Bunkagame — July 6, 2026

Question 1

Wikipedia's list of West African music traditions covers Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Which small coastal country between Ghana and Benin, whose capital is Lome, is also on the list?

Accepted Answer

The Music of Niger sits alongside the music of its neighbors in West African tradition, listed with Nigeria, Mali, and Burkina Faso. The Music of Togo appears on the same regional list, alongside Benin, Ghana, and Guinea, as part of the Music of West Africa.

Question 2

In November 2023, lead singer Shane MacGowan of this Celtic punk band died in Dublin at age 65. In March 2011 the same group played a six-city sold-out US farewell tour called 'A Parting Glass', visiting Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, Washington DC, Boston and New York. Which band connects the two cities?

Accepted Answer

The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan died in Dublin on 30 November 2023, and guitarist Philip Chevron had died in Dublin ten years earlier. In March 2011, The Pogues played Detroit as one of six US cities on their 'A Parting Glass' farewell tour.

Question 3

This forward from Leicester scored the second-fastest hat-trick ever at a FIFA World Cup, against Poland, and later played club football for Barcelona in Spain. He also earned 80 caps for England, was the top scorer in the old First Division, and became a well-known TV presenter. Which sportsman links the two countries?

Accepted Answer

At the 1986 World Cup, Gary Lineker scored the second-quickest hat-trick in tournament history against Poland, becoming the second English player to score a World Cup hat-trick. He then joined FC Barcelona in Spain, where Gary Lineker played La Liga for the Catalan club.

Question 4

The Philippines is one of several Southeast Asian neighbours whose beer is shipped into a certain country. That country only started making its own beer in 1968, when Guinness and Malayan Breweries joined together to form Guinness Anchor Berhad. Which country was the buyer, once mostly supplied from nearby Singapore?

Accepted Answer

Most beer sold in Malaysia is imported from nearby countries, including the Philippines, along with Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Local Beer in Malaysia only started being brewed in 1968, when Guinness and Malayan Breweries merged to form Guinness Anchor Berhad.

Question 5

The third year of the Eurovision Song Contest was held at the AVRO Studios in Hilversum in March 1958. Later years were staged by the BBC at the Royal Festival Hall (1960), BBC Television Centre (1963) and Royal Albert Hall (1968) in which capital city?

Accepted Answer

The 1958 Eurovision Song Contest was held at AVRO Studios in Hilversum, the Netherlands, an early stop in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest. London later hosted Eurovision three times in the 1960s, at the Royal Festival Hall, BBC Television Centre, and Royal Albert Hall.

Question 6

In 2010 the Oxford University Dramatic Society toured a stage version of the Mikhail Bulgakov novel The Master and Margarita in which the Devil turns up in 1930s Soviet Moscow. A 1980 stage version directed by Catalina Buzoianu opened at the Small Theatre in which capital city on the Dambovita river?

Accepted Answer

In 2010, Oxford saw a new stage translation of The Master and Margarita performed by the Oxford University Dramatic Society summer tour. Thirty years earlier, in 1980, Romanian director Catalina Buzoianu staged The Master and Margarita at Teatrul Mic in Bucharest.

Question 7

Cuba reached the World Cup quarter-finals in 1938 as a member of CONCACAF. Suriname, a founding member, sits on the northeast coast of South America. Which Central American nation, whose capital shares its name and whose men's team plays at Estadio Doroteo Guamuch Flores, was also a founding member?

Accepted Answer

Cuba was among the founding members of CONCACAF, along with Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Cuba also reached the CONCACAF's first World Cup quarterfinals in 1938. Guatemala was likewise a founding member of CONCACAF, alongside Costa Rica, Honduras, and Panama.

Question 8

This Estonian-born strongman George Hackenschmidt was on hand at the London tournament in July 1961, where he handed the winner's medal and a signed portrait to Yury Vlasov after Vlasov set a world record. His own pro career kicked off in July 1900 with a forty-day wrestling tournament in which Russian city, his first appearance as a professional in Russia?

Accepted Answer

In July 1900, George Hackenschmidt made his professional wrestling debut in Russia at a forty-day tournament in Moscow. Sixty-one years later, after Yury Vlasov set a world record at the London tournament in July 1961, George Hackenschmidt presented Vlasov with the medal.

Question 9

The 1992 Pre-Olympic Basketball Tournament in Spain welcomed several newly independent first-time teams, including Lithuania, Croatia, Slovenia and Latvia. Which small Baltic country, once part of the USSR and whose capital Tallinn looks out on the Gulf of Finland, was the fifth of that first-time group?

Accepted Answer

At the 1992 Pre-Olympic Basketball Tournament in Spain, Lithuania was joined by newcomers Croatia and Estonia, along with Latvia and Slovenia. Croatia and Estonia were making their basketball debuts as newly independent countries after the Soviet Union broke up.

Question 10

Yaizu, an old Japanese port whose shrine says it was founded in the 5th century, is dotted with Kofun-period burial mounds. Which other Japanese city, in the mountains of the old Kai Province and known for its many Kofun-period burial mounds and Jomon-period ruins, has a similar ancient past?

Accepted Answer

Yaizu is an ancient settlement, and its Yaizu Shrine claims to have been founded in the 5th century Kofun period. Many kofun burial mounds also lie inside Yaizu's city limits. In Kōshū, Yamanashi, there are also many burial mounds from the Kofun period, along with Jomon ruins.