Sports GK Mixed Quiz: Set 21

The correct answer is B, Lord's. India played its first Test match in June 1932 at Lord's in London, becoming the sixth country to be granted Test status after England, Australia, South Africa, the West Indies and New Zealand. It was a single Test of the tour, England won it, and India's opening bowlers Mohammad Nissar and Amar Singh took early wickets that made the match memorable for Indian followers. Option A, the Oval, is where India won its first Test in England many years later, in 1971. Option C, Headingley in Leeds, and option D, Old Trafford in Manchester, are both famous English grounds but neither hosted that first match. The link to carry into the exam hall is that both of India's World Cup finals of 1983 and the first Test of 1932 were played at Lord's, which is why the ground is asked about so often.

The correct answer is B, Sydney 2000. Karnam Malleswari took bronze there and became the first Indian woman ever to win an Olympic medal, a feat that earned her the popular title Iron Lady of India. The Sydney Games are easy to remember in this connection because they were also the first Olympics at which women's weightlifting was held at all, so her medal came in the event's opening appearance. A is wrong because no Indian woman won a medal at Atlanta in 1996, where India's single medal came from tennis. C is wrong because Athens in 2004 brought India one medal, a silver in shooting. D is wrong because Beijing in 2008 is remembered for India's first individual Olympic gold, in shooting, along with two bronze medals in wrestling and boxing, none of them in weightlifting.

The correct answer is C, the Masters Tournament. The Masters, founded in 1934 by the amateur Bobby Jones with Clifford Roberts, is the only one of the four majors played on the same course every year, Augusta National in the state of Georgia in the United States, and its champion is given the famous green jacket. Option A is wrong because The Open Championship rotates among links courses in Britain, including the Old Course at St Andrews. Option B is wrong because the U.S. Open is held on a different American course each year, chosen by the United States Golf Association. Option D is wrong because the PGA Championship, conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America, also moves from venue to venue. The fixed-venue fact is the single most asked detail about the Masters.

The correct answer is B, Bachendri Pal, who reached the summit on 23 May 1984 with an Indian expedition and was honoured with the Padma Shri and later the Padma Bhushan. Option A is wrong because Santosh Yadav came later and is remembered for climbing Everest twice, in 1992 and 1993, the first woman in the world to do so. Option C is wrong because Premlata Agarwal, who climbed in 2011, is known as the oldest Indian woman to summit Everest at the time of her climb. Option D is wrong because Arunima Sinha, who climbed in 2013, is celebrated as the first woman amputee to summit Everest. All four names belong to the same story, so attach each to its own first: Pal the first Indian woman, Yadav the first twice, Agarwal the oldest and Sinha the first amputee.

The correct answer is A, C.K. Nayudu. Cottari Kanakaiya Nayudu led India in its first Test match at Lord's in 1932 and is regarded as the first great Indian cricketer; the Board of Control for Cricket in India named its lifetime achievement award after him. Option B, Lala Amarnath, scored India's first Test century in 1933 and captained the first Indian team to tour Australia after independence in 1947 and 1948, so he is a first in two other senses and is offered here for that reason. Option C, Vijay Hazare, was the captain when India won its first Test match, against England at Madras in 1952, and the domestic one-day tournament carries his name. Option D, Vijay Merchant, was a distinguished batter of the same era with a very high first-class average but was not the first captain. Keep the three firsts apart: first captain Nayudu, first century Amarnath, first win under Hazare.

The correct answer is D, Karnataka. Karnataka won the 2017-18 Vijay Hazare Trophy, beating Saurashtra in the final played in Delhi. The tournament is India's premier domestic limited-overs competition for state teams, run by the Board of Control for Cricket in India since 2002-03, and it is named after Vijay Hazare, the batsman who led India to its first Test victory, against England at Madras in 1952. Karnataka's Mayank Agarwal was the story of that season, scoring 723 runs, the highest total by any batsman in a single edition of the trophy. Option A is wrong because Uttar Pradesh did not reach the 2017-18 final. Option B is wrong because Kerala was knocked out before the final that season. Option C is wrong because Maharashtra also failed to reach the final; Karnataka's opponent was Saurashtra. Exam tip: Vijay Hazare Trophy is the one-day tournament, the Ranji Trophy the first-class one and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy the Twenty20 one.

