General Knowledge Quiz

[EbbwJunction1]

Thank you … this is I think, a little easier - but possibly only if you know your subject!

Three English Counties have never won the County Championship in any of it's formats - who are they, please?

 

[Marton]

Thank you … this is I think, a little easier - but possibly only if you know your subject!

Three English Counties have never won the County Championship in any of it's formats - who are they, please?

Gloucestershire
Northamptonshire
Somerset

Yorkshire, of course, have won it more times than anyone. It used to be twice as many as the next one (Surrey) but I think it’s not quite that now.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Blimey, that was quick, well done …. you may take the Pavilion End!

 

[Marton]

Change of tack

In the first recorded use of chemical weapons

Who used the weapon
When
What was the weapon

 

[MotCO]

I'm thinking that it is not an obvious answer. I'll stick my neck out and say the ancient Greeks.

 

[Marton]

I'm thinking that it is not an obvious answer. I'll stick my neck out and say the ancient Greeks.

Good start. Right era
Can you be more specific?

 

[krus_aragon]

Good start. Right era
Can you be more specific?

I'll stick my oar in, and suggest the use of Greek fire. The name of the naval battle escapes me, though.

 

[MotCO]

If it's not the Greeks, could it be the Carthaginians?

 

[Marton]

Neither Greek nor Carthaginian.

Hint : food

 

[MotCO]

Neither Greek nor Carthaginian.

Hint : food

Of the feathered kind eaten at Thanksgiving and Christmas?

 

[Marton]

Of the feathered kind eaten at Thanksgiving and Christmas?

No, but the usual bird used then is the modern name of the country of which one part is the source of the name of one of the war leaders And the species which is the source of the chemical.

 

[MotCO]

No, but the usual bird used then is the modern name of the country of which one part is the source of the name of one of the war leaders And the species which is the source of the chemical.

I presume the country is Turkey, the leader is Ataturk, and the only species of turkey I know is Waitrose Bronze!

 

[krus_aragon]

And the species which is the source of the chemical.

Guano?

 

[Marton]

A bit more help.

Turkey is the country now. The part I’m thinking of has a more ancient name, although I believe there was a Plan for it to be independent after WWI as it was Greek based not Turkish.

The species is a plant which is now widespread in GB and often considered an invasive species / pest such as in snowdonia.

 

[Calthrop]

Rhododendron?

 

[Marton]

Rhododendron?

That’s the plant. Once specific species is related to a poisonous food.

Any offers on the species and food?

 

[341o2]

Would that be "Mad Honey" which has been produced by bees feeding off rhodedendron nectar

 

[Marton]

Would that be "Mad Honey" which has been produced by bees feeding off rhodedendron nectar

It would.

rhododendron ponticum

By whom was it used in chemical warfare?

 

[MotCO]

It would.

rhododendron ponticum

By whom was it used in chemical warfare?

Was it Ataturk?

 

[Marton]

No. Some 2,000 years earlier

 

[MotCO]

No. Some 2,000 years earlier

How about Hannibal?

 

[Trackman]

Egyptians?

 

[xotGD]

Alexander the Great? And wasn't he from Macedonia?

 

[Marton]

Hint. The perpetrator was the king of Pontus.

Do you want to go on?

 

[xotGD]

Hint. The perpetrator was the king of Pontus.

Do you want to go on?

As I've never heard of Pontus, then I give up!

 

[Calthrop]

I was kind-of aware that ancient Pontus was in what is now Turkey; and that it had a king called Mithridates, who tried to render himself immune to being poisoned by taking, over a long period, small quantities of arsenic (very metaphorical kind of chemical warfare?). Google tells me that the area was the north-eastern corner of modern Turkey, and that the arsenic guy was Mithridates VI, who reigned roughly 100 years B.C. But this would seem to be very different chemical-related stuff, from that which the question is about !

 

[MotCO]

As I've never heard of Pontus, then I give up!

I'll admit defeat as well

 

[Marton]

It was indeed Mithtidates but against Pompey's soldiers who reportedly suffered lethal casualties following the consumption of honey made from Rhododendron deliberately left behind by Pontic forces in 67 BC during the Third Mithridatic War. Later, it was recognized that honey resulting from these plants has a slightly hallucinogenic and laxative effect.[

 

[Marton]

Open floor?

 

[Andy Pacer]

I'll take the open floor with this question:

How did a supply of tea from T.E. Stockwell influence the largest grocery retailer in the UK?