QUIZ TIPS 2023
Questions 1),6),7),39) and 41)
2023 is a huge year for Rugby Union with an Autumn World Cup in France and the Six Nations hoopla in the Spring merely a warm up. Quiz HQ celebrates by awarding a special prize to the Oval Ball Champion, the top points scorer in the above questions plus Q2 and Q 40,also played with oval balls. A huge year for English Club rugby as they look for a sustainable financial model and sadly too, a big year with growing concerns about concussion and long term brain damage. Let’s hope that amid the excitement that more attention is paid to the necessary protocols to protect players.
France are the reigning Six Nations Champions(Q6)but Ireland are the Number One ranked side in the World. Keen Quizzers(are they any other sort?)will be keeping an eye on the Autumn Internationals where the Southern Hemisphere teams rock up to play the Six Nations. England fans will have groaned to see their heroes beaten by Argentina, who by coincidence are the key match in their World Cup group.(Q39).England lumbered round their opponents’ half with little clue on breaking through, just collecting penalties in the style which saw an English kicker become the top 2022 points scorer(Q7)while keeping up their miserable opening day tradition of scoring few or no tries against Scotland.(Q1).You’ll have to decide if they as good as they were in the first seventy minutes against the Kiwis or the last ten minutes. The South African title defence looked shaky after two defeats, back on track after cruising past England where Coach Jones looks a dead man walking. The Kiwi side looks less awesome than usual. Wales were beaten by mighty Georgia. The French side may rise to the occasion or crumble in front of their home crowds. The bookies make the French favourites but there are five sides at 6/1 or less. Q41 is very open.
2)The SUPER BOWL is a match between the champions of the NFC and the AFC so it’s a 50/50 choice. The 2022 title went to the Los Angeles Rams of the NFC who beat the AFC team the Cincinnati Bengals in a thrilling last quarter comeback. Neither had an awesome regular season but came good in the play-offs after Christmas. The Los Angeles win was the second in a row for a team playing in their home stadium. The venue is decided far in advance; in 2023 the Super Bowl will be played at the stadium of the NFC’s Arizona Cardinals, who as I write are third in their division but as in 2022,the winners sometimes are not the standout side in their league matches.
3)Australia will be big favourites for this, having won the previous tournament in 2020 just before lockdown and dominated every international competition since. India pushed them all the way though in last year’s Commonwealth Games and really should have won that final with a little more composure. They were also runners-up in 2020 so this could be their moment to finally secure a title. England, New Zealand and hosts South Africa are all highly competitive too and have the ability to cause an upset on their day.
YOUR GUIDE NEIL SOUTHWOOD
4)Dubbed ‘the FA Cup of darts, this tournament is fast-paced and the completely open draw can lead to many surprising results over the weekend as the major players come up against qualifiers from clubs around the country. 160 players compete and you’ll have well over half the field on your side if you select a Brit to win. However there have been seven Dutch triumphs in the past 20 years including the most recent winner, Danny Noppert, and Michael Van Gerwen will always be the one to beat from overseas.
YOUR GUIDE NEIL SOUTHWOOD
5)Quiz HQ has finally flown the white flag about the Irish dominance at Cheltenham where the invaders now regularly win far more than half the races, some days a clean sweep. Seven of the last ten Gold Cup winners have crossed the Irish Sea on their way to triumph. The question this year is on the winner’s margin of victory, more or less than two lengths. This can change dramatically as the horse climb that final hill as a tiring horse comes back to the field, an apparently beaten horse finds a second wind.
In 2022,the winning margin was 15 lengths, the widest for 27 years; in 2021,it was barely a length. Going, good or soft, may be the crucial factor. I’m just hoping to see an English horse in the same parish.
