|
Entrant |
Points |
Answer received |
|
|
Curdle |
50 |
8 December |
|
|
Karin Rees |
50 |
9 December |
|
|
Maggie Shaw |
50 |
14 December |
|
|
Chrissie |
50 |
16 December |
|
|
Onslo |
48 |
11 December |
|
|
Panikos |
46 |
9 December |
|
|
Mick |
42 |
16 December |
|
|
OC |
40 |
24 December |
|
By a short head,
Curdle wins our Special Gold Certificate for the earliest received correct
answer. Gold Certificates go to Karin
Rees, Maggie Shaw and Chrissie, who also scored maximum points. Silver Certificates go to Onslo, Panikos,
Mick and OC, all scoring over 40.
Commendable scores were also posted by Barrie Davey and several local
(non-Web) entrants. They receive Bronze
Certificates. Congratulations to all
the winners.
General Knowledge
Cyclops? Girls’ night out? Mother of gold?
William, comice, conference?
Yellow ball in snooker?
|
One (one-eyed giant) Hen (hen party) Goose (laid golden eggs) Pear (varieties of) Two (points value of) |
Literature
Famous detectives?
Leda’s lover?
Lost in Mount
Doom? Men in a boat?
|
Five (The Famous Five etc by Enid Blyton) Swan (form taken by Zeus in classical myth) Ring (destroyed by Frodo in The Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien) Three (Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome) |
History
Catherine Parr? Joan of Arc? |
Six (wife number for Henry VIII) Maid (the Maid of Orleans) |
Religion
Apocalyptic equestrians?
Second out of the Ark?
|
Four (Horsemen of the Apocalypse) Dove (sent out by Noah after the raven) |
Films
Japanese swordsmen? Sinatra’s tramp? Walter’s Night to
Remember? |
Seven (The Seven Samurai) Lady (The Lady is a Tramp sung by Frank Sinatra in Pal Joey) Lord (Walter Lord, author of the book on which Titanic was based) |
Music
Charlie Parker? Plays in haggis?
Ringo Starr? |
Bird (saxophonist known as Bird) Piper (in Scottish tradition the bagpipes are played when the haggis is served) Drummer (in the Beatles) |
Science and Technology
First moon landing?
Five dashes? Oxygen? Planets? |
Eleven (Apollo mission) Ten (in Morse code; also represents ‘0’, see below) Eight (in the periodic table) Nine (number of) |
Brainteasers
Next number in the sequence 0 -4 4 0 8 4 … Pig trader arranged for Christmas game? |
Twelve (numbers are alternately minus 4 and plus 8 on the preceding number) Partridge (anagram) |
The
theme was the popular Christmas song beginning ‘On the first day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me A partridge in a pear tree’.
Subsequent gifts were two turtle doves, three French hens, four calling birds, five gold rings, six geese a-laying, seven swans a-swimming, eight maids a-milking, nine ladies dancing, ten lords a-leaping, eleven pipers piping and twelve drummers drumming.
One of the questions proved to be unsatisfactory, for which I apologise. My reference source, Pears Junior ’Cyclopedia, gave ‘10’ for the meaning of five dashes in Morse code. While this may be an alternative usage, most of you knew that five dashes normally signify nought (zero). This answer, however, does not fit the theme (unless as, ingeniously, some respondents did, you call it ‘love’ as in tennis), and, in the context of all the other answers, which relate to the gifts themselves, clearly ‘10’ is required here to complete the set of numbers 1 – 12.