On November 17, 1903, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party split into the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. This week’s quiz is about famous partings.

Part and parcel

1. One of the most famous musical pairs ever, they originally got together using the name Tom & Jerry. After the release of their bestselling studio album in the early ’70s they famously split up, coming together next in 1981 for one memorable live concert that went double platinum. Name the duo.

2. In 1861, the Confederate States of America split from the US and announced their own republic. Their first capital was in Montgomery, Alabama, which was for only a few months. What was their capital for the remainder of the civil war?

3. The Deccan Sultanates were the five kingdoms in the southwest that were created after the break-up of the Bahmani Sultanate. Three of these were Bijapur, Bidar and Berar; name the other two.

4. Novak Djokovic hired another tennis legend as his head coach in December 2013, searching for that mental edge in big tournaments. The duo had an amazing 2015, where Djokovic reached all four Grand Slam finals, losing just the French Open. They finally split up after six Grand Slam titles in 2016 when the coach felt Djokovic was not working as hard as he would have wanted. Who was the coach?

5. What happened when Sailesh Bose was dropped from his team Jorabagan’s squad before an important football match in July 1920?

6. A prenuptial agreement is a staple in Hollywood to prepare for the inevitable split. Which two A-list stars have an agreement where the actress is entitled to £2.8 million for every year of marriage and a unique $ 5 million ‘straying fee’ if he ever cheats on her? It seems to work as they have been married over 18 years.

7. Endianness is a technical term used to describe how bytes are stored in digital format, which can be either in big-endian or little-endian. Which 18th-century satirical novel is the name derived from? In the book, a civil war erupts in a country over which end of a boiled egg should be cracked first.

8. What started at the Oval in August 2001, and ended in November 2005, after 91 outings when one of a pair suffered a broken rib and Michael Hussey stepped in as a replacement?

9. Which two-decade-long literary friendship ended in the ’90s when one of the two sold off a personally inscribed book on the net and the other retaliated by writing a book on their relationship?

10. Which company did the US department of justice regard as monopolistic and split into seven separate regional units in 1984. NYNEX, Ameritech and Pacific Telesis were three of the seven units.

Answers

1. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel

2. Richmond, Virginia

3. Ahmednagar and Golconda

4. Boris Becker

5. Suresh Chandra Chaudhuri, Raja Manmatha Nath Chaudhuri, Ramesh Chandra Sen and Aurobindo Ghosh left Jorabagan to start the East Bengal Club. The match incidentally was against Mohun Bagan

6. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas

7.Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

8. Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden’s opening partnership

9. Paul Theroux and VS Naipaul; they attempted a reconciliation in 2011

10. American Telephone and Telegraph Company, later known as AT&T Corp

BLINKJOY

Joy Bhattacharjya is a quizmaster.

Follow Joy on Twitter: @joybhattacharj

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW