do we have answer sheet published anywhere? it would be easier than trawling through this thread to find all the answers.
Not at present, no.
Ha ha Tom. no chance! The idea certainly does not float my boat. Besides, it shouldnāt be how I prefer to see the quiz, but how the SOTA populous in general prefer to see it. I only commented on the restricted nature of some questions and put forward a suggestion as to how the quiz might be organised and I have given the reasoning behind that suggestion. No more, no less. Make of it what you will.
FMF on the money again 
Christmas quizzes appear to be a British tradition, so we might not get much global contribution. Iād never heard of it until a few years ago.
Note the call signs of the participants. I didnāt even understand the pattern of the puzzle, it was just numbers a letters.
wunder
Iād never even questioned the concept of a Christmas quiz, we have them in the UK and I assumed they were a universal thing. The format of these quizes is relatively recent and gained popularity as you cannot Google the answers unless the quiz has been widely circulated before.
I was suprised to see a takeup from outside the UK including France. Australia was an upside down UK at one time and seeing VK replies didnāt strike me as unusual. As someone who can just struggle to order food and alcohol in France/Germany and Spain, to see someone from France attempting this quiz made me realise how abysmal my language skills are. But I think it shows that UK and VK āEnglishā are more like each other than US āEnglishā.
American āEnglishā is the same words often used differently. Working for US company, I am used to American āEnglishā from my American co-workers and not surprised to see American āEnglishā from my Chinese co-workers. My Indian co-workers have many local differences in their English such that itās mainly UK āEnglishā with some US spellings and Indian colloquialisms. Fascinating how the same language changes around the world.
A nice distraction from work issues
Great showing by my fellow Americans. Maybe because weāre still trying to wipe the orange hair dye out of our eyes, but more likely because tomorrow starts first for all of you. Is this thing in the Kingās English??? Weāre gonna have to quit you if you keep these shenanigans up. May Belsnickel and Krampus be waiting for you on your doorstep. All hail the Proclaimers!
Essentially these quizzes ask you to recall phrases that include numbers. Many of the phrases are from English songs and poems, board games (chess, checkers, snakes and ladders), sports (football, varieties of rugby, cricket, etc).
I had seen this type of quiz once before, when someone circulated it at my office about 10 years back. But they are not common in Australia.
I take my hat off to those not living in an English speaking country who did so well. Must have lived in an English speaking area for some time otherwise none of the phrases would resonate at all. Interesting to read of it being mysterious to those from the USA. It does seem to demonstrate that these things rely on a specific cultural Context.
Having the VK participants work away unchallenged while the UK slept was a good thing. Gerard, you made good use of that time, well done! 
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They are called ditloids.
They are very hard to use Google to solve them but I did manage a couple using my powers of research and the power of Google.
Hi Andy,
Harumph. The early electricians got it wrong when they defined the direction of current flow. The early geographers also got āUPā wrong. We now know there is a preponderance of land mass in the Northern hemisphere so it ought to be at the bottom. Also if you look at the weather in South Africa, Southern Australia and Southern South America and compare the number of sunny days per year there with say London then itās easy to see which part of the globe is in the shade and therefore really down under.
Hi Tom,
Itās been biting at me for days so Iāve just got to post a correction to āwater boils at 100 Cā. I know you mentioned cultural belief but we really ought to be using the International Temperature Scale (1990):
There are often small differences between measurements calibrated per ITSā90 and thermodynamic temperature.
For instance, precise measurements show that the boiling point of VSMOW
water under one standard atmosphere of pressure is actually 373.1339 K
(99.9839 Ā°C) when adhering strictly to the two-point definition
of thermodynamic temperature. When calibrated to ITSā90, where one must
interpolate between the defining points of gallium and indium, the
boiling point of VSMOW water is about 10 mK less, about 99.974 Ā°C.
I know itās too late for a Pedantry Point but I just could not control myself any longer.
