Macclesfield Quiz League |
News & Views |
2017–18 Season |
Week 7 |
A League |
B League |
C League |
Cars & Vans 4U Trophy |
For a PDF version of this page, please click here.
As discussed in more detail below, scoring this week was very average (this is a fact, not a euphemism!) and there were several close games. The closest game of all was in the A League, where the Dolphin beat the Weaver by just two points. This was only the Dolphin's second win of the season (but they have also drawn one game).
All games in the B League were fairly close, the biggest margin of victory being the twelve points by which the Nags Head beat the Royal Oak.
In the C League there were two fairly close games, and a convincing victory for the Cock Inn over the Chester Road Tavern.
In the A League, the Ox–fford 'C' moved back to the top of the table by winning the game in hand that they had over their stablemates the Ox–fford. The Dolphin moved up two places by virtue of their victory over the Weaver (and the Wharfies being on question setting and asking duty).
With more than one third of the season now played, there is just one point separating the third- and seventh-placed teams in the A League. The Church House Bollington and the Dolphin are third and fourth by virtue of their drawn game in Week 5; the Weaver, the Dolphin Dragons and the Wharfies are all one point behind them. Similarly in the B League, third and sixth are separated by just one point: the Harrington Academicals and the Plough Horntails, who also drew in Week 5, trail the Royal Oak and the Waters Green Lemmings.
There was no change in the B League this week; the top two teams won, but the Plough Horntails opened up a gap between themselves and the Robin Hood with a win over the under–strength Lemmings.
In the C League, the Sutton Mutton moved into second place (behind their stablemates the Sutton Club) by winning their game in hand over the Park Taverners.
Congratulations to Bob Thompson of the Waters Green Rams, whose 51 was the highest score of the week. There were thirteen personal bests – a respectable number for this stage of the season.
In the A League, Haydn Thompson moved to the top of the table for the first time in a very long while (if not ever!). Graham Bailey moved up from fifth place into second, but has played a game more than anyone else in the Top 10.
Dave Partington, who was on question asking duty, was overtaken by no fewer than four people in the B League – dropping from second to sixth. Dave now has a game in hand on all five of the people above him.
In the C League, Jackie Hulme took advantage of Shauna Barstow being on question asking duty to move into the top spot.
Church House Bollington | 121 | 178 | Ox–fford 'C' |
Ed Baron | 36 | 48 | Haydn Thompson |
Dolphin Dragons | 165 | 146 | British Flag |
Robin Morrell (pb) Liz Horrocks (pb) |
48 45 |
36 30 30 |
Neil Drummond (pb) Ian Tams Tony Browne (pb) |
Weaver | 140 | 142 | Dolphin |
Graham Bailey | 42 | 42 | Alan Hodgson |
Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Total | Points | |
Ox–fford 'C' | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 879 | 10 |
Ox–fford | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 825 | 8 |
Church House Bollington | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 909 | 5 |
Dolphin | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 759 | 5 |
Weaver | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 924 | 4 |
Dolphin Dragons | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 765 | 4 |
Wharfies | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 744 | 4 |
British Flag | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 729 | 2 |
Team | Played | Total | Highest | Lowest | Week 7 | |
Haydn Thompson | Ox–fford 'C' | 5 | 237 | 54 | 42 | 48 |
Graham Bailey | Weaver | 6 | 225 | 45 | 30 | 42 |
Alice Walker | Ox–fford 'C' | 5 | 222 | 48 | 36 | 45 |
Brian Bogie | Wharfies | 5 | 210 | 51 | 30 | |
Peter McBride | Dolphin | 5 | 207 | 51 | 33 | 36 |
