50 for fun; POST PUZZLER.

Byline: Phil Brown's trivia quiz

1 Which Russian river is the third largest in Europe by flow rate when it reaches the sea, despite being only 46 miles long?

2 What important book was published by John Heminge and Henry Condell in 1623?

3 What is the name of the Russian singer who won this year's Eurovision Song Contest?

4 In English league football, which three teams gained promotion through the playoff finals over the weekend?

5 In which sporting event now taking place will the winner gain the Coupe des Mousquetaires?

6 Who was the ventriloquist in the 1950s radio show Educating Archie - listened to by millions despite the obvious lack of challenge for the ventriloquist?

7 A 29-year dispute over the islands of Pedra Branca and Middle Rocks has just been resolved by the International Court of Justice - between which two countries?

8 The 1,600 square mile Lake of the Woods lies on the border between which two countries?

9 Which actor played Tevye in the original Broadway show of Fiddler On The Roof and Max Bialystock in 1968 film comedy The Producers?

10 Devil May Care, published this week, is the first "official" James Bond novel for more than 40 years - which author was chosen to write it at the request of Bond creator Ian Fleming's family?

11 On average, only two football clubs in the English Premiership fielded starting lineups with a majority of England-qualified players in the season just finished. Which two?

12 Which British rock group's first album was Three Imaginary Boys in 1979?

13 Stepping back to the 1950s, who had Top 10 UK hit singles with That's Amore and The Naughty Lady Of Shady Lane?

14 Eye Level, the million-selling 1973 No 1 hit single for the Simon Park Orchestra, was the theme tune to which TV series?

15 Which two comedians and presenters were team captains on long-running radio show My Word! from 1956 to 1990?

16 Labour minister George Brown used what memorable phrase to describe Swiss financial speculators in the autumn of 1964?

17 Which early medieval king was branded by Christian writers "flagellum Dei" - the Scourge of God? 18 Which 19th century conflict got the nickname of the Terrapin War?

19 Which British woman won the 800 metres gold at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in only her eighth race at the distance?

20 Wrangel Island off the north coast of Siberian Russia was the last known home of which well-known mammal species, that survived there as recently as 1,700BC?

21 Which grain is used to make the foodstuff polenta?

22 Which actress became famous after being talent-spotted by Walt Disney himself for his Mickey Mouse Club TV shows, and later starred in a series of popular "Beach" movies opposite Frankie Avalon?

23 The Raven, Charlie Chan At The Opera, The Man They Could Not Hang - films connected by which actor?

24 Which composer wrote his first opera, The Giant, aged just nine?

25 Which four chemical elements are believed to have been the only four formed in the first round of nucleosynthesis, in the first few minutes after the Big Bang?

26 Which European capital city is served by an airport just outside the nearby town of Vantaa?

27 In which year (one either way) was the Sinclair ZX80 the first computer ever to be sold in the UK for under pounds 100?

28 Tricia McMillan is the leading female character in which hit radio/TV/novel series?

29 Which very prominent lunar feature is named for a colourful 16th century Danish astronomer who wore a metal nose most of his life after losing his own during a student duel?

30 Which Hollywood actress has been criticised for publicly speculating that the recent catastrophic China earthquake could be due to "karma" over events in Tibet?

31 Which popular British artist famous for her happily outsized female characters has just died at the age of 81?

32 Which African country famously declared independence from the UK unilaterally and under minority white rule in 1965?

33 In which book of the Bible (canonical to Catholics but not Protestants) does the serial husbandslaying demon Asmodeus appear?

34 In which three English counties does the "National Forest", begun in 1990, lie?

35 To which continent is the apricot native?

36 In which country has a 101-carat diamond the size of a table tennis ball just been sold at auction for pounds 3m?

37 Good-Bye To All That, based on World War I experiences, is which author's well-known anti-war work?

38 Which highly-rated TV writer called his production company Mutant Enemy - after a nickname for his old typewriter, taken from a song by rock group Yes?

39 What was the family name of the 15 successive Shoguns who were the effective rulers of Japan for two and a half centuries to the 1860s?

40 Ex-slave Quintus Roscius was ancient Rome's most famous what?

41 Which soft fruit was sometimes known in olden times as "feaberry" from its reputed ability to help soothe the feverish?

42 Which cricket team did England beat in a 1938 Test match by an innings and 579 runs, having scored a monstrous 903 for 7 declared?

43 In which year (two either way) did the sixth and most famous HMS Dreadnought come into service as the fastest and best armed battleship of its day, setting off a major naval arms race?

44 Saskia van Uylenburgh married - and modelled for - which great painter?

45 Edmond Dantes is the original name of the title character of which 19th century Alexandre Dumas thriller?

46 Which still-extant though no longer independent watchmaker paid EUR9 to screen the first-ever televised advertisement, in July 1941?

47 Which tongue-supporting bone is the only one in the human body not connected to any other bone?

48 What nationality is leading rock guitarist Joe Satriani?

49 Keats' famous image of "stout Cortez... silent, upon a peak in Darien" is a well-known historical blunder by the poetwhich other explorer was in fact the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the Americas, as described?

50 Which song, originally a 1974 hit for the Osmonds, was Boyzone's breakthrough hit in the UK in 1994

ANSWERS

1 The Neva (river of St Petersburg, connecting the huge Lake Ladoga to the Gulf of Finland); 2 The First Folio of Shakespeare's plays; 3 Dima Bilan; 4 Hull (to the Premiership), Doncaster (to the Championship) and Stockport (to League One); 5 The men's singles in the French Open tennis tournament; 6 Peter Brough; 7 Singapore and Malaysia; 8 The USA and Canada; 9 Zero Mostel; 10 Sebastian Faulks; 11 West Ham and Aston Villa; 12 The Cure's; 13 Dean Martin; 14 Van Der Valk; 15 Frank Muir and Denis Norden; 16 The Gnomes of Zurich; 17 Attila (the Hun); 18 The British- American War of 1812 (because the US was supposedly shut in like a terrapin in its shell); 19 Ann Packer; 20 The woolly mammoth; 21 Maize; 22 Annette Funicello; 23 Boris Karloff; 24 Prokofiev; 25 Hydrogen, helium, lithium and beryllium; 26 Helsinki (Finland); 27 In 1980; 28 The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (she is usually called Trillian); 29 The crater Tycho (after Tycho Brahe); 30 Sharon Stone; 31 Beryl Cook; 32 Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe); 33 Tobit; 34 Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire; 35 Asia (first cultivated in China); 36 China (Hong Kong); 37 Robert Graves'; 38 Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator); 39 Tokugawa; 40 (Comic) Actor; 41 The gooseberry; 42 Australia; 43 In 1906; 44 Rembrandt; 45 The Count Of Monte Cristo; 46 Bulova; 47 The hyoid bone; 48 American; 49 Vasco de Balboa; 50 Love Me For A Reason.

CAPTION(S):

Which Osmonds number was the breakthrough UK hit for Boyzone (pictured: Boyzone member Shane Lynch)? See question 50; James Bond creator Ian Fleming - see question 10