Friday 28 September 2018

Can you beat Jack's newsquiz score?

Peter Rutzler's article on Liverpool and Manchester City
The MailOnline trainees have had another busy week. They pitched story ideas to executive editor Ian Walker and discussed travel stories with Ted Thornhill. From Wednesday they have been put through their paces by Amy Marley, the former head of the Mail’s global news gathering team. Sports trainee Peter Rutzler was the first on the course to be published with a story looking at Manchester City and Liverpool’s title challenges. You can read it here
Meanwhile the Daily Telegraph trainees enjoyed social media training, including advanced verification and story-finding and social story-telling, with Silvia Costello and the art of editing, grammar, punctuation and language with Malcolm Starbrook. They also had advanced media law with Andrew Knight. As usual both sets of trainees finished the week with the newsquiz. The top scorer on the Mail course was Jack Newman with 15. The top Telegraph scorer was Mason Boycott-Owen with 12. 
The top online scorer in last week’s quiz was Toby Brown with 17 and Adam Batstone and Lucy Thorpe on 16.5. Here is this week’s quiz. Give it a go and see if you can beat Jack's score. 


Boris on the front of today's Telegraph (Question 1)
1. Boris Johnson set out his own plan for Brexit, calling Theresa May's Chequers strategy 'a moral and intellectual ______’. What is the missing word?
2. Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, talking about the EU negotiations, used a ‘word' from which film to describe Canada?
3. Who told the Labour Party conference: 'If we want to root out fascism and racism and hatred from our world, and from our country, then we must start, we must start, with rooting it out of our own party’?
4. Tosh Macdonald, president of train drivers union Aslef, told the Labour Party conference that until 2013 he always set his alarm clock an hour earlier. What reason did he give?
5. Which city renamed a square after murdered MP Jo Cox?
6. A public inquiry, which is likely to last more than two years and has had more than 100,000 documents submitted, began this week. What is the inquiry looking into?
7. Secret documents and photographs appear to prove that suspected Salisbury hitman Ruslan Boshirov is Anatoliy Chepiga who served at what rank in Russia’s special forces?
8. Who denied claims that he was a sexual predator as a student, insisting he was a virgin until many years after his college days?
9. Dutch police arrested seven suspects, aged between 21 and 34, who planned to attack an event with guns and grenades and to detonate a car bomb. The suspects were arrested in the Weert region and in which Dutch city? 
10. Despite six cases of allergic reactions before the death of a teenager on a British Airways flight, an inquest was told that Pret a Manger failed to state that its ‘artisan baguette' contained which ingredient?
11. Why was Abhilash Tomy in the headlines? 
12. A judge in Pennsylvania jailed  comedian Bill Cosby for sexual assault. How old is Cosby?
13. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were photographed playing netball at a sports award ceremony at which university?
14. Which company has bought fashion brand Versace for an estimated $2.1billion?
15. The Ryder Cup is under way in Paris. Who is the captain of the Europe golf team? 
16. Heinz  said ‘it could not ignore the will of the people’ and decided not to rename its Salad Cream. What alternative name was rejected?
17. Friends Wayne Eagling and Peter Orton defied 17 million-to-one odds to achieve what in Richmond, South West London?
18. Which city is considering a ban on carrying alcohol, even in a sealed shopping bag, in its streets in reaction to excessive tourism?
19. Two men in their 20s were found dead at the Britannia hotel in which city?   
20. A stained glass window has been unveiled at Westminster Abbey to celebrate the Queen's reign. Which artist designed it on an iPad? 
21. Charles Nicholas Hodges died aged 74. How was he better known?
22. A death notice in the Ilkley Gazette read that John Cunliffe left his Ilkley home in a deluge of rain on Thursday 20 September, never to return. Even the skies wept for John, the gifted creator of ... Which two TV programmes did the notice then name? Half a point for each.
23. Why was 23-year-old Patrick Kehoe arrested at Dublin airport?
24. Who ‘demolished' Alexander Povetkin at Wembley Stadium?
25. Where is it now OK to use the word OK?

