Round 1
Question 1
What was the name of the famous horse relay postal service that operated for 18 months in the US in the 1860s?
1 point
Question 2
Apart from 1, what is the only number under 100 that is both a square number and a cube number?
1 point
Question 3
Throughout March, CEOs of US fast food companies have been posting videos of themselves taking large bites out of what type of food, mocking one particular CEO who had posted a video of him eating his company’s latest product, only to then take a small bite?
*McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski’s tentative bite of the Big Arch burger has led to videos from bosses at brands such as Burger King, Wendy’s, and A&W.
1 point
Question 4
Which UK charity launched The Unloved Birds Club in 2025 in which, in return for a monthly donation, members receive a monthly fact file on one of the ‘overlooked underdogs of the bird world’?
1 point
Question 5
In the early 20th century both the University of Wisconsin – Madison and University of Illinois had honours student groups with the same name, but not affiliated with, which national white supremacist group – leading to later confusion when the white supremacist group grew in influence and several of the students found fame, including some who used their voices to publicly condemn prejudice?
*Amongst those in the non-supremacist Wisconsin KKK was double Oscar winner Fredric March who, despite being a vocal supporter of civil rights, was subject to having his name removed from the university’s theatre in 2018. Whilst the non-supremacist KKK student groups were not directly connected to national group – with one ultimately becoming described as little more than a bridge club – there remain questions as to how and why their names were chosen and allowed to remain.
1 point
Question 6
The polish drama series Dekalog, directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski and often cited as one of the great television series, consists of stories based around what religious directives?
1 point
Question 7
What are the two main ingredients of the dish known as Welsh rarebit, which are given additional flavour by adding the likes of Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and ale?
Toast (bread)
2 points
Question 8
Which two actors won the Best Actor and Best Actress awards respectively at the 98th Academy Awards, held in Los Angeles on March 15 – neither of whom starred in Best Picture winner One Battle After Another?
Jessie Buckley
2 points
Question 9
According to a Quarter 4 2025 survey conducted by polling company YouGuv that asked participants whether they recognised a dish and then whether they liked it, what are the five most popular ‘British’ dishes with adults living in the UK?
Chips
English breakfast
Bangers and mash
Fish and chips
5 points
Question 10
Make the longest word possible from the following letters: ADHMNOOOW
Up to 9 points
(*length of word equates to points awarded)
Round 1 points
(Maximum: 24)
Round 2
Question 1
The UK telethon Comic Relief held its 40th anniversary edition on Friday March 20, having been started in 1986 by comedian Lenny Henry and scriptwriter Richard Curtis in response to a famine in what country?
*The funds raised by Comic Relief have dropped from over £100m in the early 2010s to around £35m now, while the event’s audience figures have fallen from 10m to 3m in the same period. Reasons generally given for the decline include austerity, Labour MP David Lammy publicly complaining on multiple occasions that the charity promoted ‘white saviours’, and that the comedians once connected to the show have been replaced by TV presenters and personalities attempting comedy.
1 point
Question 2
As well as appearing in multiple Star Wars films, the UNESCO heritage site Wadi Rum in Jordan has doubled as the surface of what planet in film shoots?
1 point
Question 3
Initially in British law, but now used in other countries, the M’Naghten rules are an evaluation test to decide what about a defendant before a trial, with a defendant’s failure of the test being a possible legal defence?
*In 1843, Daniel M’Naghten killed a man, thinking it was British Prime Minister Robert Peel. He was acquitted after his defence pleaded M’Naghten was insane, leading to the establishment of new legal rules, with the burden of proof being on the defence to show the defendant is not of sound mind. The M’Naghten rules are different from the automatism defence, which argues the defendant did not know what they were doing.
1 point
Question 4
What type of animal was Anmer who, on June 4, 1913, became a central figure in a news story connected to the UK suffragette movement?
