Brian Viner: All aboard for the annual Christmas prize quiz

Here is The Last Word's Christmas quiz, which is even more fiendish than usual, partly in a bid to nutmeg those of you who use internet search engines to find your answers. I hope I've made most of it Google-proof! But the answers are worth digging for anyway, because ready for delivery to you is the same marvellous prize as last year and the year before: a year's supply of Spitfire ale, one for every day of 2009, very generously contributed by master brewer Shepherd Neame.

In the event of any ambiguities in either questions or answers, my decisions are final. I really don't expect anyone to get 100 per cent, so even if you've had to guess a few do send in your answers (by email to sportsquiz@independent.co.uk, or by post to The Last Word Christmas Quiz, Sports Desk, The Independent, 191 Marsh Wall, London E14 9RS). And for tiebreaker purposes please suggest an original advertising slogan for Spitfire. For inspiration go to www.spitfireale.co.uk.

You have until noon on Monday 5 January. Good luck, and merry Christmas.

1 In 1968, St Helens was the location for what unprecedented and still-famous achievement?

2 "I think it was a disgraceful performance from a captain who got his sums wrong today and I think it should never be permitted to happen again. [It was] one of the worst things I have ever seen done on a cricket field. Goodnight."

To what was Richie Benaud referring?

3 The Manchester City manager Mark Hughes played for Manchester United; the Manchester United manager Matt Busby played for City. Several Tottenham Hotspur managers played for Arsenal. But which Arsenal manager played for Spurs?

4 Why might Bobby Robson, Gary Neville and Roberto Baggio raise a glass together?

5 In March 2006, who became the first Englishman for 68 years to do what?

6 "At school I was nicknamed 'Costus' by my pals, as in 'you've cost us the game'. It was said with good humour. There was none that I could see in the names the Afrikaners called me. Soutpil was one, rooinek another. Soutpil literally means 'salty dick', as in you have one foot in South Africa and one foot in the UK, with your dick hanging in the sea."

This is an extract from whose autobiography?

7 What is the European connection between the 1965 and the 1977 US Masters?

8 In August 1978 which Fourth Division club offered former Liverpool defender Tommy Smith the job of player-manager?

9 Which footballer, later to play for England, scored two goals on his league debut, was transferred to another club where he was top scorer for six successive seasons, and then moved on to a third club where he again enjoyed a sensational debut, scoring a hat-trick in nine minutes?

10 Madonna and Billy Joel both sang about him, and his name pops up in episodes of Seinfeld and The Simpsons. Who?

11 The autobiography of which former world champion, published in 2007, includes the following in the long list of acknowledgments: HM King Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Captain Mark Phillips, Sir Sean Connery, Sir Martin Sorrell and Murray Walker?

12 He was one of the great sporting figures of his time, and in 1971 the Pentagon gave special permission for him to take off on a flight to Paris from the American airbase at Greenham Common. What was his name?

13 Which future Olympic gold medallist was born to a roof tiler with a chronic smoking habit and his 16-year-old wife?

14 Which former BBC Sports Personality of the Year wrote an autobiography called Sprint To Fame?

15 Whose record of 269, established in 1947, fell in 2002?

16 Which now-retired sportsman, born on 14 February, changed his middle name by deed poll to Valentine, and took his original and somewhat curious middle name as his first name?

17 Which sporting great was back in business within a year of nearly being killed by a greyhound?

18 "Did you intend to hurt the deceased?" the champion was asked at the inquest. "That, sir, is what I'm paid to do," he replied. Which champ?

19 What remains notable about a league football match between Blackburn Rovers and West Bromwich Albion in 1898?

20 A cricketer from New South Wales dropped a clanger at a party, and an expression was coined. What was it?

21 Which BBC Sports Personality of the Year died, aged just 44?

22 Which sportswoman was once romantically linked with Burt Reynolds and Adam Faith, although not at the same time?

23 What does one of the world's great sporting arenas owe to Carlton, Graham and Collingwood?

24 Which popular sport is said to have been invented by the exact namesake – ie the same first name and surname – of a British prime minister?

25 What fairly unusual surname links a former British heavyweight boxing champion with a man who once scored a famous goal for Hamilton Academical FC?

26 A season-by-season record that since 2002-03 has been held by either Chelsea or Manchester United, was in 2000-01 shared between Manchester United, Leeds United and Ipswich Town. What is it?

27 "I ordered a bacon and egg sandwich and as I finished the last bite, time stopped for a millisecond. In that blink of the mind I was cooked and I knew it."

This is an extract from whose acclaimed autobiography?

28 The number 643 is to John Major what the number 644 is to Ian Smith, and the number 104 to John Stalker. To what do these numbers refer?

29 Danny, Mickey and Dickie were three brothers, all good boxers, indeed Danny was a British bantamweight champion. Mickey's grandson is currently a world champion in another sport.

Who is he?

30 Who earned himself a little bit of sporting immortality at about 5.30pm on a chilly April afternoon in 1935, in a small southern town in the United States?

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