January / February
1. Why did Sky TV’s David Lloyd have commentary problems while working from home during England’s tour of Sri Lanka?
2. Channel 4 did a late deal to show England’s Test tour of India on terrestrial. What was used for the coverage’s nostalgia-tastic theme song?
3. Manchester United made the biggest signing of the January transfer window: £37m teenager Amad Diallo. From which club did the winger come?
4. BBC rugby interviewer Sonja McLaughlan said she cried in her car after a torrent of online abuse around tough questions she put to which rugby player?
5. Who kindly pointed out to Burnley FC’s management that they had named an ineligible player on their team sheet ahead of an FA Cup tie?
6. Which batsman added his name to England cricket’s long list of bizarre and unlucky injuries?
7. Manchester United apologised after their women players did what in lockdown?
8. Which famous old club were dumped out of the FA Cup by mighty Crawley Town?
9. “That was the most farcical 46 overs of Test cricket I have seen in my life” – Nasser Hussain has some kind words for which hapless side?
10. Which legendary sporting Covidiot raged about hotel quarantine accommodation in Australia and said players should be “moved to private houses with a court to train”?
11. Which lucky soccer team was Phil Neville’s next managerial destination after leaving England Lionesses?
12. What was Frank Lampard’s last match as Chelsea manager?
13. Where did a “furious” Sir Andy Murray say that he caught the Covid that cost him his chance of playing in the Australian Open?
14. Joe Root scored a century in his 100th Test; name the other two Englishmen to have accomplished this feat.
15. Yoshiro Mori, 83, stepped down from Tokyo’s Olympics organising committee for what reason?
16. Trainer Gordon Elliott had to apologise when a photo emerged of him doing what?
17. Which Crystal Palace player decided to stop taking the knee, saying instead that he “will continue to stand tall”?
18. On the outskirts of which US city did legendary golfer Tiger Woods have his awful car accident?
19. England bemoaned a lack of consistency in the decision-making in the Test series against India. Which third umpire caused them particular stress?
20. Who was the promising youngster named as MVP in the 2021 Super Bowl?
Answers at bottom of page . . .
March / April
1. Which of the Premier League’s ‘Super League Six’ were the first club formally to withdraw from the breakaway project?
2. Who scored the late winning try for Scotland in their first Six Nations victory over France in Paris for 22 years?
3. Which women’s world No 1 won singles and doubles titles at the Stuttgart Open?
4. Who was the top points scorer in the women’s Six Nations Championship for the second successive year and was also awarded the MBE this year?
5. Whose second game in charge of a Premier League club was the Carabao Cup final?
6. What happened at lunch at Headingley on day three of Yorkshire’s first match of the 2021 County Championship against Glamorgan?
7. Where did Ireland beat England 23-4 in March?
8. Which Formula One team returned to the grid for the first time in 61 years at the Bahrain Grand Prix?
9. Who came out of retirement at the World Snooker Championship to win his first match in nine years by beating a man he had defeated in the final to win the title four times?
10. Who came off the bench against Newcastle United in April to surpass Peter Crouch with a record 159th appearance as a Premier League substitute?
11. How many Women’ Super League goals did Chelsea forwards Fran Kirby and Sam Kerr score between them for the 2020-21 champions?
12. Tadej Pogacar won his first monument in April at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but which country does he come from?
13. Which 5 Live pundit was ‘The Accidental Footballer’ according to the title of his 2021 autobiography?
14. Who became the first male England cricketer to play 100 T20s during the four-match series against India at Ahmedabad?
15. Which two Premiership clubs were England’s last representatives at the quarter-final stage of the European Rugby Champions Cup?
16. Which British player won his sixth ATP Tour men’s doubles titles and third in partnership with his brother at the Mexican Open?
17. Who said this and why on April 10: “I don’t feel male or female right now. I don’t even feel human. This is just unbelievable”
18. With how many games of the season to spare did Rangers win the Scottish Premiership title?
19. Who, at the age of 47, won £1.2m as runner-up at the Players’ Championship at Sawgrass?
20. Where were two shades of blue forced by the pandemic to race for the first time for 77 years?
Answers at bottom of page . . .
