Macclesfield Quiz League
Sponsored by AstraZeneca
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Macclesfield Quiz League |
| Information |
| Secretary's Notes |
| League Structure |
| Questions |
| Money |
| Schedule |
| AGM Matters |
| And Finally ... |
As both A and B Leagues have eight teams, there will normally be three games per week in each League with one team asking questions and the remaining team having a "bye".
Teams in both A and B Leagues will normally only need to provide three Question Masters, the exception to this being for the two weeks of the season in each League where all eight teams play each other and thus there is no team left to act as Question Master. This happens on Weeks 2 and 4 and then again on Weeks 11 and 13. On these occasions, the "Home" team will be obliged to provide a Question Master. Thus each League team will only have to do that once in the season.
For this year we will need seven sets of questions for league matches on most weeks – six sets for the games and one for the archive. On each of the four weeks (as specified above) when all teams in one of the Leagues are playing, we will require eight sets.
Waters Green Tavern remains the centre for collecting questions and returning score sheets. All sets of questions must be at Waters Green Tavern on the Monday before the game.
As was the case last year, every team will have to set both Specialist and General Knowledge questions when it is their turn to do so. My team will set both sets of questions on Week 1 to give everyone else at least a little more time to plan.
The Park Timers are setting all questions for Week 2 and The Cotton Tree will do so on Week 3, and so on. The question setters are listed on the Questions Menu.
As we are missing a team in each League from the ideal "nine–team standard", this does mean that (as in each of the last couple of years) one team in each League will have to do more than their fair share of question setting and set two sets of questions.
The Queens of the Castle are paired against the "vacant space" in the B League, and the Park Timers are paired against the vacant space in the A League, so these are the two teams that must set questions twice.
For the first time in a long time, subscriptions have been increased this year after being set at £50 per team ever since 2013 – making this the first increase in 13 years.
The League's accounts, presented at the AGM by treasurer Marshall Barnard, showed that we have precisely £1.91 in the bank. For some years, we did have a surplus in our account, but of course the number of teams playing has reduced over time and costs for the trophies etc (which is the only thing we spend the money on anyway) have increased, just as the cost of everything has done.
We were actually slightly short of enough money to pay for all the trophies last season, but I was happy to pay the shortfall in funds as a gift to the League, which I don't want any reimbursement for, but it did mean that we needed to discuss putting subscription fees up this year.
Marshall proposed that we increase subs from £50 to £75 per team for this season. This was seconded by Dave McGuinness and accepted by the vast majority of folks at the AGM, so fees will be £75 per team this year.
There was also some discussion about reducing the number of trophies we present each season and this will be reviewed in due course, when we have a quotation for the end of this season.
By far the easiest way for teams to pay would be by Bank Transfer if you can please.
The Macclesfield Quiz League bank account is with Lloyds Bank and account details are as follows:
Account name – Macclesfield Quiz League.
Sort Code – 30–98–97
Account Number – 68552562
Please send £75 to this account and put your team's name as the reference and let me know when you've done so, just so that Marshall can check the money has arrived safely.
If you can't pay this way, please let me know and we'll make other arrangements to collect the £75.
We start with the first games next week on Tuesday 29 October and the last games before the Christmas break will be on Tuesday 17 December. We will then have two weeks off before resuming on Tuesday 7 January 2025.
The final games of the season will be played on Tuesday 1 April 2025.
Marshall Barnard is happy to continue as Treasurer and I am happy to carry on as Secretary / Whatever, and Haydn Thompson remains as our 'Webmaster'. The Macclesfield Quiz League website has been a great success – all thanks to Haydn – and can of course be found at www.maccql.com.
Haydn raised some other matters at the AGM which were all agreed and are summarised here as follows:
• Alice and Haydn have been approached by the Colne Valley Quiz League in Huddersfield who are struggling to find questions for their League. Colne Valley have a different set-up to us but have requested the use of MQL questions – specifically the Specialist rounds – for which they would be willing to pay a fee of some description. After our quiz on a Tuesday evening, the idea is that Colne Valley would use the Specialist questions from that night on the following Monday, which is the day they play their games. Haydn will thus not publish the questions on the MQL website until the day after they're used in Colne Valley – i.e. one week after use in Macclesfield. When there are no up-to-date Specialist rounds available (e.g. in MQL Cup / Plate weeks) questions will be taken from the archives and updated as necessary. Any money received from Colne Valley as payment for this service (after expenses, e.g. postage and stationary costs) will go to pay for the MQL website, which has been paid for entirely by Haydn and Alice up to now.
Haydn adds: subsequent to the AGM, we were informed by Colne Valley that they have decided to go down a different path and will not be using our questions.
• The question marking spreadsheet will now award ten points for Entertainment to the set that received the highest average marks from participating teams, zero to those with the lowest average marks, and others on a pro rata basis. This will increase the effect of the Entertainment marks on the total Cars & Vans scores, as previously (transcribed directly as the average marks out of ten awarded by all teams) the spread was relatively small – last season, 92% (33 out of 36) were between 3.5 and 7, and 75% (27 out of 36) were between 5 and 7.
• This season, the spreadsheet will award only average marks to the easiest questions, highest marks to those of average difficulty, and (as previously) zero to the most difficult. (Difficulty measured by averaging out each team's relative score compared to their average over the season and ranking the weeks against each other.) This was suggested because several people have felt that it is possible for questions to be too easy, and the easiest questions are not necessarily the best.
• Haydn thanked teams for their response last season to his request for match results to be sent to him as soon as possible after the end of the quiz, to be posted on the website – hopefully by tea-time on the Wednesday. As an extension of this, teams were asked to copy their emails / WhatsApp's to Mark Watson as well. Ian Grieve has also said he will drop into the Waters Green each week in the days after the games, to photograph any scoresheets that aren't on the website, and email/WhatsApp them to Haydn and Mark.
• Haydn said that he would be posting a 'Noddy Guide' to the MQL Forum on the website before the start of the 2024–5 season. He also said that anyone who has been unable to get onto the Forum – either because they've forgotten their user name and/or password, or for any other reason – should phone, text or email him (or Ian Grieve). They will be able to remind you of your user name and set a temporary password, which you can then change next time you log in. Any other issues may be more troublesome but should not be insurmountable!
A final item was proposed by Alan James in respect of making sure that scores are recorded correctly on the scoresheets in every game.
Many teams followed a process last season where at the end of each round of questions in both Specialist and General Knowledge, the Question Master added up the round score to the agreement of both teams. Many people who play keep scores of some sort themselves and if there are any issues or disagreements over scores at the end of a game, it can take quite some while to resolve them. Again, this was agreed and the rules have been amended accordingly.
We start with the first games next week on Tuesday 29 October and the last games before the Christmas break will be on Tuesday 17 December. We will then have two weeks offbefore resuming on Tuesday 7 January 2025.
The final games of the season will be played on Tuesday 1 April 2025.
All that remains is a reminder that if you have any problems at all, ring me first as always.
As it is the 21st century, the mobile number is the best to get me on, namely 07434 899513.
My email remains the same as always at mwatsonpc@yahoo.co.uk.
Best wishes to you all for a good season.
© Macclesfield Quiz League 2024