Queens Park Rangers Quiz

Loftus Road has been QPR's ground since 1917, give or take spells at White City in 1931-33 and 1962-63, tucked into Shepherd's Bush in the W12 postcode a short walk from the White City site, and the blue and white hoops — Celtic's design in a cooler colour — gave the club its nickname, the Hoops. The trophy came out of the Third Division. In 1967 QPR reached the first League Cup final staged at Wembley, went in at half-time two goals down to the holders West Bromwich Albion with Clive Clark having scored twice inside 36 minutes, and won it 3-2. Two men had already pulled the deficit back when the winger Mark Lazarus settled it in the 81st minute. They took the Third Division title in the same season, so the cup came with a promotion. Rodney Marsh had arrived from Fulham the year before and stayed until March 1972, when Malcolm Allison paid £200,000 — a club record — to take him to Maine Road.

Stan Bowles arrived six months after Marsh left, £112,000 from Carlisle United in September 1972 after earlier travels at Manchester City, Crewe Alexandra and Bury, and became the cult No. 10 of the decade. Dave Sexton arrived from Chelsea in October 1974, and by the end of 1975-76 QPR had finished their league programme top of the First Division on 59 points with nothing left to play for but the wait. Liverpool still had a rearranged fixture, ten days later at Molineux, against a Wolves side who needed the win to stay up. Bob Paisley's team won it and the title went north 60-59. Gerry Francis captained England out of that midfield — eight of his twelve caps, before a persistent back injury shortened the international story — and Don Givens, born in Limerick and capped 56 times by the Republic of Ireland between 1969 and 1981, was the leading league scorer. The UEFA Cup quarter-final that followed in 1976-77 was just as tight: 3-0 up at Loftus Road against AEK Athens, 3-0 down in Greece, out 7-6 on penalties. Sexton left for Manchester United in 1977.

Phil Parkes went across London to West Ham United in February 1979 for £565,000, then a world record fee for a goalkeeper, and stayed eleven years. Terry Venables took the job in 1980 and had an artificial pitch laid at Loftus Road in 1981, the first in British professional football; three other Football League clubs followed, Luton Town at Kenilworth Road in 1985, Oldham and Preston the year after. His second season ended at Wembley in the club's only FA Cup final, where Terry Fenwick — a defender who would win England caps and eventually join the side that beat him — equalised late in extra time, and Tottenham, retaining the trophy after a replayed final of their own the year before, won the replay. The Second Division title came the season after, and Venables left for Barcelona in 1984. QPR were back at Wembley for the 1986 Milk Cup final and lost it 3-0 to Maurice Evans's Oxford United, still the only major trophy the Manor Ground club has won. The plastic was dug up in April 1988, after seven seasons.

Rangers were founder members of the Premier League and finished fifth in 1992-93, above both Tottenham and Arsenal. Les Ferdinand, up from non-league Hayes, scored 24 league goals in 1994-95 and left that summer for £6m to Kevin Keegan's Newcastle United; Ray Wilkins, in charge from late 1994, took them down at the end of 1995-96. Trevor Sinclair, £600,000 from Blackpool in 1993, stayed long enough to score the overhead kick against Barnsley in a 3-2 FA Cup tie at Loftus Road in January 1997 that took Goal of the Season. Then the third tier in 2000-01, the first drop that low since the 1960s, under Ian Holloway, a Rangers midfielder of the 1990s who had taken the job that February; Andy Campbell's extra-time chip sent Cardiff City up instead of QPR at the Millennium Stadium in 2003, and Holloway got them out a year later as runners-up behind Plymouth Argyle. Neil Warnock won the Championship in 2010-11 on 19 goals and the Player of the Year award from Adel Taarabt, and an FA commission's £875,000 fine over Alejandro Faurlín's registration carried no points deduction, so the promotion stood. The top flight was harder: Jamie Mackie's header from Armand Traoré's cross on the final day of 2011-12 with Rangers already a man short, the hosts turning it round in stoppage time; Harry Redknapp arriving in November 2012 to replace a Mark Hughes side on four points from twelve games; £12.5m for Christopher Samba and bottom place on 25 points. The way back was Bobby Zamora's 90th minute at Wembley in 2014. Every answer here explains itself.

The Queens Park Rangers set runs the full range — easy starters, a medium core, and hard questions a devoted fan has to think about.