News and Views: 2017–18 Season – Week 15 – 6 March 2018

By Haydn Thompson, with input from Mark Watson.

Results

Once again there were ten games this week, as all eight B League teams played. The top three teams all won, and in the mid–table clash at the Harrington the Waters Green Lemmings secured a comfortable victory over the Academicals. In the opposite fixture the Waters Green Rams had an even more comfortable victory over the Harrington 'B', scoring 195 points – the second best score in all three Leagues this season, just one point behind the Dolphin's total in Week 12.

The closest result was in the C League once again, and once again it involved the Park Timers, who lost by the odd point in 257 to the Pack Horse Bowling Club. Last week the Timers won by the same margin. This week they had a four–point lead going into the last round, but they lost that round by 8 points to 3.

Tables

Congratulations to the Park Taverners on becoming the first team to win promotion this season. Elsewhere in the C League, two close results meant that the Cock Inn moved ahead of the Park Timers into fourth place, and the Pack Horse Bowling Club moved ahead of the Prince of Wales (who didn't play) into sixth.

One more relegation issue was resolved this week, and we now know that the Robin Hood will be joining the C League next season along with the Harrington 'B'. As we've already seen, the top three teams in the B League all won and the bottom three all lost, so the only change was that the Waters Green Lemmings moved two points clear of the Harrington Academicals in mid–table.

The A League championship is now back in the hands of the Ox–fford 'C', after the Dolphin's narrow victory over the Ox–fford.

Individual

It was a very good week for individual scores, with Mark Watson racking up the season's third score of 54. There were also 51s for Scott Dawson, Peter McBride, Bob Thompson and Haydn Thompson. Bob has played three times this season, and has scored 51 each time – if he played every week, he would take some catching.

(Note:: Bob and Haydn are definitely not twins – in fact they are not even related in any way, as far as we know.)

There were also 19 personal bests – a very respectable total for this stage in the season – and five personal worsts (or equal worsts).

In the B League Individual table, Keith Pointon moved into first place as Alasdair Reid and Andrew Wright had both played eleven games before this week. Similarly in the C League, Shauna Barstow lost first place to Wynne Keith–Davies.

A League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

B League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

C League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

Cars & Vans 4U Question Setters' Trophy

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

All questions were set by the Dolphin Dragons. Last year the Dragons scored just over 22 points in total for each set; this year their scores were slightly lower, but both sets are still in the Top Ten for this season (so far – out of 30).

The questions were quite popular, and currently stand fourth and seventh in the Entertainment table (Specialist and GK respectively). Unusually they went down best in the C League, which gave the Specialist rounds their highest score of the season: 6.67. The General Knowledge questions scored 6.50 in the C League and 6.12 overall.

Nine of the ten games were won by the teams going "first first". The only team to buck this trend was the Royal Oak.

The spreadsheet agrees that the questions favoured the teams that went first in the Specialist questions. Both sets were relatively easy – especially the Specialists, where teams scored on average 115% of their average marks over the season. In the General Knowledge the figure was 105%. In each case the teams that went "first first" scored better percentage–wise; in total, the average was 114% going "first first" and 104% going "second first". If this is accurate, it means that on average scores of 135 (over the season), the teams going "second first" were effectively handicapped by approximately 13.5 points.

In the grand scheme of things however, the big news this week is that the Ox–fford's Specialist questions have returned to the top of the table at the expense of the Park Timers' set. This is down to a change in the Balance scores in each case. By way of explaining this, I can only say that the unusually high scores this week will have increased most teams' average scores, and this will result in some minor adjustment of the relative scores each week. Note that the Park Timers' questions were in the General Knowledge rounds, so these two sets are not compared directly.

I would also point out that there is very little difference between the total scores for these two sets of questions. The Ox–fford's score has increased from 25.20 to 25.59, while the Park Timers' score has decreased from 25.77 to 25.25. Last week the Park Timers were 0.55 ahead; this week they're behind by 0.34.

Assuming these two sets remain in such close competition until the end of the season, maybe we should declare it a draw, and each team should keep the trophy for six months!

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2018