TAC Quiz Answers 2001/02 -
Beware the Pig of the Jarkness!

The tenth TAC quiz (TAC52, pp6-7) proved more popular that its immediate predecessor, with entries up eight to a giddy 20. It also proved easier, with an average mark of 40%. There was a new name on the Old Clachlet Jug, Ian Baines progressing from bronze last time to gold this. With neat symmetry, the Shaw/Smith pairing who won by half a point in 2000/01 were defeated by the same impossibly small margin this time. The most startling performance came from Graham "I think I was on drugs last year" Benny, with his rise from boobydom to third. This year's booby - one of Mr McNeish's early works - went to Harry Ingram, his fourth such award. Harry's been an enduring friend of the quiz but has had nae luck healthwise of late: TAC wishes him well. Mention must also be made of Fiona Porter's excellent progress to fourth, and of half-centuries on debut by Artz/Grewar and Craig. Thanks all who entered. 65.5 Ian Baines, 65 Peter Shaw / Bruce Smith, 62.5 Graham Benny, 55 Fiona Porter, 51 Rebekka Artz / Gavin Grewar, 51 Keith Craig, 47 Wolf Gruellich, 45.5 Ian Jones, 43 Barbara Jones, 41.5 Paul Caban / Alastair Matthewson, 41 Rob Pearson, 40 Stuart Benn / Barbara Brodie, 38.5 Bev Barratt, 36 Andy Mayhew, 30.5 Christopher Horton, 28 Gary Westwood, 22.5 James Gordon, 16 Mike Jacobs, 16 Dewi Jones, 4.5 Harry Ingram.

1a In 2001 ... which Munro did Stephen Broughton, Mark Peacock and Judy Laidlaw come close to bagging? Points for Cairn of Claise or Carn an Tuirc (but not for Lochnagar, a typical example of vague media reporting). A Cessna 172 containing these three people plus an unnamed 38-year-old crashed at about 960m on the plateau on 25/1/01. All four survived. JG reports having skied past the wreckage four days later and gives the grid ref as 43/190802.

1b ... what high point was bought for £40,002.50 per metre? Creag Bhan, the 100m summit of Gigha. This was bought by the islanders for £4,000,250, comprising £3.5 million from the Scottish Land Fund (£1 million repayable), £500,000 from Highlands and Islands Enterprise and £250 from an anonymous donor who wanted to nudge the bid over £4m.

1c ... what 330m pinnacle was listed? The Post Office Tower proved a popular wrong guess. Correct was the beautiful Emley Moor TV mast in Yorkshire, 110/223129, listed (in the preservation sense) by English Heritage in November.

1d ... what connected Ben Macdui and Spizzenergi? This seemed to neatly split the quizzers into those who had never heard of Spizzenergi and those who owned their entire back catalogue. The Spizzles (also variously known as Athletico Spizz 80 and Spizzoil) were a new wave band whose most notable hit (in 1979) was the Star Trek-inspired Where's Captain Kirk? And on 26/3/01 a USAF F15 jet crashed close to the top of Ben Macdui. Its two-man crew included Capt Kirk Jones.

1e ... on Ben Nevis, who fell down Green Gully in March? David Hewitt. No, not that one, although the incident did lead to TAC's editor receiving several Mark Twain-esque calls and emails, especially since the namesake was also an agesake, 39. The man in question came from Morecambe and seemed to survive. TAC would like an interview, so if anyone knows him, please say we're keen to get in touch. Oh, and thanks to Andrew McCloy for the cutting of a fierce-looking Dave Hewitt of Chesterfield who likes dressing up in Sealed Knot kit. (Which at least is better than dressing up in Slipknot kit.)

1f ... where were Macleish, Moffat, Matheson and Munro proposed as classes of hill? That no one got this perhaps reflects the decline in popularity of Who wants to be a millionaire?, as a similar question last year was answered by several quizzers. The TV question (27/1/01) asked which of these names applied to Scottish mountains over 3000ft.

1g ... which one was selected? Moffat, chosen by a contestant named Ravinda who thus failed to win £64,000. Chris Tarrant then pronounced the correct answer as "Monroe", which should at least have amused any Marilynbaggers watching.

1h ... and where did Ashworth, Beardsell and Corbett feature as classes? Difficult. These were families featured in the March 2001 ITV series Time of our lives. The Bs were working class, the As middle class and the Cs pretty toffish, with Johnnie Corbett also going by the name of Lord Rowallan. Only GB knew this.

1i ... which English Nuttalls suffered because of a map-reading error? Nothing to do with Anne and John Nuttall's list of 2000ft summits, you'll not be surprised to hear. Wayne and Julie Nuttall farm at Punderland in Cumbria (89/054284), and in April 2001 dear old MAFF waltzed in and slaughtered 300 lambs and 200 ewes, along with the Nuttalls' pet pig. Foot and mouth, of course - except that MAFF later admitted that two grid ref digits had been transposed such that the real target was "100 miles away" in County Durham. MAFF never owned up to the real grid ref.

