News and Views: 2018–19 Season – Week 18 – 26 March 2019

By Haydn Thompson, with input from Mark Watson.

Results and Tables

The most crucial match this week was the one between the Sutton Club and the Chester Road Tavern, where the winners would be promoted along with the Robin Hood – except that the CRT needed to win by at least 15 points. The result was a victory for the CRT by 124 points to 100, so congratulations to them, and commiserations to the Sutton Club – who missed out by just nine points in a total of over 1700.

The Chester Road Tavern's form has shown a marked improvement this season. We put it down partly to their being able to turn out their strongest team on more occasions than previously, and partly also to the continued progress made by Mitch Moores, who has made his first ever Top Ten finish.

And just one more thing about the Chester Road Tavern: they were the only team to win away from home this week! Eight of the nine games were won by the home teams.

In the B League, every game was crucial for at least one team. At the top of the table the teams in contention for the second promotion place all won, which leaves the British Flag not only promoted but champions on goal difference over the Rushton Diamonds. Commiserations to the Nags Head and Harrington Academicals, who were in the race right up to the finish.

The three promotion contenders in the B League were playing the bottom three, so there was no change at the bottom of the table. This means that the Waters Green Lemmings survive to play another season at the same level, while the Park Taverners are relegated along with the Sutton Mutton.

All issues in the A League were settled last week; the Ox–fford are champions with the Ox–fford 'C' as runners up, while the Waters Green Rams and the Dolphin Dragons will be playing in the B League next season.

Individual

It's not often that we get two players with 54 points or more, so congratulations to Ashton Davies and Bob Thompson. Otherwise it was a low–scoring week, with only Alice Walker and Alan Hodgson (42 each) scoring over 40. The highest scorers in the B League were Paul Prior and Neil Drummond with 36 each, and in the C League Peter Bullivent was the top scorer with a personal best 33.

There were only five personal bests this week, and 25 players failed to better their lowest scores of the season.

In the individual tables, Ashton Davies's excellent score meant that he pipped Alice Walker to second place in the A League individual table. Mark Watson (who didn't play this week) is the clear winner however; his 549 (average just a fraction under 50) is, I believe, the highest ever for an 11–game reckoning.

In the B League, none of the top three managed to beat their 11th–best score, so Dave Partington is the champion and Brian Bogie (who didn't play) is runner–up, with Rob Parkin getting the other plate.

Jim Kennelly only needed to turn up really to secure the C League trophy, and he did so despite registering his lowest score of the season. There was no change in the other top three places either, with John Green finishing as runner–up and Wendy Brown in third place.

Question Setters' Trophy

The Weaver's questions failed to challenge the Top Ten, so the Cars & Vans 4U question setters' trophy goes to the Ox–fford yet again. This is their third win in a row, and their seventh in the last eight years. It was their General Knowledge questions that came top this season (for the third time in those seven), and their Specialist set were runners–up. This is only the fifth time this century (nay, Millennium) that the same team has finished in the top two places, and the second for the Ox–fford; the previous occasion on which they did it was in 2006–7.

Congratulations also to the Pack Horse Bowling Club, whose Specialist questions from Week 16 were the best set by a team other than the Ox–fford this season (according to the spreadsheet). And special mention to the Park Timers – so often runners–up to the Ox–fford in recent years – whose Specialist questions from Week 9 received the best marks for Entertainment after the Ox–fford's two sets, with a League average of exactly seven.

A League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

B League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

C League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

Cars & Vans 4U Question Setters' Trophy

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

It was a mid–table finish for the Weaver's General Knowledge questions, and lower mid table for the Specialists.

Both sets were in mid table for Entertainment – in 14th and 18th place respectively.

According to the spreadsheet they were slightly harder than average; teams scored on average 95% of their averages – 90% in the Specialist and 98% in the General Knowledge.

The spreadsheet detected a slight bias in favour of the teams that went "first first". This was more marked in the General Knowledge, where the teams that went "first first" scored on average 101% of their averages and those that went "second first" scored 95%. Overall the figures were 97% for the teams that went "first first" and 93% for those that went "second first". On an average team score of 140 this would have made a difference of about six points. There were no games with a winning margin of less than 17, so if the spreadsheet is corerct then no results are likely to have been affected.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2019