THANK you for your entries for the People Christmas quiz.

The response was excellent and, judging by the comments, many a happy, head-scratching hour was spent during the festive period sorting out the answers.

And what a brainy lot you all are!

Absolute success would have netted you the full 80 points although nobody quite managed that. But most of you did get pretty close despite the inevitable ambiguity in a few of the questions.

Carl Andre's bricks at the Tate Gallery was slightly confusing as to when it was first made, or first displayed in London, so I was quite liberal with the marking of that particular answer.

Most answered that Ned Kelly wrote the Jerilderie Letters but some bright wag pointed out that he actually dictated them to his companion Joe Byrne who put pen to paper – hence, both correct. And although I had in mind the Bristol Channel for the location of Denny Island I was quickly reminded that there are others, especially in the middle of Chew Valley Reservoir. My research had indicated that coffee was the world's most favourite drink although many of you put tea and, I have no doubt, that some sources will indicate that.

However, the judge's decision is always final! I was also quite severe about 'exact location' questions and the answer Australia was not sufficient as a location for Doyles on the Beach, neither was New Zealand good enough as the location of Rangitoto.

Only one entrant managed to track down the Squid character.

Most contestants plumped for the Marvel Comic character Squidboy, Sammy Pare, but I had in mind the Rev Gregory Saunders, MA who was the fictional headmaster of Burgrove Preparatory school in The Papers of AJ Wentworth BA by Humphrey Ellis. If you haven't read it, then you must, because it is a minor classic.

However, this year's keenly fought affair ended with a win by Bob Selby from Nailsea with just one question wrong (and that was tea!) Notable also-rans were SJ Porter and David Welsh, both from Portishead, with 78 points; Shan Blythe and Alison Reilly with 77 correct answers, and Sue Lasson, Ruth Price, Jane and Dave Francis, Roger Noad, and Janet Scammel with a creditable 76 points each.

Thank you to everyone who entered, and, as ever, my decisions are unquestionable and final.

Sadly, in these straitened times, prizes are limited with only the winner getting due reward, but, as they say, 'it's not the winning that matters, only the taking part'. I don't believe that either!

Mike Bisacre

1. Electronic Random Number Indicating(or) Equipment

2. 66

3. Basil

4. Posh

5. 1976

6. Indonesia

7. 5

8. Chris Blades

9. Hauraki Gulf, Auckland, NZ

10. John Constable

11. 0

12. Richard Dawkins

13. Blind mice

14. Strings on a piano

15. Yards in a furlong

16. Ways to leave your lover

17. Fifth prime number

18. Peter Davison

19. Branston Pickle

20. Ear

21. Pour Moi

22. Canberra

23. Watson's Bay, Sydney

24. One-eighth

25. Bristol Cathedral School

26. John Wilkes Booth

27. Titan

28. Millau Bridge

29. 111

30. Polonius

31. Schmeichel

32. Berlusconi

33. Jimmy Saville

34. Everybody's Talking

35. A View to a Kill

36. Jean Paul Sartre

37. Military Intelligence

38. Arthur Lowe

39. Julie Christie

40. Dopey

41. 5, 8

42. Edam

43. 1

44. Rev Gregory Saunders MA

45. Tongariro National Park, NZ

46. Nellie Melba

47. George Orwell

48. Chocolat

49. George 2

50. Severn Estuary (Bristol Channel) or Chew Valley Lake

51. Madonna

52. 27

53. Freud

54. Tom Watson

55. Aluminium

56. Sebastian Vettel

57. Holland (Netherlands)

58. Both fathered children while in office

59. Monkey

60. Beetroot

61. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

62. The importance of Being Earnest

63. The Sense of an Ending

64. Both appear on the American and British versions of Monopoly immediately after GO.

65. Coffee

66. Freddie Starr

67. 6

68. 5,509 (to the nearest whole number)

69. Playwright

70. Eddie Cochran

71. Dusty Springfield

72. Island of Surtsey

73. Joseph Conrad

74. Anne Frank

75. It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

76. Paul (characters in the 1949 film Whisky Galore)

77. fall

78. 6

79. Cliff Richard

80. Ned Kelly/Joe Byrne