8)England famously beat New Zealand in the most dramatic finale possible back in 2019 at Lord’s and will be among the favourites again to defend their title with several of that side still heavily involved. Conditions in India though will undoubtedly suit the Asian teams considerably. Can the hosts cope with the expectation, or will Pakistan or Sri Lanka click at the right time? Australia can never be written off, especially if their pace attack are all fully fit, while New Zealand will be looking to finally emerge as winners after finishing runners-up in the last two tournaments. This competition is wide open and might come down to one moment of brilliance, maybe even another super-over. NB This is now the last Q decided on November 26th
YOUR GUIDE NEIL SOUTHWOOD
9)Though the racing eights of Oxford and Cambridge women have rowed against each other since 1935(Cambridge 45 Oxford 30), only in 2015 did they row on the same day and over the same course as the men, a move described by Beeb’s Eleanor Oldroyd as “a game changer”. In 2022, Cambridge won their fifth race in a row, though the Oxford men finally brought an end to a run of Cambridge victories.
10)There are fewer players, more seniors, and more amateurs in the Masters than in the other slams. The tough course, the slick greens bring even the form players back to earth at some stage of the weekend so most Masters are still wide open coming down the 72nd hole. Only nine times has the winning margin been more than four strokes so Scheffler’s 2022 win by three strokes was relatively comfortable. Will you too be sweating on a tricky four footer on the 72nd green?
11)National Hunt horses tend to be at their peak aged eight or nine, providing eight of the last ten winners of the Cheltenham Gold Cup(the other two were younger.)Grand National winners have tended to be older (whisper it, experienced handicappers or class horses on the slide.) It’s certain that you’ll have more nine-year olds running for you than any other age group. Until 2022,the last six National winners had all been either eight or nine. Not since the Second World War had a horse younger than eight won the race but Noble Yeats, one of the only two seven year olds in the 2022 field, saw the history books rewritten. Maybe as the fences get easier, owners are more willing to risk their rising stars.
12)Only 16 times have women runners beaten 2 hours 18 minutes for the marathon, several of those times set when women were running alongside men and not eligible as world records. Six though were set in London so it’s a fast course; one was in the 2022 version. Your question; will that be repeated in 2023 when the London marathon returns to it’s traditional April date? The Ethiopian winner did it comfortably but the rest finished outside the time. Whatever, you’ll be glancing at the clock as the runners enter The Mall.
13)At every Winter Olympics, the nation falls in love with four Scottish men, four Scottish women in the British curling team. Unlike many GB competitors, our curlers are always competitive, always in the running for medals in this game of chess on ice. Then we forget for another four years. Not this time. Quizzers are off to South Korea in April to see a Scottish pair, one man, one woman, try to defend the title the Scots have won at the last two Championships. There will be twenty teams in the running and Scotland will have to do without half their 2022 winning team for Eve Muirhead, our best ever curler, has retired.
14)Keep hearing that snooker is a world game with rising stars from China threatening the established British domination? Evidence in lesser tournaments but in the biggest tournament of the year, you go back to 2010 to find a World Champion from outside the British Isles. In the last ten, a Scot and a Welshman are the only breaks from English winners. Three first timers; Mark Selby in 2014,Stuart Bingham in 2015 and Judd Trump in 2019.Apart from these, old hands have ruled the Crucible.2022 saw another win for the ultimate in former champions, Ronnie O’Sullivan. Fear not, you quizzers who choose FIRST TIMER will have 24 of the field of 32 on your side.
15)Premiership heads into an unprecedented midwinter break lasting forty two days with Arsenal five points ahead of Man City and Liverpool an incredible fifteen points behind. Ah you pundits think, surely Man City are cruising like a top distance runner waiting to hear the bell before the last lap sprint. Maybe the last day loss to Brentford at home will have caused those pundits some reflection; maybe it will be Arsenal’s year with Arteta teaching his old boss a big lesson. And maybe the title will be decided by which squad returns home most jaded by the World Cup. Goal machine Haaland is sitting out, though Man City have 16 other squad members in Qatar.
16)No use expecting a shock winner in the modern F. A. Cup. Chelsea, Arsenal and the two Manchesters had won twelve of the last fourteen, even though they often play with understrength teams in early rounds. Only 2013 Wigan have triumphed for the underdogs. Five have been won by a single goal, including the 2021 win for (relative)outsiders Leicester; four with a 2-1 score line. In 2022 it was Liverpool’s turn to extend the domination of the elite but you needed to wait 120 minutes without a goal before a penalty shoot out decided the matter. Recent history suggests no goal fest. Two Finals have seen goals scored in extra time but remember this prediction is based only on the first 90 minutes.
