QUIZ OF THE YEAR

A-TO-Z NEWS Which A became a national worry on arrival?

What Bs did John Major deem "unnecessary"?

Which C stayed calm under fire?

One D went over to Rome; another had no place to go.

What E, the first in Britain, brought relief to pram-pushers in north London?

Which F left his wife by fax?

Which G cast himself as a winner?

Which former leader, H, returned as a computer virus?

Which London I came under scrutiny and gave its name to a person?

Which J was tracked down after 24 years on the run?

What pair of Ks won new roles on a European stage?

Which L broke one of the most revered records in sport?

Which fashionable M will be missed by the world he made fun of?

Which N was rehabilitated by death?

What O was caught taking flight down the freeway?

Which P will be remembered for pennies and lipstick?

Which Q thought that she might have struck oil in her back garden?

What R was the bane of a long, hot summer?

Which S was publicly branded a liar and called on to resign by his daughter?

What T was the cause of protracted clashes?

What U made Tony Blair seem more rock 'n' roll?

What multi-faceted V took on the real thing?

Which W turned up as a mum in the East End?

Whose electoral Xs were alleged to have been gained under false pretences?

What Ys did John Major condemn, while his aide privately saw their uses?

Which Z, a film director, turned politician this year?

WHO'S WHO?

The following had their 15 minutes of fame this year. Why?

1 Anthony Freeman 2 Ted Newbery 3 Ken Pilton 4 Martin O'Donoghue 5 Elaine Ward 6 William Scott 7 James Florey 8 Mark Bridger 9 Angela Berners-Wilson 10 Norman Dalton MEDIA 1 Who quit his day-job to pursue a career as a chat-show host on the other side ofthe Atlantic?

2 "Rupert is opening his arteries here. He is trying to kill us." Who said this, and why?

3 Name the former tabloid political columnist who became Tony Blair's press secretary.

4 "Minister is Part-Time Dentist": which newspaper ran this scoop on its front page, and to whom did it refer?

5 Which newspaper proprietor was the subject of a Stock Exchange inquiry?

6 Who brought a libel action against the Sun, citing an attack of pancreatitis in defence of her good name?

7 Which media supremo left two jobs this year?

8 Who was described, wrongly, as an "antipodean secretary"?

9 Who sent a "cod-fax"?

10 Which editor was ousted amid rumours that she had lost favour with the boss's wife?

SLEAZE 1 Who was forced to resign by his own constituency party despite having the backing of the prime minister?

2 Who resigned over an advantageous house-deal?

3 Name the two Tory MPs who were accused of having been prepared to accept £1,000 each in exchange for asking parliamentary questions.

4 Who claimed, "He pressed us to drive via Paris... and stay in his private rooms in the Ritz. I accepted and we stayed several days", after running up a bill of £2,121 on his host's tab, on top of the £2,000 free room?

5 Who quit when he was forced to admit having accepted £2,000 from the same source, when he had previously only acknowledged their gift of two teddy bears?

6 Who was said to have earned £12m for his alleged role as middle-man in a 1985 deal, the largest ever struck between two nations, and what was his connection to one of the players?

7 What do the following have in common? Anne Heseltine, Lady (Ann) Parkinson, Diane Yeo and Lady (Sheila) Taylor?

8 Whose bill was said to have been paid by "a brunette of European appearance"?

9 Who was betrayed by his lover (believed to have earned £175,000 for the deed) on the steps of the Dorchester?

10 What business interest do the MPs referred to in questions 1 and 4 have in common?

ROCK 1 Which two members of an influential group of the Seventies wrote a song together for the first time in 1994?

2 Who was reported to have screamed at his manager: "Get that record out of the charts, and get it out now!"

3 Whose music won a major prize in spite of being dismissed as "handbag house"?

4 Which backing singer stepped forward and alone into the Top 10?

5 Who performed live for the first time since 1966 and charged British punters £266 a ticket?

6 Who released a rap song 19 years after his first hit?

7 The lead singer of which very fashionable group of 1994 goes out with the lead singer of which other very fashionable group of 1994?

8 Whose short-lived marriage was said at the time of the wedding to represent the "union of Pop's DNA"?

9 Which band released their first album for five years but would only talk to the Big Issue about it?

10 Which Seventies folk group claimed that one of the best-selling singles of 1994 was a rip-off of one of their songs?

Despite the Independent on Sunday's successful `Dirty Dogs' campaign, which in 1994 gave a voice, for the first time, to the millions of Britons whose lives are blighted by canine excrement, we remain, on balance, a nation of dog-lovers, often more concerned about animal welfare at Christmas than about human welfare. The rich and famous are as fallible as any in this respect, and many are so attached to their animals that owner and pet have developed various shared characteristics. Can you tell, by studying the nine dogs above, who their owners are?

SPORT 1 Who spoilt Martina Navratilova's farewell party?

2 Who made a slip in the World Cup that turned out to be fatal?

3 Which comedian had the last laugh at the Grand National?

4 Who was cleared of cheating but fined £2,000 anyway?

5 What did Grame Souness lose early in the year, and Mike Walker late?

6 Who was the bald Bulgarian who headed Germany out of the World Cup Finals?

7 Which horse, following a dazzling performance in this year's Racing Post Trophy, is now favourite for next year's Derby?

8 Whose dreams of gold were frustrated by Gritchuk, Platov, Usova and Zhulin?

9 Who lost his crown to an old preacher?

10 Which old man won the Australian Grand Prix?

FILM 1 Which director announced his retirement on completing a trilogy?

2 What film opened in America but was banned by the British censor?

3 Which British star of the Sixties was reincarnated as an Australian drag-queen?

4 Name four films in which Juliette Lewis appeared this year.

5 The plots of which two films hinged on animals being run over by cars but not killed?

6 What film won the Cannes Golden Palm and who directed it?

7 Which female lead - who had never had an acting lesson - won acclaim for battling against the social services?

8 Who played a wronged lawyer and a ping-pong champion?

9 Who wrote the screenplay of Four Weddings and a Funeral?

10 Which film featured two singers among its large cast, and who were they?

QUOTES Who said the following?

1 "Quite frankly if you bed people I call `below-stairs class', they go to the papers, don't they?"

2 "He's a highly intelligent but unsuccessful and sad old man.'

3 "We went to two hotels. In the first one we managed to find twin beds, and at the second one we didn't. It doesn't make any bloody difference. It was much cheaper; it halved the price."

4 "Once the news broke, we had thousands and thousands of calls . . . So we said, `Why don't we ask the press before, from six o'clock to seven o'clock?' . . . I have many friends in the press."

5 "I know this sounds a bit Mills & Boon, but Penny and I are an item."

6 "You move like a gazelle, dress like a queen and have impeccable taste."

7 "Quite frankly, no. I don't think I'm overpaid."

8 "This, in the circumstances, was culpable stupidity, though at the time it just seemed more like an enjoyable joke."

9 "I got fed up with all the sex and sleaze and backhanders of rock 'n' roll, so I went into politics."

10 "I decided to tell this story because it was too beautiful a love to remain secret."

11 "In terms of conceptual art, the sheep had already made its statement."

12 "I've never made any comment about any member of the family in 40 years and I'm not going to start now."

13 "You said you seduced me. He who is tall has further to fall and I fell. How I fell."

14 "Go to any other country, and when you have got an A-level, you have bought it . . . You'd win contracts because . . . you have lined the pocket of some public official."

15 "British beef is safe. There is nothing to fear save hysteria itself."

16 "I don't even know how to use a parking meter, let alone a phone box."

17 "Anyone thinking I would give less than 100 per cent must be barmy."

18 Of Manchester: "Not such a nice place."

19 Of the Booker Prize winner: "It was a book that I did not think was a runner. I think it's boring. It's completely monotone."

