Saturday Trivia Challenge: Put Your Smarts to the Test

What amount of general knowledge do you possess? Plunge into the following set of questions to discover.

The Questions

1 What icon of country music had a close brush with death by an ostrich back in 1981?

2 Dame Sarah Mullally has been appointed as the one hundred and sixth what?

3 What first convened at Þingvellir in the nation of Iceland in 930?

4 In the power industry, what is EfW?

5 Tears of Christ wine originates from wine estates on what mountain?

6 Which BBC sitcom has been airing for nineteen years?

7 Which person's report led to the implementation of stadiums with only seats in the United Kingdom?

8 What chess piece was originally known as the counsellor?

What Links

9 Brick; Chancery; Hangar Lane; Leather Lane; Park; Pudding Lane?

10 Urbión Range; Tordesillas town; Zamora; Porto?

11 Offspring of Cush; ninth musical variation; naval patrol plane; siege at the Iranian embassy?

12 Caldey Island; Denny; Flat Holm; Lundy Island; Stert Island; The Wolves?

13 Pugilism; chariot racing; discus; javelin; broad jump; ancient combat sport; wrestling?

14 Agent 007; Leamas character; Pyle figure; Verloc persona?

15 Cate Blanchett; Penélope Cruz; Diane Keaton; Sorvino actress; Wiest thespian?

In deep water over the Tordesillas clue?

The Answers

1 The Man in Black.

2 Canterbury Archbishop.

3 Althing (Icelandic assembly).

4 Waste-to-energy.

5 Vesuvius.

6 The sitcom Not Going Out (UK's second longest-running comedy)

7 Lord Justice Taylor (1990).

8 The queen piece.

9 London lanes.

10 Douro River: rises in Spain; flows through in Spain; empties into the Atlantic.

11 The name Nimrod: from Genesis; from Elgar’s Enigma Variations; Nimrod aircraft; codename for SAS operation.

12 Islands in the Bristol Channel.

13 Ancient Olympic events.

14 Spy titles in books: Fleming’s The Spy Who Loved Me; John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; Graham Greene's The Quiet American; Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent.

15 Oscar wins in Woody Allen movies: film Blue Jasmine; Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Annie Hall; Mighty Aphrodite; Hannah and Her Sisters, Bullets Over Broadway.