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News & Views
2019–20 Season
Week 15

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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 15 – 25 February 2020

By Haydn Thompson, with input from Mark Watson.

Results

The stand–out result this week was the Rushton Diamonds' victory over the Dolphin. The Diamonds were one of only two teams that won by going "second first" – the other being the Sutton Club. In fairness we should point out that the Dolphin were a player short, but on the other hand the Dolphin did have the benefit of what seemed to be a distinct bias in the questions.

Also worthy of mention is the Harrington Academicals' 48–point victory over the Waters Green Rams. This was only the Rams' second defeat of the season, and it allowed the Nags Head to replace them at the top of the B League table (albeit only on goal difference, and the Rams have a game in hand).

Tables

With just three weeks to go, some issues are beginning to be settled.

The Nags Head 'B' need just one point from their two remaining games to secure their second successive A League title – albeit the first under their new name!

The Royal Oak cannot now escape relegation from the A League, and the British Flag must win their three remaining games and hope that the Rushton Diamonds lose both of their last two. The Flag may not wish to be reminded that they still have to play both of the top two; but on the other hand, the Diamonds still have to play second and third.

The issues that matter in the A League could all be decided in a single game next week, when the Nags Head 'B' play the British Flag.

Waters Green Rams are favourites for promotion from the B League, despite their defeat this week, as they're level on points with the Nags Head and have a game in hand. At least one of these two will go up, but the Dolphin Dragons are not out of it yet.

The Chester Road Tavern will return to the C League next season, but any one of four teams could still join them.

In the C League, the top four all have three games left to play and any two of them could go up; but the Park Taverners and Sutton Club have it in their hands (as they say in football).

Individual

It wasn't a great week for scores, either team–wise or individually. The top individual scorer was Alan Hodgson with 45, and there were 42s for Mark Watson and Graham Bailey. Top scorer in the B League was Rob Parkin with 39; in the C League the best score was a 36 for Barbara Taylor. Rob's fellow–Academical Dave Partington, with 33, was the only other person outside the A League to score over 30.

A similar tale is told by the fact that there were only five personal bests (three of them in the C League) and 25 people (fairly evenly spread across the three Leagues) failed to improve on their lowest scores of the season.

I wrote last time that Ashton Davies's lowest score of the season might be enough to put him top of the table this week, and that's exactly what happened. The signs are all in Ashton's favour, but the person most likely to catch him may be Alice Walker. Ashton may be looking for revenge for the outcome of their Brain of Britain duel – not least next week when the Queens host the CHB!

We have a similar situation (table–wise, at least) in the C League, where John Poyser is currently in pole position. Wendy Brown, currently in third place, looks most likely to overhaul him; she hasn't yet played her 'quota' of twelve games. But there are at least three other people who might snatch it at the death.

In the B League, Dave Partington is going to be very difficult to catch.

A League

Results

Nags Head 'B' 153 135 Church House Bollington
Mark Watson 42 39 Ashton Davies
Dolphin 125 132 Rushton Diamonds
Alan Hodgson 45 39 Brian Bogie
Royal Oak 145 160 Weaver
Alan James 39 42 Graham Bailey (pb)

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Nags Head 'B' 12 11 0 1 2025 22
Queens 11 8 0 3 1852 16
Church House Bollington 11 7 0 4 1729 14
Dolphin 12 6 0 6 1874 12
Weaver 11 6 0 5 1741 12
Rushton Diamonds 12 5 0 7 1740 10
British Flag 11 2 0 9 1476 4
Royal Oak 12 1 0 11 1784 2

Individual Top Ten

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 14
Ashton Davies Church House Bollington 11 513 54 39 39
Mark Watson Nags Head 'B' 12 504 51 42 42
Alice Walker Queens 11 501 54 33  
Alan Hodgson Dolphin 12 495 57 39 45
Haydn Thompson Queens 11 459 51 24  
Peter McBride Dolphin 12 420 45 27 27
Brian Bogie Rushton Diamonds 12 411 42 30 39
Graham Bailey Weaver 11 390 42 27 42
Alan James Royal Oak 12 372 42 24 39
Ian Grieve Weaver 11 354 42 18 39
Alan Gilday Weaver 11 354 39 24 27

