News and Views: 2019–20 Season – Week 17 – 10 March 2020

Results

There were a couple of notable results in the A League this week.

Two weeks ago, the Church House Bollington and Rushton Diamonds were separated by three places in the table. The Diamonds ensured their A League survival last week, and this week they beat the Church House, by just four points. The Church House are now in 5th place – just one place above the Diamonds – although they will finish at least fourth if they beat the Weaver in their final game next week.

The Weaver were themselves involved in the other surprising result this week, beating the Nags Head 'B' by an even closer margin (three points). This was only the Nags' second defeat in the League this season, although we should maybe point out that they didn't have their strongest team out.

Tables

In the B League, Waters Green Rams and Dolphin Dragons both won, to remain in second and third places. As we pointed out last week, these two teams play each other in the final game of the season next week; and it will be Squeaky Bum Time at the Waters Green. The Dragons need to win by at least 12 points to join the Nags Head in the A League next season. If they do that, and score 140 points or more, they will finish above the Nags; and if the Rams also score 131 or more, the Nags will miss out.

Hopefully someone knows what will happen if the second and third placed teams finish level on both points and goal difference ...

Things are no less tense at the other end of the B League. There are three teams on 10 points, and the two in greatest danger – Plough Horntails and Waters Green Lemmings – play each other in the final game next week. The losing team will be joining the Chester Road Tavern in the C League next season ... unless, that is, the Horntails lose but score 105 points or more. Their average so far this season is a shade under 132 ...

That would be bad news for the Robin Hood, who will also be hoping that that match (between the Horntails and the Lemmings) doesn't end in a draw.

In the C League, the top four teams all won this week so it all comes down to the final games. The Park Taverners and the Sutton Club are short–priced favourites to play in the B League next year; the Sutton Mutton need to win their match against the Park Timers, and post a very good score in the process, to take advantage of any slip–up by either of the top two.

Individual

In another low–scoring week, the top scorers were Alan Hodgson and Haydn Thompson, each with 45. Top scorer in the B League was Keith Pointon with 39, and in the C League it was Wynne Keith–Davies with 36.

Alice Walker scored 42, and is now top of the A League Individual table – but only by dint of having a higher lowest score than Ashton Davies. One of these two will take the title this year.

No one can now catch Dave Partington at the top of the B League table. In the C League, Wynne Keith–Davies not only displaced John Poyser in top spot but opened up a three–question lead. With one game to play, John is also handicapped (if that's the right word) by having a significantly–better lowest score (having had his three lowest scores discounted). Wendy Brown must score at least 15 more than Wynne (and no more than three less than John) to snatch the title at the last gasp; and there are several others who are not yet mathematically out of the running.

There were only nine personal bests this week, and only nine people failed to beat their lowest scores of the season.

A League

Results

British Flag	120	171	Queens
Phil Davies	33	45 42 39	Haydn Thompson Alice Walker Stuart Orford (pb)
Church House Bollington	142	146	Rushton Diamonds
Bob Gratton	36	39	Brian Bogie
Weaver	141	138	Nags Head 'B'
Ian Grieve Alan Gilday	33 33	30 30	Laurence Plant Paul Morrissey
Royal Oak	133	149	Dolphin
Bill Cawley	33	45 36 24	Alan Hodgson Peter McBride John Brown (pb)

Table

	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Total	Points
Nags Head 'B'	14	12	0	2	2302	24
Queens	13	10	0	3	2171	20
Weaver	13	8	0	5	2047	16
Dolphin	14	7	0	7	2153	14
Church House Bollington	13	7	0	6	2009	14
Rushton Diamonds	13	6	0	7	1886	12
British Flag	13	2	0	11	1725	4
Royal Oak	13	1	0	12	1917	2

Individual Top Ten

	Team	Played	Total	Highest	Lowest	Week 17
Alice Walker	Queens	13	513	54	42	42
Ashton Davies	Church House Bollington	13	513	54	39	33
Mark Watson	Nags Head 'B'	13	504	51	42
Alan Hodgson	Dolphin	14	501	57	42	45
Haydn Thompson	Queens	13	486	51	39	45
Peter McBride	Dolphin	14	435	45	27	36
Brian Bogie	Rushton Diamonds	13	420	42	33	39
Graham Bailey	Weaver	13	405	42	30	30
Ian Grieve	Weaver	13	375	42	27	33
Alan James	Royal Oak	13	375	42	24	27