*Anmer was a horse owned by King George V that was running in the Epsom Derby and collided with suffragette Emily Davison, killing her. For many years it was thought Davison’s intention that day had been to throw herself under the horse in protest, but in 1997 a ‘Votes for Women’ scarf she had been carrying at the course – and which had been picked up by the course clerk after the collision – resurfaced, and together with footage of her reaching for the horse’s reins the thinking now is that she had hoped to attach the scarf to the horse as it was running. The scarf is now kept at the House of Commons in London.
1 point
Question 5
Being particularly strong historically in fencing, swimming, canoeing, and wrestling, which European country has won more Olympic medals than any other nation that has never hosted a summer of winter Olympics?
1 point
Question 6
What word completes the title of the new album by multiple Brit Award-winning artist RAYE, due to be released on March 27: This Music May Contain ___?
1 point
Question 7
Which two nations, who were recently involved in an international incident, faced each other in the final of the World Baseball Classic on March 18?
*Venezuela won the game 3-2.
USA
2 points
Question 8
Originally due to take place in April, Formula 1, Formula 2, and Formula 3 races scheduled in which two Gulf nations have been cancelled for 2026 because of the war in the Middle East?
*The F1 calendar is also due to visit Qatar and Abu Dhabi in November and December, but no decision has been made on those races as yet. Azerbaijan, to Iran’s north, is due to hold a race in September.
Saudi Arabia
2 points
Question 9
March 22 was International Seal Day. With the scientific names Odobenidae, Otariidae, and Phocidae, what are the three families of animals in the pinniped, or seal, order?
Eared seals (sealions and furred seals)
True seals (seals)
3 points
Question 10
Since January 22, 2025, men’s football club Paris Saint-Germain has played 11 UEFA Champions League matches against which seven teams from the English Premier League – every English team that has qualified in the last two years – racking up a combined score of 27-14 and directly knocking four of them out of the competition?
*On January 22, 2025, facing elimination in the Champions League league stage, PSG were 2-0 down to Manchester City in the second half before scoring four times and keeping themselves in the competition, which they subsequently won by taking out Liverpool, Aston Villa, and Arsenal in successive rounds. In this year’s tournament they played Tottenham and Newcastle in the league stage (one win, one draw), before beating Chelsea 8-2 across two games in the knockout, setting up another match against Liverpool to be played in April.
Liverpool
Aston Villa
Arsenal
Tottenham Hotspur
Newcastle United
Chelsea
7 points
Round 2 points
(Maximum: 20)
Total points
(Maximum: 44)
Round 3
Question 1
Named for a mythological Greek creature that combines a serpent, lion, and goat, what is the name given to an organism that contains different genotypes derived from more than one zygote, or multiple types of DNA within one body – a rare condition in humans that can be caused by a twin pregnancy merging into one child, transplants of bone marrow, or blood transfusions?
1 point
Question 2
In 1962, the singer Little Eva had a US No. 1 hit with the song The Loco-Motion, written by husband-and-wife team Carole King and Gerry Goffin. What non-musical job did Little Eva have that first brought her in contact with King and Goffin?
*King and Goffin also gave Little Eva a follow-up single the same year, Keep Your Hands Off My Baby, which reached number 12, while their song He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss) was written after finding out Little Eva’s boyfriend beat her, which she excused as a sign of his love. Kylie Minogue had a global hit with The Locomotion in 1988.
1 point
Question 3
Which Arctic archipelago is the site of both the Arctic World Archive and the Global Seed Vault, two projects aiming to preserve modern resources for future generations?
*The Arctic World Archive puts digital information onto a film developed by private company Piql, while currently over 1.3m seed are kept in the seed vault. Digital information is harder to maintain than many believe: some nations lack digital infrastructure, and a 2024 Pew Research Center study found 38% of webpages between 2013 and 2023 simply no longer exist.With the facilities established in an abandoned coal mine and a vault built into a mountain, it is hoped that the cool, seismically inactive conditions of Svalbard will help maintain the contents longer than other areas on Earth.
1 point
Question 4
Discovered in 2016, the exoplanet WASP-127b was confirmed in 2025 to have what type of extreme weather?
