News and Views: 2017–18 Season – Week 11 – 30 January 2018

By Haydn Thompson, with input from Mark Watson.

Results

The Harrington Academicals recorded an impressive victory over B League leaders the Nags Head. For the Nags this was only the second defeat of the season. Meanwhile the Robin Hood recorded their second victory of the season, while the Waters Green Rams continued their unbeaten run.

In the A League's bottom-of-the-table clash, the Wharfies completed a 'double' over the Weaver. There were also victories for the two Ox-fford teams.

In the C League, the Chester Road Tavern came close to beating the Sutton Club; the other two matches went to form, with victories for the Park Taverners and the Cock Inn.

Tables

The Wharfies moved off the bottom of the A League table with their third win of the season. They are now sixth (behind the British Flag by just one point scored!), and the Weaver are bottom. The Dolphin Dragons (who didn't play this week) are in seventh place, but could be fourth if they win their game in hand.

In the B League, the Waters Green Rams moved into a commanding position: five points clear of the Harrington Academicals, who are third, and with a game in hand over the two teams immediately below them.

The only change in the C League was that the Cock Inn moved into fourth place above the Park Timers (who didn't play).

Individual

Individually, this week's scores were possibly the lowest so far this season, with only Haydn Thompson scoring more than 40. There were just nine personal bests – three in each League: John Hargreaves (36), Graham Wallace (33), Mike Hewitt, Caroline Massey and Geoff Shaw all with 30, Anne Goddard (24), Keith Bebbington and Adum Carr (21), and Andy Moores (15).

There were also 22 worst (or equal worst) scores; interestingly, 11 of those were in the A League, 8 in the B League and just 3 in the C League.

The C League Individual table is very congested at the top, with just nine points (three questions) separating the top six and 30 points (ten questions) separating the top ten. It would be a brave bet to put money on who might win that!

A League

Results

Weaver	124	159	Wharfies
Graham Bailey	30	39	Art Higham
Ox–fford 'C'	182	114	British Flag
Haydn Thompson Alice Walker Caroline Massey (pb)	51 39 30	30	Geoff Shaw (pb)
Church House Bollington	113	160	Ox–fford
John Hargreaves (pb)	36	39	Laurence Plant

Table

	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Total	Points
Ox–fford 'C'	9	8	0	1	1544	16
Ox–fford	8	6	1	1	1301	13
Dolphin	7	4	1	2	1080	9
Church House Bollington	9	3	1	5	1320	7
British Flag	9	3	0	6	1256	6
Wharfies	9	3	0	6	1255	6
Dolphin Dragons	8	3	0	5	1154	6
Weaver	9	2	1	6	1346	5

Individual Top Ten

	Team	Played	Total	Highest	Lowest	Week 11
Haydn Thompson	Ox–fford 'C'	9	420	54	36	51
Alice Walker	Ox–fford 'C'	9	369	48	33	39
Graham Bailey	Weaver	9	327	45	30	30
Brian Bogie	Wharfies	8	315	51	30	36
Mark Watson	Ox–fford	7	306	48	33	33
Alan Hodgson	Dolphin	7	297	51	36
Peter McBride	Dolphin	7	285	51	33
Alan Gilday	Weaver	8	282	42	27	27
Liz Horrocks	Dolphin Dragons	8	276	45	21
Ashton Davies	Church House Bollington	7	273	51	30

B League

Results

Harrington Academicals	153	117	Nags Head
Rob Parkin Dave Partington Mike Hewitt (pb)	36 33 30	30	Alasdair Reid
Robin Hood	137	112	Harrington 'B'
Jim Kennelly Lorraine Hilton	30 30	27	Geoff Parkin
Waters Green Rams	131	114	Plough Horntails
Keith Pointon Keith Bebbington (pb) Adum Carr (pb)	39 21 21	36	Malcolm Asquith

Table

	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Total	Points
Waters Green Rams	8	8	0	0	1208	16
Nags Head	9	7	0	2	1298	14
Harrington Academicals	9	5	1	3	1207	11
Royal Oak	8	5	0	3	1187	10
Plough Horntails	8	3	1	4	990	7
Waters Green Lemmings	8	3	0	5	1030	6
Robin Hood	9	2	0	7	1199	4
Harrington 'B'	9	0	0	9	1032	0

Individual Top Ten

	Team	Played	Total	Highest	Lowest	Week 11
Dave Partington	Harrington Academicals	9	312	48	24	33
Alasdair Reid	Nags Head	9	309	54	21	30
Keith Pointon	Waters Green Rams	8	300	45	27	39
Andrew Wright	Nags Head	9	279	36	24	24
Jim Kennelly	Robin Hood	9	273	42	21	30
Malcolm Asquith	Plough Horntails	8	249	39	24	36
Alan James	Royal Oak	8	249	39	21
Jon Thompson	Waters Green Lemmings	8	240	42	15
Rob Parkin	Harrington Academicals	7	237	42	24	36
Rosalie James	Royal Oak	8	231	45	21