1j ... who spent £20 million on maps they already had? The Automobile Association (or Centrica, which owns the AA), who agreed to pay the OS this sum for having copied maps as far back as 1990. Will the OS use the dosh to freeze map prices or even to fund new surveys and more accurate spot heights etc? Aye, that'll be right.

1k ... with reference to TGO Nov 2001, complete the sequence: Sow of Atholl, Boar of Badenoch, ___? The sublime Pig of the Jarkness - sounds like something out of Tolkien but was actually a TGO misprint (p85) for the Rig of the Jarkness east of Glen Trool. Beware the Pig of the Jarkness, the jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Well spotted KC, BJ, AM.

1l ... who were the first to discover a sheersided monolith? Er ... yon pre-humanoid ape things in that old Kubrick movie.

2a In September 2001, an Antipodean earthquake struck the hill with the world's longest single-word name. How many As got a good shaking, and how many Ks? Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu is a hill on New Zealand's North Island. It has 57 letters including 18 As and 4 Ks.

2b What links Jongsong, Zapaleri, Sabinio, Naafkopf? They all stand at the junction of three international borders. Jongsong 7459m: China/India/Nepal; Zapaleri 5683m: Argentina/Bolivia/Peru; Sabinio 3647m: Rwanda/Uganda/Democratic Republic of Congo; Naafkopf 2570m: Austria/Liechtenstein/Switzerland.

2c In 2001, what gear came safely back from Everest but hit trouble on a south London sports ground? Justin Langer's batting helmet, on which was written "Give the Poms a thrashing" and on which JL was whacked by Andy Caddick at the Oval, causing him to retire hurt for 102. It had also been to Everest with an Aussie expedition.

2d Despite early attempts to harmonise triangulation officially, Ordnance Survey area mapping authorities began introducing numerous landmarks and documenting easy navigation. Which country? Read the first letter of each word... Afghanistan, as deduced by RP and PS/BS.

3a This lightning storm / This tidal wave / This ____ / I'm not afraid [2001] avalanche, from Imitation of Life, REM.

3b Like roses grow in a churchyard / Her skin as white as the milk / Just like a ____ ____ / Under a Manila silk [1994] Sherpa Tenzing, from Pale Movie, Saint Etienne.

3c We're going over the country / And into ____ / To look for a home [1997] the Highlands, Planets, Teenage Fanclub.

3d Tuba players now rehearse around the flagpole / And the ____ ____ at a profit sells road maps for the soul [1965] Easy for the old electric folkies: National Bank, from Tombstone Blues, Bob Dylan.

3e The ferry leaves from Oban every day / And passes ____ on the way [late 1980s] Tobermory, from The Island of Tiree, by Moira Kerr (Hamish MacInnes's ex bidey-in, also linked with a chap named Juan). Alan Blanco has a copy in his house (long story), on an undated album entitled Scotland I'm Yours. Kerr claims the terrible lyric as her own, which is maybe a tad foolish given its quality. Here's another sample: When first I saw the island of Tiree / Surrounded by the great Atlantic sea / The sky was clear, the sun was shining down / On the lovely sandy shoreline all around. Scotland's great cultural heritage, eh?

4 If you were a bagging bird and could land on summits, how many 1km grid squares would you need to visit to bag:
4a All Munros? 279 - the square-paired Munros are Sg Alasdair / Sg Dubh Mor, Sg a'Mhadaidh / Sg a'Ghreadaidh, Bruach na Frithe / Am Basteir, Sg na Ciche / Garbh Chioch Mhor, An Gearanach / Stob Coire a'Chairn.
4b All Murdos? 417.
4c All SMC Corbetts? 220 - no same-square hills, even though the current SMC list gives both An Stac and Beinn Mhic Cedidh as NM828788 (as IB, PC/AM and BJ pointed out).
4d All Grahams? 223 - Meall nan Caorach / Meall Reamhar form the only pair.

4e Odd bird out: eagle, gannet, ptarmigan, starling, thrush? Gannet. All the others feature in hill names: Mount Eagle 256m 26/649590, Ptarmigan 778m 56/360028, Starling Dodd 633m 89/141157, Ben Thrush 456m 58/985058.

4f Which of the following has Vanessa Tube not been on: (i) An Cruachan 435m, (ii) Beinn a'Chuirn 603m, (iii) Meikle Bin 570m, (iv) Sgor Dubh 741m? A Vanessa tube is the mould used by the OS to make cylindrical trig pillars - the more recent type, often with five-digit benchplate numbers. Only one of these hills has an old-style square-sided non-VT trig: Meikle Bin.

