News and Views: 2017–18 Season – Week 18 – 27 March 2018

By Haydn Thompson, with input from Mark Watson.

Results

Six matches were won by the teams that went "first first". The three teams that won by going "second first" were the Harrington Academicals, the Robin Hood and the Pack Horse Bowling Club.

Two games were decided by a single point this week: in the A League, the British Flag edged out the Wharfies, and in the B League the Lemmings defied the odds in the Waters Green derby.

At the Flag, the home team were two points behind when Ian Tams faced the final question of the night. Fortunately for him, Ian was able to name Menna Fitzpatrick and win the match for his team. Meanwhile at the Waters Green, the Rams were two points ahead going into the final round, but they managed only two points in that round while the Lemmings took five (two passed over, and a three-pointer for Bob Langstaff on the one about the whitlow).

In the A League title decider, the spoils went to the Ox–fford 'C'; elsewhere in the A League, the Dolphin won a closely–fought derby against the Dragons.

In the B League there were comfortable victories for the Harrington Academicals and the Robin Hood.

As in the Waters Green, both of the C League derbies went against previous form, with the Park Timers romping home against the Taverners while the Sutton derby went to the Club.

Tables

The Oxford 'C''s victory meant that they take the A League title for the third consecutive year; and the British Flag's victory over the Wharfies left the latter with the wooden spoon.

There was no change in the B League table. The Waters Green Rams not only lost their derby match, but they failed to make up the 139 points that they needed to take the title on goal difference – leaving the Royal Oak as champions with a margin of just thirteen match points.

In the C League, where the Park Taverners were already confirmed as champions and the Sutton Mutton were promoted, the only change was that the Pack Horse Bowling Club moved above the Prince of Wales into sixth place.

Individual

Top scorer this week was Haydn Thompson with 51. There were four scores of 42, by Alan Hodgson, Keith Pointon, Alice Walker and Mark Watson.

There were eight personal bests, and 18 personal worsts (or equal worsts).

With Mark Watson having a difficult night by his standards, Haydn Thompson did just enough to ensure that there will be another new name on the A League individual trophy this year. Mark finished as close as it's possible to be in second place, while Alan Hodgson and Alice Walker tied for third place.

Dave Partington was another player who had a difficult night, but Keith Pointon did enough to pass Alasdair Reid's total and take the B League trophy.

Possibly the most difficult night of all however was suffered by the unfortunate Wynne Keith–Davies, who made his lowest score of the season by some margin. Glyn Bradley and Shauna Barstow also failed to make up the ground they needed to, so Graham Wallace takes the C League title despite not playing this week.

A League

Results

British Flag	139	138	Wharfies
Ian Tams	36	39	Brian Bogie
Dolphin Dragons	141	153	Dolphin
Liz Horrocks Dave Cooper Mike Ockelton (pb)	36 33 27	42	Alan Hodgson
Ox-fford 'C'	185	134	Ox-fford
Haydn Thompson Alice Walker Tim Massey (pb)	51 42 36	42	Mark Watson

Table

Played

Won

Drawn

Lost

Total

Points

Ox-fford 'C'	14	12	0	2	2403	24
Ox-fford	14	10	1	3	2237	21
Dolphin	14	9	1	4	2190	19
Church House Bollington	14	6	1	7	2052	13
Weaver	14	5	1	8	2117	11
Dolphin Dragons	14	5	0	9	1974	10

British Flag	14	4	0	10	1922	8
Wharfies	14	3	0	11	1936	6

Individual Top Ten

	Team	Played	Total	Highest	Lowest	Week 18
Haydn Thompson	Ox-fford 'C'	14	528	54	42	51
Mark Watson	Ox-fford	13	525	54	45	42
Alan Hodgson	Dolphin	14	483	51	42	42
Alice Walker	Ox-fford 'C'	14	483	48	36	42
Peter McBride	Dolphin	14	453	51	30	39
Brian Bogie	Wharfies	13	444	51	30	39
Graham Bailey	Weaver	14	417	45	30
Alan Gilday	Weaver	13	408	48	27
Ashton Davies	Church House Bollington	10	405	51	30
Liz Horrocks	Dolphin Dragons	14	390	45	30	36

