Round 1
Question 1
Which basketball team won its first NBA championship since 1973 on Saturday, overcoming the San Antonio Spurs 4-1 in the finals despite every game in the series seeing them trail by double digits and trail in the fourth quarter?
*In its four wins, the Knicks trailed by 14, 12, 29, and 16, and cumulatively outscored the Spurs 111-82 in the 4th quarters of those four games. The 29-point comeback in Game 4 was the largest ever in an NBA Finals game.
1 point
Question 2
Only re-established as an independent team in 2011, and the smallest nation to ever appear at the tournament, which team at the 2026 football World Cup is nicknamed The Blue Wave?
*Curaçao was part of the Netherlands Antilles team from 1954 to 2010. The island has utilised its status as part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands: of the 26 players in itsWorld Cup squad, only Tahith Chong was born on the island rather than in the Netherlands. Curaçao’s first ever World Cup game was on Sunday against four-time winners Germany and ended with a 7-1 defeat.
1 point
Question 3
Prior to the start of the 2026 football World Cup, referee Omar Artan was refused entry to the US, with American authorities saying he had ‘association with suspected members of terror organisations’. Named Africa’s referee of the year in 2025, from what country is Omar Artan?
*Artan told the New York Times he was questioned for 11 hours at Miami Airport, with authorities suggesting he was linked to the Al-Shabab terrorist group.
1 point
Question 4
Larger than that used in many nations, passport photographs in the US should be a square measuring how many inches on each side – the equivalent of 51mm?
*Most countries, including the European nations of UK, France, and Germany, use passport photos that are 35mm by 45mm. China uses a 33mm by 48mm photograph. Canada is an example of needing a larger photograph, asking for 50mm by 70mm.
1 point
Question 5
Despite already passing congressional screening for the 2027 Sabon Gari House of Representatives election race in Nigeria, Mahmud Sadis Buba withdrew from the contest in May after evidence was presented casting doubts on his claimed background of being a 25-year old with dwarfism. What claims have been made against Buba?
*Buba does have dwarfism, but despite his inspirational story going viral online many were sceptical about his youthful appearance and speech patterns. After documents began to circulate that showed he was still a child – and did not meet the minimum age to run of 25 – he withdrew. He released a written statement saying that he had made the difficult decision after ‘long consultations with my family, political associates, and stakeholders within our great party’ and was withdrawing so people could stand ‘firmly behind a single candidate’.
1 point
Question 6
Crayon company Crayola divides its colours into eight ‘hue families’: blue, orange, yellow, green, red, purple, neutral, and brown. In which family are the colours ‘macaroni and cheese’ and ‘mango tango’?
1 point
Question 7
In the Bible, as described in Genesis Chapter 4, what were the professions of Cain and Abel?
Shepherd
2 points
Question 8
Also appearing on the state’s car licence plates, what two condiment-making foods does a person get in New Mexico if they have a dish ‘with Christmas’?
Green chilli pepper
2 points
Question 9
Who are considered the ‘big three’ philosophers of Ancient Greece, one of whom taught the next, who in turn taught the next?
*Continuing the line of renowned figures, Aristotle taught Alexander the Great.
Plato
Aristotle
3 points
Question 10
Make the longest word possible from the following letters: ADDEGNORW
Up to 9 points
(*length of word equates to points awarded)
Round 1 points
(Maximum: 22)
Round 2
Question 1
What guide was first published in France in 1900 in an effort to encourage more people to drive cars, although its most famous, and non-driving, rating system only began in 1926?
*Tyremakers Édouard and André Michelin initially hoped that the guidebooks would encourage more French drivers and longer car journeys, thus boosting the need for tyre renewal.
1 point
Question 2
Which planet of the solar system spins the fastest if counted by speed of movement – rather than time required to complete a rotation – with its rotation calculated at 45583 km/hour, far beyond the 1574 km/hour at which Earth spins?
*Earth is by far the fastest spinning of the interior rocky planets, with Mercury at under 11km/hour and Venus at only 6km/hour. All of the gas giants rotate at thousands of kilometres per hour.
1 point
Question 3
US President Donald Trump has planned to put himself on a commemorative $250 note and coin to celebrate the US’s 250th anniversary. To some local amusement, what slang meaning does ‘er bai wu’, or 250, have in Chinese?
*Several stories of how the term 250 came to mean idiot in Chinese exist. One is that old Chinese money was counted in diaos, or thousands, leading administrators to self-deprecate by calling themselves ‘ban diaozi’, or half a thousand, from which the slang 250 implied half of a half diaozi. Folk tales also exist, such as an emperor stating that the killer of a man named Su Qin would receive 1000 coins, and when four men admitted to the crime the emperor ordered the execution of the 250s. Another comes from the fact that 250 is spoken as ‘two hundred five’ (whereas 205 is ‘two hundred zero five)’, leading a village idiot to misunderstand a fine of 250 coins and instead pay 107, having taken the literal meaning of two, hundred, and five.