C League

Results

Prince of Wales	114	122	Park Taverners
Kenny Davenport–Slater	24	33	Graham Wallace (pb)
Cock Inn	121	110	Pack Horse Bowling Club
Jackie Hulme Anne Goddard (pb)	27 24	21 21	Andrew Vickerstaff Michael Murphy
Chester Road Tavern	109	114	Sutton Club
Mitch Moores Tony Moores Jim Moores Andy Moores (pb)	24 24 18 15	27	Paul Heaven

Table

	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Total	Points
Sutton Mutton	8	7	0	1	971	14
Sutton Club	9	6	1	2	1063	13
Park Taverners	8	6	0	2	992	12
Cock Inn	8	4	1	3	954	9
Park Timers	8	4	0	4	949	8
Pack Horse Bowling Club	9	3	0	6	1032	6
Prince of Wales	9	2	0	7	992	4
Chester Road Tavern	9	1	0	8	968	2

Individual Top Ten

	Team	Played	Total	Highest	Lowest	Wk 11
Shauna Barstow	Park Taverners	8	204	51	12	18
Wynne Keith-Davies	Sutton Mutton	8	204	39	15
John Poyser	Park Timers	8	201	36	18
Glyn Bradley	Park Timers	8	201	36	15
Andy Ridgway	Prince of Wales	9	195	39	12	18
Jackie Hulme	Cock Inn	8	195	33	9	27
Mike Proctor	Sutton Mutton	8	186	36	12
Peter Wilcox	Cock Inn	7	186	33	18	18
Chris Butler	Sutton Club	8	180	33	12	18
Tony Moores	Chester Road Tavern	8	174	30	12	24

Cars & Vans 4U Question Setters' Trophy

In a reverse of what happened last wwek, the Ox-fford's Specialist questions have moved back to the top of the table by a margin of 0.31 in total over the British Flag. As a consequence of the Dolphin's results, the Ox-fford's Balance mark increased by 0.3 while the British Flag's Difficulty mark was reduced by 0.06.

	Wk			Difficulty	Balance	Ent'mnt	Total	Last Yr
1	1	Spec	Ox–fford	10.00	7.65	7.22	24.87	24.69
2	3	Spec	British Flag	7.59	9.86	7.11	24.56	22.17
3	6	GK	Sutton Club	10.00	7.79	5.79	23.58	19.98
4	4	GK	Waters Green Rams	7.10	6.64	6.22	19.97	18.84
5	5	GK	Ox–fford 'C'	6.23	8.08	5.37	19.68	17.41
6	2	GK	Royal Oak	5.98	6.78	5.72	18.47	8.2
7	7	Spec	Wharfies	4.51	8.52	5.44	18.47	14.58
8	1	GK	Ox–fford	9.39	0.00	6.50	15.89	(20.47)
9	8	GK	Chester Road Tavern	6.92	3.23	5.67	15.82	17.22
10	4	Spec	Pack Horse Bowling Club	2.65	8.05	4.40	15.11	(13.95)
11	11	GK	Dolphin	4.37	6.38	4.33	15.08	14.05
12	7	GK	Wharfies	5.48	6.06	3.33	14.86	22.03
13	2	Spec	Sutton Mutton	4.01	7.41	3.44	14.86	(11.50)
14	3	GK	British Flag	3.49	5.70	5.67	14.86	(22.17)
15	8	Spec	Waters Green Lemmings	2.14	8.11	4.32	14.57	22.21
16	6	Spec	Sutton Club	4.68	4.66	5.22	14.56	(19.98)
17	5	Spec	Ox–fford 'C'	3.90	3.95	5.79	13.65	19.47
18	9	Spec	Prince of Wales	0.00	8.69	3.83	12.52	11.16
19	10	GK	Plough Horntails	4.40	0.92	5.11	10.43	(16.35)
20	10	Spec	Cock Inn	2.71	1.98	3.83	8.52	(14.69)
21	11	Spec	Dolphin	3.11	0.00	4.67	7.78	20.37
22	9	GK	Nags Head	0.00	1.86	5.11	6.97	(14.19)

For the complete spreadsheet, please click here.

The Dolphin's General Knowledge questions scored well for Balance but less well for Difficulty, while the Entertainment mark was also on the low side. The Specialist questions were let down by their Balance score, with a significant bias (according to the spreadsheet) towards the teams that went second. This was partially counteracted by the slight bias in the General Knowledge questions, which went the other way, but overall there was a significant bias (99% to 93%) towards the teams that went second in the Specialist questions.

This was perhaps reflected in the fact that of the nine games, seven were won by teams going "second first". The only teams that won by going "first first" were the Ox-fford and the Cock Inn.

In the Dolphin's defence, I should perhaps point out that due to an administrative error, the Specialist quesitions had to be completely rewritten at very short notice.

The Entertainment marks this week were fairly consistent across the three Leagues. The highest mark was 5.50 from the A League for the Specialist set, and the lowest was 3.83 from the B League for the General Knowledge.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2018