20 Of John Major: "Honest as the day is long, but I never fancied him."

ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ A to Z NEWS A Baby Abbie Humphries, who was abducted from hospital four hours after her birth. She was found safe and well two weeks later. B Beggars. Major claimed: "It is not acceptable to be out on the street. There is no justification for it these days." And he suggested that the public report beggars to the police. C Prince Charles, who was shot at by a student in Sydney. D The Duchess of Kent became a Roman Catholic; the Duchess of York was given notice to leave her rented home. E An Eruv, an area marked out by poles, inside which orthodox Jews may carry objects and use wheelchairs and prams on the Sabbath, was set up in and around Golders Green. F The cricketer Graeme Fowler. G Antony Gormley won the Turner Prize with five iron casts of his own body. H Erich Honecker, the former East German leader. His image appeared spontaneously on computer screens in both east and west Germany, with the message "Honni's last revenge - I'll be back". I Islington, home to Tony Blair. J Carlos the Jackal, international terrorist, was arrested in Sudan and flown to Paris to face charges. K Neil and Glenys Kinnock. He became one of Britain's two European commissioners. She was elected an MEP. L Brian Lara, the West Indies cricketer, who brokethe record of most runs in a Test match previously held by Sir Garfield Sobers. (scores?) M Franco Moschino, whose designs ribbed fashion's self-importance, died. N Richard Nixon, disgraced by the Watergate scandal. Five American presidents attended hisfuneral. O OJ Simpson, the football player and television personality, who was charged with the murders of his estranged wife and her companion. P Dennis Potter, whose television dramas included Pennies from Heaven and Lipstick on Your Collar. Q The Queen, who gave the go-ahead for exploration of a suspected oilfield below Windsor Castle. R The rail strike which lasted 16 weeks. S Government minister Nicholas Scott who was accused by his daughter, a disabled-rights campaigner, of wrecking the Civil Rights (Disabled Persons) Bill. T British, Spanish, French and Irish fishermen fought Tuna Wars in and around the Bay of Biscay.U U2 who were photographed with the Labour leader at the Q Music Awards. V Virgin launched its own brand of cola. W Barbara Windsor joined EastEnders as the Mitchell brothers' mother. X More than 10,000 voters in the Devon and East Plymouth Euro elections placed an X by the name of Richard Hugget, who was standing as a Literal Democrat. The Liberal Democrats (who lost the seat to the Conservatives by 700 votes) complained that many of their supporters had voted for Hugget in error. The High Court rejected demands for a re-election. Y Yobs. Major attacked "yob culture", but over at Conservative Central Office John Maples , deputy chairman of the Conservative party, was suggesting (in a memo leaked to the BBC) that Tory backbench yobs should be let loose on Tony Blair, suggesting they "should knock him about a bit".Z Franco Zeffirelli, who was elected to the Italian senate.

MEDIA 1 Andrew Neil, erstwhile editor of the Sunday Times, who went to America to start a current-affairs show on Fox TV but returned to Britain when the project was abandoned. 2 Conrad Black, proprietor of the Daily Telegraph, reacting to the newspaper price-war started by Rupert Murdoch's Times. 3 Alastair Campbell, formerly of Today. 4 The Guardian, exposing Sir Paul Beresford's "double life". 5 Conrad Black again. His company Hollinger sold 12.5m Telegraph shares in May. A month later The Daily Telegraph's cover price was cut to 30p and shares plunged. The inquiry found no impropriety. 6 Gillian Taylforth, the EastEnders actress. The Sun reported that she had been found by a policeman apparently performing oral sex in a Range Rover. She said she was helping her boyfriend who was suffering from pancreatitis. Her suit was unsuccessful. 7 Kelvin MacKenzie, who left The Sun after 12 years as editor, became managing director of BSkyB, but quit eight months later because of a "personality clash" with chief executive Sam Chisholm. 8 Times journalist Ginny Dougary, by David Mellor, after she interviewed an indiscreet Norman Lamont over lunch at San Lorenzo. 9 Peter Preston, editor of the Guardian. He was investigating Jonathan Aitken's bill for a stay atthe Ritz in Paris. 10 Eve Pollard, editor of the Sunday Express, owned by Lord Stevens.