May / June
1. Adam Peaty powered to his fourth European 100m breaststroke gold in which continental capital city?
2. Youri Tielemans scored a sensational FA Cup final winner for Leicester City but which Chelsea player thought he had equalised only to see it chalked off for offside?
3. Which Spanish golfer won his first major championship with a sprint finish to claim the US Open at Torrey Pines?
4. Apart from Covid protocols, what was unusual about this year’s French Open at Roland Garros where Novak Djokovic and Barbora Krejcikova won singles titles?
5. “Valtteri, that was a disaster day for him, and it wasn’t any better for us either.” Who began his Monaco Grand Prix post-mortem with these words?
6. Who missed the decisive penalty in Manchester United’s shootout defeat against Unai Emery’s Villarreal in the Europa League final?
7. Which two French clubs competed in rugby union’s Champions Cup final at Twickenham?
8. Adam Kirby rode which Godolphin owned horse to win the Epsom Derby?
9. Which three teams were relegated at the end of the 2020-21 Premier League season?
10. How old was Phil Mickelson when he became golf’s oldest major champion with an unlikely triumph at the USPGA Championship?
11. Which dynastic women’s team thrashed Chelsea 4-0 in the Champions League final in Gothenburg?
12. A Kai Havertz goal saw Chelsea men win their Champions League final against Manchester City, when Kevin De Bruyne injured which body part?
13. Who became only the second Colombian cyclist to win the Giro d’Italia?
14. Which golfer ended a 19-month drought without a tournament victory at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow?
15. In Scotland’s opening game of the European Championship, which Czech Republic striker scored the goal of the tournament from the halfway line?
16. At Royal Ascot, which horse denied Stradivarius and Frankie Dettori a fourth consecutive Gold Cup?
17. Which male British tennis player made it to the final of the Queen’s Club Championships in June?
18. Who was named man of the match in England’s opening Euro 2020 win over Croatia?
19. The daughter of which former tennis professional won women’s golf’s PGA Championship?
20. Harlequins and Exeter Chiefs played what was widely considered the greatest ever Premiership final but what was the scoreline?
Answers at bottom of page . . .
July / August
1. Who scored England’s extra-time winner against Denmark in the Euro 2020 semi-final?
2 What did Kent batsman Heino Kuhn do to make even James Anderson crack a smile?
3. “If I were her, I’d tell my fans to stop abusing McEnroe, and seek his advice on how to toughen up and become a champion like he was”. Which TV attention-seeker on which tennis player?
4. “We’re a special country, historically an incredible country and I couldn’t be prouder to be an Englishman”: so said which national treasure sports coach?
5. Mark Cavendish drew level with Belgian legend Eddie Merckx when he won a record-equalling number of Tour de France stages. How many?
6. Who did Novak Djokovic beat in the Wimbledon final to move level with Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer on 20 grand slams?
7. When the golfer criticised his clubs at the Open, golf equipment company Cobra’s manager Ben Schomin said Bryson DeChambeau was doing what?
8. Who did Christian Horner accuse of putting Max Verstappen’s life in danger after a crash at the British Grand Prix?
9. Which cricketing term was deemed too complex for fans to understand as The Hundred launched?
10. Which rugby coach was accused of using a fake Twitter account to complain about refereeing?
11. Who became the British transfer record signing this summer?
12. “This is all like a bucket of cold water has been poured over me.” Which football legend said this in August and why?
13. Diving favourite Tom Daley finally struck gold in Tokyo; who was his partner on the 10m platform?
14. Gold medallist Charlotte Worthington gave one of her BMX moves the codename “Ferrari” in case opponents got wind of it. What was the trick?
15. Which Milanese England cricketing Lord passed away this summer?
16. Who scored the team’s only try of the match to help the Lions beat South Africa in the first Test?
17. Which athletics star revealed she had been carrying an injury into the Olympics, saying “Unless I couldn’t stand or do anything on that leg, it wasn’t an option for me to give up.”
18. Which 37-year-old came off the bench to kick the winning 78-minute penalty for South Africa against the Lions to seal the series 2-1?
19. Who took his maiden Test five-fer at Headingley against India?
20. Who became Britain’s most successful female Olympian?
Answers at bottom of page . . .
