Header
Logo

Macclesfield Quiz League
Sponsored by AstraZeneca

You are here:

News & Views
2021–2 Season
Week 3

On this page:

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

Printable Version

For a PDF version of this page, please click here.

News and Views: 2021–2 Season – Week 3 – 7 December 2021

Results

The Sutton Derby this week gave us our first draw of the season, as the Club and the Mutton shared 286 points. This was the only 'live' result in the C League, with the other match being a walkover for the Pack Horse Bowling Club as the Cock Inn were unfortunate enough to get their dates mixed up.

There are only two Derby matches on the fixture list this season, and the other one was also played this week – at the Queens Hotel. This one ended in a narrow victory for the 'Originals'.

Apart from the aforementioned draw, the closest game this week came in the B League – Harrington Academicals beating the Dolphin Dragons by just eight points.

Tables

The Queens remain top of the A League, but they have some tough games coming up and will do well to stay in that position. They're one of three unbeaten teams, but have played one game more than either the Nags Head 'B' or the Poachers.

In the B League there are only two unbeaten teams after Waters Green Lemmings could only field three players and were well beaten by the Park Taverners – who moved to the top of the table, being the only team to have played three and won three.

The only C League team with a 100% record is the Park Timers. They're currently one point behind the Sutton Mutton, who have played a game more but dropped a point in this week's draw. The Timers will go top if they beat the King's Gambit in Week 4, as the Mutton have an extra week off.

Individual

Alice Walker and Mark Watson were joint top scorers this week with 51 each. But it's Alan Hodgson who's emerging as the early front–runner in the A League, with an excellent 150 points from three games.

We have a Top Twelve in the A League this week, as no fewer than five players are tied in eighth place with a total of 84.

In the B League there were three scores of 42. They all came in the same game, and the people concerned were all called Dave: Dave Partington, Dave Barber and Dave Cooper.

(Is Dave Turner turning out for the Dragons this season? That must make it a nightmare for the question masters!)

Dave Barber is currently tied with Anne Jeater at the top of the B League individual table. Anne is listed first, presumably on alphabetical order of first name – they seem to have identical records!

In the C League, the Sutton Club have no fewer than five players in the Top Ten – no mean feat, especially as three of them have only played two games. But the top three are all from their neighbours, the Mutton: Mike Proctor, Mick Graves, and Wynne Keith–Davies.

Questions

Ian Grieve, who co–ordinated this week's questions on behalf of the Waters Green Weavers, has highlighted two of them that seem to have proved quite difficult: the one about the mammal with the biggest eyes, relative to its body (Specialist Round 4, Question 3) and the one about Mrs. Merton's first name (Specialist Round 3, Question 8). I doubt however whether these will have spoiled anyone's evening, especially as one of them went to each team.

It was a game of two halves for the Waters Green Weaver's questions. The General Knowledge are currently top of the table, but the Specialists are bottom (even though their mark would have put them in mid–table last season). Most teams seem to have found the General Knowledge set quite easy, and the spreadsheet could discern no bias – teams on both sides scoring on average 115% of their average scores since the start of last season.

This is all reflected in the Entertainment marks for the General Knowledge questions, which was a respectable 7.00. The overall score of 25.66 will take some beating, although last season they would have finished a close second to the Chester Road Tavern's Specialists questions.

The Entertainment marks for the Specialist questions (6.11) is also perfectly respectable, but competition is hot so far this season and it puts them fifth out of six. The Difficulty mark (6.80) was also slightly better than average, but they were slightly let down by the Balance. According to the spreadsheet there was a marked bias (in the Specialist set) towards the teams that went "second first". Even so – as already pointed out – their overall score of 17.27 would have put them squarely in mid–table last season: 17th out of 34.

Overall, the teams that went "second first" seem to have had a slight advantage over their opponents. But this may be skewed by the fact that one team going "first first" had only three players. If you give that team a score of 110% of their average (which is the average of what other teams scored) the balance is actually very good.

You might say that the Balance mark for the Entertainment questions suffered from this blip. But if that is the case, you would also have to say that the General Knowledge questions benefitted. So I think I'll leave it there!

