Our thanks to everyone who entered our Brain of Ufology 2008 quiz. After sifting through your answers, we can now announce that we have a winner, and that the recipient of this coveted title is Dr Andrew May, of Somerset, to whom a UFO-themed goodie bag will be winging its way shortly. Perhaps surprisingly, Dr May was the only person who got the correct answer to all 26 of the questions set by Jenny Randles. But most other contestants only got one or two wrong answers (and in one unfortunate case left one question unanswered, having got the rest right), so can pat themselves on the back for doing rather well.

So, while the tie-breaking limerick thus never actually came into play, we’d like to present a few of our favourites, starting with Dr May’s own elegant contribution to the genre:

A ufologist named Dr Bacon
For a ride in a saucer was taken
But when he got back
Men came dressed in black
And told him that he was mistaken

The entry that made us laugh the most was undoubtedly that of Paul Judge, of Surrey:

A saucer with a ray of blue light
Abducted a woman from sight
She said: “I don’t want to disrobe
Or have that intimate probe
But what about next Monday night?”

An impressively concise history of the UFO phenomenon was offered by Paul Jackson of Wiltshire:

The Airships first opened the score
Then foo fighters during the war
The saucers came next
Which left us perplexed
As to just what it was that we saw

And Rick Tooley of Derbyshire offered a rhyme that seemed to describe an encounter with a very nice alien that reminded us of the carefree days of the contactee movement:

I once met a little green man
When his saucer crashed into my van
He wasn’t insured
So he took me on board
And baked me a Venusian flan

Some entries were hardly fit to print, while others tested both rhyme and scansion to their utmost limits; we conclude with a fine example of the latter – and one of the more bizarre entries we received – from SJ Cranna from Aberdeen:

There was once a pink alien on a UFO
Who thought evolution was going too slow
So he cloned and genetically engineered his friends and family
Into a race of big headed aliens
Who looked very grey

ANSWERS

CASES
1:Cave paintings in Southern France and Northern Spain, thought by some to depict the earliest UFO sightings, are believed to be approximately how old?
a) 4,000 years
b) 14,000 years
c) 40,000 years
Answer: b) The cave paintings are estimated as approximately 14,000 years old.

2: Which future British Prime Minister issued a public statement about unidentified flying craft following a wave of mystery airships seen across the UK in 1914?
Answer: Winston Churchill made the first parliamentary statement on ‘UFOs’ in 1914.

3: At the time of the famous July 1947 UFO event, what unique role was played by the nearby Roswell air base?
a) It housed the only nuclear weapons bomber flight.
b) Early astronaut training occurred there.
c) Secret weather balloon projects were undertaken in its hangars.
Answer: a) In 1947 Roswell Army Air Base housed the only nuclear bombing unit.

4: Which US astronaut first reported a UFO sighting from space in June 1965?
Answer: James McDivitt aboard Gemini 4 took photos of a UFO but NASA lost them!

5: When a Hampshire woman met aliens and a landed UFO in November 1976, how did she reply when they assured her that they had not come to invade?
a) You can invade my car anytime, love.
b) That’s what Hitler said!
c) Can I quote you when I phone The Sun?
Answer: b) Although, having met her, she probably could have said any of them!

PEOPLE
6: Which celebrated astronomer discovered a new planet in our Solar System and later reported a UFO sighting?
Answer: Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered the erstwhile planet Pluto, saw a UFO in 1949.

7: Farm worker Antonio Villas Boas is renowned for being the first witness to report an alien abduction. Following his 1957 encounter, what new career did he adopt?
a) Author
b) TV journalist
c) Lawyer
Answer: c) Abductee Antonio Villas Boas became a lawyer.

8: Which well known UFO researcher was the model for the character Lacombe (played by Francois Truffaut) in the 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind?
Answer: Jacques Vallee was the model for UFOlogist Lacombe in Spielberg’s movie.

9: In 1987, the British entry into the Eurovision Song Contest came 13th – the worst UK result that decade. What did reports suggest was a unique selling point of the Rikki Peebles song?
Answer: The British Eurovision song was reputedly inspired by aliens via a close encounter.

