The 2008 Bond Vigilantes Christmas Quiz

It’s that time again.  We invite you to take part in the Bond Vigilantes Christmas Quiz.  Please send your entries into us by 5pm on Friday 19 December (email link below).  The prize is £100 of Amazon vouchers, with second and third prizes of vouchers for £50 and £25 respectively.  The quiz is open to all of our readers, clients or not – although M&G staff members will be playing for a crate of beer rather than the main prizes.  The questions are designed to be difficult (and to frustrate googling), and you almost certainly won’t need a full house to win a prize (the average score last year was under 14).

1) Reg Varney, star of On The Buses, achieved what banking “first” in 1967?
2) Which brand’s name is derived from a phrase meaning avant-garde techniques?
3) Five-oh, young-`uns, Bunk.  Which city?
4) What had an “e” added to it in 1967 to prevent a diplomatic incident?
5) Christiano Ronaldo’s fashion brand is linked, by chance, with which (will I get into trouble for saying unfashionable?) London suburb?
6) What was the tallest building in the world at the time of the Wall Street Crash?
7) According to M&G Retail’s Head of Institutional Sales, Neil Brown, what is the only sport that actively bans left-handed equipment (I have failed to verify this independently, but it sounds plausible)?
8) Why did Dr. Pepper have a bad November?  What’s the worst that can happen?
9) Data Screws Uplifted (anag.)
10) What is this thing called?


11) When would Jim Flaherty wear brand new footwear?
12) What is the lowest unique positive whole number that somebody will pick to reply to this question (i.e. a number that nobody else answers this question with)?
13) Which Las Vegas band is releasing a Christmas single with Elton John this year?
14) Where is the QE2?
15) What do the following companies have in common? GE, Exxon Mobil, Johnson & Johnson, Berkshire Hathaway, Toyota.
16) Following a mix up, the writer of a nature column in a newspaper is sent to cover a war in Africa.  Which novel?
17) Which artist produced this work?


18) According to the Handelsblatt newspaper, Germans like ones with an “X” on them, but shun those with an “S” or a “V”.  What?
19) Morrissey, Marr, Joyce, Rourke.  But who was the sometime fifth member of The Smiths?
20) What did Liverpool FC attempt to copyright this year, to great protests?

Click here to email your entry. Click here to read and print off terms and conditions.

The information we collect from you is used solely to contact you in the event that you have won a prize.

The value of investments will fluctuate, which will cause prices to fall as well as rise and you may not get back the original amount you invested. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

Jim Leaviss

Job Title: CIO Public Fixed Income

Specialist Subjects: Macro economics and fixed interest asset allocation

Likes: Cycling, factory records, dim sum

Heroes: Brian Clough, Morrissey, Neil Armstrong

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