1 point
Question 4
Fought on June 26, 1794, the Battle of Fleurus saw the French army defeat the joint forces of the Habsburg Monarchy and Dutch Republic, partly thanks to the first known use of what device for military aerial observation?
*The French tethered the balloon to the top of the highest hill in the area and had two men in its basket who would then relay notes about battle positions down the rope. Colonel Jean-de-Dieu Soult was not a fan of his side’s innovation, later writing it was a ‘ridiculous innovation’ and ‘embarrassing’, and that its uselessness resulted in both sides simply ignoring it.
1 point
Question 5
The Percy Bysshe Shelley poem Ozymandias, which includes the famous lines ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings / Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’, refers to which Egyptian pharaoh?
*Ramesses II was called Ozymandias in Ancient Greece, derived from his prenomen, or throne name, ‘Userma’atra’ (The Truth of Ra is Powerful).
1 point
Question 6
UNAVEM I, UNAVEM II, and UNAVEM III, which ran successively from 1989 to 1997, were United Nations missions in which African nation’s civil war contested between forces known as UNITA and MLPA?
*UNAVEM stood for United Nations Angolan Verification Mission. The opposing sides in the Angolan Civil War, fought immediately after the country gained independence from Portugal, were the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola and Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, both of whom were treated as proxies in the Cold War.
1 point
Question 7
What two species of tree from the cypress subfamily Sequoioideae are respectively the tallest tree in the world and the largest tree by mass in the world?
Giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum)
2 points
Question 8
First sold in the 1980s, the Penguin Race toy – later copied as Penguin Run, Penguin Go Racer, Arctic Penguin Race, and various other names – comprises of what three parts?
*The toy saw the penguins continuously do a loop in which they climbed the stairs and then slid down the slide. The toy also played music, and later versions had lights in the stairs.
Slide
Electronic staircase
3 points
Question 9
In the 1965 song Yesterday, by British pop group The Beatles, what are the four words used to rhyme with the word ‘yesterday’?
*The lyrics of the song’s opening verse are ‘Yesterday/All my troubles seemed so far away/Now it looks like they’re here to stay/Oh, I believe in yesterday’, and the song’s bridge runs ‘Why she had to go/I don’t know, she wouldn’t say/I said something wrong/Now I long for yesterday’. The word play is used twice in lines that go ‘Love was such an easy game to play’.
Stay
Say
Play
4 points
Question 10
Possibly the oldest active international organisation in the world, having been founded in 1815, the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine consists of which five nations?
Netherlands
Belgium
France
Switzerland
5 points
Round 2 points
(Maximum: 20)
Total points
(Maximum: 42)
Round 3
Question 1
In baking, what does the tool known as a lame do?
1 point
Question 2
In 2023, 485 whale remain sites were found in the Diamantina Fracture Zone, 7km beneath the surface of the Indian Ocean, including remains of animals from three and five million years ago. What name is given to a sunk whale carcass due to the journey it takes to the bottom of the ocean?
*Across 32 dives, scientists found entire ecosystems based around the sites. Scientists believe the large amount of whale falls in the Diamantina Fracture Zone is because it lies on a migration route and is deep enough for deep diving species.
1 point
Question 3
Its country’s busiest airport, seeing over 45 million passengers a year, Pearson International Airport is situated in which city?
1 point
Question 4
What natural weather phenomenon is connected to the Aboriginal god Namarrkon as well as the brothers Yagjadbula and Jabaringi, sacred to the Wardaman Aboriginal people?
1 point
Question 5
Prior to the rise of the Roman Republic in the 4th century BC, the dominant civilization in what is now Italy was that of the Etruscans. What was the name of the territory that the Etruscans ruled and from which they got their name?
*Etruria covered modern day Tuscany, part of Umbria, and the Lazio region in northern Rome. The word Tuscany is derived from this era, as the Romans called the region Tuscia.
1 point
Question 6
Which Englishman married the famous Powhatan king’s daughter Pocahontas in 1614?
*Pocahontas would have been around 18 at the time of the marriage, and Rolfe about 29, with the marriage believed by some to have been an effort to ease relationships between the English settlers and native Powhatan. Pocahantas died three years later. Contrary to the 1995 Disney animation feature Pocahontas, there is no evidence of a romantic relationship between Pocahontas and settler John Smith, who would have met Pocahontas when she was about 11 – although she did frequently aid the colonists with food and was described by Smith as having pleaded for his life to be spared.
1 point
Question 7
Since the first World’s Fair – also known as Great Exhibition or World Expo -was held in 1851, London, Barcelona, Chicago, Milan, and Osaka have all been host city twice. What are the only two cities, both in Europe, to have been host more often – one having hosted six times, and the other four, although neither since 1958?
