Question - 685

Who is he and what is the occasion when this picture was taken?

Question - 676

Two popular traditions associated with a sport. Which sport and what traditions? Update: Forgot to add that this question is courtesy my brother Rajesh.

Answer: NASCAR traditions - kissing the brick and chugging the milk in Indy 500. Arpit, giantamoeba, Jamie, anon and Krithi got it. Well done.

Question - 663

Seriously inspiring stuff. Identify them.

Answer: Team Hoyt - a father-son team which has competed in several endurance events despite the son suffering from cerebral palsy. Karthik is the only one to get it. Bravo.

Question - 655

Identify the person and the reason behind the title.

Answer: George Best who was at least as famous for his off the field exploits as he was for his incredible football talent. He was once asked how close to a match he has had sex and he replied Half-time and thus the title. Divya Shankar, Krithi, Raghu, Kapinjal, Krishna, Matti and Siddarth Pai got it. Well done.

Question - 644

What famous location?

Answer: The real "field of dreams". I thought if I ask the question, you will answer. Rajesh K, Krithi, Swapnaa, Matti, Jamie and Divya got it. Well done.

Question - 643

What game is this? The game isn't well known or even particularly famous but I like how this game has not featured any "goals" since 1909.

Answer: The Eton wall game - spoofed memorably by Terry Pratchett. Swapnaa, giantamoeba, nitinsunny and Matti got it. Well done.

Question - 639

Identify the guy.

Answer: Frank Zamboni, the guy who invented the eponymous ice resurfacer. Siddarth Pai, Iam, giantamoeba and Matti got it. Well done.

Question - 610

The world championships of which school-yard game?

Hint:

Answer: Conkers, "a game traditionally played by children in Britain, Ireland, and some former British colonies using the seeds of horse-chestnut trees." Only Anand got. Awesome!

Question - 596

Cricket question courtesy Anand. Connect the top two players (in B/W) to the one below (in color).

Question - 564

What historic but anti-climactic event?

Answer: Zenyatta (after 19 straight wins) finally loses in her last race. Dinesh, Vetti, and mekie got it (Hirak too, if he was using some racing jargon that I don't get).

Question - 563

Identify and connect.

Answer: The War of Roses, depicted in Shakespeare's Henry VI (top left) and now continued as a sporting rivalry - cricket (Yorkshire v. Lancashire), football (Manchester Utd. v. Leeds Utd.) and rugby. mekie, Anand, Firebringer, and matti tapaninen got it. Well done.

Question - 550

Identify and connect. (Hint: the question number)

Answer: The connection is the Duckworth-Lewis (D/L) method used in Cricket to calculate a target score in a weather (or otherwise) interrupted game. The plot shows how this calculation is performed (top left) along with the two statisticians, its namesakes, who came up with it (bottom left). The right picture is of the Irish pop group who call themselves, rather geekily, the Duckworth-Lewis Method. Dinesh, Shravan, KAMANASISH,AEC, Vetti, Ramki, Rajesh K, and AJ got it. Extra points to Dinesh for spotting the cheap DL=550 trick.

Question - 530

Who is next in this list?

Answer: Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, India's leading bowler in cricket (don't believe me? Check out Jeopardy). He just became the most capped player in the history of test match cricket. Colin Cowdrey, Sunil Gavaskar, Allan Border and Steve Waugh were the record holders before him. Mihir, Rajesh K, Anand, AJ, anon, Rajeev, Jaggi, Jamie, v.chandrashekar, Arvind and Ramki got it. Well done.

Question - 526

Who is the guy to the left? What are they doing?

Answer: Steve Wozniak is playing Segway Polo. Rajeev, Kaushik, tsp, Ameya, Matti Tapaninen, Jamie, AJ, Krithi, nice try, Karthik, Raghu, anon, Anand, Vetti, Manix and Hirak got it. Raghu thinks Woz looks like Vijay Mallya. Well done all.

Question - 522

What is the latest addition to this ignominious list?

Answer: LeBron's The Decision joins the long list of pithy named heartbreakers that the city of Cleveland has endured in its sports. Shown are The shot, Red Right 88, The fumble and The drive. Raghu, Rajesh K, Vetti, Arvind, Rajeev, Manix and anon got it. Well done.

Question - 513

What resulted?

Answer: Andres Escobar's own goal for Colombia against USA during the 1994 FIFA world cup. It supposedly led to his assassination 10 days later when he was shot dead at a Colombian night club. The goal led to the heavily favored Colombian side eliminated in the first round and is said to have caused huge gambling losses to the drug lords in Colombia. Ramji, Arvind, nice try, v.chandrashekar, Anand, Matti Tapaninen, anon, Raghu Kainkaryam, Adi, Akshay, niru, Ramki, Vetti and Jaggi got it. Well done.

Question - 508

Whats the significance of the score?

Answer: Nadia Comaneci's perfect score was displayed as 1.00 since the scoreboard wasn't equipped to display a 10.0. If I had waited a couple of days, I could have had a nice connect between this and the Isner-Mahut scoreboard. Akshay, Mihir, RV, Jaggi, Hirak, anon, Mekie, v. chandrashekar, Jamie, Rajesh K, Karthik, Arvind, Ramji, escapist, tsp, anon, Mainak, Manix, Vetti, Ramki, nice try, Kaushik, Iam, NJ, Firebringer, Shravan and Anand got it. Well done all.

Question - 505

The structure shown in the second visual (the one with the white arch) is in front of a famous landmark and is built to commemorate the event shown in the first visual. Identify and connect.

Answer: The first event is the 1923 finals of the FA cup at the Wembley stadium dubbed the "White horse" final. The bridge in front of the stadium is called the white horse bridge to commemorate this. Ramki, anon, Matti Tapaninen and Shibin azad got it. Well done.

Question - 504

Disclaimer: I know next to nothing about soccer but I had to have a soccer question to mark the occasion. This concept was developed by the man in the first visual and refined further by the men in the second and third visuals. The footballer in the fourth visual is its most famous exponent. What are we talking about?

Answer: The concept is Total football. The men are Jack Reynolds, Rinus Michels and Johan Cryuff. Aravind, Ramji, AJ, White Jack and Black Lagoon, v.chandrashekar, Raghu Kainkaryam, anon, Karthik, Krithi, Ramki, anon, imitator and Matti Tapaninen got it. Well done.

Question - 470

The two statues are of the same man - in his youth and old age. Identify him and the location of the statue.

Answer: This is the statue of the legendary long distance runner John Kelley located on the Boston marathon course about a mile from the notorious Heartbreak hill. He won it twice and completed the marathon a whooping 58 times running his last full marathon when he was 84 years old. Just like this year's champion Robert Cheruiyot and the 2007 champion of the same name, there was another John Kelley who won the Boston Marathon in 1957. Karthik, Mohan, Raghu, Matti Tapaninen, Nemani and Adi got it. Well done.