*Slightly larger than Jupiter, WASP-127 has wind speeds of roughly 33000km/h, far above the the fastest wind recorded in the solar system, 1800km/h on Neptune.
1 point
Question 5
On March 19 an Ohio sheriff’s office lost a defamation case to US rapper Afroman relating to comedic songs the rapper had released in response to a 2022 police raid on his house, including ‘Will You Help Me Repair My Door’ and ‘Why You Disconnecting My Video Camera’. With nearly 5m views on YouTube, and sung to the tune of ‘Under the Boardwalk’, a further song released about the incident relates to his home security camera capturing one deputy admiring what flavour of cake that the rapper’s mother had made which was sitting on the kitchen counter during the raid?
*Although elements of some of Afroman’s songs were highly derogatory about those who took part in the raid – which found no criminal evidence of alleged drug trafficking and kidnap – the trial caught attention for its surreal moments. These ncluded Afroman dressed in a suit made of US flags, which led to his lawyer arguing that clearly the rapper is not a serious man; the defense calling the sheriff’s deputy’s ex-wife, a teacher, as a witness to ask whether she and her students took the words of the sexually explicit Cardi B rap song WAP literally; the deputy seen eyeing up Afroman’s mother’s cake saying he had been sent hundreds of lemon pound cakes after the video was released; and a sergeant having to answer questions on whether he was literally ‘a son of a bitch’.
1 point
Question 6
What type of jewellery was at the heart of a scandal in France in 1785 that helped solidify pre-French Revolution public disgust at queen Marie Antoinette, despite events around the affair not involving her but rather forged letters in her name and a prostitute hired to pretend to be her?
*The Affair of the Diamond Necklace involved the mistress of a church cardinal using forged letters and a prostitute to make the cardinal believe he was having a relationship with Marie Antoinette, and thus persuade him to buy a necklace that had initially been made for a mistress of Marie Antoinette’s father-in-law, Louis XV. This he did, which the mistress, Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy, was then asked to hand to the queen, only for her to instead give it to her husband who dismantled it and sold the diamonds. Despite Marie Antoinette having no part in the plot, many in France believed she had set up the affair due to her open dislike of the cardinal, which she then re-expressed after he was found not guilty of the plot. Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy was whipped and sentenced to life in prison, but escaped to London, where she died falling out of a window while trying to hide from debt collectors.
1 point
Question 7
What two words complete this quote generally attributed to the US artist Jean-Michel Basquiat: ‘____ is how we decorate space; ____ is how we decorate time.’
Music
2 points
Question 8
What are the three largest cities in Portugal by population, two of which sit on opposite sides of the Douro river?
Porto
Villa Nova de Gaia
3 points
Question 9
Not including the as-yet-unreleased Garfield sequel, what five multi-film franchises have featured Chris Pratt as a leading actor? Of the films, all released since 2014 and which have grossed over $14 billion, two of the franchises are crossovers in which Pratt played the same character, and two are animations.
*Prior to landing his breakout role in the sitcom Parks and Recreation in 2009, Pratt was a jobbing actor whose primary recurring role had been a main character’s brother in the drama Everwood. However, after playing affable idiot Andy Dwyer in Parks and Recreation he was swiftly elevated to ‘A-list’ comedy and action lead man roles, featuring in The Lego Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Jurassic World all within a year of each other.
Guardians of the Galaxy
Jurassic World
Avengers
Super Mario
5 points
Question 10
In 2023 recycling campaign group Recycle Your Electricals conducted a survey of British adults to find out what ‘fadtech’ for their kitchen they had bought and now never use. What five items – four electrical, and one for serving – were named as the items most likely to still be in the house but no longer being used?
*The survey led to an estimate that there are currently 18.2 million kitchen electrical items sitting unused in British kitchens. It is also estimated that British houses are holding on to 6.5 million kettles, 3.6 million toasters, 3.4 million microwaves, and 2.4 million blenders that are either spare or broken.
Chocolate fountain
Hostess trolley
Popcorn machine
Bread maker
5 points
Round 3 points
(Maximum: 21)
Total points
(Maximum: 65)
Round 4
Question 1
The name of what type of insect comes from the Ancient Greek word for prophet?
