THE
PUB
QUIZ &
PUZZLE
BOOK
DRINKING GAMES • DOMINO
PUZZLES
COIN TRICKS • FUN QUIZZES
This edition published in 2011 by Arcturus Publishing Limited
26/27 Bickels Yard, 151–153 Bermondsey Street,
London SE1 3HA
Copyright © 2011 Arcturus Publishing Limited
Puzzles copyright © 2011 Puzzle Press Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person or persons who do any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
ISBN: 978-1-84858-413-6
AD001910EN
Puzzles
Solutions
What could be more convivial than spending an evening in the pub with friends?
It is always nice to meet regularly to exchange news and gossip, but there can be times when conversation does not flow easily and a usually enjoyable get-together becomes hard work. If this sounds all too familiar, don't worry, a potent antidote to tedium is at hand – the Pub Puzzle & Quiz Book.
Armed with this collection of fun puzzles, challenges, traditional games, jokes and quizzes, you can make the evening an occasion to remember every week. You can take it along to the pub and get everyone involved or recreate that ambience of good humour in your own home. All you need in addition to the book are a few pads and pencils to share around, plus any other bits and pieces the challenges call for, such as coins, a dartboard, playing cards, dice, lengths of string, or a box of matches, for example.
So let the Pub Puzzle & Quiz Book revolutionize your social life: with this book as your companion, you may never have to buy another round!
Have fun!
Eric Saunders
Here's a challenge to get the evening off to a good start...
Place four coins on the top of the table and challenge your friends to arrange them so that each is touching every other coin.
The solution to this puzzle is at the back of the book.
Solution
This is a challenge to be the last player to pick up a matchstick, so for this game you will need a box of matches.
Place the matchsticks on the table all facing in the same direction, in clearly separated groups of twos, threes, fours, fives or sixes.
Players take it in turns to pick up either one, two, three, four, five or six matchsticks, as preferred from one of the groups, provided those matchsticks are next to one another in the group. It is possible to pick up just one matchstick from a group of, say, six, so that two new groups of matchsticks are made, one of two matchsticks and another of three matchsticks.
Whoever picks up the last matchstick or adjacent matchsticks on the table is the winner.
This is a good game to play with a group of friends sitting in a circle.
The first person starts by calling out the name of a country and the next person clockwise in the circle then has to call out the name of another country which begins with the last letter of the previously called country.
For example, the first person might call out '"Wales", and the second would then have to call out the name of a country beginning with the letter 'S', such as Senegal, or Sierra Leone. The next person around the circle then has to call out the name of a country beginning with 'L' (if "Senegal" was called out) or 'E' (if "Sierra Leone" was called out).
No repeats are allowed: it isn't always easy to avoid repeats, as after a certain number of countries have been called out, people could forget what went before, but the idea is to think of as many different countries as possible.
Also try to avoid 'loops' such as "Albania", "Australia", "Armenia", "Argentina", "Angola", "Austria", etc.
At any point in the game, a challenge may be made when a country is called out. For example, if someone calls out "Siam", it could be challenged, as this is the former name of the country now known as Thailand. If such a challenge is made, the person who called out the country is eliminated from the game.
The last person to stay in the game is the winner.
A quick quiz to enliven the evening! All the competitors have to do is decide whether an answer is true or false.
You'll need a pen and paper for every member of the group and the winner is the person who has decided most questions correctly. Answers are in the Solutions section at the back of the book.
1 London is further east than Paris.
2 Mel Gibson was born in Canada.
3 A male wasp cannot sting.
4 Zeus was the supreme god of ancient Greek mythology.
5 A rolling hitch, a sheepshank and a bowline are all types of knot.
6 Budapest is the capital of Romania.
7 The Black Sea is closer to the equator than the White Sea.
8 The Canary Islands were originally known as the 'Fortunate Islands'.
9 The flag of Canada is red and white, with a stylised picture of a maple leaf in the centre.
10 Ludwig van Beethoven died in his bath at the age of 42.
11 The boiling point of water is 100 degrees Celsius (or 212 degrees Fahrenheit) at standard pressure.
12 Cats and dogs normally have seven claws on each of their paws.
13 Trees which are deciduous keep their leaves all through the winter.
14 British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was assassinated whilst still in office.
15 In Roman numerals, the number fifty (50) is represented by the letter M.
16 A gnomon is the fixed arm which casts a shadow on a sundial.
17 A black mamba is a type of venomous spider.
18 People with tinnitus suffer from painful bunions.
19 Fats Waller was a famous trombone player.
20 The Zambezi River empties into the Atlantic Ocean.
Solution
Here is a riddle to try out on the other members of the group: the first person to arrive at the correct answer receives a free drink – which the other members of the group must club together to pay for, naturally! The solution to this puzzle is at the back of the book.