Ashton Davies | Church House Bollington | 5 | 207 | 51 | 30 | |
Alan Hodgson | Dolphin | 5 | 204 | 45 | 36 | 42 |
Liz Horrocks | Dolphin Dragons | 5 | 195 | 45 | 27 | 45 |
Mark Watson | Ox–fford | 4 | 183 | 48 | 45 | |
Alan Gilday | Weaver | 5 | 183 | 42 | 27 | 27 |
Waters Green Rams | 148 | 142 | Robin Hood |
Bob Thompson (pb) | 51 | 36 | Phil Moss (pb) |
Nags Head | 146 | 134 | Royal Oak |
Andy Johnson (pb) | 36 | 27 27 |
Rosalie James Alan James |
Plough Horntails | 139 | 129 | Waters Green Lemmings |
Anne Jeater (pb) | 39 | 33 27 21 |
Jon Thompson Bob Langstaff Becky Turner (pb) |
Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Total | Points | |
Nags Head | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 896 | 10 |
Waters Green Rams | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 798 | 10 |
Royal Oak | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 919 | 6 |
Waters Green Lemmings | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 799 | 6 |
Harrington Academicals | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 691 | 5 |
Plough Horntails | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 640 | 5 |
Robin Hood | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 832 | 2 |
Harrington 'B' | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 594 | 0 |
Team | Played | Total | Highest | Lowest | Week 7 | |
Alasdair Reid | Nags Head | 6 | 219 | 54 | 24 | 30 |
Alan James | Royal Oak | 6 | 198 | 39 | 27 | 27 |
Jon Thompson | Waters Green Lemmings | 6 | 192 | 42 | 24 | 33 |
Jim Kennelly | Robin Hood | 6 | 189 | 4 | 21 | 27 |
Andrew Wright | Nags Head | 6 | 189 | 36 | 27 | 27 |
Dave Partington | Harrington Academicals | 5 | 186 | 48 | 30 | |
Keith Pointon | Waters Green Rams | 5 | 186 | 45 | 27 | 39 |
Rosalie James | Royal Oak | 6 | 177 | 45 | 21 | 27 |
Andy Johnson | Nags Head | 6 | 159 | 36 | 18 | 36 |
Bob Langstaff | Waters Green Lemmings | 5 | 153 | 42 | 24 | 27 |
Malcolm Asquith | Plough Horntails | 5 | 153 | 39 | 24 | 54 |
Sutton Club | 131 | 122 | Park Timers |
Paul Heaven Simon Rumsey (pb) Emma Griggs (pb) |
30 27 24 |
36 | John Poyser (pb) |
Prince of Wales | 103 | 108 | Sutton Mutton |
Tim Hayes Kenny Davenport-Slater |
18 18 |
21 | Wynne Keith-Davies |
Cock Inn | 137 | 99 | Chester Road Tavern |
Peter Wilcox (pb) | 33 | 21 | Mitch Moores |
Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Total | Points | |
Sutton Club | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 734 | 9 |
Sutton Mutton | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 624 | 8 |
Park Taverners | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 641 | 6 |
Park Timers | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 630 | 6 |
Cock Inn | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 725 | 5 |
Prince of Wales | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 677 | 4 |
Pack Horse Bowling Club | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 592 | 4 |
Chester Road Tavern | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 679 | 2 |
Team | Played | Total | Highest | Lowest | Week 7 | |
Jackie Hulme | Cock Inn | 6 | 159 | 33 | 21 | 27 |
Shauna Barstow | Park Taverners | 5 | 147 | 51 | 15 | |
Wynne Keith-Davies | Sutton Mutton | 5 | 144 | 39 | 21 | 21 |
Andy Ridgway | Prince of Wales | 6 | 144 | 39 | 12 | 15 |
John Poyser | Park Timers | 5 | 141 | 36 | 18 | 36 |
Peter Wilcox | Cock Inn | 5 | 141 | 33 | 21 | 33 |
Glyn Bradley | Park Timers | 5 | 126 | 36 | 15 | 30 |
Petyer Bullivent | Cock Inn | 6 | 120 | 30 | 12 | 24 |
Graham Wallace | Park Taverners | 4 | 114 | 30 | 27 | |
Tony Moores | Chester Road Tavern | 5 | 114 | 30 | 15 | 15 |
Wk | Difficulty | Balance | Ent'ment | Total | Last Year | |||
1 | 3 | Spec | British Flag | 8.51 | 8.88 | 7.11 | 24.50 | 24.69 |
2 | 6 | GK | Sutton Club | 8.66 | 9.64 | 5.79 | 24.09 | 19.98 |
3 | 1 | Spec | Ox–fford | 10.00 | 6.78 | 7.22 | 24.00 | 22.17 |
4 | 4 | GK | Waters Green Rams | 5.91 | 7.57 | 6.22 | 19.70 | 18.84 |
5 | 2 | GK | Royal Oak | 5.14 | 8.31 | 5.72 | 19.17 | 8.20 |
