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News & Views
2019–20 Season
Week 9

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A League
B League
C League
Cars & Vans 4U Trophy

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News and Views: 2019–20 Season – Week 9 – 10 December 2019

Results

One of the League's two remaining unbeaten records fell this week, as the Park Taverners were narrowly (and, if the victors will forgive us, somewhat surprisingly) defeated by the Harrington 'B'. This leaves the Nags Head 'B' as the only undefeated team in the League.

At the other end of the scale, the Royal Oak came out victorious in the six–pointer (sorry, I suppose that should be "four–pointer") at the bottom of the A League. The Chester Road Tavern are now the only team yet to mark up a victory this season.

Waters Green Rams brought out the big guns in their four–pointer with the Dolphin Dragons – both Scott Dawson and Bob Thompson playing, for what I suspect may be the first time (although I stand to be corrected). It paid off; the Rams won by 158 points to 141, to go to the top of the B League table.

Tables

At this half–way point of the season, the Nags Head 'B' have a four–point lead at the top of the A League, while in the B League the Waters Green Rams and the 'original' Nags Head team have a similar advantage over the rest of the field. Similarly in the C League, the Sutton Club and the Park Taverners are four points clear of the Brewers Arms in third.

In the B League, no fewer than four teams are level on six points and occupy places four to seven; we can expect some jockeying for position amongst these four in the coming weeks. The equivalent places in the A League are more conventionally spaced, with Rushton Diamonds in most danger of dropping into the relegation zone depending on future results.

Individual

Ashton Davies was top scorer once again this week with 51. There were three scores in the 40s: Haydn Thompson with 45, and Alice Walker and Scott Dawson with 42 each. Top scorer in the C League was Mick Graves with 33.

Ashton is in a commanding position in the A League individual table, with a 21–point lead over three players who are separated only by their respective highest scores: Alan Hodgson, Alice Walker and Mark Watson.

In the B League, Dave Partington has a similar lead over Keith Pointon in second place. The C League is much closer: John Poyser is just six points (two questions, as you don't need reminding) ahead of John Green. But Wendy Brown and Andy Ridgway are only one further question behind; and Wendy has missed a game, so this could prove crucial later on when contestants have played twelve games.

There were only 12 personal bests this week (six of them in the C League), and 14 people failed to better their lowest scores of the season.

A League

Results

Royal Oak 176 114 British Flag
Alan James
Rosalie James
Bill Cawley
Gill Baker (pb)
39
36
33
27
33 Neil Drummond (pb)
Queens 170 110 Rushton Diamonds
Haydn Thompson 45 27 Art Higham
Church House Bollington 166 161 Weaver
Ashton Davies
Ed Baron (pb)
51
39
36
33
33
27
Alan Gilday
Ian Grieve
Graham Bailey
Lesley Davies (pb)

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Nags Head 'B' 7 7 0 0 1200 14
Dolphin 7 5 0 2 1130 10
Church House Bollington 7 5 0 2 1123 10
Queens 7 4 0 3 1169 8
Weaver 7 3 0 4 1089 6
Rushton Diamonds 7 2 0 5 1021 4
Royal Oak 7 1 0 6 1094 2
British Flag 7 1 0 6 929 2

Individual Top Ten

For the full Individual Half–Way table, please click here.

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 9
Ashton Davies Church House Bollington 7 342 54 42 51
Alan Hodgson Dolphin 7 321 57 42  
Alice Walker Queens 7 321 54 33 42
Mark Watson Nags Head 'B' 7 321 51 42  
Haydn Thompson Queens 7 279 48 24 45
Peter McBride Dolphin 7 264 45 27  
Brian Bogie Rushton Diamonds 7 258 42 21 21
Rosalie James Royal Oak 7 246 48 30 36
Graham Bailey Weaver 7 237 42 27 33
Alan James Royal Oak 7 237 42 24 39

B League

Results

Harrington Academicals 132 91 Chester Road Tavern
Dave Partington
Rob Parkin
30
30
27 Mitch Moores
Waters Green Lemmings 125 132 Plough Horntails
Jon Thompson 27 30
30
21
Dave McGuinness
Malcolm Asquith
Pat Jeater (pb)
Dolphin Dragons 141 158 Waters Green Rams
Liz Horrocks
Dave Cooper
Chris Wearne (pb)
36
27
24
42 Scott Dawson

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Waters Green Rams 7 6 0 1 1061 12
Nags Head 7 6 0 1 1057 12
Dolphin Dragons 7 4 0 3 1063 8
Harrington Academicals 7 3 0 4 980 6
Robin Hood 7 3 0 4 942 6
Plough Horntails 7 3 0 4 916 6
Waters Green Lemmings 7 3 0 4 878 6
Chester Road Tavern 7 0 0 7 711 0

Individual Top Ten

For the full Individual Half–Way table, please click here.