It is only one colour, but not just one size,
It is stuck at the bottom, but easily flies,
It is present in sun, but not seen in rain,
It never does harm, nor feels any pain.
What is it?
Solution
You will need one beer coaster for every person in the group. Mark one of these beer coasters with an 'X' and place them all face down, shuffling their order, so that no-one knows which is the beer coaster marked with an 'X'.
Each person takes one of the beer coasters and turns it over, and the person who turns over the beer coaster marked with an 'X' is announced as the Big Chief for the evening.
The Big Chief should nominate a word which, whenever this word is said by the Big Chief during the course of the evening, everyone else in the group needs to respond by placing the tip of a finger on the end of his or her own nose and repeating the chosen word.
The last member of the group to carry out this action has to buy a drink for the Big Chief, and the Big Chief gets to choose what that drink should be.
It could turn out to be an expensive evening – but not, of course, for the Big Chief!
Lay out matchsticks as in the arrangement shown below, then challenge your friends to move two matchsticks to make two squares.
Solution
This is a game which everyone can join in, provided you look around first to make sure that all members of the group are wearing suitable clothing: it won't be much good if they're wearing shirts or blouses, for example, into which they can't fit a 'spare' arm.
First ask every member of the group which hand they use for writing, and to raise that hand in the air: this will determine which is each person's dominant hand. Now tell them to slip that hand and arm inside their coat/jumper/tee shirt, or whatever, so that they cannot use it.
The first person to remove an arm pays for the next round of drinks.
Some people will find it almost impossible to raise a glass with the hand they don't normally use; others will run out of patience waiting for a drink, so will remove their arms and buy a round, but it will cause some merriment at least, and the last person to remove his or her arm will have the pleasure of feeling rather smug for the rest of the evening!
You will need a pack of cards and some Blu-Tack or sticky tape.
An amount of money for the 'central pot' is agreed before the game, and each player places this amount in the pot, which should be in the middle of the table.
Every member of the group is dealt a card face down on the table in front of them and may not look at the card. Instead, they should use a small piece of Blu-Tack or folded over sticky tape pressed onto the back of the card, which is then picked up (still without looking at the face of the card) and stuck to the player's forehead. In this way, everyone else in the group can see the card, but no player can see his or her own card.
The dealer starts the game by betting he or she has the card with the highest value. For the purposes of the game, an ace has a value of one, a jack has a value of 11, a queen has a value of 12, a king has a value of 13, and all other cards have the values shown on their faces. If the players see that the dealer has the card with the highest value (a king), the game should be started again.
People playing will look at the dealer's card and must then calculate the odds of their card being either higher or lower. Anyone who thinks he or she has a card with a higher value than that stuck to the dealer's forehead should say so, and anyone who thinks he or she has a card with a lower value than that stuck to the dealer's forehead can announce that they wish to retire from the game, forfeiting the money they have already paid into the pot.
Those left in the game (including the dealer) now place another coin into the pot and everyone removes the cards from their foreheads.
Anyone with a card of a higher value than that of the dealer's card takes the money in the pot and uses it to pay for a round of drinks for those players who didn't retire from the game and who also have a card with a higher value than that of the dealer's card. Those players whose cards have a card with a value either equal to or lower than that of the dealer's card do not get a share of the pot.
Suitable for two players, this is a game of tic-tac-toe played with numbers instead of noughts and crosses, so you will need a sheet of paper and a pen in order to play.
One player must use the single-digit odd numbers 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9, and the other player must use the single-digit even number 2, 4, 6 and 8. Whoever chooses to play with odd numbers must go first, as he or she has more digits to choose from than the player with even numbers. The next time the game is played, each player uses the digits the other player used last time.
