Can you beat Mastermind? It’s Clive Myrie’s Christmas quiz!

Your Christmas quizmaster … Clive Myrie. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

1. What did Jacob Chansley do in January this year that later caused him to say he needed to re-evaluate his life?

   1. Super-spread Covid

   2. Published a guacamole recipe that used peas instead of avocado

   3. Stormed the US Capitol

   4. Caused a statewide fire after his pyrotechnic gender reveal party went wrong

2. Cumbria county council attracted criticism for plans to build what?

   1. Beatrix Potter Land

   2. A coalmine

   3. A statue of Alfred Wainwright

   4. An M6 extension into the Lakes

3. 

   Who recited her poem The Hill We Climb at Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony?

   1. Alice Walker

   2. Amanda Gorman

   3. Rita Dove

   4. Pam Ayres

4. Which leader was ousted after a military coup in February?

   1. Aung San Suu Kyi

   2. Nicolás Maduro

   3. Daniel Ortega

   4. Bah Ndaw

5. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, postponed until 2021, at which event was there a tie for first place and two gold medals awarded?

   1. Women’s long jump

   2. Men’s high jump

   3. Women’s high jump

   4. Men’s triple jump

6. 

   Where was the Ever Given – the container ship that launched a thousand memes after getting wedged across the Suez Canal – towed to after finally being freed?

   1. Suez port

   2. Port Said

   3. Alexandria

   4. The Great Bitter Lake

7. Of the 12 football teams – from England, Spain and Italy – to sign up to the European Super League, which was the first to withdraw?

   1. Chelsea

   2. Manchester City

   3. Arsenal

   4. Tottenham

8. Who did the UK supreme court rule could not return to Britain?

   1. Shamima Begum

   2. Edward Snowden

   3. Snoop Dogg

   4. Martha Stewart

9. 

   Which country became the first in the world to accept bitcoin as an official currency?

   1. El Salvador

   2. Russia

   3. China

   4. United States

10. Which act – a protest against racism originally inspired by Dr Martin Luther King Jr – did the England football team perform before every match they played during the Euro 2020 tournament?

    1. Whistling loudly the tune to Kumbaya My Lord, Kumbaya

    2. Saluting

    3. Taking the knee

    4. Performing the dance to the Birdie Song

11. In October, the World Health Organization endorsed the first vaccine for what?

    1. HIV

    2. Malaria

    3. Cancer

    4. Covid-20

12. 

    For what reason did SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission to space make the news?

    1. The rocket was powered by leftover cheese and wine

    2. It was the first to send an all-civilian crew into orbit

    3. William Shatner was on board

    4. The crew wore Star Trek costumes

13. Jill Mortimer became Conservative MP for where in May?

    1. Berwick-upon-Tweed

    2. Hexham

    3. Sedgefield

    4. Hartlepool

14. 

    Jack Grealish became the most expensive footballer to have been signed by a Premier League club. How much was the transfer fee from Aston Villa to Manchester City?

    1. £60m

    2. £80m

    3. £100m

    4. £120m

15. Who did the Bank of England make the new face of the £50 note?

    1. Alan Turing

    2. Captain James Cook

    3. Virginia Woolf

    4. John Lennon

16. What did Facebook change the name of its holding company to in October?

    1. Faceplant

    2. Meta

    3. The Facebook

    4. Virtuel

17. Prince Philip died in April this year. How old was he?

    1. 91

    2. 99

    3. 101

    4. 109

18. Which author’s estate announced that it would cease publishing six of his books after taking “a moral decision of choosing not to profit from work with racist caricature in it”.

    1. JRR Tolkien

    2. Dr Seuss

    3. Roald Dahl

    4. Ian Fleming

19. 

    Marcus Rashford received an honour from Prince William at Windsor Castle. What was it?

    1. A knighthood

    2. The Rear of the Year award

    3. MBE

    4. OBE

20. 

    In March, it was announced that I would be the new host of Mastermind. I replaced John Humphrys, who first started presenting the show in which year?

    1. 1995

    2. 2000

    3. 2003

    4. 2010

Solutions

1:C - Chansley, from Arizona and dubbed the QAnon shaman, was sentenced to 41 months in prison., 2:B - Woodhouse colliery, a deep coalmine, will, if it goes ahead, be the first new such mine in the UK since Asfordby pit in Leicestershire opened in 1991., 3:B - Gorman, the national youth poet laureate and, then aged 22, the youngest of the six poets who have read at US presidents’ inauguration ceremonies, upstaged Jennifer Lopez and Lady Gaga., 4:A - Aung San Suu Kyi was detained after the military seized power in Myanmar. Bah Ndaw was removed as Mali’s interim president in a coup d’etat, but not until May., 5:B - Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi, locked in first place, opted to share gold – a magical moment for some, a cop-out for others., 6:D - Freed after six days, the 400-metre (1,312ft) ship was towed to the large salt water lake that forms part of the canal, for inspection. It remained there for three months amid financial disputes and blame games., 7:A - Following bitter opposition from fans, football governing bodies and even governments, Chelsea were the first to back down, followed by the other English clubs., 8:A - Begum was born in the UK and left to join Islamic State in Syria when she was 15. She has since offered to help fight terrorism in the UK., 9:A - The Central American country was the first to adopt the cryptocurrency as legal tender, though thousands took to the streets to protest against the move., 10:C - King led a group of civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama in February 1965, kneeling in prayer on a street corner, after some were arrested on a march to get more African Americans registered to vote., 11:B - The WHO recommends the use of the RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine for children in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions., 12:B - The four civilians took a months-long astronaut training course before the mission., 13:D - She won the Hartlepool byelection, prompted by the resignation of Labour’s Mike Hill, becoming the first Tory MP there since the constituency was formed in 1974., 14:C - The sale beat the previous record, Manchester United’s payment of £93m to Juventus for Paul Pogba., 15:A - The old notes featured steam engine pioneers James Watt and Matthew Boulton., 16:B - The move was roundly mocked, especially in Israel, where Meta sounds like the Hebrew word for “dead”., 17:B - More than 13 million people in the UK tuned in to watch live TV coverage of his funeral., 18:B - Dr Seuss books dominated sales charts weeks after the announcement., 19:C - He was awarded an MBE in recognition of his successful campaign to secure free meals for vulnerable children during the coronavirus pandemic., 20:C - Humphrys presented Mastermind for 18 years, the second-longest stint on the show, after Magnus Magnusson.

Scores

1. 17 and above.

   You started and you finished ... in style! Congratulations, contender. Your specialist subject is success!

2. 12 and above.

   Nice work, contender!

3. 0 and above.

   Oh dear. Is your specialist subject being wrong?

4. 6 and above.

   You can do better, contender. Is your specialist subject mediocrity?