News and Views: 2004–5 Season

Fixtures and Results:

Week 1: 2 November 2004

Usually I have printed just results and SEMA Trophy scores for the first week of the season as obviously three teams have yet to play a game, but I have had a couple of requests this year for the "full hit", so here it is. [League tables and individual top tens have not been reproduced on the website!]

Finally, many thanks to you all for paying subscriptions on time. Every team has now paid for the season – something of a record I'm sure.

Week 2: 9 November 2004

One or two (!) comments have been received about the first two weeks' questions – the identity of the current "Spanish President" and Oliver Letwin's exact role in life being only two of the most common. If you are setting questions, please check your answers are correct with each other and use the other teams for vetting.

One other concern mentioned has been time keeping, particularly when questions have been 'passed over' and the second team has exhausted its additional ten seconds. Some 'conferring' goes on almost ad infinitum. Please make sure you give an answer of some sort as soon as the question master asks for one.

Week 3: 16 November 2004

The match between the Prince Albert and the Prince of Wales was not played, as the Prince Albert were unable to raise a team. The Prince of Wales team and the question master did assemble, and the game was played out with the Prince of Wales being asked their questions and the team members answering or not as the case may be. The two points for the game have been added to the Prince of Wales's total, as have the recorded individual scores for each player, but not any total points scored by the team.

The Prince Albert did manage to raise a team for Week 4. If they are unable to commit to playing out the season some time subsequently – and we hope that will not happen – then the committee will meet to decide the fairest way to resolve the issue of scores.

It is worth mentioning that the Prince Albert had fielded healthy teams in the first two weeks of the season, but had lost some members who were unwilling to play any longer due to the difficult and obscure nature of the questions being asked.

Whilst the notion of questions being easy or hard is a matter of some subjective judgement, the general feedback so far this season has been very much that the overall standard has dropped from last year, when broadly speaking the questions were viewed as pretty reasonable overall. Please bear the guidance in mind when setting questions for the rest of the season.

Week 7: 4 January 2005

Some comment was provoked this week by the General Knowledge round, the feeling seeming to be that if you went second in the GK round you had the easier of the questions. As ever, these things are somewhat subjective although I personally would agree on this occasion. Many others wouldn't and didn't.

In fact, the results were not unbalanced, with seven of the twelve games won by the team going second in the GK as opposed to 5 won by the team going first. As one of the seven games was only won 98–97, a swing of a couple of points in that game would have made it 6–6 and perfectly balanced from that point of view.

Week 9: 25 January 2005

Congratulations to all those who scored personal bests last week, as there were the largest number of "personal worst" scores that we have seen this season. Total team scores were also the lowest of the season to date.

Week 12: 15 February 2005

Many of you will have heard the very sad news of the recent passing away of Nigel Bailey, who played for several teams over the course of the last fifteen years but was always closely associated with Waters Green Tavern teams of various names and line–ups. Nigel's death was completely unexpected and his funeral last week was followed by a gathering at the Tavern. Nigel will be sorely missed by his many friends, family members and acquaintances to whom, on behalf of us all, I offer our sincere condolences.

Week 13: 1 March 2005

Congratulations to the Prince Albert on winning their first game in the League since their new team was formed at the beginning of the season. They have survived a tricky first few weeks and have lost some very close games recently. Everything comes to those who wait ...

Week 17: 12 April 2005

With one round of games left to play, much is still up for grabs. All the League titles are yet to be finally decided; in each of the the B and C Leagues, the current top two play each other next week in a potential decider.

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