The winner is the first player to complete a line of numbers which either separately or when added to the other player's numbers totals 15, as in this example:
Lay out matchsticks as in the arrangement shown below, then challenge your friends to move two matchsticks to turn this L-shape upside-down.
Solution
Every player in this game will need two coins, the coins should all be the same size, and should be marked in some way (with a piece of sticky paper on which the player's name is written) so that they are easily identifiable. You will also need a small saucer or the lid of a jar.
Place the saucer or jar lid in the centre of the table.
Moving clockwise around the table, every player in turn uses one of his or her coins and tries to jump the other coin into the saucer or jar lid. Those who are successful are bought a drink by those who are unsuccessful (there may be unequal numbers of successful and unsuccessful people, so the total cost of the drinks for the players who were successful should be shared by those who were not).
Which one of these tractors is different to the rest – and why?
Solution
You will need a pack of cards to play this game, plus a large group of friends sat around a table.
Shuffle the cards and place them face down in the middle of the table.
An amount of money for the 'central pot' is agreed before the game, this amount of money to be the same for every player. To start the game, every player needs to put one coin into the pot.
Play passes clockwise round the table, and continues until there are no more cards left in the middle of the table. In turn, each player takes either one or more cards (up to a maximum of five) from the central pile and turns them over.
If any of these cards is a jack, queen or king, he or she must place one coin (one per go) into the pot: but if any of the cards is an ace, he or she can remove one coin from the pot.
If, however, none of the cards is a jack, queen, king or ace, everyone else in the group must place the same number of coins in the pot as the number of cards picked up by the player (so it can sometimes pay to pick up five cards, if a player has been attentive, and knows which cards have been picked up before!). After each player's go, the cards are turned face down again.
The game finishes when all the cards have been dealt out, and the money in the pot goes towards paying for the next round of drinks.
Test your friends – nothing too strenuous as these are questions with a choice of answers, only one of which is correct. You can also play, even if you are reading the questions, because the answers are in the Solutions section at the back of the book.
You'll need a pen and paper for every member of the group and the winner is the person who has decided most questions correctly.
1 The Sea Swallow is an alternative name for which bird?
2 On being executed, who said: "This is a sharp medicine, but it will cure all diseases."?
3 What religion was founded by Bodhidhama?
4 Of what is Tribology the study?
5 In what sport would you see a Western Roll?
6 Who, when he was murdered whilst playing poker, held two aces and two eights, a hand which from then on was known as a Dead Man's Hand?
7 Murganah is the slave girl in which story?
8 How was Herbert Khaury better known in the world of entertainment?
Solution
This is a fantastic party game for couples to play, and even more entertaining if the couples are mixed and don't know each other very well.
For each couple playing this game you will need one drinking straw, one drink, and two toilet rolls.
Each couple is given two toilet rolls and a drinking straw at the start, and the person who elects to be the 'mummy' places the drinking straw into his or her mouth. On the count of three, the other player uses the toilet paper to wrap the player with the drinking straw like an Egyptian mummy, going round and round, covering the head of the person being wrapped up, but leaving the drinking straw sticking out.
When both toilet rolls have been used up, the player who did the wrapping must feed the 'mummy' with the drink, through the drinking straw.
The first couple to complete the task wins the game – and now the fun of unwrapping the 'mummies' can begin...
Think of a tune that everyone in the group knows well: it could be a Christmas carol, a pop song, or a nursery rhyme tune, perhaps.
The idea of this game is that everyone should whistle one note in turn from the tune, going clockwise around the group.
Sounds simple, but not everyone can whistle in tune, and before long quite a few people will be unable to whistle at all, because they are laughing so much at everyone else!
For this challenge you will need eight matchsticks and one coin. Lay out the matchsticks as in the arrangement shown below, so that it looks like a fish, then challenge your friends to move three matchsticks and the coin to make the fish swim in the opposite direction.
The solution to this puzzle is at the back of the book.
Solution
A quick quiz to enliven the evening! All the competitors have to do is decide whether an answer is true or false.
You'll need a pen and paper for every member of the group and the winner is the person who has decided most questions correctly. Answers are in the Solutions section at the back of the book.