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 9
Dave Partington Harrington Academicals 7 276 48 27 30
Keith Pointon Waters Green Rams 7 258 45 27 30
Jim Kennelly Robin Hood 7 243 48 21  
Jon Thompson Waters Green Lemmings 7 234 42 27 27
Liz Horrocks Dolphin Dragons 7 231 42 21 36
Malcolm Asquith Plough Horntails 7 216 36 21 30
Paul Prior Nags Head 6 201 42 24  
Alasdair Reid Nags Head 6 195 42 21  
Rob Parkin Harrington Academicals 6 192 39 27 30
Andy Johnson Nags Head 6 180 39 21  

C League

Results

Park Taverners 119 124 Harrington 'B'
Nick Crowdy (pb)
Pete Dykstra
27
27
27
27
24
Geoff Parkin
John Green
Tom Aindow (pb)
Sutton Mutton 149 107 Park Timers
Mick Graves (pb)
Wynne Keith–Davies
John Stein (pb)
33
30
24
24
24
John Poyser
Andrew Fenton
Brewers Arms 105 140 Sutton Club
Andy Ridgway 27 30
27
Wendy Brown
Paul Heaven (pb)
King's Gambit 75 126 Pack Horse Bowling Club
Helen Hughes (pb)
Susan Taylor
18
18
30 Tim Bloor

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Sutton Club 8 7 0 1 1066 14
Park Taverners 8 7 0 1 1027 14
Brewers Arms 8 5 0 3 933 10
Sutton Mutton 8 4 0 4 987 8
Park Timers 8 4 0 4 970 8
Harrington 'B' 8 3 1 4 955 7
Pack Horse Bowling Club 8 3 0 5 971 6
Broken Cross Club 8 1 1 6 774 3
King's Gambit 8 1 0 7 658 2

Individual Top Ten

For the full Individual Half–Way table, please click here.

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 9
John Poyser Park Timers 8 234 39 21 24
John Green Harrington 'B' 8 228 39 21 27
Wendy Brown Sutton Club 7 225 45 24 30
Andy Ridgway Brewers Arms 8 225 36 18 27
Wynne Keith-Davies Sutton Mutton 8 180 42 24 30
Shauna Barstow Park Taverners 7 174 36 15 15
Tim Bloor Pack Horse Bowling Club 7 174 36 12 30
Kenny Davenport-Slater Brewers Arms 8 174 30 15 18
Simon Rumsey Sutton Club 8 174 27 12 18
Geoff Parkin Harrington 'B' 7 171 33 9 27

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

  Wk   Setters Difficulty Balance Ent'ment Total Last Yr
1 7 Spec Royal Oak 9.55 9.39 5.15 24.09 8.43
2 1 GK Rushton Diamonds 10.00 6.06 6.28 22.34 18.63
3 4 GK Waters Green Rams 7.11 8.80 6.20 22.11 18.84
4 4 Spec Park Timers 10.00 5.60 6.47 22.07 18.44
5 6 Spec Queens 5.54 9.67 6.03 21.23 15.92
6 1 Spec Rushton Diamonds 8.10 6.20 6.67 20.98
7 2 GK Dolphin Dragons 5.74 8.80 5.65 20.19 17.65
8 7 GK Royal Oak 3.16 9.91 5.98 19.05 17.10
9 3 Spec British Flag 2.64 9.27 6.03 17.95 14.50
10 2 Spec Sutton Mutton 6.27 6.68 4.11 17.06 8.61
11 9 GK Broken Cross Club 5.43 7.18 4.43 17.05 18.23
12 6 GK Queens 5.47 1.94 5.86 13.27 21.09
13 8 Spec Brewers Arms 0.00 9.34 3.86 13.20 (8.05)
14 5 GK Sutton Club 6.57 0.00 6.11 12.68 21.28
15 9 Spec Robin Hood 1.60 6.49 4.37 12.45 (15.73)
16 3 GK British Flag 2.49 4.81 5.04 12.35
17 5 Spec Sutton Club 3.42 0.00 6.19 9.61  
18 8 GK Nags Head 0.00 4.72 4.08 8.80 (15.49)

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

The good news about this week's questions is that (according to the spreadsheet) they were very well balanced when taken as a whole. The Specialists showed a moderate bias towards the teams that went second, but the General Knowledge showed a slightly lesser bias towards those that went second (i.e. "first first"). Overall, the spreadsheet found the questions to be perfectly balanced; teams on both sides scored on average 97% of their average scores.

The Broken Cross Club's General Knowledge questions were only slightly harder than average (and indeed gained a better than average score for Difficulty), but in the Robin Hood's Specialist set teams scored only 90% of their average scores. The hardest lot of all was in the Specialist questions, for teams that went "first first" – who scored (on average) only 87% of their averages. Those that went "second first" scored 93% on their selection.

The questions didn't go down too well in the Entertainment stakes; the General Knowledge set are currently 14th (out of 18) on that count and the Specialists are 15th.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2020