News and Views: 2019–20 Season – Week 4 – 22 October 2019

Results

It must be something in the water, because yet again there were several very close matches this week. All three in the A League, one in the B League, and three out of four in the C League, were decided by fewer than ten points; and only one was decided by more than twenty. The exception was a resounding victory for Harrington Academicals over Waters Green Lemmings.

In a week of excellent scoring, the Lemmings were the only team to make less than their average score. King's Gambit registered their best score so far, by some margin, but sadly for them it wasn't enough to beat the table–topping Park Taverners. Even so, it shows they must be getting into the swing of this ...

Eight of the ten games were won by the teams that went "first first", but according to the spreadsheet the questions were as perfectly balanced as you can hope to get. For details, please see below.

Tables

Both Nags Head teams moved to the top of their respective divisions this week. The 'B' are unbeaten in the A League, while in the B League Waters Green Rams are level on points with the original Nags and have a game in hand.

In the C League there are still two unbeaten teams; both have played four games, but Park Taverners have a healthy 'goal difference' advantage over the Brewers Arms.

Individual

Alice Walker was the top individual scorer yet again this week, maintaining her average of 51. There were 48s for Rosalie James, Mark Watson, Alan Hodgson and Dave Partington, and the highest scorer in the C League was Neil Wall with 42.

Alice remains at the top of the A League table, and in fact there is no change in the top five. In the B League Paul Prior moved into second place behind Dave, but there are several players with a game in hand, waiting to pounce. In the C League, Wendy Brown and Andy Ridgway took advantage of Shauna Barstow's week off, to leapfrog her and move into the top two places.

We have our first 'personal best' notices this week, as many people have now played three games or more. Although (as noted above) team scores were generally good, individually there were more 'personal worsts' than 'bests': 25, compared with 21. Nine of the bests, and only six of the worsts, were in the C League; in the A League there were five bests and eight worsts, and in the B League the figures were seven and eleven respectively. This may seem to suggest that the questions suited players in the C League better than those in the other two leagues. The biggest beneficiaries were the Harrington Academicals, Broken Cross Club and King's Gambit – one in the B League and two in the C – with three personal bests each.

A League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

B League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

C League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

Good scoring all round this week. The balance in both sets was excellent, and both Difficulty scores were comfortably better than average. Possibly reflecting this, the Entertainment scores were more than respectable, placing the Specialists (Park Taverners) second in that table and the General Knowledge (Waters Green Rams) fourth – out of eight.

Overall, this week's questions do even better, filling the top two places in the latest table. The Timers' score of 22.57 would have put them in third place (out of 36) last season, behind only the Ox–fford's two sets; the Rams' 20.99 would have put them in eighth.

The Park Timers are well used to finishing as bridesmaids to the Ox–fford, having finished as runners–up four times in a row between 2015 and 2018. This year we may have to wait until the final week to see if they make it five times out of six, or if they can carry off the trophy at last!

Just to look at those Balance scores a little more closely: on the Specialist questions, teams that went first scored on average 110% of their average scores, while those that went second scored 112%. In the General Knowledge, those that went first (second in the Specialists) scored 104%, and those going second scored 105%. Overall, we need to go down to decimal places to register any difference: teams that went "first first" scored 106.65 of their average scores, and those that went "second first" scored 106.96.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2019