September / October
1. What did Europe’s Matt Fitzpatrick, Bernd Wiesberger and Paul Casey all share at the Ryder Cup?
2. Who came next: Stefanie Vogele, Zhang Shuai, Sara Sorribes Tormo, Shelby Rogers, Belinda Bencic, Maria Sakari?
3. How many hours before the scheduled start of play for the fifth Test between England and India was the match called off?
4. Who completed a hat-trick of Paralympic 100m gold medals at the Tokyo Games?
5. Which team played in their first ever Super League Grand Final in October?
6. Which former winner of the French and Wimbledon men’s singles titles died at the age of 97 in October?
7. Which two England Women’s cricketers scored centuries in their 4-1 ODI series victory over New Zealand?
8. Who scored four goals for Scotland in their September and October Qatar World Cup qualifiers?
9. Which former England opener took three for 31 in the T20 Blast final to win the tournament for a county he has served since 2004?
10. Which team were one and two on the podium at Monza, their first grand prix victory for nine years?
11. Who scored Liverpool’s opening goal in their 5-0 rout of Manchester United at Old Trafford?
12. Which song did Emma Raducanu join the crowd in singing at Flushing Meadows following her US Open triumph?
13. Who won his first England cap in the 4-0 win over Andorra at Wembley?
14. Where did Torquator Tasso, an 80-1 shot, beat the St Leger Winner Hurricane Lane in a huge October upset?
15. The first line of which rugby union player’s autobiography published in October is: “I was born on the last day of apartheid.”
16. Which Manchester United forward scored a hat-trick for England Women against Latvia in a European Championship qualifier?
17. Who was the first Premier League manager to be sacked in the 2021-22 season?
18. Who captained Europe to victory in the Solheim Cup in Toledo, Ohio?
19. Who recorded figures of 2.2-0-2-4 in England’s victory over West Indies at the start of the Men’s T20 World Cup Super 12s?
20. Which promotion specialist lost his job in the Championship in September?
Answers at bottom of page . . .
November / December
1. How many goals did England Women put past hapless part-timers Latvia in a World Cup qualifier in Doncaster?
2. Leicester Tigers completed the signing of which World Cup-winning fly-half to replace George Ford?
3. An argument about which player had Roy Keane shouting “Cups! Cups!” in the Sky Sports studio?
4. Who was named T20 World Cup player of the tournament?
5. Which American golfer completed his annus mirabilis by becoming his country’s first winner of the Race to Dubai?
6. Arsenal women’s manager Jonas Eidevall revealed he was troubled by which superstition before the FA Cup final?
7. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked by Manchester United but who did they lose to in his final game in charge?
8. Who scored a last-minute penalty to help England beat the Springboks in their Autumn International at Twickenham?
9. “The world I was in was like, ‘take it on the chin, brush it under the carpet, it will be OK in time’.” Who said this in December?
10. The curtain came down on the career of legendary Superbikes rider Valentino Rossi in November but how many world titles did he win?
11. “I’m lucky to be alive and to still have the limb. I’m very grateful that someone upstairs was taking care of me”. Who said this before a comeback appearance?
12. Who bowled Rory Burns around his legs with the first ball of the Ashes series at Brisbane?
13. Mohamed Salah equalled which Premier League record with his goal against Newcastle at Anfield in December?
14. Who defeated Daniil Medvedev to win the men’s ATP Tour Finals in Turin?
15. Which driver’s crash led sparked the controversial circumstances which led Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen’s final lap duel for the world title in Abu Dhabi?
16. Scotland ended which nation’s 26-match unbeaten run at Hampden Park to reach the 2022 World Cup play-offs?
17. Jordan Spieth and Henrik Stenson made which strange mistake in a golf tournament in December?
18. Ireland have now won three of their last five meetings against the All Blacks after victory in Dublin. How many of the previous 28 had they won?
19. Johanna Konta announced her retirement from tennis. What was her best grand slam finish?
20. Jos Buttler did his best to delay the inevitable as England crashed to another heavy Ashes defeat in Adelaide, surviving for how many balls in the second innings?