6 | 5 | GK | Ox–fford 'C' | 5.50 | 8.14 | 5.37 | 19.01 | 17.41 |
7 | 1 | Spec | Ox–fford | 8.15 | 4.33 | 6.50 | 18.98 | 17.22 |
8 | 7 | Spec | Wharfies | 5.66 | 7.47 | 5.44 | 18.57 | 14.58 |
9 | 3 | GK | British Flag | 3.62 | 7.70 | 5.67 | 16.99 | |
10 | 2 | Spec | Sutton Mutton | 5.09 | 8.38 | 3.44 | 16.91 | (11.50) |
11 | 4 | Spec | Pack Horse Bowling Club | 3.92 | 8.15 | 4.40 | 16.47 | (13.95) |
12 | 7 | GK | Wharfies | 4.97 | 7.37 | 3.33 | 15.68 | 22.03 |
13 | 6 | Spec | Sutton Club | 5.73 | 4.54 | 5.44 | 15.50 | |
14 | 5 | Spec | Ox–fford 'C' | 5.01 | 3.19 | 5.79 | 13.98 | 19.47 |
For the full spreadsheet, please click here.
The Wharfies' questions were well balanced. In each half there was a slight bias in favour of the teams that went second (104% to 98% in the Specialist, and 102% to 96% in the General Knowledge). Overall there was a minuscule bias in favour of the teams that went "first first". This is borne out by the fact that five of these teams won and four of them lost.
The Specialist questions were slightly easier than average, and the GK slightly harder; overall they were as close to exactly average as makes no difference – on average, teams scored 99.5% of their average scores.
The Entertainment marks however are a different matter. The Specialist questions received a more or less average score, but
the General Knowledge were not popular – particularly in the C League, where
they scored 1.83 out of 10. One contestant described them as possibly the
worst set of questions he had seen in 17 years, and (he added) no wonder we are losing teams. Strong stuff ...
It's true that there were a few obvious errors in the questions: Pirates of Penzance for HMS Pinafore, and in two cases a pair of questions that clearly should have gone to opposite sides went not just to the same side but to the same person. (The result, no doubt, of questions being moved at the last minute; this is not the first time that's happened.) Some people felt that it was unreasonable to ask for the population of Sweden (or, presumably, the Netherlands), even with what might be described as generous leeway (approximately 9% one way, and over 10% the other). An anonymous contributor to Nick's blog nominated this as an Armadillo question (i.e. a candidate for the worst, or most obscure, question of the season). Some people also identified one or more questions that had already been asked recently.
But ... the worst questions ever?
In his blog, Nick Peck – normally very slow to criticise – wrote of "far too many on TV and film and also an imbalance on sport." I counted eleven questions on TV and four on film, with one more (the Brideshead Revisited question) that could be construed as both film and TV but was actually about a stately home. I agree that eleven is probably too many for TV, but overall I counted 32 on Arts & Entertainment. When I set questions I reckon to allocate three questions per person in this wide and varied category; this was four.
As for sport: I counted seven questions – three to the team going first (in the GK) and four to the one going second. Of these, two were the two "players in a team" questions, both of which went to the same player (in team two) – clearly, as discussed above, the result of a simple error that many of us have been guilty of in the past. Other than this I can see no imbalance.
I personally felt that apart from the obvious errors mentioned a few paragraphs ago, the questions were basically quite good. Our team marked them down for these errors, but if I remember correctly we scored them 6 or 7 out of 10.
If the C League teams were marking them 1 or 2 out of 10 (which they were), maybe this goes to prove what I've often said before: that it only takes a few howlers to get people's backs up.
If you are a member of one of the teams that marked these questions particularly lowly, I would be interested to hear your views. Please email haydn@maccql.com, and I will post your comments in a future News & Views.
© Macclesfield Quiz League 2018