17)When the Champions League resumes in mid February, there will be sixteen clubs left in with a chance.
Seven countries are still possible answers for this question. Three countries-France, Belgium and Spain have only one shot left but with Paris SG unbeaten for months and Real Madrid the holders, their chances are not negligible. Portugal have two clubs involved and Italy three, including the rampant Napoli. England and Germany both saw their four entries survive the group stages intact, The favourites are Man City but despite their domestic dominance, they seem oddly fragile abroad. Liverpool and Chelsea are having seasons iffy at best. The juiciest of the last 16 ties is a replay of last season’s final between Liverpool and Real Madrid. I’ll take a small wager that the eventual winner will come in the tie between Bayern Munich and PSG.
18)First used in 1952 when Fausto Coppi won at its summit, the Puy de Dôme was also the scene of Bahamontes’ spectacular time trial victory in the 1959 Tour de France. The dormant volcano’s most famous moment among cycling fans was when the famous Poulidor-Anquetil duel played out on its slopes in the 1964 race. The stage starts in Poulidor’s home town before heading east towards the Puy de Dôme for the first summit finish of next year’s Tour. Tackled a total of 13 times to date, the last in 1988,its summit 1,465 metres above sea level, the Puy de Dôme was also where Eddy Merckx was punched by a spectator in 1975, an incident said to contribute to his failure to win that year’s Tour. We’ll hope for much better behaviour as the peloton passes this time. A solo breakaway or a bunch finish, a legend or a journeyman, your choice.
19)The 2022 Women’s Final between Rybakina and Jabeur was the second in a row to make it to a third set but it was only the seventh three set Final this century. In the 2010’s, the second and final set twice saw a 6-0 score line, a bagel in tennis slang. So the Final is frequently disappointingly one sided; one player turns up nervous or drained after six matches in the previous ten days. There’s hardly time for a second bowl of strawberries and a Prosecco. Let’s hope for a cracking Final in 2023.
20)2002 and the victory of Leighton Hewitt was the last time Wimbledon was won by a player outside what became known as the Big Four of Fed, Djok, Raf and Andy. Since Andy’s first win in 2012, the winners have always been former champions with Djokovic winning the last four contested. Some more obscure names, like Cilic, Raonic and Anderson have contested the final but all have fallen short on the big day. So what’s different in 2023?Fed has retired, Raf has multiple injury concerns, Andy is an inspiration on a metal hip but hardly a Week Two contender. So that leaves Djokovic looking for a fifth successive triumph, surrounding by dazzling talented players in their twenties and one, Carlos Alcatraz, who will only turn twenty on the eve of the tournament. Carlos, currently ranked Number One, could be the real deal we have all been waiting for with the skills and temperament to put the disagreeable Serb back in his box.
21)The first T20 Blast was back in the Stone Ages or 2003 to be precise, but in the supposedly fuddy duddy world of English cricket, it feels an eternity, a dinosaur in the world of the Hundred and its eight franchises. TheT20 Blast is no longer be the end of term party in September; it’s been moved back to July. Still, all eighteen counties will set off feeling they can win; after all, there have been 13 separate winners of the 20 tournaments. Hampshire are the holders, Leicestershire the only team to win three times. But for those looking for history, the five teams looking for a first win are Derbyshire, Durham, Glamorgan and Yorkshire. Five you said-what a world of Quiz HQ tears in writing Gloucestershire!
22) As with all the golf events of 2023,the big backstory will be the titanic struggle between the established American and European Tours and LIV golf, backed by the Saudis and their billions in oil money; the prize is the future control of world golf. The LIV stars will be there as they were at St Andrews in 2022 where the winner was an Australian, Cameron Smith, an OTHER in terms of this question. It was though an open secret that Cameron had signed for LIV for millions of dollars. We had thought fading stars like Lee Westwood would be LIV’s main competitors, but Cameron was a rising star and about to become World Number One. In the last ten years, there have been four American winners and four European champions. Cameron was only the second OTHER.