Answers
January / February answers: 1. His wife accidentally (?) locked his microphone in the shed, 2. Mambo No 5 by Lou Bega, 3. Atalanta, 4. Owen Farrell, 5. Opponents Bournemouth, who won the match anyway, 6. Zak Crawley, who slipped on a marble floor and hurt his wrist, 7. They went on a break to Dubai, 8. Leeds United, 9. England’s opponents Sri Lanka, 10. Novak Djokovic, 11. Inter Miami, 12. A 3-1 FA Cup fourth-round win over Luton, 13. At the LTA training base, 14. Colin Cowdrey and Alec Stewart, 15. He said that women talk too much and that meetings with many female board directors would “take a lot of time”, 16. Sitting on top of a dead horse taking a phone call, 17. Wilfried Zaha, 18. Los Angeles, 19. Chettithody Shamshuddin, 20. Tom Brady, then aged 43, of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
March / April answers: 1. Manchester City, 2. Duhan van der Merwe, 3. Ashleigh Barty, 4. Emily Scarratt, 5. Ryan Mason, 6. It started to snow, 7. At the Cheltenham Festival, 8. Aston Martin, 9. Stephen Hendry, 10. James Milner, 11. 37, 12. Slovenia, 13. Pat Nevin, 14. Eoin Morgan, 15. Exeter and Sale, 16. Ken Skupski, 17. Rachael Blackmore on becoming first women jockey to win the Grand National, 18. Six, 19. Lee Westwood, 20. River Great Ouse, near Ely, Cambs.
May / June answers: 1. Budapest, 2. Ben Chilwell, 3. Jon Rahm, 4. Matches started at night for the first time, 5. Mercedes chief Toto Wolff, 6. David de Gea, 7. La Rochelle and Toulouse, 8. Adayar, 9. Fulham, West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield United 10. 50, 11. Barcelona, 12. His eye, 13. Egan Bernal, 14. Rory McIlroy, 15. Patrik Schick, 16. Subjectivist, 17. Cameron Norrie, 18. Kalvin Phillips, 19. Nelly Korda (daughter of Petr Korda), 20. Harlequins 40 Exeter Chiefs 38.
July / August answers: 1. Harry Kane, 2. Edged behind to give Jimmy his 1,000th first class wicket, 3. Piers Morgan on Emma Raducanu, 4. Gareth Southgate, 5. 34, 6. Matteo Berrettini, 7. “Behaving like an eight-year-old”, 8. Lewis Hamilton, 9. The concept of “an over”, 10. Rassie Erasmus, who denied that he had used the alter-ego Jaco Johan to tweet analysis clips, 11. Jack Grealish, who moved from Aston Villa to Manchester City for £100m, 12. Lionel Messi, who left Barcelona seemingly against his wishes, 13. Matty Lee, 14. A 360 degree backflip: no woman rider had ever landed one before in a competition, 15. Lord Ted Dexter, 16. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17. Dina Asher-Smith, 18. Morne Steyn, 19. Ollie Robinson, 20. Laura Kenny – and her husband Jason holds the same record for males.
September / October answers: 1. Dubious distinction of winning zero points, 2. Leylah Fernandez – all beaten by Emma Raducanu en route to the US Open title, 3. Two, 4. Hannah Cockroft, 5. Catalans Dragons, 6. Budge Patty, 7. Heather Knight and Tammy Beaumont, 8. Lyndon Dykes, 9. Joe Denly, 10. McLaren-Mercedes, 11. Naby Keita, 12. Sweet Caroline, 13. Patrick Bamford, 14. At Longchamp in the 100th Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, 15. Siya Kolisi, 16. Ella Toone, 17. Watford’s Xisco Munoz, 18. Catriona Matthew, 19. Adil Rashid, 20. Chris Hughton.
November / December answers: 1. 20, 2. Handre Pollard, 3. Cristiano Ronaldo, 4. David Warner, 5. Collin Morikawa, 6. Avoiding black cats, 7. Watford, 8. Marcus Smith, 9. Bryony Frost, 10. Nine, 11. Tiger Woods, 12. Mitchell Starc, 13. Consecutive games scored in (matching Jamie Vardy’s 15), 14. Alexander Zverev, 15. Nicholas Latifi, 16. Denmark, 17. They played from the wrong tee, incurring a two-shot penalty, 18. Zero, 19. Semi-final, on three occasions, 20. 206.
