Macclesfield Quiz League
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Macclesfield Quiz League |
| News & Views |
| 2021–2 Season |
| Week 1 |
| A League |
| B League |
| C League |
| Cars & Vans 4U Trophy |
For a PDF version of this page, please click here.
Macclesfield Quiz League is off again, after a hiatus of just over a season (and about twenty months on the calendar) due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of the 25 teams that took part in the 2019–20 season, four have bid farewell (for now, at least) and two others have merged. This leaves us with 20 teams, so for 2021–2 we have two leagues of seven teams and one with six.
The four teams that have resigned are the Royal Oak, the Robin Hood, the Harrington 'B' and the Brewers Arms. And the Weaver have merged with the Waters Green Rams to form the Waters Green Weavers.
There are also three changes of venue and team name:
| • | Church House Bollington have moved round the corner to the Poachers (which is good news for me as it's much quicker to type) |
| • | Broken Cross Club have returned, after just one actual season away, to their spiritual home at the Cock Inn |
| • | British Flag have moved to the Queens Hotel, playing as the Queen Bs |
In addition, the King's Gambit are expecting to move, but have yet to settle on a new home. They have plenty of time to find one, as their first home game is not until Week 5 – on 11 January 2022! (They were scheduled to play the Brewers Arms / Shamrock Bar in Week 1, but the latter were forced to withdraw at the last minute.)
The ongoing pandemic was no doubt a factor in some if not all of the resignations, and we sincerely hope that some or all of the absent teams will feel able to return in future seasons as matters (hopefully) continue to improve in that regard.
There was only one really close game this week: in the A League, the Poachers beat Waters Green Weavers by 168 points to 166. Next closest was in the C League, where Park Timers scored 143 to the Sutton Club's 131.
The highest team scores were 186 to the Queens, 177 to the Dolphin, and 174 to the Dolphin Dragons. Two teams came very close to a tie for the highest score in the C League: Sutton Mutton with 144 and Park Timers with 143.
The Cars & Vans 4U spreadsheet shows an excellent score in the Specialist rounds for the Park Timers: 71, compared with their average last season (two years ago) of 50.
As is inevitable after the first round of matches, the League positions depend firstly on who won this week, and who lost, and secondly who scored most (or least) points. The three teams at the top of the respective leagues are the Queens, Dolphin Dragons, and Sutton Mutton.
Top scorer this week was Alice Walker with 54; Alan Hodgson was a close second with 51. Liz Horrocks was the top scorer in the B League with 48, and Andrew Fenton in the C League with 39.
There were a total of ten scores above 40: seven in the A League and three in the B League.
| Waters Green Weavers | 166 | 168 | Poachers |
| Graham Bailey Ian Grieve |
42 42 |
42 | Ashton Davies |
| Rushton Diamonds | 137 | 186 | Queens |
| Chris Bogie | 33 | 54 | Alice Walker |
| Queen Bs | 123 | 177 | Dolphin |
| Neil Drummond | 27 | 51 | Alan Hodgson |
| Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Total | Points | |
| Queens | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 186 | 2 |
| Dolphin | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 177 | 2 |
| Poachers | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 168 | 2 |
| Waters Green Weavers | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 166 | 0 |
| Rushton Diamonds | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 137 | 0 |
| Queen Bs | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 123 | 0 |
| Nags Head 'B' | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Team | Played | Total | Highest | Lowest | Week 1 | |
| Alice Walker | Queens | 1 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 |
| Alan Hodgson | Dolphin | 1 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 |
| Haydn Thompson | Queens | 1 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 |
| Peter McBride | Dolphin | 1 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 |
| Ashton Davies | Poachers | 1 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 |
| Graham Bailey | Waters Green Weavers | 1 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 |
| Ian Grieve | Waters Green Weavers | 1 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 |
| Alan Gilday | Waters Green Weavers | 1 | 36 | 36 | 36 | 36 |
| Ed Baron | Poachers | 1 | 36 | 36 | 36 | 36 |
| Caroline Massey | Queens | 1 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 |
| Chris Bogie | Rushton Diamonds | 1 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 |
| Nags Head | 163 | 159 | Harrington Academicals |
| Paul Prior | 42 | 39 | Dave Partington |
| Dolphin Dragons | 174 | 151 | Plough Horntails |
| Liz Horrocks | 48 | 42 | Anne Jeater |
| Chester Road Tavern | 105 | 153 | Park Taverners |
| Mitch Moores | 24 | 33 | Shauna Barstow |
| Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Total | Points | |
| Dolphin Dragons | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 174 | 2 |
| Nags Head | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 163 | 2 |
| Park Taverners | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 153 | 2 |
| Harrington Academicals | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 159 | 0 |
| Plough Horntails | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 151 | 0 |
| Chester Road Tavern | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 105 | 0 |
| Waters Green Lemmings | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Team | Played | Total | Highest | Lowest | Week 1 | |
