03 Mar Europe – S1 Week 5’s Round Up

Week 5’s Round Up – by Ewan McNaught

In Elite 1, the top three continue their relentless form, each picking up their fifth straight win of the campaign. Top of the table Warriors might purport to be Broken, but these rampaging Decepticons from Planet Quiz disposed of Danish Pastry 53-33, Norway’s Nerds of Steel overcame Switzerland Quizzers 46-28, and Ireland’s Ollie and Gracies Lonely Heartclub Band had their closest contest to date, only edging out Social Quiztancers 38-36 in the final Mystery Boxes. Viddr got back to winning ways with a 38-28 victory over Chiltern Wanderers, and Denmark Y picked up their second win on the trot to edge out Gallium 32-30. It’ll be fascinating to see what happens when the title-contesting triumvirate lock horns in the closing stretch, and next week’s Nerds of Steel v Broken Warriors contest already looks like Clash of the Titans (the one with Laurence Olivier and special effects by Ray Harryhausen rather than the rubbish remake with Sam Worthington).

On to Elite two, and in the top of the table clash North-South Divide overcame Paul Jam 44-43 in a pulsating thriller that went right down to the final Mystery Boxes. The Motley Crew kept the pressure on the top two with a 45-31 victory over the Pyromanians, and our Estonian friends Tiimi Nimi continued their superb form with a fourth win in a row, this time over Scotland’s Capercaillies. It’s not just a four-horse race though, as Northern Lights overpowered Denmark X 44-25, and Team North East finally hit form, racking up an impressive score in their 55-31 win over the Witless Protection Program. Elite 2 is packed with strong teams, and next week’s Timi Niimi v North-South Divide encounter looks like a cracker, as Frank Carson might have said.

In Civi Street, 3 points separate the top 5, with Pick and Mix and Quality of Mercians continuing to lead the way, triumphing over Zbroing! 747 (35-26) and Scratch (47-28) respectively, with QoM’s win over fellow title contenders being particularly impressive. The Mancunians kept themselves in the title race with a 33-27 win over Manos Castro, and the Dude Abides made up for last week’s narrow defeat to Pick and Mix by overcoming Universally Challenged 36-21. In the final match, The Bulgarian Rational Society maintained their good recent form with a 32-19 win over The North Remembers. Pick and Mix v The Mancunians looks like the pick of Week 6’s fixtures, but most teams will think they’re still in with a chance of winning the title in the most unpredictable of all the divisions.

As far as solo 2s go, fashionista Anne-Marie Soulsby of Universally Challenged once again showed that she knows the stuff other quizzers don’t (luxury fashion – who’d have thought that’d be a blind spot for elite quizzers?), landing her second league-wide solo 2 of the campaign with Fendi, to go with her Miranda Kerr solo from Week 3. And kudos to Andreas Kroll of Switzerland Quizzers who knew all about Super Mario Lemieux, bandy and all things ice-related to land a solo double!

Roll on Week 6!