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• The Guardian
• Sat May 31 2025

The questions

1 Who opened a Fossil Depot in Lyme Regis in 1826?

2 Which galaxy is on a collision course with the Milky Way?

3 Which creatures make up a fifth of all mammal species?

4 Which sci-fi writer was the first person in Europe to buy a Mac computer?

5 What machine gun was named after a Czech city and London suburb?

6 At 410 miles, what is the UK?s longest road?

7 Which band did Quincy Jones call ?the worst musicians in the world??

8 Notker the Stammerer was an early biographer of which emperor?

What links:

9 Derwent, Derbyshire in 1944; Capel Celyn, Gwynedd in 1965?

10 Observatory Circle resident; reclusive New Hampshire author; Tim Martin?s pubs; Wardle and Makin?s shops?

11 Mija?n L?pez (5); Vincent Hancock, Katie Ledecky, Carl Lewis and Michael Phelps (4)?

12 Cassandra in Troy; Martha Mitchell in Washington DC?

13 Annoy; computer glitch; minor illness; small insect; spying device?

14 Behind the Candelabra; Green Book, Impromptu; Ray; Rocketman; Shine?

15 French butterfly; German chess knight; H2O; Pulp singer; Restoration monarch?

View image in fullscreen Quizzical over the Quincy Jones clue? Photograph: Rick Maiman

The answers

1 Mary Anning.

2 Andromeda (in about 4.5bn years).

3 Bats.

4 Douglas Adams (Stephen Fry was the second).

5 Bren gun (Brno and Enfield).

6 A1.

7 The Beatles.

8 Charlemagne.

9 Villages ?drowned? to create reservoirs.

10 JD: JD Vance; JD Salinger; JD Wetherspoon; JD Sports.

11 Consecutive golds by modern Olympians in one event: Greco-Roman wrestling; skeet; 800m freestyle; long jump and 200m medley.

12 Warnings/prophecies not believed: Trojan priestess in Greek myth; Watergate conspiracy.

13 Various definitions of bug.

14 Films about pianists: Liberace; Don Shirley; Chopin; Ray Charles; Elton John; David Helfgott.

15 Types of spaniel: Papillon; Springer; Water; (Jarvis) Cocker; King Charles (II).