B League

Results

Chester Road Tavern	101	126	Waters Green Lemmings
Mitch Moores (pb)	33	24	Nick Peck
Dolphin Dragons	141	127	Plough Horntails
Dave Cooper Chris Wearne (pb)	30 27	33	Julian Amey (pb)
Waters Green Rams	123	117	Robin Hood
Keith Pointon	39	24 24	Tony Wilkinson Lorraine Hilton

Table

	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Total	Points
Nags Head	14	11	0	3	2022	22
Waters Green Rams	13	11	0	2	1892	22
Dolphin Dragons	13	10	0	3	1883	20
Harrington Academicals	13	6	0	7	1816	12
Robin Hood	14	5	0	9	1816	10
Plough Horntails	13	5	0	8	1712	10
Waters Green Lemmings	13	5	0	8	1587	10
Chester Road Tavern	13	0	0	13	1265	0

Individual Top Ten

	Team	Played	Total	Highest	Lowest	Week 17
Dave Partington	Harrington Academicals	13	444	48	33
Keith Pointon	Waters Green Rams	13	402	45	27	39
Liz Horrocks	Dolphin Dragons	13	372	48	21	21
Jim Kennelly	Robin Hood	12	363	48	21
Paul Prior	Nags Head	12	363	45	21
Jon Thompson	Waters Green Lemmings	12	351	45	21	21
Malcolm Asquith	Plough Horntails	12	351	45	21
Alasdair Reid	Nags Head	11	345	42	21
Rob Parkin	Harrington Academicals	10	318	39	24
Andy Johnson	Nags Head	12	312	39	18

C League

Results

Pack Horse Bowling Club	113	136	Park Taverners
Michael Murphy Tim Bloor Mike Vickerstaff	21 21 21	30 27 27	Graham Wallace Nick Crowdy (pb) Shauna Barstow
Sutton Mutton	137	97	Harrington 'B'
Wynne Keith–Davies John Stein (pb)	36 24	24 24	John Green Geoff Parkin
Park Timers	114	94	Broken Cross Club
Tim Brewin (pb)	33	21	Peter Wilcox
King's Gambit	97	118	Sutton Club
Sam Baker (pb)	27	27	Chris Butler

Table

	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Total	Points
Park Taverners	15	11	0	4	1876	22
Sutton Club	15	11	0	4	1873	22
Sutton Mutton	15	10	0	5	1825	20
Park Timers	15	9	0	6	1800	18
Brewers Arms	15	7	0	8	1606	14
Broken Cross Club	15	6	2	8	1567	14
Pack Horse Bowling Club	16	6	1	8	1635	13
Harrington 'B'	15	5	1	9	1682	11
King's Gambit	15	1	0	14	1269	2

Individual Top Ten

	Team	Played	Total	Highest	Lowest	Week 17
Wynne Keith–Davies	Sutton Mutton	12	360	45	15	36
John Poyser	Park Timers	15	351	39	24	15
Wendy Brown	Sutton Club	12	348	45	18
John Green	Harrington 'B'	15	339	39	21	24
Andy Ridgway	Brewers Arms	15	336	36	18
Graham Wallace	Park Taverners	13	327	33	18	30
Shauna Barstow	Park Taverners	14	318	36	15	27
Geoff Parkin	Harrington 'B'	14	303	33	15	24
Mike Proctor	Sutton Mutton	13	291	33	15	15
Jackie Hulme	Broken Cross Club	13	285	33	12	12

