Sports quiz of the week: Ashes sledging, Arsenal v Spurs and a young world No 1

LeBron James, Luke Littler and Curaçao fans. Composite: Getty Images; Action Plus/Shutterstock; AP

1. The first ball of the Ashes was anticlimactic, but whose wicket fell in the first over?

   1. Zak Crawley

   2. Ben Duckett

   3. Ollie Pope

   4. Joe Root

2. 

   The buildup took an unusual turn when Monty Panesar criticised Steve Smith and the Australia stand-in captain responded by mocking the former England player’s appearance on a TV quiz show, saying: “Anyone who believes Athens is in Germany, Oliver Twist is a season of the year and America is a city – those comments don’t really bother me.” Which show was he referencing?

   1. Pointless

   2. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

   3. Blockbusters

   4. Mastermind

3. Which English football club plans to move to a new 62,000-seat stadium with 12 chimney-like towers inspired by their local industrial heritage?

   1. Birmingham City

   2. Blackburn Rovers

   3. Bristol City

   4. Brentford

4. 

   It’s the north London derby on Sunday. Spurs have played 33 matches at Arsenal in the Premier League. How many of them have they won?

   1. Never

   2. Twice

   3. Five times

   4. Ten times

5. Which other local derby – that features two clubs in the relegation zone – is taking place this weekend?

   1. Sheffield Wednesday v Sheffield United

   2. Portsmouth v Southampton

   3. Cambridge United v Cambridge City

   4. Exeter City vs Plymouth Argyle

6. 

   England’s win against the All Blacks on Saturday was their 10th victory in a row? Who are the only team to have beaten them in 2025?

   1. Ireland

   2. France

   3. South Africa

   4. New Zealand

7. England beat New Zealand in two sports on Saturday: 33-19 in men’s rugby union and 61-58 in women’s …

   1. … rugby league

   2. … netball

   3. … rugby union

   4. … basketball

8. 

   Which rugby player, who was born in Australia, scored a hat-trick of tries against Australia on Saturday?

   1. Finlay Bealham

   2. Mack Hansen

   3. Sione Tuipulotu

   4. Archie Griffin

9. Norway have qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1998. What remarkable thing did they do at that tournament?

   1. They only won one game – but it was against the reigning champions

   2. They made it all the way to the semi-finals without winning a game in 90 minutes

   3. They had men in sent off in all four of their matches

   4. They beat the only country with whom they share a land border

10. 

    Scotland have also qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1998. Which band recorded their official song for that tournament?

    1. Wet Wet Wet

    2. Del Amitri

    3. Primal Scream

    4. Idlewild

11. Curaçao have become the smallest country to qualify for a World Cup. They sealed their place with a goalless draw against Jamaica. However, none of the players who started that game were born in Curaçao. Where were they born?

    1. France

    2. Portugal

    3. Brazil

    4. The Netherlands

12. 

    Two Croatia players have won more than 150 caps: Luka Modric (194) and Ivan Perisic (151). Which other European countries have two players with more than 150 caps?

    1. Spain and Estonia

    2. Portugal and Italy

    3. Iceland and Poland

    4. Denmark and England

13. Which three countries qualified for the World Cup without conceding a goal?

    1. Argentina, New Zealand and Egypt

    2. Ivory Coast, Tunisia and England

    3. Switzerland, Panama and Saudi Arabia

    4. South Korea, Ecuador and Australia

14. 

    Luke Littler has become the youngest world No 1 in darts history. For how long did Phil Taylor top the world rankings?

    1. 745 days

    2. 1,223 days

    3. 3,351 days

    4. 6,213 days

15. Timothy Loubineaud set a new world record in Salt Lake City by travelling 5km in six minutes and 0.23 seconds – using which mode of transport?

    1. A bike

    2. Ice skates

    3. Running shoes

    4. A horse

16. 

    Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz dominated men's tennis this year, winning all four slams between them before meeting at the ATP Finals decider. Only one other man appeared in a grand slam final this year. Who?

