News and Views: 2018–19 Season – Week 11 – 29 January 2019

By Haydn Thompson, with input from Mark Watson.

Two games were called off this week due to adverse weather conditions: the Waters Green Lemmings and the Cock Inn were unable to travel to Rushton Spencer and Rainow respectively. In accordance with the League rules, the points for these two games have been awarded to the Rushton Diamonds and the Robin Hood.

This decision was taken with reluctance, but the Committee felt that it was the only practicable option. The biggest issue would have been finding a suitable time to play the games, but also some of the players involved had seen the questions, so we would have needed a complete new set.

Results

In a low–scoring week, the closest results were in the C League. Chester Road Tavern beat the Pack Horse Bowling Club by 99 points to 96, and the Park Timers beat the Harrington 'B' by 106 points to 99.

In the A League there was a good result for the Church House Bollington, who beat the Dolphin by 154 points to 137. This was only the Dolphin's second defeat of the season.

The Plough Horntails also had a good result (in the B League), beating the British Flag by 120 points to 108.

Tables

Victory over the Royal Oak moved the Ox–fford 'C' to the top of the A League table for the first time since the second week of the season, as the Dolphin lost to the Church House Bollington. But the Dolphin are still only one point behind, and they have a game in hand.

The Royal Oak dropped from third to fifth, but only three points now separate the top five teams in the A League.

There was very little change in the B League, where the Harrington Academicals retained top spot with victory over the Nags Head; and none at all in the C League, where the Robin Hood maintained their 100% record with assistance from the weather.

Individual

As already noted, it was a very low–scoring week. Keith Pointon was top scorer with just 39, and there were six scores of 36. Only two people achieved personal bests: take a bow, Keith Bebbington and Billy Stubbs. On a week when there were only seven games (hence 56 players), no fewer than 25 people failed to beat their worst scores of the season.

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.

It was a tough week in the Macclesfield Quiz League, with only one team (the British Flag) managing to score more than their average total. The two sets of questions occupy the bottom two positions in both the Entertainment marks and the overall table.

The Specialist questions, set by the Sutton Mutton, were the hardest we've had so far this season (according to the spreadsheet) and scored zero for difficulty. The balance wasn't too bad, with a slight bias in favour of the teams that went first, but their overall score of 6.50 is the lowest we've had for at least the past three seasons.

It was a similar story for the General Knowledge questions, set by the Brewers Arms, which also scored zero for difficulty. These showed a significant bias towards the teams that went second (first in the Specialists), but as they're compared to a different set of scores they actually did slightly better than the Specialists for balance.

Overall, the teams that went "first first" scored on average 91% of their average scores, while those that went "second first" managed only 85%. On an average team score of 140, this would mean an advantage of eight or nine points to the teams that went "first first".

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2019