10: Which celebrated alien abduction researcher died after being hit by a car while visiting Britain in 2004 in order to lecture at Oxford?
Answer: This tragedy befell Harvard professor and Pulitzer winner, John Mack.

BOOKS:
11: In what year were the first American and British UFO books published, and who were the authors?
Answer: Flying Saucers are Real by ex marine Donald Keyhoe appeared in the US just a few weeks before Riddle of the Flying Saucers by UK aviation writer Gerald Heard. Both were published in 1950.

12: During the 1950s, George Adamski wrote a series of books claiming contact with aliens from where?
a) Venus
b) Uranus
c) Neptune
Answer: a) Adamski wrote most famously about meeting aliens from Venus.

13: What was unusual about the book An account of a meeting with denizens of another world, 1871, attributed to manuscripts from cabinetmaker William Loosley?
Answer: Loosley’s story was presented as fact but was actually a novel by science fiction writer David Langford. Even after he confessed some UFOlogists would not accept this!

14: Which respected psychoanalyst wrote just one UFO book, in 1959?
Answer: Carl Jung wrote Flying Saucers: A modern myth of things seen in the skies.

15: During the 1960s and 1970s, scientists in the USA, including Hynek and Vallee, created a loose affiliation of underground researchers known by what title?
Answer: The loose collection of scientist UFOlogists were known as ‘the invisible college’.

PLACES
16: In which country was the first recorded UFO photograph taken?
Answer: Mexico, by an astronomer at the observatory in Zacatecas in August 1883.

17: What city and state in the USA was home to the first Air Force UFO project, being set up in December 1947?
Answer: On 20 December, 1947, the order was given to create Project Sign at Wright Field (later Wright Patterson Air Force Base) in Dayton, Ohio.

18: The first alien abduction report in the USA was made following a journey by a couple in September 1961 – through which mountain range?
Answer: The abductees were driving through the White Mountains in New Hampshire.

19: Self-confessed crop circle hoaxers Doug and Dave claim to have been inspired to fake crop patterns across southern England after seeing real swirled marks supposedly left by a UFO – in which country?
Answer: The hoaxers were inspired by swirled circles near Tully, Queensland, Australia.

20: In 1987 a hotly debated colour photo–graph of a little green alien was allegedly taken on:
a) Bodmin Moor
b) Ilkley Moor
c) Patrick Moor
Answer: b) The little green man was photographed on Ilkley Moor, West Yorkshire.

POT LUCK
21: What are foo fighters, apart from a rock band?
Answer: During the later part of World War Two, ‘foo fighters’ were small glowing UFOs observed close to Allied bombing missions and wrongly assumed to be Nazi weapons.

22: In UFO research, what does the term UAP stand for?
Answer: UAP is the abbreviation of Unidentified Atmospheric Phenomenon; although some sources use Aerial instead of Atmospheric.

23: Which UFO-related movie was given a Royal performance in 1978?
Answer: The Steven Spielberg classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, part based on the book The UFO Experience, by J Allen Hynek, had this honour.

24: Name the British TV soap that features a regular character who is a ufologist called Elliot who runs his own web site about classic cases.
Answer: Hollyoaks. Elliot becomes disillusioned after discovering that his father wasn’t abducted by aliens but rather ran away and deserted his family.

25: What is a close encounter of the fourth kind better known as?
Answer: A close encounter of the fourth kind (CE4) is UFO-speak for alien abduction.

26: The French government sponsored a new UFO research organisation during 1977. What were its initials?
a) G.E.P.A.N.
b) S.O.S.P.A.N.
c) B.E.D.P.A.N.
Answer: G.E.P.A.N. – from the French for ‘study group into new aerial phenomena’.

What does your score mean?

1–8 Your brain was medically experimented upon during an unremembered abduction last night whilst outside the Dog and Duck. Or, possibly, whilst inside.
9–16 Your score is the light in the sky of the UFO quiz world, at first appearing impressive only to disappear as you get your camera out to convince the world.
17– 24 A close encounter with genius, or unlimited internet access.
25–26 Evidently not of this Earth, or it was you who bought those Jenny Randles books in the remainder store.