Quiz: Aces

Ace it

1 Which international sporting venue is named after a French pilot who escaped from a PoW camp and helped design a new firing system for fighters?

2 Which tennis star established a record for the most aces in a tournament, hitting 213 en route to winning the Wimbledon title? If it’s any help, it happened in the last 20 years.

3 Ace of Base was a fairly popular pop group around the turn of the century, with monster hits like ‘The Sign’ and ‘All That She Wants’. Which country did the group come from?

4 If a fighter pilot is regarded as an ace after shooting down five enemy aircraft, what did a U-Boat pilot in World War II need to achieve to be regarded as a submarine ace?

5 An ace in golf is a hole-in-one. In which country, especially during the ’80s, was hole-in-one insurance extremely popular because of the tradition of hosting elaborate parties and giving away gifts by the lucky golfer?

6 In Texas, Hold-Em Poker, a King and Ace together are named after which tennis player, because of the initials, but also because, like this player, ‘ it looks good, but never wins a hand’?

7 During Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, a deck of most wanted Iraqi playing cards was issued to the US troops. Each card had the name of a wanted Iraqi official on it. Which card was associated with Saddam Hussein?

8 Another one on Wimbledon. A match between which two players produced the most aces ever in the tournament?

9 The only Indian ace is Indra Lal Roy, who claimed 10 aerial victories — five other planes destroyed and five ‘out of control’ — for the Royal Air Force before being shot down in July 1918. His nephew had a longer career and has many landmarks and a soccer tournament named after him. Name the nephew.

10 Which famous group generally tends to start its concerts with the song ‘Aces High’? Typically, it is preceded by a recording of a famous Winston Churchill speech.

Answers

1. The Roland Garros stadium, which hosts the French Open

2. Goran Ivanisevic in 2001. He served an amazing 1,477 aces on the tour in 1996

3. Sweden; they are the third most popular Swedish group after Roxette and ABBA

4. They had to captain a boat that sunk at least 100,000 tonnes of enemy shipping. More than 30 U-Boat commanders claimed that privilege

5. Japan. At one point, around 40 per cent of registered golfers in Japan had this insurance

6. Anna Kournikova, you decide!

7. The ace of spades, regarded as the card of death in many cultures

8.The longest match, between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut. They served a staggering 216 aces between them

9. Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee, the first Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force. The Subroto Cup inter-school football tournament is named after him

10. Iron Maiden; originally from their album Powerslave

_{Joy Bhattacharjya is a quizmaster and Project Director, FIFA U-17 World Cup}

_{Follow Joy on Twitter @joybhattacharj}

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