The Maiden Names Round

This round, as the introductory note informs us, is about maiden names. Or, perhaps to be more politically correct, birth surnames. A fair enough subject for quiz questions, even if it does start to get more than somewhat tedious by the time we get to Question 8.

My gripe is that every question in this round is padded out to a ridiculous extent by superfluous verbiage.

If Question 1 had read "What was Margaret Thatcher's birth surname?" I don't think anyone would suggest that it was any easier. (What I'm saying is that no one is likely not to know who Denis Thatcher's second wife was. And if they hadn't realised that Margaret Roberts was his second wife and not his first, they would surely realise that this was who was being asked about.)

The same could be said about every question in this round, except that with some of them (particularly those in the middle of the round) it's less obvious who is being asked about. And this is not really fair on the people who got those questions.

These questions fall into the category (again quoting the Guidance for Question Setters) of "[trying] to show how smart you think you are".

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