1 point
Question 2
What number completes the title of the pioneering YouTube series that between 2006 and 2008 used a bored teenage girl’s video blog to slowly reveal a story about her parents being part of a blood harvesting cult: Lonelygirl___?
*Lonelygirl15 was found to be fiction when users tracked the IP address of its ‘star’, Bree Avery, to a Los Angeles creative company. Despite this, it became the most subscribed YouTube channel of its time.
1 point
Question 3
Originally made from kimono offcuts in around the 8th century, temari are elaborately decorated versions of what type of simple toy?
*Temari were used for juggling, then to play kemari, a game similar to hacky-sack, but have since because a highly decorative craft particularly associated with the town of Matsumoto.
1 point
Question 4
Generally on display with the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, the crown used to crown British monarchs is named for which 11th century English king?
1 point
Question 5
Debunked in the 19th-century, what was the name of the long-held theory that said that life could appear from non-living objects, with examples including the beliefs that fleas formed out of dust and raw flesh turned into maggots?
1 point
Question 6
In Norse mythology, Hrungnir, Thrym, Hymir, and Geirröðr are all examples of what type of being, sometimes also labelled trolls or giants – although these synonyms are often dismissed, as trolls are different beings and not all of these beings were large?
1 point
Question 7
Described in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which two Greek gods had a musical contest, judged by mountain god Tmolus?
Marsyas
2 points
Question 8
The so-called ‘Censored Eleven’ are eleven cartoons released by Warner Brothers that have since been pulled from syndication due to their offensive racial stereotypes. Under which two long-running animation brands, more famous for characters such as Wile E. Coyote, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Bugs Bunny, were the cartoons released?
Looney Tunes
2 points
Question 9
What are the arba’at ha-minim, or ‘four species’, that are the four plants used in a mitzvah shaking ceremony during the Jewish Sukkot festival?
Lulav (date palm)
Hadass (myrtle)
Aravah (willow)
4 points
Question 10
Although the clavicle is generally accepted to be the most fractured or broken bone in the human body, a 2019 study published in The Annals of The Royal College of Surgeons of England found that across a ten year period in England the five most common bone fractures that required hospital admission – that is, not simply outpatient care – were what?
*The data taken from 2004 to 2014 found large changes depending on the age of the patients: children under 14 were far more likely to be admitted with a fractured wrist than anything else, followed by a fractured elbow; 15-59 year olds were more likely to require hospitalisation for fractures to ankles, hands, and wrists; while admission for a fractured hip soared for over 60s, followed by the wrist and ankle.
Distal radius (wrist)
Ankle
Hand
Distal humerus (elbow)
5 points
Round 4 points
(Maximum: 19)
Total points
(Maximum: 84)
Round 5
In Round 5, there is only one answer. The less 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.
What number relates to all of the following?
Clue 1
The number depicted in Chinese hand gestures by closing the palm but with the thumb and pinkie extended, resembling bull horns
10 points
Clue 2
The number of paramitas, or perfections, in Mahāyāna Buddhism
9 points
Clue 3
The month of the year in which France holds its Fête de la Musique, which has now become ‘Music Day’ or ‘Make Music Day’ in many other countries
8 points
Clue 4
The atomic number of carbon
7 points
Clue 5
The number worn by captain Bobby Moore when England won the football World Cup in 1966
6 points
Clue 6
The number of fouls committed at which a player ‘fouls out’ and must leave the court in an NBA basketball game
5 points
Clue 7
The number that completes the title of a Marvel comic and subsequent loose film adaptation: Big Hero ___
4 points
Clue 8
The number of degrees of separation in a comedic theory that emphasises how closely everyone on Earth is connected
3 points
Clue 9
The number of flags referenced in the name of a US theme park company, which took its name from the number of nations that have governed Texas
2 points
Clue 10
The stage musical named for the number of wives had by English king Henry VIII
1 point
Round 5 points
(Maximum: 10)
Total points
(Maximum: 94)