SLEAZE 1 Tim Yeo, environment minister, who lost the backing of his South Suffolk constituency when his affair with Tory councillor Julia Stent, and the existence of their child, was made public. 2 Alan Duncan, who had put up the money for his neighbour to buy his Westminster council house under the Government's right-to-buy scheme for tenants. and then bought the house himself when the limit preventing re-sale expired. 3 David Tredinnick, MP for Bosworth, and Graham Riddick, MP for Colne Valley.They were caught in a trap laid by a Sunday Times reporter. 4 Ex-Trade minister Neil Hamilton, who failed to declare at the time the hospitality he had enjoyed at the expense of Mohammed Al Fayed. He had also tabled parliamentary questions on Al Fayed's behalf,supporting his bid for Harrods. 5 Tim Smith, Northern Ireland minister, who admitted receiving cash for questions from the lobbyist Ian Greer on behalf of the Al Fayeds. 6 Mark Thatcher, in the Yamamah arms deal made between Saudi Arabia and Britain, when his mother Margaret Thatcher was prime minister. 7 All are married to Tory MPs, past or present, and all sit on quangos. Anne Heseltine is on the board of the Imperial War Museum, Lady Parkinson is on the Barnet Healthcare NHS Trust, Diane Yeo is a Charity Commissioner, and Lady Taylor is chairman of Southend Community Care Trust. 8 Jonathan Aitken's. The chief secretary to the Treasury, whose stay at the Ritz appeared to have been booked and paid for by a Saudi Arabian business associate, said that this woman was his wife, who had paid his share of the bill in cash after he checked out. 9 Defence chief Sir Peter Harding, trapped by Bienvenida Perez-Blanco into a kiss for the benefit of photographers from the News of the World (to whom she sold - for a reported £175,000 - the story of her affair with Harding during her marriage to former Tory MP Sir Antony Buck). 10 Both were investors in a loss-making shirt-shop owned by ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor. Other shareholders included Michael Heseltine and Lord Archer.

ORDINARY PEOPLE 1 The "atheist vicar". The Rev Anthony Freeman was sacked by the Bishop of Chichester because his book God With Us suggested he didn't believe in God. 2 The 82-year-old former miner who fired a shot-gun at a suspected burglar to defend his allotment. A court cleared him of deliberately causing injury, but ordered him to pay £4,000 damages. He received contributions from sympathetic members of the public, including Angela Knight, his MP. 3 The grumpy winner among the seven who shared the first jackpot of the National Lottery. The retired aircraft engineer complained: "Thinking about all the aggravation of sorting out what to do with it makes me wish sometimes I hadn't won it." 4 The tramp "rescued" by the Princess of Wales from the canalin Regent's Park. The incident was reported in the Daily Mail just after unfavourable stories broke alleging that the princess was spending over £3,000 a week on personal grooming. 5 The former MoD cook , sacked by Brigadier Guy de Vere Hayes because she had produced scrambled eggs which were "just a mess of white plonked on a piece of toast... It was swimming in water." A tribunal rejected her claim of unfair dismissal. The Brigadier's wife was thankful justice had been done. "It is very important to stand up for principles," she said. 6 The seven-year-old who appeared before a House of Commons Select Committee, the youngest person to give evidence this century. He was contributing to an inquiry on the changing needs of the family. 7 The man who ran into a race and got trampled by a horse at Ascot. He later admitted to having been drunk. 8 The man who poured black ink into Damien Hirst's exhibit of a lamb in formaldehyde and renamed the piece "Black Sheep". 9 The first woman to be ordained as a priestin the Church of England. 10 A heart bypass patient who remained awake - and in agony - throughout his seven-hour operation, unable to tell surgeons that the anaesthetic had not worked.