Merry Christmas to all.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
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Interesting stuff Ron. Isnāt the very concept of the Celcius scale to set two fixed points - freezing point and boiling point, and set those as 0 and 100 though?
Anyway, donāt worry about the pedantry points - you donāt need them!
Just to confirm the final champions:
QC) G0LGS
PC) VK3AFW
UC) G4OIG
Have a lovely Christmas everyone.
Iām looking forward to sausages from the Hogfather!
Brian
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When I first saw the quiz questions I amazed with the whole page and I had no idea of what to do with it. That was the very first time I had seen something like that. After looking at them for a while, I started to understand what the game was about and guessed some few answers like the āeā number, āPIā number, States in USA, and very few more, but then I realised that all of them had already been answered, so it was too late for me to do it 
Congrats to all the scorers.
Congrats to Tom M1EYP and thanks for preparing and running this quiz, despite it being a bit too devoted to British or Commonwealth culture people. Anyhow, it was good fun reading the answers and all this thread.
73 and Merry Christmas,
Guru - EA2IF on Christmas holidays but unfortunately home, having a bad cold and unable to go out to activate any summits so far.
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Hi Everybodyā¦
Like Guru I wake up too late for common answerā¦ like 1000 and so onā¦ And Iām living in late English Area (Dieppe lol but no more with the shuttle in Calais ) And never go elsewhere than Franceā¦ But iām very pleased to play and doing work my grey cells in my Frenchy brainā¦ But be sure that next year Iām on the start for more answer or hope so lol !!! Thanks And if there are some very close answer donāt worry for meā¦ Just maybe categorized them so our Strange brain donāt explosed ! lol !
Merry XMas everybody and to heard you soon !
Cheers
Tof F5UBH
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I want to click ālikeā more than once!
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Just wanted to say thanks Tom for putting this on. Great fun.
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Agreed, I too had fun the other night when I had a bit of time to spare.
I must say I was very impressed that VK2IO got the Warrington question correct. Once I saw that I thought S 32123 may be something to do with āNew Townsā & as a Lancastrian the first place I would think of is Skelmersdale. From there, Google was my friend & the answer was easily confirmed.
I am very pleased to come 5th but Iām certain I could have done better if Iād had more time available, but I did have to go to bed. Although it may seem a little IO83 centric, the time the questions were posted (around midnight UK time) would likely favour those in other time zones. Certainly in previous years by the time I got home from work most of the questions would have been answered so it was nice to have a good go at the quiz this year.
I suppose, that as I answered the single remaining unanswered question,which must therefore have been the most difficult, I can claim some special honour, such as being the cleverest entrant?
No?
Iāll get my coat
It was a good bit of fun & although I donāt remember the TV adverts that well, I am sure they are in a hidden corner of my brain somewhere.
Merry Christmas everyone 
Mark G0VOF
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I can hear the āSkelmersdale 32123ā and āWarrington 39591ā songs really well in my head, and that is no doubt why I can remember the phone numbers. I am surprised - and gutted that I cannot find either advert on YouTube or elsewhere on the internet. There is one of these new towns adverts on YouTube, but sadly not with either jingle - although you do still get to phone Eileen Bilton!
I think it only appeared āIO83-centricā to people with IO83-envy Mark. Just 6 questions out of 180 were IO83-influenced! From what I can tell though, these TV adverts went out nationwide at the time.
I agree with you that S 32123 was the hardest question, with hardly any references, even on Google. You are awarded with a special Certificate of Merit. I encourage you to design your own on Publisher and print it at your own expense at a time that suits. Merry Christmas!
The power of the jingle. From 1978 onwards I had a Saturday job at my local computer store. We used to regularly need to hire a van to move stuff for shows etc. and we used a good and cheap local company who had lots of advertising on the local radio station. I can remember two of us having to sing the jingle out loud to remember their phone number. Now in 2016I can still recall āMaincrest Car & Van Hireā¦ 7 double 3 3 2 ohhhhh 1ā Thatās some 38 years the jingle has stayed in my mind.
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