    1. Novak Djokovic

    2. Alexander Zverev

    3. Ben Shelton

    4. Jack Draper

17. LeBron James has set a new record by playing in the NBA for 23 seasons. He has featured for three teams in that time: Cleveland Cavaliers, LA Lakers and …

    1. Miami Heat

    2. Phoenix Suns

    3. Golden State Warriors

    4. Denver Nuggets

Solutions

1:A - England rallied after a poor start and lead Australia by 49 runs after the first day., 2:D - Panesar responded: "We’ve both made mistakes. I made mine on a quiz show, he made his on a cricket field.", 3:A - One of the towers will include Birmingham’s highest bar., 4:B - In 1993 (their first meeting in the Premier League) and 2010. The game in 2010 was a cracker. Arsenal were leading 2-0 at half-time but Spurs came flying back and won 3-2 thanks to goals from Gareth Bale, Rafael van der Vaart and Younes Kaboul., 5:A - On the subject of football in Sheffield, Bramall Lane is the only football stadium to have hosted an Ashes Test., 6:A - Ireland beat England in the Six Nations earlier this year. Ireland didn’t win the whole thing, though. They were beaten by winners France … who were beaten by runners-up England., 7:B - England and New Zealand have played a best-of-three series this week. New Zealand won it 2-1., 8:B - “Unfortunately, Mack was probably the standout Australian player on the field,” said the Australia coach Joe Schmidt after his team’s 46-19 defeat., 9:A - Norway beat Brazil, who were midway through a run of three straight finals: 1994, 1998 and 2002., 10:B - The song was called Don’t Come Home Too Soon; Scotland were knocked out at the group stage having failed to win a game., 11:D - Curaçao is tiny – the size of the Isle of Man – with a population of just over 150,000 (similar to Huddersfield). , 12:A - Sergio Ramos and Iker Casillas for Spain, and Konstantin Vassiljev and Martin Reim for Estonia., 13:B - Ivory Coast and Tunisia did not concede a goal in their qualifying groups but, unlike England, they did not win every game., 14:C - Nearly a decade. Littler is just 18 years old so he could beat that record., 15:B - He smashed the world record at the Speed Skating World Cup and was stunned by his time. “I never expected this in my life,” he said. “We don’t have any tracks in France and I’m also not the most talented guy – at least I don’t feel to be the most talented skater on the planet. The good thing is, I do everything by instinct. I started the race and didn’t care about the time. I was just going. After a few laps, I don’t know what happened, but I felt so good and I just kept improving the pace and improving. That was amazing. Then, I realised I could be on the world record time when I saw the crowd getting more excited and excited, and my coach was screaming. I thought, maybe the legs are a little bit better than I expected.”, 16:B - Zverev reached the final of the Australian Open … which he lost to Sinner., 17:A - James now holds the record outright having moved past Vince Carter.

Scores

1. 1 and above.

   Ah well. Better luck next week.

2. 2 and above.

   Ah well. Better luck next week.

3. 3 and above.

   Ah well. Better luck next week.

4. 4 and above.

   Ah well. Better luck next week.

5. 5 and above.

   Ah well. Better luck next week.

6. 6 and above.

   Ah well. Better luck next week.

7. 7 and above.

   That's a decent score. Well played.

8. 8 and above.

   That's a decent score. Well played.

9. 9 and above.

   That's a very good score. Well played.

10. 10 and above.

    That's a very good score. Well played.

11. 11 and above.

    That's a very good score. Well played.

12. 12 and above.

    That's a sensational score. Well played.

13. 13 and above.

    That's a sensational score. Well played.

14. 14 and above.

    That's an unbelievable score. Well played.

15. 15 and above.

    That's an unbelievable score. Well played.

16. 16 and above.

    That's an unbelievable score. Well played.

17. 0 and above.

    Ah well. Better luck next week.

18. 17 and above.

    That's an unbelievable score. Well played.