A League

Results

Poachers 179 151 Rushton Diamonds
Ashton Davies 48 42 Brian Bogie
Queens 174 159 Queen Bs
Alice Walker 51 36
36
Steve Clare
Ian Tams
Dolphin 155 191 Nags Head 'B'
Alan Hodgson 45 51 Mark Watson

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Queens 3 3 0 0 530 6
Dolphin 3 2 0 1 492 4
Nags Head 'B' 2 2 0 0 370 4
Poachers 2 2 0 0 347 4
Rushton Diamonds 3 0 0 3 437 0
Queen Bs 3 0 0 3 427 0
Waters Green Weavers 2 0 0 2 324 0

Individual Top Ten

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 3
Alan Hodgson Dolphin 3 150 54 45 45
Alice Walker Queens 3 147 54 42 51
Haydn Thompson Queens 3 129 48 36 36
Peter McBride Dolphin 3 120 48 30 42
Mark Watson Nags Head 'B' 2 99 51 48 51
Ashton Davies Poachers 2 90 48 42 48
Tony Browne Queen Bs 3 90 42 21 27
Brian Bogie Rushton Diamonds 2 84 42 42 42
Graham Bailey Waters Green Weavers 2 84 42 42  
Ian Tams Queen Bs 3 84 36 24 36
Caroline Massey Queens 3 84 33 24 24
Richard Briand Rushton Diamonds 3 84 30 27 27

B League

Results

Harrington Academicals 161 153 Dolphin Dragons
Dave Partington 42 42
42
Dave Barber
Dave Cooper
Plough Horntails 173 123 Chester Road Tavern
Julian Amey
Anne Jeater
36
36
30
30
Jim Moores
Tony Moores
Park Taverners 141 103 Waters Green Lemmings
Nick Crowdy 33 30 Sunil Peck

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Park Taverners 3 3 0 0 442 6
Nags Head 2 2 0 0 339 4
Dolphin Dragons 3 1 0 2 474 2
Plough Horntails 3 1 0 2 454 2
Harrington Academicals 2 1 0 1 320 2
Waters Green Lemmings 2 1 0 1 248 2
Chester Road Tavern 3 0 0 3 338 0

Individual Top Ten

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 3
Anne Jeater Plough Horntails 3 105 42 27 36
Dave Barber Dolphin Dragons 3 105 42 27 42
Malcolm Asquith Plough Horntails 3 99 33 33 33
Shauna Barstow Park Taverners 3 96 33 30 30
Graham Wallace Park Taverners 3 90 36 27 27
Liz Horrocks Dolphin Dragons 2 87 48 39  
Paul Prior Nags Head 2 84 42 42  
Dave Partington Harrington Academicals 2 81 42 39 42
Alasdair Reid Nags Head 2 78 39 39  
Dave Cooper Dolphin Dragons 2 72 42 30 42

C League

Results

Sutton Club 143 143 Sutton Mutton
Emma Griggs 33 36 Mick Graves
Cock Inn No result Pack Horse Bowling Club
Cock Inn did not attend; Pack Horse Bowling Club win by default

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Sutton Mutton 3 2 1 0 408 5
Park Timers 2 2 0 0 283 4
Sutton Club 3 1 1 1 424 3
Pack Horse Bowling Club 2 1 0 1 106 2
Cock Inn 3 0 0 3 209 0
King's Gambit 1 0 0 1 90 0

Individual Top Ten

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 3
Mike Proctor Sutton Mutton 3 87 36 18 33
Mick Graves Sutton Mutton 3 84 36 24 36
Wynne-Keith-Davies Sutton Mutton 3 81 33 24 24
Emma Griggs Sutton Club 2 66 33 33 33
Chris Butler Sutton Club 3 66 27 18 27
Wendy Brown Sutton Club 3 66 24 21 21
Andrew Fenton Park Timers 2 60 39 21  
John Green Sutton Club 2 54 33 21  
John Poyser Park Timers 2 54 30 24  
Simon Rumsey Sutton Club 2 51 30 21 30

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

  Week   Setters Difficulty Balance Ent'ment Total Last Yr
1 3 GK Waters Green Weavers 8.91 9.75 7.00 25.66 11.37
1 GK Nags Head 'B' 7.80 5.76 7.67 21.23 25.60
3 1 Spec Nags Head 'B' 7.64 5.55 7.06 20.25 23.74
4 2 GK Shamrock Bar 7.16 5.74 6.06 18.95 11.51
5 2 Spec Harrington Academicals 6.82 5.49 6.33 18.64 20.57
6 3 Spec Waters Green Weavers 6.80 4.37 6.11 17.27 18.04

As already discussed, the overall mark for this week's Specialist questions would have put them 17th out of 34 last season. Only time will tell if the apparent high standard of questions so far this season will continue into 2022!

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2021