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

	Wk		Setters	Difficulty	Balance	Ent'ment	Total	Last Yr
1	12	Spec	Chester Road Tavern	10.00	9.67	7.03	26.70	(15.29)
2	4	GK	Waters Green Rams	8.00	9.59	6.20	23.79	18.84
3	7	Spec	Royal Oak	9.43	8.02	5.15	22.60	8.43
4	17	Spec	Nags Head	7.74	8.31	6.34	22.38	15.49
5	4	Spec	Park Timers	9.96	5.72	6.47	22.15	18.44
6	9	GK	Broken Cross Club	7.35	9.60	4.43	21.38	18.23
7	1	Spec	Rushton Diamonds	8.22	6.40	6.67	21.29
8	6	Spec	Queens	5.63	9.24	6.03	20.90	15.92
9	16	Spec	Harrington Academicals	5.92	8.76	5.89	20.57	18.04
10	2	GK	Dolphin Dragons	6.52	8.32	5.65	20.49	17.65
11	14	Spec	Dolphin	7.85	6.13	6.39	20.37	7.84
12	11	GK	Church House Bollington	6.27	7.28	6.09	19.63	11.71
13	6	GK	Queens	7.20	5.89	5.86	18.95	21.09
14	3	Spec	British Flag	2.82	9.26	6.03	18.11	14.50
15	5	GK	Sutton Club	7.65	4.28	6.11	18.04	21.28
16	13	Spec	Weaver	3.29	8.19	6.00	17.48	14.14
17	1	GK	Rushton Diamonds	10.00	0.00	6.28	16.28	18.63
18	7	GK	Royal Oak	5.92	4.37	5.98	16.27	17.10
19	2	Spec	Sutton Mutton	6.25	5.90	4.11	16.26	8.61
20	8	GK	Nags Head	4.17	7.61	4.08	15.85
21	14	GK	Dolphin	7.33	2.71	5.56	15.60	20.20
22	12	GK	Pack Horse Bowling Club	7.28	2.10	5.97	15.35	(21.93)
23	11	Spec	Church House Bollington	4.66	3.20	6.67	14.53	11.85
24	8	Spec	Brewers Arms	0.00	9.69	3.86	13.55
25	15	GK	Park Taverners	5.39	3.06	4.97	13.42	21.38
26	9	Spec	Robin Hood	1.60	7.13	4.37	13.10	(15.73)
27	10	GK	Harrington 'B'	2.99	4.13	5.28	12.40	13.84
28	17	GK	Brewers Arms	3.16	3.73	4.62	11.51	8.05
29	13	GK	Weaver	3.29	3.36	4.72	11.37	18.07
30	3	GK	British Flag	5.53	0.41	5.04	10.99
31	15	Spec	Waters Green Lemmings	0.80	5.49	4.29	10.57	12.78
32	5	Spec	Sutton Club	3.41	0.00	6.19	9.60
33	10	Spec	Plough Horntails	0.32	3.11	4.19	7.62	(19.31)
34	16	GK	Kings Gambit	0.00	5.12	2.28	7.40

Specialist Rounds

Entertainment marks:

A League

7.00

B League

6.83

C League

5.62

Overall

6.34

Last year

5.50

Average team score going "first first":

59

Average team score going "second first":

60

Season's average:

55

On average, teams going "first first" scored	105%	of their average for the season
On average, teams going "second first" scored	109%	of their average for the season
On average, the teams going "second first" did	4%	better than their opponents

General Knowledge Rounds

Entertainment marks:

A League

3.50

B League

5.00

C League

5.37

Overall

4.62

Last year

3.89

Average team score going "first first":

71

Average team score going "second first":

63

Season's average:

77

On average, teams going "first first" scored	92%	of their average for the season
On average, teams going "second first" scored	83%	of their average for the season
On average, the teams going "first first" did	11%	better than their opponents

Overall

Average team score going "first first":

130

Average team score going "second first":

123

Season's average:

132

On average, teams going "first first" scored	98%	of their average for the season
On average, teams going "second first" scored	94%	of their average for the season
On average, the teams going "first first" did	4%	better than their opponents

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

Scores this week were slightly lower than average, with the General Knowledge seemingly rather tougher than the Specialists.

The Specialist questions (set by the Nags Head) scored well all round, and are currently in a very creditable fourth place in the overall table.

The General Knowledge (set by the Brewers Arms) received below average marks in all three categories, and are in 28th place (out of 34).

A slight bias in the Specialist questions, towards the teams that went second, was more than cancelled out (according to the spreadsheet) by a more significant bias in the General Knowledge towards the teams that went second in this half ("first first"). Overall, the spreadsheet suggested a slight bias of 4% towards the teams that went "first first". On an average score of 126, this may have made a difference of five points, and there were a couple of games where the result may have been affected. However, as has been said before: this apparent bias was not great, and it would be unwise to read too much into these figures.

Over to the Nags Head 'B' now, to see if they can beat the Chester Road Tavern's excellent score and take the trophy for the fourth year in a row – and the eighth in the last nine years (albeit the first time under their new name!)

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2020