1 John O'Groats is the most northerly point of mainland Britain.
2 Actor Humphrey Bogart was distantly related to Princess Diana.
3 Owls can move their eyes in any direction.
4 Tiger Woods' real first name is Eldrick.
5 The Mafia emerged during the nineteenth century.
6 The Mafia originated in Sardinia.
7 The 'Challenger' space shuttle disaster occurred in 1986.
8 Odin was the principal god of Norse mythology.
9 Soprano Kiri Te Kanawa is a native of Australia.
10 Kate Bush had a UK No 1 hit with 'Babooshka' in 1980.
11 Tim Foster won an Olympic gold medal in rowing in 2000.
12 The 1994-95 'Voodoo Lounge' was a tour undertaken by Paul McCartney.
13 Jupiter's closest moon, Io, is covered in volcanoes.
14 Lake Lugano straddles the border between Switzerland and Italy.
15 William Shakespeare was born and died in Stratford-upon-Avon.
16 Tom Cruise was the voice of Woody in 'Toy Story'.
17 Vaduz is the capital of Liechtenstein.
18 King Henry VIII died at the age of 55.
19 The Korean War started in 1950.
20 The Lockerbie disaster occurred in 1985.
Solution
This game is very simple, but in order to play it, all members of the group must swear to be honest in their answers.
One person starts the game by acting as the Defendant and stating something which no-one else knows about them. For example: "I was born in the back of a taxi, on the way to the maternity hospital." This one statement does not need to be true, but all answers the Defendant gives from this point onwards must be truthful.
Each member of the group takes it in turns to act as Prosecuting Counsel, and asks a question about the statement, to which the Defendant is required to answer either "Yes" or "No".
After each member of the group has asked a question (if the group is small, this could be extended to two questions per member of the group), everyone who thinks the Defendant's original statement was true should rise to their feet. Those who think the Defendant was lying should remain seated.
The Defendant now has to reveal whether or not the statement was true or false. Anyone who guessed correctly can reward themselves with a drink and then decide who must next face the Court, when the game begins again.
This is a game for up to six people, plus one person to act as timekeeper.
You will need one empty glass and one teaspoon per player, plus a large jug containing beer, water, fruit juice, as preferred, and a watch with a second hand.
Place the jug in the middle of the table and give each member of the group a glass and a teaspoon.
At the word "Go" spoken by the timekeeper, each player has two minutes to spoon as much of the liquid from the jug into his or her own glass. Everyone may dip in at once, as taking turns is not necessary for this game: it is a free-for-all.
Whoever manages to get the most into their glass wins the game, and is rewarded with a drink of whatever they want; all of the losers having to pay an equal amount of money to buy the winner's drink.
You will need some beer coasters to play this game.
An amount of money for the 'central pot' is agreed before the game, as each player will be placing this amount in the pot, which should be in the middle of the table, if he or she needs to pay a forfeit.
Working in a clockwise direction around the table, every member of the group takes it in turns to throw a beer coaster into the air with one hand, and then catch it with the other hand.
Anyone who fails to catch a beer coaster pays a forfeit into the pot and play continues until there is enough money in the pot for a round of drinks.
You will need as many identical cans of fizzy drink (either a soft drink or beer) as there are numbers of players in this game, plus a drink already poured for every player: any player may drink whatever he or she chooses, but it's best played when everyone has the same amount in their glasses.
Take one of the cans of fizzy drink and shake it vigorously. Place it and the other cans of fizzy drink onto the table and ask each person to move them around (without lifting any can from the table) so that they are shuffled up and no-one knows the location of the shaken can.
As each person finishes his or her drink, he or she must take one of the cans from the table and open it in such a way that the top points towards the face of the person removing the tab – if anyone cheats at this stage, by pointing the can away from his or her face, then they must choose another can and start again.
The object of this game is for each participant to finish his or her drink quickly, so that they have the widest possible choice of cans on the table, lengthening their odds of picking up the shaken can and getting sprayed by the contents.
You will need a pack of playing cards for this trick.
Take six red cards (diamonds or hearts or a mixture of both) and six black cards (clubs or spades or a mixture of both) from the pack and lay them face up on the table in this order of red and black (of any suit):
Ask a member of the group to choose any black card, without telling you what it is. This person must be sitting directly opposite you, or next to you, in order for the trick to work.