B League

Results

Robin Hood 112 129 Dolphin Dragons
Jim Kennelly
Jenny Edwards
21
21
27 Dave Turner
Chester Road Tavern 89 141 Nags Head
Chris Moores
Jim Moores
18
18
30
30
Andrew Wright
Paul Prior
Harrington Academicals 150 102 Waters Green Rams
Rob Parkin (pb) 39 27 Adum Carr

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Nags Head 13 10 0 3 1896 20
Waters Green Rams 12 10 0 2 1769 20
Dolphin Dragons 11 8 0 3 1629 16
Harrington Academicals 13 6 0 7 1816 10
Plough Horntails 11 5 0 6 1487 10
Robin Hood 12 4 0 8 1567 8
Waters Green Lemmings 11 4 0 7 1359 8
Chester Road Tavern 11 0 0 11 1084 0

Individual Top Ten

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 14
Dave Partington Harrington Academicals 13 444 48 33 33
Keith Pointon Waters Green Rams 12 390 45 27 24
Liz Horrocks Dolphin Dragons 11 363 48 12 12
Jim Kennelly Robin Hood 11 354 48 21 21
Malcolm Asquith Plough Horntails 11 351 45 21  
Paul Prior Nags Head 11 345 45 18 30
Jon Thompson Waters Green Lemmings 10 330 45 24  
Rob Parkin Harrington Academicals 10 318 39 24 39
Andy Johnson Nags Head 11 312 39 18 18
Alasdair Reid Nags Head 10 309 42 21  

C League

Results

Broken Cross Club 108 94 Sutton Mutton
Anne Goddard
Peter Bullivent
21
21
24 Wynne Keith–Davies
Pack Horse Bowling Club 130 94 Brewers Arms
Andrew Vickerstaff (pb)
Tim Bloor
30
30
24 Kenny Davenport–Slater
Sutton Club 122 87 Harrington 'B'
Simon Rumsey (pb) 27 15
15
John Green
Tom Aindow
Park Timers 158 93 King's Gambit
Barbara Taylor
Andrew Fenton (pb)
Glyn Bradley
36
30
30
15
15
Susan Taylor
Michael Taylor

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Park Taverners 13 10 0 3 1665 20
Sutton Club 13 9 0 4 1641 18
Park Timers 13 8 0 5 1592 16
Sutton Mutton 13 8 0 5 1576 16
Broken Cross Club 14 6 1 7 1473 13
Pack Horse Bowling Club 13 6 0 7 1522 12
Brewers Arms 14 6 0 8 1521 12
Harrington 'B' 13 5 1 7 1509 11
King's Gambit 14 1 0 13 1172 2

Individual Top Ten

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 14
John Poyser Park Timers 13 345 39 21 24
Andy Ridgway Brewers Arms 14 336 36 18 15
Wendy Brown Sutton Club 11 330 45 18 24
John Green Harrington 'B' 13 330 39 15 15
Wynne Keith–Davies Sutton Mutton 10 309 45 24 24
Shauna Barstow Park Taverners 12 306 36 15  
Graham Wallace Park Taverners 11 297 33 18  
Geoff Parkin Harrington 'B' 12 282 33 9 12
Jackie Hulme Broken Cross Club 12 279 33 6 15
Mike Proctor Sutton Mutton 11 267 33 12  