B League

Results

Harrington Academicals	147	118	Harrington 'B'
Rob Parkin	36	33 24	Martin Biss (pb) Jill Green (pb)
Waters Green Lemmings	126	125	Waters Green Rams
Jon Thompson	33	42	Keith Pointon
Robin Hood	137	112	Plough Horntails
Lorraine Hilton Tim Grimes	30 30	27	Julian Amey

Table

Played

Won

Drawn

Lost

Total

Points

Royal Oak	14	11	0	3	2132	22
Waters Green Rams	14	11	0	3	2119	22

Nags Head	14	10	0	4	2000	20
Waters Green Lemmings	14	8	1	5	1849	17
Harrington Academicals	14	6	1	7	1855	13
Plough Horntails	14	5	1	8	1725	11

Robin Hood	14	3	1	10	1880	7
Harrington 'B'	14	0	0	14	1623	0

Individual Top Ten

	Team	Played	Total	Highest	Lowest	Week 18
Keith Pointon	Waters Green Rams	14	414	45	33	42
Alasdair Reid	Nags Head	14	405	54	30
Dave Partington	Harrington Academicals	12	399	48	24	24
Rob Parkin	Harrington Academicals	11	384	48	24	36
Andrew Wright	Nags Head	14	375	51	27
Alan James	Royal Oak	14	372	42	27
Bill Cawley	Royal Oak	13	357	42	21
Jon Thompson	Waters Green Lemmings	14	351	42	24	33
Rosalie James	Royal Oak	14	348	45	27
Jim Kennelly	Robin Hood	11	339	42	21

C League

Results

Park Timers	134	108	Park Taverners
John Poyser Karyn Johnson (pb) Andrew Fenton (pb)	33 24 24	24 24 21 12	Pete Dykstra Nick Crowdy Shauna Barstow Paul Andrews (pb)
Sutton Club	114	100	Sutton Mutton
Simon Rumsey	24	24	Mike Proctor
Chester Road Tavern	97	114	Pack Horse Bowling Club
Bill Moores (pb)	21	21 21 21	Tim Bloor Andrew Vickerstaff Mike Vickerstaff

Table

Played

Won

Drawn

Lost

Total

Points

Park Taverners	14	11	0	3	1807	22
Sutton Mutton	14	9	0	5	1683	18

Sutton Club	14	8	1	5	1688	17
Park Timers	14	8	0	6	1711	16
Cock Inn	14	6	1	7	1589	13
Pack Horse Bowling Club	14	6	0	8	1638	12
Prince of Wales	14	5	0	9	1589	10
Chester Road Tavern	14	2	0	12	1486	4

Individual Top Ten

	Team	Played	Total	Highest	Lowest	Week 18
Graham Wallace	Park Taverners	11	333	42	24
Wynne Keith-Davies	Sutton Mutton	14	327	42	21	6
Glyn Bradley	Park Timers	13	318	36	18	18
Shauna Barstow	Park Taverners	14	309	51	18	21
John Poyser	Park Timers	14	300	36	18	33
Mike Proctor	Sutton Mutton	13	291	39	18	24
Peter Wilcox	Cock Inn	13	291	33	18
Andy Ridgway	Prince of Wales	14	276	39	15
Jackie Hulme	Cock Inn	12	273	36	15
Chris Butler	Sutton Club	11	261	39	12