Answers here 

Friday 21 September 2018

Trainee Peter wins this week's newsquiz

I have been with the MailOnline trainees in London this week. They have written stories and headlines and enjoyed sessions with editorial compliance manager Paul Hutchinson, SEO deputy manager Rena Burton, senior journalists Chris Pleasance and Mark Duell, executive editor Ian Walker and former trainee, now entertainment editor, Rachel Quigley who is over from New York. 
The Daily Telegraph course also started at the Press Association's headquarters in Howden. They started with a session by Ian MacGregor on life in a busy newsroom and held an ideas and news conference with PA training manager Tina Moran. Journalists Fergus Kelly and Nikki Murfitt helped the trainees with their interviewing skills. 
As usual both sets of trainees finished the week with the newsquiz. This week's top scorer was Mail sports journalist Peter Rutzler with 16. Second was Jack Elsom with 14. The top Telegraph trainee was Lizzie Roberts with 8.5.
Last week's top solo scorer was Mail sports trainee George Bond with 17. The top team scores were Adam Batstone and the Mountain Men with 17.5 and the Three Legs drinkers with 16.
Here's this week's quiz. As usual, there are 25 questions about the week. Give it a go and see if you can beat Peter's score.  

The EU's reaction to Theresa May's Salzburg speech dominates today's front pages
1. In her hastily arranged statement after the Salzburg summit, Theresa May said that no UK prime minister would ever agree to a border where? 
2. Malta's PM Joseph Muscat revealed that there was 'almost unanimous' support among EU leaders for Britain to do what?
3. Which leading Conservative accused some of the Prime Minister's critics of being more interested in their careers, telling them to 'put the sharp elbows and the personal ambition away’?
4. A memo circulating among Tory MPs gave assessments of Theresa May’s possible successors. About which Cabinet minister did the memo say say: ‘Dark horse, near the front of the pack coming up on the rail (note John Major 1990)?'
5. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable fluffed the key line in his closing speech at his party’s conference. He meant to say that years of economic pain was being ‘justified by the ___ ___ of leaving the European Union’. What are the missing two words?
6. Michael Spurr was asked to step down as chief executive of what after nine years in charge?
7. Terrorist Khalid Masood had a fish and chip supper the night before he killed five people on Westminster Bridge, an inquest heard this week. In which city was the chip shop? 
8. What is the name of the MP who tried to save a police officer fatally injured in the Westminster Bridge attack and who urged the public to ignore government advice and step forward during terrorist atrocities?
9. Two SAS servicemen have been acquitted of charges involving an exercise in which three reservists died. Where was the exercise? 
10. What is the name of the cookbook that was published this week with the foreword written by Meghan Markle? 
11. What is responsible for one in eight casualties on motorways and major A-roads, according to Highways England?
12. The first storm of the year, Storm Ali, was quickly followed by a Met office warning that a second storm was about to hit the UK. What was it called?
13. What was the name of the typhoon that killed at least 70 people as it tore through the Philippines, Hong Kong and South China?
14. Prince Harry revealed in an ITV documentary, Queen of the World, that he does what when he bumps into the Queen in the corridors of Buckingham Palace? 
15. He was credited with inventing the phrases Trouble at t’mill and Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells. Who is he?
16.  Claire Foy won the best actress in a drama award at the Emmy’s for her performance in which programme?
17. What is the name of the discount supermarket chain launched by Tesco this week to compete with Aldi and Lidl?
18. Why was Mario Kart character Toad trending on social media this week?
19. An overcrowded ferry capsized killing at least 100 people on which lake? 
20. Which airline spelt its name wrong on the side of its own plane?
21. London Indie band Wolf Alice picked up the 2018 Mercury Prize for their second album. What is it called?
22. What has Japanese billionaire Yusaka Maezawa paid to do in 2023?
23.  Broadcaster Chris Evans called his twins Ping and Pong before they were born but after their birth he announced their real names. What are they? Half a point for each.
24. Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off in his first Champions League game for new club Juventus against which team? 
25. Grace Jones, Britain’s oldest woman, said at her birthday celebration this week that ‘whisky is very good for you. I never miss my night cap'. Which birthday was she celebrating?