23)There will be 13 events in the 2023 World Diving Championships, which finally arrive in Japan after a two year Covid delay, five events for men, five for women and three mixed. The divers will be jumping off 1 and 3 metre springboards and a 10 metre high platform. Don’t fancy trying my belly flop off that.
In 2022 all thirteen golds were won by Chinese divers, surely an unprecedented domination of a truly world sport by one nation. Britain however came second in the medal table with three silver and three bronzes.
Do you think the British divers can match or even surpass that total? Are you worried about the reliance on Jack Laugher who was involved with three of the medals? Perhaps Tom Daley will take time off his numerous good causes to aid the British efforts. Perhaps the hugely talented and splendidly named 18 year old Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix can make further progress after her Commonwealth and European triumphs.
24)Despite numerous embarrassing defeats on tour in Australia, England’s home Ashes record remains good over the past 20 years. All five contests in England from 2005 have seen the home side secure either two or three Test victories on each occasion. While Australia remain favourites to retain the urn, England’s performances in 2022 under new captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendan McCullum were impressive and it could make for a thrilling series. The weather might always have an impact of course, but England’s attacking brand of cricket reduces the prospect of draws these days. This could easily be 3-2 either way. YOUR GUIDE NEIL SOUTHWOOD
25/30)There have been eight World Cups in women’s football. The United States have won four, including the last two. Germany have won two, Japan and Norway one each. Intriguingly, the competition is in the Southern Hemisphere for the first time, jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand. For the first time, there will be 32 teams competing, reflecting the rapid development of the Women’s game.
England’s best performance was third but after watching the Lionesses’ European triumph, highlight of an unbeaten 2022 run, home fans will be hoping for even better in Q30 and are second favourites behind the Americans. England are drawn in Group D; their known opponents are China and Denmark with a fourth, probably a minnow, still to be decided. England are top seeds, ranked 4th in the world, China 15th and Denmark 18th so no pushovers when in Q25 you try calculate the group results.
26)Students of form for this question will look to the 2022 Commonwealth Games tournament in Birmingham where twelve teams competed. All twelve will return for the Cape Town tournament in August plus four who did not make it to Brum. The Commonwealth semi finalists were England, New Zealand, Jamaica and Australia. The early cat among the pigeons had been Australia’s defeat by Jamaica in the group stages. Australia was not daunted, beat England comfortably in the semis and took revenge in the Final against Jamaica. The demoralized hosts England were beaten by New Zealand in the bronze medal match. I’d expect these four to be in the medals again but perhaps with the African venue, South Africa and Uganda might be dangerous dark horses.
27)We’ll Tak’ the High Road 2023 will be the first time that the new unified Cycling World Championships will be held. That means that Mountain, Road, Track and BMX racing, together with their para equivalents, will all be in one place at one time. This will be Scotland in August. Most of the racing will centre on Glasgow but the mountain bikers will tackle the tracks in Fort William’s Nevis Range, and current road race champions – Remco Evanpoel, Van Vlueten – and company will race across the roads of Scotland, focussing on the stunning Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. Competitors will be racing for the glory of world champion and the right to wear the iconic rainbow jersey in all their races for the next year.
To celebrate the arrival on these shores of this illustrious event, two questions are planned for the 2023 quiz: the nationality of the winner of the World Championship Men’s Elite Road Race; and a question based on mayhem in the velodrome. For quizzers not acquainted with the world of pro-cycling, the men’s Elite Road Race is the blue ribbon event of the championships. The above mentioned Remco will be defending his crown and like the superhuman Wout Van Aert is Belgian. Remco is one of pro-cycling’s megastars and holder of the Maillot Rojo of the Vuelta A España. But the winner could come from a host of countries. The winner of this year’s Maillot Jaune in the Tour de France was Jonas Vingegaard – Danish. This year cycling’s other Grand Tour (Italy’s Maglia Rosa) champion was Jai Hindley – Australian. Slovenia has two other megastars in Tadej Pogačar and Primož Roglič. But don’t rule out wily old foxes like Peter Sagan (Slovakian) or even Mark Cavendish (British)
YOUR GUIDE TONY ROGERS
28)The world has caught up with the all conquering British cyclists from Beijing and London so I have chosen four events, two omnium and two Madisons where the British made a recent advance. The rules are below; mayhem is assured. Laura Kenny won the Madison at the 2016 Olympics, the Omnium in 2021.Ethan Hayter won the World Omnium, 2022.Home crowd yelling might just give British cyclists the edge.