The correct answer is B, The Open Championship. Often called the British Open, it was first played in 1860 and is the oldest of the majors; it is run by The R&A and its trophy is the Claret Jug. Option A is wrong because the Masters is the youngest of the four, dating from 1934. Option C is wrong because the PGA Championship began in 1916. Option D is wrong because the U.S. Open began in 1895, which makes it older than the other two American majors but still younger than The Open. The order of founding, 1860, 1895, 1916 and 1934, is worth memorising, because questions are set both on the oldest and on the newest major. Remember too that The Open is the only major played outside the United States each year.

The correct answer is B, Deepa Malik, who won a silver medal in the shot put at the Rio Games of 2016 and so became the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic medal of any colour; she has since received the Khel Ratna, the highest sporting award of the country. Option A is wrong because Avani Lekhara holds a different first: she is the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic gold, in the ten metre air rifle standing event at the Tokyo Games, and these two firsts are regularly swapped in options. Option C is wrong because Bhavina Patel won India’s first Paralympic medal in table tennis, a sport-specific first, at Tokyo. Option D is wrong because Sharmila Nicollet is a professional golfer and has no connection with the Paralympic Games.

The correct answer is B, Lala Amarnath. Lala Amarnath scored 118 against England at the Bombay Gymkhana ground in 1933, in the first Test match ever played on Indian soil and in his own debut Test, and it was the first century by an Indian in Test cricket. He later captained the first Indian side to tour Australia in 1947 and 1948 and the team that won India's first Test series, at home against Pakistan in 1952. Option A, C.K. Nayudu, captained India in its first Test in 1932 but did not make the first century. Option C, Vinoo Mankad, is remembered for the record opening partnership with Pankaj Roy and for the match at Lord's in 1952 that is still called Mankad's Test. Option D, Polly Umrigar, scored 223 against New Zealand in 1955, among the earliest Test double centuries made by an Indian. Examiners often group these four names, so fix one landmark against each.

The correct answer is B, 30 seconds. A raider gets thirty seconds from the moment of entering the opposing half, and the raid must end with a return across the mid line within that time, or the raider is declared out. The limit was introduced to keep play fast and to stop raiders from loitering, and the clock is shown to the players and the crowd during professional matches. A is wrong because twenty seconds is too short and corresponds to no rule in the game, though the number is tempting because a men's half lasts twenty minutes. C is wrong because forty-five seconds exceeds the limit and no raid may run that long. D is wrong because sixty seconds would make breath control meaningless, which is the central skill of the sport, since the raider has to keep chanting the cant in one breath for the whole raid.

The correct answer is A, the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is the biennial match play contest named after the English seed merchant Samuel Ryder, first played in 1927; the European side was originally Great Britain alone and was widened to the whole of Europe in 1979, and no prize money is paid to the players. Option B is wrong because no major team trophy is played between the United States and Asia. Option C is wrong because the Great Britain and Ireland side plays the United States in the amateur Walker Cup and Curtis Cup, not Australia. Option D is wrong because the Presidents Cup, begun in 1994, is the one between the United States and an International team of players from outside Europe, and it is this pair that candidates most often swap.

The correct answer is C, backstroke. The medley relay order is backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle, and the reason the sequence differs from the individual medley is practical. Backstroke is the only competitive stroke that begins in the water, with the swimmer holding the wall and the feet against it, so it must be given the first leg; the other three swimmers dive in as flying starts once their teammate touches. Option A is wrong because butterfly leads the individual medley but swims third in the relay. Option B is wrong because breaststroke takes the second leg of the relay and the third leg of the individual medley. Option D is wrong because freestyle is the anchor leg in both the medley relay and the individual medley, so that the fastest stroke decides the finish. Each of the four swimmers in a medley relay must swim a different stroke.

The correct answer is C, the West Indies. On 25 June 1983 India, led by Kapil Dev, bowled out the West Indies for 140 while defending a modest total of 183, and won the Prudential World Cup against a side that had won the first two editions in 1975 and 1979. Mohinder Amarnath was named player of the match in the final and in the semi-final against England. Option A, Australia, had been beaten by India in the group stage of that tournament but did not reach the final. Option B, England, was the host and lost to India in the semi-final at Old Trafford. Option D, Pakistan, lost its semi-final to the West Indies. Two details from the same campaign are asked almost as often: Kapil Dev's unbeaten 175 against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells, and Madan Lal and Mohinder Amarnath taking three wickets each in the final.