Answers here

Friday 14 September 2018

George wins the newsquiz Champagne

Trainees Will Tilbrook, Katherine Cowles, Ruby Lyle, Ella Olszowska, George Bond (with the Champagne), Hannah Tomes, Joe Irwin and Sophie Watkiss
The Daily Mail and Evening Standard subbing trainees had an intense final week of training in Kensington. The two sports subs were on the sportsdesk for much of the week, creating pages and spreads, writing features and doing interviews. Their work will be published soon. The news subs worked on a breaking story, created visuals for new sections and went through a subbing exercise with associate chief sub Lara King and former trainee Emily Clark. They now head off to the newsrooms in London, Dublin and Glasgow. They are a bright and likeable group and I wish them well.
We finished the course, as usual, with the newsquiz. This week's winner was George Bond with a score of 17, ahead of Will Tilbrook on 15. 
George, who has been the quiz pacesetter since the course began, collected the Champagne for the top score over the four weeks. Well done to him.   
Last week’s top online newsquiz score was 18 by Tom Savage, marginally ahead of Janet Boyle on 17. The best team score was also 18 by Adam Batstone and the members of Furze Platt Dads FC who were on tour in Leeds. My drinking buddies in the Three Legs (Peter, Stacey, Bryan and Heather) notched up a respectable 16.
Here is this week’s quiz. As usual there are 25 questions about the week’s events. Give it a go and see if you can beat George’s 17.

Today's front pages
1. The Government has warned that if UK residents want to drive in Europe after a no-deal Brexit they may have to get an international driving permit which costs how much?
2. In an article which accused Theresa May of wrapping a ’suicide vest’ around the British constitution, Boris Johnson wrote of the Chequers deal: 'It is a humiliation. We look like a seven-stone weakling being comically bent out of shape by a 500lb ____’. What is the missing word?
3. What is  the name of the former Tory party communications executive who has been cited as the reason behind Boris Johnson’s marriage breakdown?
4. What did the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, say was a 'shameful and disgraceful' episode, adding that ‘we are - and must be - better than this’?
5. Labour MP Chuka Umunna urged leader Jeremy Corbyn to call off what?
6. Metropolitan police commissioner Cressida Dick said the Government’s two per cent pay award to officers felt like what?
7. Suspected Russian spies Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov claimed in a television interview that they returned to Salisbury on Sunday March 4 because they really wanted to see the cathedral and what?
8. The editor of Russia Today hung up on which British TV presenter after being asked if her programme was a propaganda tool for the Russian State?
9. Which company blamed discounting by rivals and the cost of new stores and IT for a drop in first-half profits of almost 99 per cent?
10. How many runs did Alastair Cook score at the Oval in his final Test innings?
11. At the Trade Union Congress conference in Manchester the general secretary said that unless a deal was secured that protected jobs and workers’ rights, she would support the People’s Vote campaign? Who is the TUC’s general secretary?
12. Why has architect Kengo Kuma been in the headlines?
13. Fans held a vigil for rapper Mac Miller in a Pittsburgh Park that his debut album was named after. What is the album called?
14. Serena Williams received three code violations during her defeat to Naomi Osaka for her conduct during the US Open final. How much, in dollars, was she fined?
15. Edward Putman, 53, from Kings Langley, was charged with what?
16. Who gave a speech admitting he was ‘booted out’ of Disneyland’s Magic Kingdom for smoking on a gondola?
17. Hurricane Florence, packing winds of up to 90mph is first due to hit which US state first?
18. The storm names for the 2018-2019 season have been released by the Met Office. Which five letters of the alphabet will not be used for the first names of storms? (Half a point if you get four)
19. A cliff collapsed leaving at least seven people injured at a beach on which Greek island?
20. Which actress, who played camp vamp Valeria in Carry On Screaming, said the famous line ‘do you mind if I smoke?’ which became the title of her autobiography?
21. The first cases of which rare and potentially life-threatening infection have been confirmed in Britain?
22. Which event in Saltash has upset bakers this week?
23. Katriona Jones told the British Science Festival in Hull that social media and television programmes have led to a rise in tocophobia, which is an overwhelming fear of what?
24. How did Gabriel Hames create history this week?
25. Which UK location was officially given an apostrophe in the right place?