Cars & Vans 4U Question Setters' Trophy

	Wk		Team	Difficulty	Balance	Ent'mnt	Total	Last Yr
1	1	Spec	Ox-fford	10.00	8.39	7.22	25.61	24.69
2	12	GK	Park Timers	10.00	8.02	7.07	25.09	23.61
3	3	Spec	British Flag	7.54	9.96	7.11	24.61	22.17
4	6	GK	Sutton Club	7.28	8.54	5.79	21.60	19.98
5	17	Spec	Chester Road Tavern	6.70	7.91	6.05	20.65	20.47
6	15	Spec	Dolphin Dragons	8.38	5.07	6.97	20.42	22.04
7	5	GK	Ox-fford 'C'	4.80	8.93	5.37	19.10	17.41
8	7	Spec	Wharfies	4.68	8.74	5.44	18.86	14.58
9	16	Spec	Harrington Academicals	4.46	7.97	5.61	18.04	(21.53)
10	15	GK	Dolphin Dragons	5.69	5.69	6.26	17.65	22.12
11	4	GK	Waters Green Rams	5.33	6.10	6.22	17.65	18.84
12	13	Spec	Church House Bollington	4.51	6.40	6.22	17.13	20.49
13	2	GK	Royal Oak	4.64	6.59	5.72	16.96	8.20
14	12	Spec	Harrington 'B'	4.87	5.08	6.28	16.23	(10.27)
15	2	Spec	Sutton Mutton	4.08	8.28	3.44	15.80	(11.50)
16	18	Spec	Weaver	3.68	5.55	5.94	15.17	19.56
17	4	Spec	Pack Horse Bowling Club	2.68	7.89	4.40	14.96	(13.95)
18	13	GK	Church House Bollington	2.62	6.90	5.22	14.74	15.79
19	3	GK	British Flag	2.97	6.09	5.67	14.73	(22.17)
20	6	Spec	Sutton Club	4.73	4.74	5.22	14.68	(19.98)
21	8	Spec	Waters Green Lemmings	2.05	8.10	4.32	14.47	22.21
22	7	GK	Wharfies	4.26	6.55	3.33	14.14	22.03
23	8	GK	Chester Road Tavern	5.36	2.93	5.67	13.96	(20.47)
24	1	GK	Ox-fford	6.75	0.00	6.50	13.25	17.22
25	11	GK	Dolphin	3.65	5.19	4.33	13.17	14.05
26	17	GK	Waters Green Lemmings	2.69	5.76	4.25	12.70	(22.21)
27	5	Spec	Ox-fford 'C'	3.82	2.95	5.79	12.56	19.47
28	9	Spec	Prince of Wales	0.00	8.46	3.83	12.29	(11.16)
29	16	GK	Park Taverners	4.46	1.33	5.67	11.45	(20.43)
30	14	Spec	Robin Hood	3.68	2.08	5.06	10.82	14.01
31	18	GK	Weaver	3.51	0.66	5.83	10.00	9.72
32	10	GK	Plough Horntails	3.51	0.14	5.11	8.76	(16.35)
33	14	GK	Robin Hood	0.00	3.73	4.45	8.18	14.12
34	11	Spec	Dolphin	3.17	0.00	4.67	7.84	20.37
35	9	GK	Nags Head	0.73	1.99	5.11	7.83	(14.19)
36	10	Spec	Cock Inn	2.82	0.78	3.83	7.42	(14.69)

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

Both of the Weaver's sets scored well for Entertainment, and are ranked 11th and 12th in that respect. Most teams found both sets slightly harder than average however, and only a couple scored significantly above their average match scores. Both sets seemed to show a bias towards the teams that went second, which meant that the bias tended to cancel itself out; but because it was more pronounced in the General Knowledge questions, the questions as a whole showed a slight bias towards the teams that went "first first" - 99% to 94%. On an average team score of 129, this would mean a difference of approximately seven points.

Neither set made any impact at the top of the overall table, which means that the Ox-fford win the trophy again this year with their Specialist questions. Bad luck to the Park Timers, who gave them a run for their money, even topping the table on occasions.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2018