THE TORCH IS LIT

THE TORCH IS LIT

The Olympic torch relay set off round Japan this week, one huge step in reassuring Quiz HQ that we could navigate our way through the 2021 Quiz without too many casualties. There will still be many odd Covid hiccups on the way to December. The Irish lived in a separate stable block at Cheltenham and all had to self isolate for five days back home. The Six Nations finale was postponed for a week because of a mid tournament outbreak of Covid in the French camp. The cracking France-Wales game which would have been an extraordinary climax to the tournament instead left a week for statisticians to ponder bonus points. Fortunately justice was done and the bubble bursting French did not profit from playing a weakened Scottish side.

3)Quizzers knew their fate early in the Gold Cup. The main English hope never jumped a twig, the others toiled out the back and the first English horse home, Native River, finished fourth. He’s eleven so hardly promising to turn the tables in 2022.IRISH trained horses filled the first three places. Quizzers probably knew their fate much earlier in the week as the Irish won an astounding 23 of the 28 races. The British may have a world beating £37 billion Test and Trace system(or you may be telling porkies as usual, Boris)but in National Hunt racing, the British looked like San Marino playing England, grateful for the odd corner and rattled crossbar. The English could of course mutter about the recent shocking photos from a top Irish stable that shook National Hunt racing to its foundations. That did not seem to be a fault of the Irish system, rather the fault of a flawed individual. You can’t train horses to win so often unless you give them 5* hotel treatment.

4/5)Twelve sage quizzers looked at the Welsh results for 2020 and said to themselves,”Golly, they beat Italy and Georgia. Ideal candidates to win the Six Nations.”Oddly for such a proud nation, very few of these talented twelve live in Wales.(See Welsh Wizards mini league.)In a remarkable reversal of 2020 form, the Welsh came within an extra time try conceded of doing the Grand Slam. The defending champions, England, and the main hope of most quizzers, made as much a hash of defending their title as are Liverpool. England were an ill disciplined shambles with no Plan B who often played with the disinterest of a team who had lost faith in their coach. Johnny Sexton of Ireland took particular advantage of English law breaking and his five penalties against England helped him to finish top points scorer. Scotland won two historic away games in London and Paris but lost both their home games.(See Auld Lang Syne mini league).And who can forget the Italians, though for the sake of the tournament, is it time to try? Interesting for better statisticians than here at Quiz HQ to see the impact of yellow and red cards. No, I’m not knocking the Welsh success but I wonder what might have happened the first weekend if the Irish had not been down to fourteen for 66 minutes.

With six points for finding the winner of the Six Nations, the top reaches of the table are dominated by the twelve wise men(and women)with a three man tie at the top. Rob Pearce from Swansea, Welshman exiled to Salisbury James Spencer; wonder why Forester Trevor Firman chose Wales.

And as always, a word of consolation to the 39 quizzers still on zero; I know you’re saving your best work for Tokyo.