4g How high is Height? Simple map/gazetteer work. Two options: Height in 97/4084 is approx 180m, in 98/9168 approx 520m.

4h A dent in Tiso on a $20 million expedition. Explain. Anagram time. Nothing to do with Chris Tiso and his Everest bid. Rearranging the letters gives Dennis A Tito, a US bloke who paid $20 million to become the first space tourist last April.

42 Which literary character might also be known as Cobbler Long Barrow? Arthur Dent. The Douglas Adams Memorial Question. The Cobbler is Ben Arthur in some (misguided) quarters of course, while the 352m Ponds Marilyn Dent used to be listed as Long Barrow. This being question 42 rather than 4i was a big clue, but we won't name the quizzer who confidently claimed to have spotted "my first typo in TAC after many years of reading...". (Actually, there are 2.43 typos per issue.)

5a Who said this on TV: "Either you're one for The Great Outdoors, or you're not. Myself, I am." Six votes each for Muriel Gray, Cameron McNeish and Kylie Minogue, while two people didn't even guess. No one plumped for Hilda Ogden, who said this in an allegedly famous "Corrie" speech reshown last year as part of a DIY theme evening.

5b Three men who were in the news during 2001, plus Cameron McNeish. Which one is editor-in-chief of TGO? (See TAC52 for pics.) (i) was executed anti-Taliban leader Abdul Haq, (ii) was Bill Maynard, (iii) was old Cammie himself, while (iv) was Sinn Fein politician Alex Maskey. The cheery Maynard was clearly the easiest, so we tried to replace him with the newly-bearded Chick Young, but no up-to-date pics of the Sportscene McNeishalike were available when TAC52 went to press.

5c In what context is Merrick a Sutherland Donald? Donald Sutherland played a character named Merrick in the 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

5d What name links Arthur Paul in 1895 and Leslie Shadbolt in 1911? A C MacLaren/McLaren. Archibald Campbell MacLaren scored 424, adding 363 with Arthur Paul (177) for Lancs vs Somerset at Taunton in 1895. MacLaren's innings easily beat W G Grace's 344 in 1876 as the highest ever score and remained unbeaten until Ponsford's 429 in 1922/23. Alastair Campbell McLaren partnered Leslie Shadbolt on the first Cuillin ridge traverse, 10/6/11, taking 12 hrs 20 mins. (The 1980 SMT Black Cuillin Ridge Scramblers' Guide wrongly gives 1906. McLaren was a sheep farmer at Inverardran, by Crianlarich.)

5e Which OS Landranger is the only place to camp? Landranger 145, Cardigan and Mynydd Preseli.

5f Which two OS Explorers are best for B&B? Explorer 155, Bristol & Bath; Explorer 336, Biggar & Broughton. Explorer 191 proved a popular wrong guess, but that's Banbury, Bicester & Chipping Norton (in the giddy Cotswalbions).

5g Which popular novel features a cat reading a map on its second page? "It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar - a cat reading a map" - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, by J K Rowling. WG and RA/GG gave Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, for which we initially docked marks as it's the title of the US movie. But it's also the US version of the book, so we put the marks back on.

5h rsc tms hv rcvrd bdy m49 frm bthy. fnl cmmnctn ws txt msg 2 hs prtnr. msg rd: jst bggd mndh&bhrtn, hv fnshd grms. hp&klbrck ystrdy. nly 8 lft: cthrmhnn, nch, m, ghn, brg, chch, n&thrn. wht wr hs 8 nbggd mnrs? (Sgurr nan) Ceathreamhnan, (Beinn) Eunaich, (Beinn) Ime, (Meall nan) Aighean (GB, DJ, AM fell into the Beinn nan Aighenan trap), (Stob na) Broige, (Meall) Chuaich, (Meall nan) Eun, (Beinn) Iutharn (Mhor). Top tries included Sgor Iutharn and A'Chioch.

6a Where [in TAC] might you encounter the slightly phosphorescent man and the inconsequential man? On Ben Alder and on Lochnagar - TAC7, p10.

6b In a charity impaling event proposed by TAC, how much would each impaling raise? 10p - TAC8, p2.

6c According to Reg, what are "a healthy outdoor pursuit"? Fags - TAC8, p4.

6d Which book was referred to as "vastly overpriced", "hardcore material", likely to induce "perverted longing"? The Best Hillwalking in Scotland, by Cameron McNeish, as described by Gordon Smith, TAC8, p8. Was a good issue, TAC8.

6e In the first 50 TACs, which four Munros were named in full 50 or more times? Ben Nevis, Ben Lomond and Lochnagar, plus Ben Macdui - named 49 times this way plus eight as Beinn Macdhui. Cairn Gorm / Cairngorms was a distraction.

6f By the end of TAC50, TAC had named 232 Munros. Which two were newly bagged in TAC51? Carn Bhac / Beinn Liath Mhor Fannaich. Sgurr a'Chaorachain was named in TAC51 (p13), but it was the Applecross Corbett, not the Monar Munro.