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

  Week   Setters Difficulty Balance Ent'ment Total Last Yr
1 12 Spec Chester Road Tavern 10.00 9.79 7.03 26.82 -15.29
2 4 GK Waters Green Rams 7.16 9.73 6.20 23.09 18.84
3 7 Spec Royal Oak 9.45 7.87 5.15 22.47 8.43
4 1 Spec Rushton Diamonds 8.23 6.63 6.67 21.53
5 4 Spec Park Timers 9.99 4.96 6.47 21.42 18.44
6 6 Spec Queens 5.71 8.98 6.03 20.72 15.92
7 14 Spec Dolphin 7.86 6.28 6.39 20.52 7.84
8 9 GK Broken Cross Club 6.20 9.00 4.43 19.64 18.23
9 2 GK Dolphin Dragons 5.02 8.43 5.65 19.10 17.65
10 6 GK Queens 6.01 6.52 5.86 18.40 21.09
11 3 Spec British Flag 2.77 9.23 6.03 18.03 14.50
12 11 GK Church House Bollington 4.67 7.25 6.09 18.02 11.71
13 13 Spec Weaver 3.24 8.40 6.00 17.64 14.14
14 2 Spec Sutton Mutton 6.18 6.05 4.11 16.34 8.61
15 1 GK Rushton Diamonds 10.00 0.00 6.28 16.28 18.63
16 5 GK Sutton Club 6.63 3.42 6.11 16.15 21.28
17 11 Spec Church House Bollington 4.60 3.54 6.67 14.81 11.85
18 7 GK Royal Oak 4.05 3.97 5.98 14.00 17.10
19 14 GK Dolphin 6.17 2.23 5.56 13.96 20.20
20 12 GK Pack Horse Bowling Club 6.18 1.77 5.97 13.92 -21.93
21 8 Spec Brewers Arms 0.00 9.42 3.86 13.28 -8.05
22 8 GK Nags Head 1.59 7.38 4.08 13.05 -15.49
23 9 Spec Robin Hood 1.61 6.67 4.37 12.66 -15.73
24 15 GK Park Taverners 3.44 3.37 4.97 11.77 21.38
25 15 Spec Waters Green Lemmings 0.80 5.76 4.29 10.84 12.78
26 5 Spec Sutton Club 3.39 0.00 6.19 9.58
27 10 GK Harrington 'B' 0.00 4.16 5.28 9.44 13.84
28 3 GK British Flag 3.63 0.69 5.04 9.36
29 13 GK Weaver 0.39 3.11 4.72 8.22 18.07
30 10 Spec Plough Horntails 0.28 2.84 4.19 7.32 -19.31

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

Specialist Rounds – set by the Waters Green Lemmings

Entertainment marks: A League5.50 B League3.50 C League3.87 Overall 4.29 Last year4.97

Average team score going "first first": 52 Average team score going "second first": 44 Season's average:54

On average, teams going "first first" scored 92%of their average for the season
On average, teams going "second first" scored 85%of their average for the season
On average, the teams going "first first" did 8%better than their opponents

General Knowledge Rounds – set by the Park Taverners

Entertainment marks: A League5.83 B League4.33 C League4.75 Overall 4.97 Last year6.72

Average team score going "first first": 83 Average team score going "second first": 68 Season's average:79

On average, teams going "first first" scored 101%of their average for the season
On average, teams going "second first" scored 91%of their average for the season
On average, the teams going "first first" did 11%better than their opponents

Overall

Average team score going "first first":134 Average team score going "second first":112 Season's average:133

On average, teams going "first first" scored 97%of their average for the season
On average, teams going "second first" scored 88%of their average for the season
On average, the teams going "first first" did 10%better than their opponents

Most teams found this week's questions quite tough – especially those going "second first".

On the Specialist questions, only four of the twenty teams got more than their average scores for the season. Four of those teams were in the C League. On the General Knowledge, seven teams managed to do this.

Overall, five teams did better than their average scores. Four of these teams went "first first", and three of them were in the C League.

The above figures would seem to suggest that there was a distinct bias in favour of the teams that went "first first", who did on average 10% better than their opponents. None of them however won by a margin of less than 10%; there was just one game where the difference was just over this figure, but this is so marginal that on statistical grounds alone, it's difficult to blame the questions for the result.

The Entertainment scores were not great – both sets being in the bottom third of the table. Overall, the Park Taverners' General Knowledge questions did better on Difficulty but the Specialists, set by the Waters Green Lemmings, did better on Balance. The upshot is that there's very little to separate the two sets in the overall table, where they're in 24th and 25th place respectively.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2020