*Belgium became a recurring host between 1897 and 1935, hosting five out of 11 events. The 2025 event was Osaka’s second time hosting, and the next event, in 2030, will be in Riyadh.
Brussels
2 points
Question 8
What were the first and middle names of prominent US civil rights activist W.E.B Du Bois?
Edward
Burghardt
3 points
Question 9
The city of Passau in south-eastern Germany is also known as Dreiflüssestadt, or City of Three Rivers, because which three rivers meet at a single juncture in the city? The smallest of the rivers is entirely in Germany, having run through the Bavarian Forest; the second largest also passes through Austria and Switzerland; and the largest is one of Europe’s most famous rivers, on the banks of which four capital cities sit.
Inn
Danube
3 points
Question 10
During the Hundred Years War, which lasted from 1337 to 1453, both England and France saw five different monarchs on the throne. What six different regnal names were used by these ten monarchs – three used by the five English kings, and three by the five French kings?
*The war started when England’s Edward III declared himself heir to the throne of France due to his mother, Isabella, being the sister of the last French king of the Capetian dynasty. Edward was followed by Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI. France went through Philip VI, John II, Charles V, Charles VI, and Charles VII during the war.
Richard
Henry
Philip
John
Charles
6 points
Round 3 points
(Maximum: 20)
Total points
(Maximum: 62)
Round 4
Question 1
What three-word phrase, with the initialism POC, is uniquely used to describe how light reflects off an opal gemstone?
1 point
Question 2
On sale since 1957 and including models named XL1200X Forty-Eight and XL1200V Seventy-Two, what is the best selling line of motorcycles produced by American company Harley Davidson?
1 point
Question 3
Comprised of numerous swirls that look like eyes, bird’s eye is a pattern that primarily affects the wood of what type of tree, which has the genus name acer?
1 point
Question 4
Modelled on New York City’s Radio City Music Hall, once owner of the largest non-IMAX cinema screen in Europe, and site of an annual pre-Christmas children’s Disney animation screening preceded by an onstage water fountain and light show, what is the name of the major cinema and concert venue on Paris’s boulevard Poissonnière?
1 point
Question 5
Controversial neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks, who admitted that many of the case studies in his books were fabrications, wrote the bestseller Awakenings about his efforts to aid patients with what brain disease, an epidemic of which occurred in several nations between 1915 and 1930?
*Encephalitis lethargica is different from Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), which is also called sleeping sickness.
1 point
Question 6
By what derogatory nickname is the open-hearted Prince Myshkin referred in the title of a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, the book’s other characters apparently failing to believe a person can be intrinsically good?
1 point
Question 7
By what two names is the card game klondike more commonly known – albeit arguably incorrectly, as both names refer to the genre of games rather than the particular klondike version that has been included free on Microsoft Windows systems since 1990?
Patience
2 points
Question 8
What were the three orders of architecture defined by the Ancient Greeks?
Ionic
Corinthian
3 points
Question 9
Claiming to be ‘the original Patriot survival company’, My Patriot Supply is a supply store for preppers and survivalists which, amongst its products, sells a $4000 ‘MEGA one-year emergency food and protein supply’ kit for a family of four. Alongside powdered whey milk and an orange energy drink to replicate orange juice, what five pouch-based food items comprise the ‘ultimate breakfast kit’ within the survival kit?
*The broader kit also includes dehydrated meals such as macaroni and cheese, chicken alfredo, pasta marinara, and mashed potatoes, amongst others. The breakfast oatmeal advertises itself as being good for 25 years.
Buttermilk pancake mix
Freeze-dried strawberries
Creamy wheat (farina / porridge)
Scrambled egg mix
5 points
Question 10
Disney’s so-called ‘sinister cats’ franchise includes seven evil cats that have appeared in its animated feature films: Lucifer, Cheshire Cat, Si and Am, Shere Khan, Felicia, and Scar. In what six films did these cats appear?
Alice in Wonderland
Lady and the Tramp
The Jungle Book
The Great Mouse Detective
The Lion King
6 points
Round 4 points
(Maximum: 22)
Total points
(Maximum: 84)
Round 5
In Round 5, there is only one answer. The fewer clues you need to get it, the more points you receive. If you need only one clue, you receive 10 points; if you require two clues, you will receive 9 points, and so on.
However, you may only answer once. If you answer incorrectly, you receive zero points for the round.
The following are all studio albums by which band?
Clue 1
Jazz
10 points
Clue 2
Hot Space
9 points
Clue 3
Sheer Heart Attack
8 points
Clue 4
Made in Heaven
7 points
Clue 5
The Game
6 points
Clue 6
A Day at the Races
5 points
Clue 7
Flash Gordon
4 points
Clue 8
A Kind of Magic
3 points
Clue 9
A Night at the Opera
2 points
Clue 10
Queen
1 point