ROCK 1 Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno, who used to be in Roxy Music. 2 Marti Pellow, lead singer of Wet Wet Wet, whose cover of the Troggs song "Love is All Around" remained at No 1 for 15 weeks. 3 M People's. They won the Mercury Music Prize. 4 Sheryl Crowe,ex-backing singer to Michael Jackson, had solo chart hit with "All I Wanna Do". 5 Barbra Streisand 6 Tom Jones. 7 Damon Albarn of Blur and Justine Frischmann of Elastica. 8 Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley's. They have decided to live apart. 9 TheStone Roses, who released "Second Coming". 10 Lindisfarne, who sued Whigfield for plagiarism, claiming that their "Saturday Night" bore striking similarities to their "Fog on the Tyne".

SPORT 1 Conchita Martinez. 2 Andres Escobar. The Colombian defender scored an own goal against the United States which helped eliminate Colombia from the World Cup (the score was 2-1). Days later he was shot dead by three gunmen in his home city of Medellin; one reportedly said "Thanks for the own goal". 3 The comedian Freddie Starr, who owned Minnehoma, the winner. 4 Michael Atherton, who was seen using grit from his pocket to dry the ball. He was fined by Ray Illingworth for not telling the whole story. 5 Their jobs. 6 Yordan Lechkov. 7 Celtic Swing. 8 Torvill and Dean 9 Michael Moorer 10 Nigel Mansell.

FILM 1 Krzysztof Kieslowski, director of the trilogy Three Colours Red, White and Blue. 2 Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers. 3 Terence Stamp, in Priscilla Queen of the Desert. 4 Kalifornia, Romeo is Bleeding, What's Eating Gilbert Grape? and Natural Born Killers. 5 Wolf, in which Jack Nicholson hits a wolf and becomes lupine, and Red, in which Irene Jacob hits a dog and forms a strange friendship with its owner. 6 Pulp Fiction, directed by Quentin Tarantino. 7 Crissy Rock, in Ken Loach's Ladybird, Ladybird. 8 Tom Hanks, in Philadelphia, and as Forrest Gump. 9 Richard Curtis. 10 Tom Waits and Lyle Lovett in Short Cuts.

THE THINGS THEY SAID 1 Jane Clark, wife of Alan Clark, ex-MP, reacting to the arrival in Britain of the Harkness family, who between them claimed three affairs with Alan Clark. 2 Valerie Harkness on Alan Clark. 3 David Ashby MP, explaining why he had shared a bed with a male friend. He denied any homosexual relationship. 4 Ivana Trump, explaining why she had invited the media to her engagement party at Syon Park. 5 David Mellor, announcing that he was leaving his wife for Lady Cobham. 6 Sir Peter Harding, then Defence Chief, writing to Bienvenida Buck (see "Sleaze"). 7 British Gas chief Cedric Brown, whose pay went up by 75 per cent to £475,000 a year. 8 Richard Gott, literary editor of the Guardian, explaining why he had been a KGB agent. 9 Tony Blair, on the origins of his career. 10 Anna Pasternak, on her book Princess in Love. 11 Damien Hirst, artist, on the vandalising of his preserved sheep "artwork". 12 The Duke of Edinburgh, commenting on Prince Charles's allegations in Jonathan Dimbleby's biography that he was a bullying and uncaring father. 13 Hartley Booth, MP, to his former parliamentary researcher Emily Barr. 14 Michael Portillo, in a speech to Conservative students at Southampton University. 15 Gillian Shephard, on German reluctance to buy British beef. 16 The Princess of Wales, speaking to Daily Mail reporter Richard Kay about accusations that she had made nuisance phone-calls to art dealer Oliver Hoare. 17 Southampton goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar, speaking following his first game after the publication of allegations that he "threw" matches in exchange for bribes. 18 The Queen, drawing unfavourable comparisons on a visit to St Petersburg.

19 Rabbi Julia Neuberger, one of the judges. 20 Clare Latimer, Downing Street caterer.

DOGS AND THEIR OWNERS 1 Anne Bancroft.

2 Prince Charles.

3 Brigitte Bardot.

4 Bob Geldof.

5 Doris Day.

6 Andrew Lloyd Webber.

7 Michael Foot.

8 Elaine Paige.

9 Barbara Cartland.