Which tennis player has just become the first in the open era to win at least 10 titles in three consecutive years?

5 In which competition have Australia's cricketers just beaten England by six wickets?

6 Which rock singer dubbed "the godfather of punk" made his name with The Stooges in the late 1960s?

7 The cities of Haarlem and Enschede are in which European country?

8 In which English county can you see the nine-acre Whipsnade Tree Cathedral, laid out in the form of a medieval cathedral after World War I?

9 Which French rugby union side did Newport Gwent Dragons beat 50-3 in the European Challenge Cup on Friday?

10 Whose convincing victory made her the first British woman for eight years to win the Great South Run on Sunday?

11 Which island, with a population of more than six million, has the capital Haikou?

12 Which pop group had 15 Top 10 hits between 1979 and 1983 but only one chart-topper, House Of Fun?

13 Which well-known musician set up Dark Horse Records, with a logo based on the seven-headed horse Uchchaisravas of Hindu myth?

14 According to an analysis by the Campaign to Protect Rural England, which county in that country is the most tranquil ?

15 Hastings Banda was the leader of which country from 1963 to 1994?

16 Which team clinched the constructors' championship at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday?

17 He is current chancellor of Durham University and his latest book is the memoir The Life And Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid - which popular writer?

18 In which Welsh castle was the future Henry VII born in 1457?

19 Which dictator said that chess was "the gymnasium of the mind"?

20 Which much-praised travel writer, author of works as varied as A Short Walk In The Hindu Kush and Round Ireland In Low Gear, died last week at the age of 86?

21 Who wrote the original novel of The Invisible Man?

22 Which country is this week marking the 50th anniversary of its brutallycrushed rising against Soviet rule?

23 Which comic team can be seen on film in Down Among The Z Men?

24 Complete the title of swashbuckling Tony Curtis/Janet Leigh film The Black Shield Ofa?

25 Graffiti artist Banksy has seen his set of six silk-screen portraits of which supermodel sell for more than pounds 50,000 at auction?

26 Which comic-book heroine did Lori Petty play in a 1995 film based on the work of Gorillaz artist Jamie Hewlett?

27 Against which club did striker Andriy Shevchenko score his first Premiership home goal for Chelsea at the weekend?

28 Who played the medium passing messages between Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore in the film Ghost?

29 Cornelius van Drebbel was a pioneer in which form of transportation?

30 Gravity-measuring satellites have found that which ice-covered region is losing 100 billion tonnes of ice a year?

31 From which continent is the poison curare, a source of useful medicines?

32 The disease epidemic parotitis is better known by what common name?

33 The sorceress Sycorax is the mother of which Shakespearean villain?

34 In which European country did Nils Dacke lead the failed peasants' revolt since known as the Dacke War in 1542-43?

35 Which hero of American tall tales was supposed to have formed the Grand Canyon by dragging his pick behind him?

36 Which Indian firm is preparing to take over British-Dutch steel firm Corus?

37 Which well-known author bequeathed 15 Lake District farms totaling 4,000 acres to the National Trust in 1943?

38 What profession was followed by three members of the Egyptian royal household whose graves archaeologists have just discovered near a pyramid after activity by tomb robbers?

39 Oolong (black dragon) is a Chinese variety of which drink?

40 Which mythical beasts attempted to kidnap Hippodamia on the day of her wedding to King Pirithous as a feast degenerated into a battle?

41 What global transport link is to be doubled in size after a national referendum voted for that move?

42 What name for a popular hobby was constructed from Greek words meaning "love of being tax-free?

43 Which chemical element has the symbol Sm?

44 Which national park in the USA is the world's oldest?

45 The 1,300-year global cooling event of around 10,000BC is known to science, after an alpine flower, as the Younger...?

46 What kind of mythical evil beast was the Persian shadhavar, able to make alluring flute-like music using the wind?

47 Which Margaret Lockwood film immensely popular on its 1945 release is based on supposed events in the life of 17th-century aristocrat Katherine Ferrers?

48 Which 19th-century musical pairing famously saw long-standing tensions break out in a furious row over who should pay for a theatre carpet?

49 On which of the British Isles would you see the stone circle of Callanish?

50 Who poured a bottle of wine over the head of model Sophie Anderton (pictured) in ITV's Celebrity Love Island this year?

ANSWERS

1Barnard's Star' 2 The uneven bars' 3 The St Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers' 4 Roger Federer' 5 The ICC Champions Trophy' 6 Iggy Pop' 7 The Netherlands' 8 Bedfordshire' 9 Bayonne' 10 Jo Pavey' 11 Hainan' 12 Madness' 13 George Harrison' 14 Northumberland' 15 Malawi' 16 Renault' 17 Bill Bryson' 18 Pembroke' 19 Lenin' 20 Eric Newby' 21 H G Wells' 22 Hungary' 23 The Goons' 24 Falworth' 25 Kate Moss' 26 Tank Girl' 27 Portsmouth' 28 Whoopi Goldberg' 29 Submarines' 30 Greenland' 31 South America' 32 Mumps' 33 Caliban (The Tempest)' 34 Sweden' 35 Paul Bunyan' 36 Tata Steel' 37 Beatrix Potter' 38 Dentists' 39 Tea' 40 Centaurs' 41 The Panama Canal' 42 Philately (as stamps meant letter-receivers no longer paid for them)' 43 Samarium' 44 Yellowstone' 45 Dryas' 46 A unicorn (its holed horn became a flute)' 47 The Wicked Lady' 48 Gilbert and Sullivan' 49 Lewis' 50Lady Victoria Hervey 

CAPTION(S):

Model and reality show contestant Sophie Anderton - see question 50