6g What is TAC's highest unbagged Munro? A remarkably high one: CMD (abbreviated to preserve its status).

6h How many of TAC's first 1000 pages were filled by Murdo Munro's cartoon strip? 51: a double-page spread in TAC7, 11/2 pages in TAC21, just a half in TAC50, and one page every other time. The two eighth-page chunks in TAC27 don't really count.

6i Which two of Murdo Munro's female friends have never appeared in TAC: Hilary Steppe, Anna Purna, Sally Forth, Fiona Sgurr, Molly Munro, Cassandra, Myrtle? Anna Purna and Fiona Sgurr (we think). The others appeared in TAC8 p13 (HS), TAC11 p10 (SF), TAC22 p16 (MM and Cassie baby) and - for Myrtle the sheep - a whole flock of times eg TAC10 p7.

6j Which two have never been reviewed in TAC: public toilets, packet of crisps, football programmes, SMC journal, wall chart, bothy, watch, TV quiz show, art exhibition, safety video, board game? Football progs and TV quiz. The others were in TAC17 p13, TAC21 p16, TAC29 pp6-7, TAC28 pp7-8 (and TAC34 p13), TAC8 p17 (and TAC18 p7), TAC23 p14, TAC44 p20, TAC48 p7 and TAC13 pp14-15.

7a What current regular feature began in 1951 with the words: "Swiftly and silently, but not particularly expertly, we swooped in great curves down the lower slopes and through the larches to the road..."? Not Tom Weir's My Month in the Scots Magazine as several people thought (and Tom's not well either - again best wishes). It was the great A Harry Griffin's Country Diary in the (Manchester) Guardian. Both AHG and the diary are still going strong.

7b Name two men who completed the Munros in 1951, and why does the number 463 connect them? There's an AHG link here, too. The easy part was Colin Valentine Dodgson, no.16 in the published list. He completed on Ben More on Mull in October 1951, but wasn't alone, being accompanied by his lifelong sidekick Tim Tyson, the Grasmere cobbler (as opposed to the Arrochar Cobbler). Tyson was shy, and didn't submit his name. That he did complete the Munros (although not the Tops) is shown by an AHG piece in the Manchester Guardian, 7/11/51: "Tim admits he has missed out a number of the subsidiary tops, concentrating on the main tops only. 'And don't go writing a lot about me, either,' he says." AHG also wrote of the pair on 14/11/59, when they had just completed a round of dips in 463 Lakeland tarns, finishing with one "on the shoulder of Esk Pike". This latter article confirms the earlier Munro completion: "Mr Tyson ... completed the ascent of all the 276 'Munros' in Scotland ... several years ago (nearly always in winter) and kept his mouth shut about it." More on missing or misplaced early Munroists in TAC soon.

7c What big thing did Klavs Becker Larsen and H E Riddiford both fail to do in 1951? They failed to reach the top of Everest. The Dane Larsen, with 12 Sherpas, abandoned just below the North Col, while Riddiford was part of Shipton's British reconnaissance expedition, attempting an approach via the Western Cwm.

7d What big GMC trip did only Anne Tewnion return from? She was the only survivor of the Corrour tragedy in the final days of 1951. A Glencoe Mountaineering Club party comprising Sydney and Anne Tewnion, John Black, John Bradburn and James Grieve was overwhelmed by a fierce storm while attempting to cross from Corrour Lodge to Ben Alder Cottage.

8 The answers are 13 Scottish offshore placenames. Each clue refers to the name but with a letter missing.

8a Sounds like Santa's transport makes a killing (4) Islay (Slay). 8b Certainly isn't less (2,4) Lismore (Is more). 8c Er... (2) Rum (Um). 8d Half-dance in an obscure hoop (4) Humla (Hula). Second year in a row for this fine island (39/198004), but only PS/BS scored the point. Canna (can-can) was a popular false lead. 8e Whingeing fish (4) Scarp (Carp). 8f Mouth examination (4) Orval (Oral). Orval is on Rum, 39/333991. 8g Man with a mint (5) Marsco (Marco [Polo]). 8h "My father was a fisherman, my mama was a fisherman's friend" (6) Dun Caan (Duncan - it's a line from the Paul Simon song of this name). 8i Harangue near Quiraing (4,3) Ben Dearg (Bend ear). 8j The album before The Album (7) Marrival (Arrival was the ABBA album before The Album; Marrival is on North Uist, 18/808700). 8k First down... (4,2) The Noup (Then up, Foula, 4/954375). 8l Ban Tam from this ground (8) Broadford (Bradford City FC are nicknamed the Bantams). 8m Meateater (7) Dunvegan (Unvegan - a joke that's been waiting to be made in TAC for years).

TAC 53 Index