The omnium, which debuted at the Olympics in 2012, is an event consisting of four races that take place on the same day: the scratch race, the tempo race, the elimination race and the points race. For the first three races, riders earn 40 points for a win, 38 for second and 36 for third and on down a descending scale.
In the final 80-lap points race, points are awarded for a sprint every 10 laps, including double points for the last sprint. Cyclists also gain and lose points by lapping the field or getting lapped.
The Madison is a race where each team aims to complete more laps than any of the other teams. Riders in each team take turns during the race, handing over to another team member, resting, and then returning to the race. Teams are usually of two riders but occasionally of three. Only one rider of the team is racing at any time, and the replacement rider has to be touched before taking over. The touch can also be a push, often on the shorts, or one rider hurling the other into the race by a hand-sling.
How long each rider stays in the race is for the members of each team to decide. Originally, riders took stints of a couple of hours or more and the resting rider went off for a sleep or a meal. That was easier in earlier times because hours could pass without riders attempting to speed away from the others. As races became more intensive, both riders from a team began riding on the track at the same time, one going fast on the short line around the bottom of the track and the other idling higher up until that rider’s turn to take over.
29) What’s this, Quiz HQ setting a Hundred Question? The Quiz CEO and his chief reporter have been wandering round for three years wearing anti Hundred T shirts; they refused to watch, listen to or read about any Hundred match. If you quizzed them, these cricket anoraks could not tell who played for which team. It’s a format whose main selling point is to give you 16% less cricket than the County T20 tournament and to open a dangerous door to multi national franchises. I loathe it still but some at least is on terrestrial TV and many of you quizzers watched it. So I have set you a 50-50 question on the Women’s Final and one thing that even Old Grumpy Sned cannot deny; the Hundred did a lot to raise the profile of Women’s cricket. The statistics show that the side batting second won 63%.Sadly the captain who won the 2022 toss ignored these statistics and chose to bat first. Her team lost.
31,32)The 2022 World Athletics had been postponed a year because of Covid and so virtually clashed with the Commonwealth Games. The venue was Oregon on the USA’s West Coast so with an eight hour time gap, the Championships had a low public profile in Britain and perhaps among athletes who hoped for triumph in Birmingham. With Budapest the 2023 venue only one hour ahead of London, the British stars will surely be competing in front of a huge home TV audience.
In 2022 the GB team won seven medals(Q31), one of them gold in the Blue Riband 1500 metres. To put that into perspective the 49 Gold Medals were shared between 29 nations. World Athletics medals are harder than ever to win. In the five track relays(Q32),GB won bronzes in the 4×100 metres for men, the 4×400 metres for women. Again more and more nations can field a competitive quartet.
33)The sole British athlete in the heptathlon, Katerina Johnson Thompson finished 8th, never in the hunt for a medal and 700 points behind her personal best. It proved a good workout though for an athlete who’d suffered multiple injuries and she went on to win Commonwealth Gold two weeks later. We’ll hope KJT can be injury free in Budapest. She’ll face Belgium’s Thiam who won in 2022 with 6947 points, behind KJT’s winning total in 2019,behind Jessica Ennis’ London total. Your question will the winner’s total be more than 6,900 points? If it is, this will among the top twelve Heptathlon scores of all time.
34)The British Speedway GP comes back to the Cardiff Arms Park, far from its heartlands on the big Polish tracks, The current world champion is Polish. There will be fifteen riders plus a wild card from the host country plus two reserves who race if any rider is excluded from the race prior to the tapes going up. Exclusions are usually for touching the tapes, jumping the gun so to speak.
