News and Views: 2019–20 Season – Week 5 – 5 November 2019

Results

The C League's two previously unbeaten teams, the Park Taverners and the Brewers Arms, played each other this week; a close match resulted in a win for the Taverners. This leaves us with just one unbeaten team in each League: Nags Head 'B' (A League) and Waters Green Rams (B League), as well as the Park Taverners.

This week we had our first drawn match of the season: in the C League, between the Broken Cross Club and the Harrington 'B'. We also had one game decided by just one point, one by three and another by eight.

Six games were won by the team going "first first", and four went the other way. According to the spreadsheet, the balance was quite good overall; for more details, please see below.

Tables

Of our three unbeaten teams, Nags Head 'B' and Park Taverners top their respective Leagues, but the Waters Green Rams are only second in the B League, on goal difference – largely because the Nags Head have played one game more than them.

This is as it was last week, and in fact there was very little movement anywhere this week. Perhaps the most significant change was that in the C League, Broken Cross Club moved above the Pack Horse Bowling Club after gaining their first point of the season in the aforementioned drawn game.

Individual

There were 21 personal bests this week, while 32 people failed to improve on their lowest scores so far. This may suggest that some people struggled with the questions; not so the Waters Green Lemmings, all four of whom were among the 21 personal bests. Respect to them (even though it wasn't enough to beat the table–topping Nags Head)!

Highest scorer was Ashton Davies, with his second 51 of the season – in only his third game. The next highest scorers were Mark Watson and Keith Pointon, with 45 each; there were also 42s for Graham Bailey, Art Higham and Dave Partington. Top scorer in the C League was John Green with 36.

With none of the A League's top four playing this week, Mark Watson moved up from fifth place to second, behind Alice Walker. There was very little change in the B League table, where Dave Partington is still in top spot, but in the C League no fewer than five players moved above Wendy Brown who was on question–setting duties. Andy Ridgway is now top, but everyone below him has at least one game in hand.

Three of those people have virtually identical records: John Green, John Poyser and Mike Proctor are in third, fourth and fifth places, each with a total of 117 points and a lowest score of 24. The only thing that separates them is that Mike has a highest score of 33 while the two Johns have a 36 each.

A Day at the Palace

In June we were delighted to report that our esteemed Secretary and Lord High Everything Else, Mark Watson, had been awarded the MBE for services to Community Policing.

Last Thursday (7 November) was Mark's Investiture day. You can read more about it (with photographs) here.

A League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

B League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

C League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

It was a mixed week for the Sutton Club's questions, with the General Knowledge ending up in mid–table while the Specialists are only kept off the bottom by the British Flag's General Knowledge set.

Both sets scored quite well for Entertainment, being solidly in mid–table (fifth and sixth out of ten) but much closer in actual scores to the top (6.67) than the bottom (4.11). Perhaps tellingly, they were at least as popular in the C League as anywhere else, whereas the C League normally marks at least one point less than the League average and sometimes as much as two or three points less.

Several teams found the Specialist questions quite difficult, with eight teams (out of 22) managing less than 90% of their average scores. The teams that went second tended to struggle more than those that went first, scoring on average 86% of their averages as opposed to 103% for those that went first. This resulted in a zero score for balance – this week's Specialist questions being (according to the spreadsheet) the most unbalanced since the beginning of last season.

The General Knowledge were much closer to the norm in terms of Difficulty, with 15 of the 22 teams scoring more than their averages. The General Knowledge were also better balanced than the Specialists (according to the spreadsheet), scoring a decent mark in this category.

What bias the spreadsheet did detect in the General Knowledge questions worked against that in the Specialists (teams that went "second first" doing better), so overall the balance was not too bad: teams that went "first first" scored on average 101% of their averages, as opposed to 97% for those that went "second first". On an average team score of 139, this would have made a difference of five or six points – possibly enough to affect the results in three matches, including (obviously) the drawn game between the Harrington 'B' and the Broken Cross Club.

A Day at the Palace

In June we were delighted to report that our esteemed Secretary and Lord High Everything Else, Mark Watson, had been awarded the MBE for services to Community Policing.

Last Thursday (7 November) was Mark's Investiture day. He writes:

"Prince Charles was in the chair and made the actual presentations. There were 84 people there on the day and I was 80th on the list to get mine!

"There were just a couple of well–known names in the recipients: Alfie Boe (Services to Music & Charity) and Rachel Whiteread (Services to Art). I managed to shake Alfie's hand and have a chat with him."

We would just like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mark once again on this richly-deserved honour.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2019