1. In the early Beatles Song ‘She loves me’, how many ‘yeahs’ in each chorus? 10 (three  pairs of three and one long one).
2. In which Shakespeare play is love first described as blind? A Merchant of Venice
3. Which is the most commonly quoted reading from the Bible at weddings? 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, a beautiful and accurate description of the power of love -  but  usually very badly read by someone who doesn’t have a clue what they are saying!
4. Which Shakespeare play opens with the words ‘If music be the food of love, play on...’   Twelfth Night
5. Were the words ‘How a little love and good company improves a woman!’ written in the  17th, 18th 19th or 20th century?  George Farquhar is usually described as an C17th century  playwright BUT he wrote The Beaux’ Strategem in 1707, so C18th – but only just.
6. If someone says Tha gaol agam ort to you, what might you reply?  ‘I love you too’ or ‘sod off,  you Gaelic creep, and stop stalking me’ as one entry this year so movingly put it.
7. In ua fanthorpe’s moving poem Atlas, what does the poet first call the kind of love she  describes? ‘There is a kind of love called maintenance...’ (now if you want to read something  at a wedding, go for this one, not Corinthians).
8. Which Beatles Song begins with a brass rendition of a section of a National Anthem? All you  need is love.
9. Which actor plays the desperate lover who interrupts a wedding by shouting ‘Elaine!  Elaine!   Elaine!’, and in which film?  Dustin Hoffmann in The Graduate
10. According to the lyrics of one song, how did Freddie Mercury come to know love ‘before he  left his nursereee’?  He was ‘left alone with fat-bottomed Fanny, she was such a naughty  nanny...’ (unlikely image, I know, but there we go...)
11. In which seasonal romantic comedy do two shy characters find true love on the set of a porn  movie? Love Actually
12. Whose love song includes the lines ‘How can happiness feel so wrong?  How can misery feel  so sweet?’ and what is the title?  Katie Melua – Closest Thing to Crazy
13. Which women are in love in D H Lawrence’s Women in Love? Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen
14. What is/are agapornis (NB no, not an erotic kitchen stove)?  Love birds
15. How many times does the word love appear in the King James version of the Bible?  333  according to my Concordance (hate, encouragingly, is found rather less)
16. In Pride and Prejudice, does Elizabeth Bennett ever say ‘I love you’ to Mr Darcy? No – she  tells her father she loves him but not the man himself.  I have ignored pleas of unfairness from male quiz entrants who were scarred by this book for life in O-grade English and therefore refuse to open its covers.
17. How about Mr Rochester to Jane Eyre? Yes, he does.
18. Which marine mammal links love with a soul singer and why?  Barry White was known as the  Walrus of Lurve and most of you got this.  Not a pleasant thought given his size...  The  alternative answer which related singer Seal to a love track was clever so we accepted it.
19. Spiller and Arriety provide hope for the future of which species?  Borrowers, in the books by  Mary Norton
20. Where does Alec both fall for Laura, and leave her?  Carnforth Railway Station in Lancashire  – in David Lean’s Brief Encounter (pass the Kleenex...)
21. In the cartoon film Shrek, who falls for a dragon? Donkey
22. Which famous lover ‘had a temper, like my jealousy, too hot, too greedy’, and where will  you find this precise description?  Emily Bronte’s Heathcliff, as described by singer Kate Bush  in the song ‘Wuthering Heights’
23. Which famous landmark was built as a shrine to a third wife, by whom and what was her  name?   Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal for Mumtaz Mahal, his third wife
24. Eastman, Mills and Shevill – what do these names have in common?  They are the surnames  of  women have married (and presumably loved, even if not for long) Paul McCartney
25. How do you say ‘kiss’ in Dragonese? Swappa-da-yucky-lip-juice – thank you Cressida Cowell!   Many of you just got ‘swappa-da-yucky’ but the book gives this definition with ‘do di vomit-  belly’ as alternatve – maybe an internet version has a bit omitted!?  Bad luck if so... 
 

I am now on my fourth dragon book and hooked.  It’s the perfect antidote to a hard day’s  community consultation.

So who won?  Slowly and surely wins the race - I was despairing of a fully correct entry this year and then one comes in right at the last minute. 

There were 27 entries this year.  Bad luck to runners-up Andy Ford and team at Cairngorms National Park, Karen Griffiths and team at Yorkshire Dales National Park, Clare Blois at Tore Art Gallery and Chris Gidlow from Historic Royal Palaces who were only a mark or half-mark off.

Our 2011 winner is: Annette Simpson and team from British Waterways!  Chocolates or shortbread, ladies?
 

Happy Christmas all and thanks for entering!