The correct answer is B, FC Barcelona. Camp Nou stands in the city of Barcelona in Spain and is the home of that club and one of the largest football stadiums in Europe. Option A is wrong because Real Madrid play at the Santiago Bernabeu, also in Spain, and the meeting of these two clubs is the match known as El Clasico, which is why the pair is offered together in the options. Option C is wrong because Manchester United play at Old Trafford, a name that also belongs to a famous cricket ground in the same city, so a careless candidate can be caught twice. Option D is wrong because Bayern Munich play at the Allianz Arena in Germany. Two more football grounds are asked regularly: Wembley in London, the home of the English national team, and the Maracana at Rio de Janeiro, where the World Cup finals of 1950 and 2014 were played.

The correct answer is B, Arjun Atwal. Atwal won the Wyndham Championship in 2010 and so became the first golfer from India to win on the PGA Tour, the premier professional circuit of the United States. Option A is wrong because Jeev Milkha Singh's firsts are different ones: he was the first Indian to earn a European Tour card and the first to enter the top fifty of the world rankings, and he topped the Asian Tour Order of Merit twice. Option C is wrong because Anirban Lahiri's distinction is being the first Indian selected for the Presidents Cup, in 2015, the year he won the Asian Tour Order of Merit. Option D is wrong because Jyoti Randhawa won the Asian Tour Order of Merit in 2002 but no PGA Tour event. Each name carries its own first, so learn them as pairs.

The correct answer is B, Bhutan. Archery is Bhutan's national sport and its village and festival contests, shot at long distances with small wooden targets and their own customs, are a part of national life. Bhutan also sends archers to the Olympic Games, where its participation in the recurve event is a familiar note in general knowledge papers.

Option A is wrong because Nepal has volleyball as its declared national sport. Option C is wrong because Mongolia's national festival Naadam includes archery along with wrestling and horse racing, but wrestling is its best known national sport, and the question asks for the country whose national sport is archery itself. Option D is wrong because Sri Lanka's national sport is volleyball. Pair this fact with the others of its kind: hockey with Pakistan and sumo wrestling with Japan as a traditional sport.

The correct answer is A, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. India beat Sri Lanka in the final at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on 2 April 2011 under Dhoni, who finished the chase himself with a six and was named player of the match; it was the first time a team had won a World Cup final on its own soil. Yuvraj Singh was named player of the tournament, and Gautam Gambhir made 97 in the final. Option B, Rahul Dravid, captained India in the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, from which the team went out in the group stage. Option C, Virender Sehwag, opened the batting in the 2011 final but never captained India in a World Cup. Option D, Sourav Ganguly, captained the side that reached the 2003 World Cup final in South Africa and lost to Australia. Dhoni is also the only captain to have won all three major white-ball trophies of the International Cricket Council.

The correct answer is B, Eagle. The bird names rise with the achievement: one stroke under par on a hole is a birdie, two under is an eagle and three under is an albatross or double eagle. Option A is wrong because a birdie is only one under par, the commonest of these scores. Option C is wrong because a bogey is the opposite, one stroke more than par, and two over par is a double bogey. Option D is wrong because an albatross is three under par, so rare that most professionals never record one. A hole completed from the tee in a single stroke is a hole in one or an ace, which on a par three hole is also an eagle by this scale. Papers set this question in both directions, giving the name and asking the score or giving the score and asking the name.

The correct answer is A, Pakistan. At the Feroz Shah Kotla ground in Delhi in February 1999 Anil Kumble took ten wickets for 74 runs in Pakistan's second innings, becoming only the second bowler in the history of Test cricket to take all ten in an innings, after Jim Laker of England, who did it against Australia at Old Trafford in 1956. Option B, Australia, was the side against which Kumble took many of his other famous hauls, which is why it is the common distractor here. Option C, Sri Lanka, and option D, England, are unconnected with the feat. Two related facts are worth keeping: Kumble is the highest wicket-taker for India in Test cricket, and the only other bowler to take ten in an innings since 1999 is Ajaz Patel of New Zealand, who did it in Mumbai. A question may also ask for the ground, which was the Feroz Shah Kotla.

The correct answer is B, Royal Calcutta Golf Club. Founded in 1829, it is the oldest golf club in India and the oldest anywhere outside Great Britain, and it was given the title Royal in 1911. Option A is wrong because the Delhi Golf Club, host of many editions of the Indian Open, dates from the middle of the twentieth century. Option C is wrong because the Bombay club, though also an old colonial institution, came after Calcutta. Option D is wrong because the Bangalore Golf Club was founded towards the end of the nineteenth century. The club's date is a favourite static GK question, often paired with the Indian Golf Union of 1955, which governs amateur golf, and the Professional Golf Tour of India of 2006, which runs the professional circuit in the country.