Answers here

Friday 7 September 2018

George, Sophie and Will win the newsquiz

The Daily Mail and Evening Standard trainee subs have had a week laying out pages and developing their InDesign and Photoshop skills with Mike Brough and editing long form articles with Fiona Webster. They finished the week as always with the newsquiz. The top scorers were George Bond, Sophie Watkiss and Will Tilbrook who all scored 15, narrowly beating Katherine Cowles on 14. 
Last week George and Dora Allday scored 20, a score that was matched by Janet Boyle and Martin Cowles online. The Penmans were the top scoring team with 16. 
Here is this week’s quiz. As usual there are 25 questions about the week’s events. Let me know how you get on.

The Mail and Standard trainee subs with some of the pages they created this week
1. Theresa May told Parliament that two Russian agents had been charged with conspiracy to murder, adding: ‘The Government has concluded that the two individuals named by police are officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the ___.’ What is the missing abbreviation?
2. Russia accused Britain of tinkering with Gatwick CCTV images of the two alleged Novichok spies which showed them walking through gates at exactly the same time. What was the exact time?
3. Police are urging guests who stayed at the same London hotel as the Russian spy suspects to get in touch after finding traces of Novichok. What is the name of hotel? 
4. The chief executive of which company said hackers had carried out a 'sophisticated, malicious criminal attack' on its website?
5. A new book, called Fear: Trump in the White House, has already caused political tremors throughout Washington. Who is the author?
6. Donald Trump demanded which newspaper turn over, 'for national security purposes’, an anonymous senior official who wrote an article claiming to be part of a ‘resistance seeking to curtail the president's worst inclinations'?
7. Boris Johnson and his wife have separated after she accused him of cheating. What is her name?
8. What, according to the head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, could have been the result of a ‘wavering hand’?
9. Paul Pester quit as chief executive of which company in the wake of another IT meltdown?
10. What is Coca-Cola buying from Whitbread for £3.9billion?
11. The Green Party called on the Irish government to cancel what event in November?
12. After being used in most homes for nearly 60 years what were banned across Europe on September 1?
13. Former Top Gear host Richard Hammond and his wife Mindy were gassed before being burgled as they slept in their villa in which French town?
14. What was the name given to the strongest typhoon in 25 years that killed at least ten people and caused widespread damage and disruption in Japan?
15. Underfire actress Roxanne Pallett gave her first interview since leaving the Big Brother house on which TV show?
16. Stephen Nicholson, 24, was jailed for 14 months by Southampton Crown Court for refusing to reveal what?
17. David Beckham, charged with speeding, was represented at Wimbledon magistrates court by Nick Freeman, a Manchester based solicitor known as 'Mr ____.’ What is the missing word?
18. He will bow out this season as England's most capped cricket player, their leading run scorer who had the highest number of centuries and catches to his name. Who is he?
19. Actor Burt Reynolds, who died age 82, was said to have collection of what that is worth $100,000 (£77,000)?
20. Katy Williams and her three-year-old son Finn were badly injured during an attack by what?
21. In an interview with The Sunday Times Sir Paul McCartney claimed his dead wife Linda came back to him as what animal during a hallucinogenic substance session?
22. Who posted a picture of Isla Elizabeth Anne on social media saying ‘dad is head over heels’?
23. Chris Evans announced he is to quit BBC Radio 2’s Breakfast Show and is moving to which station?
24.  Who asked seven-year-old Matilda Booth at the WellChild awards to make a 'pinky promise' that she would never stop smiling?
25. The new Good Pub Guide says customers are being turned off by pretentious food, adding: 'We don't want our dishes adorned with carrot _____' What is the missing word?

Answers here