| Liz Horrocks | Dolphin Dragons | 1 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 |
| Anne Jeater | Plough Horntails | 1 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 |
| Paul Prior | Nags Head | 1 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 |
| Alasdair Reid | Nags Head | 1 | 39 | 39 | 39 | 39 |
| Dave Partington | Harrington Academicals | 1 | 39 | 39 | 39 | 39 |
| Dave Barber | Dolphin Dragons | 1 | 36 | 36 | 36 | 36 |
| Rob Parkin | Harrington Academicals | 1 | 36 | 36 | 36 | 36 |
| Alan James | Harrington Academicals | 1 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 |
| Malcolm Asquith | Plough Horntails | 1 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 |
| Shauna Barstow | Park Taverners | 1 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 |
| Park Timers | 143 | 131 | Sutton Club |
| Andrew Fenton | 39 | 33 | John Green |
| Sutton Mutton | 144 | 103 | Cock Inn |
| Mike Proctor | 36 | 27 | Jackie Hulme |
| Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Total | Points | |
| Sutton Mutton | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 144 | 2 |
| Park Timers | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 143 | 2 |
| Sutton Club | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 131 | 0 |
| Cock Inn | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 103 | 0 |
| King's Gambit | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pack Horse Bowling Club | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Team | Played | Total | Highest | Lowest | Week 1 | |
| Andrew Fenton | Park Timers | 1 | 39 | 39 | 39 | 39 |
| Mike Proctor | Sutton Mutton | 1 | 36 | 36 | 36 | 36 |
| Glyn Bradley | Park Timers | 1 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 |
| John Green | Sutton Club | 1 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 |
| Wynne Keith-Davies | Sutton Mutton | 1 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 |
| John Poyser | Park Timers | 1 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 |
| Jackie Hulme | Cock Inn | 1 | 27 | 27 | 27 | 27 |
| Mick Graves | Sutton Mutton | 1 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| Peter Wilcox | Cock Inn | 1 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 |
| Simon Rumsey | Sutton Club | 1 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 |
| Wendy Brown | Sutton Club | 1 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 |
All questions were set by the Nags Head 'B'. They were originally set for the final week in the 2019–20 season, which was cancelled due to the pandemic.
| Week | Setters | Difficulty | Balance | Ent'ment | Total | Last Yr | ||
| 1 | 1 | GK | Nags Head 'B' | 8.08 | 5.71 | 7.67 | 21.46 | 25.60 |
| 2 | 1 | Spec | Nags Head 'B' | 7.91 | 5.96 | 7.06 | 20.93 | 23.74 |
Both sets scored well for Entertainment and Difficulty, but the marks for Balance were only average. However, the imbalances in the two sets cancelled each other out (according to the spreadsheet); the teams that went "first first" did better in the Specialist set, and the teams that went "second first" did better in the General Knowledge. This was good for the overall fairness of the evening's questions, but suggests that the Nags Head 'B' may not pull off a twelfth win in the Cars & Vans 4U Ltd Trophy.
Even so, total scores of 21.46 and 20.93 are by no means to be sniffed at; they would have finished sixth and eighth respectively last season.
| Entertainment marks: | A League | 7.50 | B League | 7.17 | C League | 6.5 | Overall | 7.06 | Last year | 7.17 |
This is an excellent score; last season (2019–20) the highest Entertainment mark was 7.03, scored by the Chester Road Tavern.
The "Last year" score is actually for the Ox–fford's questions in the 2018–29 season – and the same goes for the General Knowledge score (below). As already mentioned, this week's questions were originally set for the 2019–20 season.
| On average, teams going "first first" scored | 112% | of their average for the season |
| On average, teams going "second first" scored | 104% | of their average for the season |
| On average, the teams going "first first" did | 8% | better than their opponents |
This shows that the Specialist questions were significantly easier than average, particularly for the teams going "first first". But there was a fairly significant imbalance, resulting in an average mark for Balance.
| Entertainment marks: | A League | 7.67 | B League | 7.00 | C League | 7.00 | Overall | 7.22 | Last year | 7.22 |
This is an even better score!
| On average, teams going "first first" scored | 107% | of their average for the season |
| On average, teams going "second first" scored | 115% | of their average for the season |
| On average, the teams going "second first" did | 7% | better than their opponents |
Like the Specialist questions, the General Knowledge were significantly easier than average, but showed a marked imbalance. This time it was the teams going "second first" that had the easier run.
| On average, teams going "first first" scored | 109% | of their average for the season |
| On average, teams going "second first" scored | 110% | of their average for the season |
| On average, the teams going "second first" did | 1% | better than their opponents |
Not surprisingly, as both the Specialist and General Knowledge questions were significantly easier than average, the same goes for the questions overall. As already mentioned, both sets seemed to show a significant (although not outrageous) bias, but the two cancelled each other out – giving an overall balance that was about as close to perfect as you can get.
For the full spreadsheet, please click here.
© Macclesfield Quiz League 2020