11 Mar Europe – S1 Week 6’s Round Up

Week 6’s Round Up – by Ewan McNaught

Week 6 of Quiz Nations Europe and we’re suddenly two thirds of the way through the campaign. The runners and riders are jockeying for position. It’s too early to predict how it’s all going to play out, but we can be assured of an unprecedented pile-up of sporting cliches as the finishing line approaches.

In Elite 1 the match of the day was between Broken Warriors and Nerds of Steel. The Warriors’ fearsome quartet galloped into battle like the Four Horsemen of the Quizocalypse, and though the Nerds put up a valiant fight, the Warriors racked up a record-breaking score in a 60-40 victory. Ollie and Gracies Lonely Heartclub Band made sweet music once more as they overcame Switzerland Quizzers 48-33 to preserve their 100% record, and their clash with Broken Warriors in Week 8 is starting to look like the title decider. In a local derby, Danish Pastry defeated Denmark Y 45-31 to climb to fourth, and Viddr and Gallium played out a high-scoring 43-43 draw. 

Over to Elite 2 and the story of the season so far has been the relentless march of North-South Divide, as inexorable as continental drift. However, opponents Tiimi Nimi have been gaining momentum, and something had to give in this tectonic tussle as the Estonian-Russian combo swept down from the north. It’s safe to assume that the historic meeting of the Nazca and the South American Plates went right down to the final Mystery Boxes, and so it was here, with North-South Divide eventually triumphing 52-49. And 52-49 it finished in the Paul Jam v Pyromanians clash, a tighter affair than the form book predicted. Unlike Billy Joel, the Romanian prodigies certainly started a fire – one that threatened to engulf the PJs – only to be extinguished in the final Mystery Boxes. Third-placed Motley Crew showed once again that they’re a much more finely-honed combination than their name suggests, prevailing 44-40 in a close match with the Northern Lights. Team North East continued their irresistible rise to the upper echelons with another high-scoring victory – 53-40 over Denmark X, and the Capercaillies tails were up as they overcame Witless Protection Programme 40-32.

Week 6 in the Civis saw the top two continuing their great form, with Pick and Mix finding the sweet spot in their hard-earned 47-40 win over The Mancunians, and Quality of Mercians registering their fifth win in a row with a 45-34 victory over The Bulgarian Rational Society. Scratch consolidated third place with a 46-24 win over Universally Challenged, and The Dude Abides stayed in fourth after overcoming Zbroing 747! 46-34. In the tightest match of the lot, Manos Castro pipped The North Remembers 37-34. 

To date we’ve seen a nice spread of solo 2-pointers across the leagues, with the Civilians more than holding their own, and that was the case once again with Quality of Mercians’ Harry Heath knowing all about Peg Entwistle’s plunge from the Hollywoodland sign. However, week 6 saw the Elite gunslingers come out all guns blazing too, with deadly Kevin Ashman of Broken Warriors homing in on Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and pistol packin’ prospector Paul Sinha of Paul Jam banking the valuable nugget ‘On Golden Pond’. I had the pleasure of sitting in on the Broken Warriors match, and Kevin also identified Demetrius ‘The Besieger’ Poliocetes in the Mystery Boxes, the question with the lowest get rate of the week. Turns out ‘The Besieger’ was a fearsome Macedonian general rather than a WWE champ, but it was all Greek to the rest of the teams, Tiimi Nimi excepted. 

Roll on Week 7…