The questions

1 In 396 BC, Cynisca became the first woman to win where?
2 Which composer had “lovely moments but awful quarters of an hour”?
3 What prize was founded in 1968 by Sweden’s central bank?
4 Which bird was the closest relative of the Rodrigues solitaire?
5 Mercosur is which continent’s trading bloc?
6 Which British literary magazine was funded by the CIA?
7 Jeu provençal is a form of which game?
8 Steiff made black mourning teddies after what event?
What links:
9 Sluys (1340) and Castillon (1453)?
10 Peter Pan; God Bless America; Take Five; Dorothy Parker’s works?
11 Lut; Kavir; Thar; Karakum; Negev?
12 Sybil; Savrola; Seventy-Two Virgins?
13 Aeolian; Allegri; Amadeus; Balanescu; Brodsky?
14 Angry Farmer; Angles; Wizard of Wishaw; Jester from Leicester?
15 Turkey; Panama; Burundi; New Zealand; China; Australia (ascending order)?

The answers

1 Olympic Games (chariot race, as an owner/trainer).
2 Wagner (according to Rossini).
3 Nobel prize in economics.
4 Dodo.
5 South America.
6 Encounter (established 1953).
7 Boules.
8 Sinking of the Titanic.
9 First and last major battles of the hundred years war.
10 Works whose copyright/royalties donated to charity: Great Ormond Street hospital; Scouts; Red Cross; NAACP.
11 Asian deserts (Iran (x 2); India/Pakistan; Turkmenistan; Israel).
12 Novels by prime ministers: Disraeli; Churchill; Johnson.
13 String quartets.
14 Snooker nicknames: David Gilbert; Alan McManus; John Higgins; Mark Selby.
15 Stars on national flag (from 1 to 6).