Tell him or her to look at the nearest red card either to the left or to the right of the card he or she chose, then to look either up or down to the nearest black card, then to look diagonally to the nearest red card, then to look either to the left or to the right to the nearest black card. The card he or she will end up at is the black card in the middle row, but he or she doesn't know that, so what you say next will not make any difference.
Now tell the person to remember the card he or she ended at, and ask someone else to pick up all the cards, give them a shuffle, then lay them out again on the table again, in either the same pattern of three rows each of four cards, or in a pattern of four rows each of three cards: wherever the black card from the middle row is placed, you already know what it is, so you'll be able to identify it.
Make a few movements, tapping a few cards and moving your finger to others, so it looks as if you are working out some kind of complicated calculation, then pick up the 'chosen' card.
Test your friends – nothing too strenuous as these are questions with a choice of answers, only one of which is correct. You can also play, even if you are reading the questions, because the answers are in the Solutions section at the back of the book.
You'll need a pen and paper for every member of the group and the winner is the person who has decided most questions correctly.
1 Of the following English monarchs, which one reigned the longest?
2 Who was the first boxer to regain the world heavyweight title?
3 Who composed the 'Academic Festival Overture'?
4 In 1959, Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th states of the USA. On 14 February 1912, which had become the 48th?
5 In which year were women allowed to compete in athletics events at the Olympic Games for the first time?
6 What first name is shared by the poet Byron, actor and director Orson Welles and singer Van Morrison?
7 Which one of the following Oscar winners is the daughter of parents who have both won Oscars?
8 In which year were swimming events using the butterfly stroke first contested at the Olympics?
Solution
For this game, you'll need pens and paper for all the participants, plus a mirror.
The object of the game is for everyone to see how good they are at writing!
The challenge is to write backwards. Think of a word (nothing too long, and nothing made of letters which could easily be written backwards, of course!) or ask the players to write their own names, then ask them to write the word or name backwards, directly next to it, so that the word is a mirror image. Then hold each piece of paper up to the mirror to see which is the most accurate: the person judged by all the group to have made the best job of it wins a drink, bought by the rest of the group contributing an equal amount.
You can vary this game by asking each player to write the word upside down, or upside down and back to front; alternatively simple pictures may be drawn.
Here is a brain teasing problem to try out on the other members of the group: the first person to arrive at the correct answer receives a free drink – which the other members of the group must club together to pay for, naturally! The solution to this puzzle is at the back of the book.
You are participating in a race.
You overtake the second person.
What position are you in?
Solution
Repeat the sentences below, without getting your tongue in a twist – this challenge is best done after a couple of drinks!
This is a perfect game for a party, and to play it you will need bottles of lemonade, a packet of dry cracker biscuits (the sort you would normally eat with cheese) and plenty of balloons. It would also be useful to have a small gift to offer as a prize to the winning contestant, as this adds incentive to the game.
Give each player a glass of lemonade, two dry cracker biscuits and a balloon.
Players must first drink the lemonade as quickly as possible – anyone who takes more than a minute to drink his or her glass of lemonade is out of the game.
Then the players must eat their biscuits: at first this will be fairly easy to do, as they will just have finished their drinks, but as they continue munching, their mouths will become more dry, and eating the biscuits will turn out to be quite difficult. Allocate a period of three minutes for them to eat, and anyone who doesn't finish the biscuits within the time is out of the game.
Now hand one balloon to each contestant remaining in the game, the object being to blow up the balloon within a time of one minute. This could prove more difficult than most people would think, as the lemonade bubbles may cause the players to burp, the biscuits will have made their mouths dry, and laughing at other people's attempts to blow up the balloons will also have an affect on a contestant's own ability to blow up his or her balloon. If anyone bursts either his or her balloon, then he or she is out of the game.
When the time is up, or when everyone has blown up his or her balloon (whichever is the earlier), each player should tie a knot in the end of his or her balloon and the person with the largest balloon is the winner.
This game is good when played among people who have an excellent vocabulary (or think they have!).
The first person begins the game with a letter of the alphabet – any letter will do.
The second player adds a second letter towards making a word; so if the first person says 'T', for example, the second could think of a word beginning with 'T' and add the next letter of that word.
The third player then has to think of a word which begins with those two letters in order, then add another letter.
The fourth person then thinks of a word which begins with those three letters in order, and adds another letter, and so on.