There are 20 races with 4 riders in each race. At the end of the 20 races every rider will have raced each other. The eight riders with the most points go through to the semifinals, the fastest riders from the semifinals go through to the final! You’ll probably see that just over half the field come from the European Union which sadly for an unrepentant Remoaner does NOT include any home riders like the 2022 British winner. YOUR GUIDE MAGGIE HEGINBOTHOM
35/36)The Solheim Cup in 2021 saw Europe’s second win on US soil as they retained the trophy in Ohio. Europe made a strong start on the first morning foursomes and held on as the US clawed their way back into the match. The last day singles, a traditional European weak spot, were split and Europe held onto the Cup which they will defend in Andalusia in September. Three in a row?
The team is twelve players; five matches are the most anybody can play though most are rested for at least one match on the first two days. The Irish golfer Leona Maguire had no such rest and won four and drew her fifth match. Leona was the only undefeated golfer on either side. It’s difficult but Leona showed it can be done. And YES will still count even if a player plays only one of the five matches.
37)The 2021 Ryder Cup was a bleak weekend for European golf as the youngest ever American side won by 19-9.This was the largest margin of victory since 1967 and the largest ever since Continental Europe joined forces with Britain in 1979.Because so many of the American golfers were in their twenties and making their Ryder Cup debut, it seemed to set a pattern for the next decade. Perhaps though things will be different in Rome if Europe can make a good start. Five of the 2021 European team have taken the Saudi bribe and joined in the LIV tour but four of those are in their forties and may not have made the team. The USA have lost only two of the 2021 team but this includes Dustin Johnson who won all five of his matches.
Who knows? Rory on inspirational form, a roaring Italian crowd, some early momentum. Whatever, we shall surely not see such a woebegone European performance again.
38)20 horses in the 2022 Arc de Triomphe and only seven were trained in France. Five were from England, three each from Japan and Ireland and two from Germany. This is truly an international championship every year in a way we really see on English turf and unlike the Derby open to any age horse, either sex. The 2022 race was won by Alpinista, trained at Newmarket by legendary OAP, Sir Mark Prescott, more often associated with betting coups in Pontefract handicaps. The French will be desperate to repel the 2023 invaders.
40)The Grand Final has been Rugby League’s way of deciding its champions since 1998.At the end of the league season, the top eight go into a series of play-offs. I watched a documentary on quantum physics last week. It was easier to understand than the play-off system. The end result is that only four teams, Leeds, Wigan, St Helens and Bradford have won a Grand Final in those twenty five years. St Helens are the reigning champions with three wins in a row, perhaps the best RL club side ever.
42) The World Series of Baseball is decided by the best of seven games between the champions of the American League and the National League. Nineteen of the thirty major league baseball teams play their home games east of the Mississippi, reflecting the game’s origins in the rust bucket states. If you vote west, the two riverbank sides, St Louis and Minnesota, are on your side-by less than a mile. West v East in the 2022 World Series with Philadelphia taking on the Houston Astros with victory going to the Texans.
43)Las Vegas holds its first ever F1 Grand Prix and there will be a huge crowd of British tifosi cheering along the Strip before trying their luck at the roulette wheel.
If only the roulette was as easy as this questions seems. Only three teams, Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari, and five drivers, Verstappen, Sainz, Perez, Leclerc and Russell won during the 2022 season. Max Verstappen has won a record overcoming grid penalties, punctures and disastrous pit stops which demonstrated his skill and the overwhelming superiority of his Red Bull car. Who will dare to bet against Verstappen in Las Vegas, though recently Verstappen has courted controversy? You’ll see no mention here of Hamilton. Lewis never had a competitive car in the first half though Mercedes has improved in recent races and finally won in Brazil. Surely the Mercedes 2023 car will put Lewis closer to the pace. And of course a street circuit may see mayhem and a chance for the lesser teams to shine.
44)The answer in 2022 would be Arsenal and few quizzers would have put that as their answer back in January. Many will still put Man City as their 2023 answer; many too will think Klopp can sort out whatever is ailing Liverpool this season. Perhaps Ten Hag is finally on track at Old Trafford, now he has rid himself of the albatross Ronaldo. Perhaps you will hold your nose at the stench of Saudi money and write Newcastle. London might just provide a different answer with Spurs or Chelsea. Any other answer would be inconceivable but then us Princess Bride fans and all champion quizzers know, that word’s hard to define.
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