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News & Views
2021–2 Season
Week 5

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A League
B League
C League
Cars & Vans 4U Trophy

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News and Views: 2021–2 Season – Week 5 – 11 January 2022

Important News

Firstly: the Cock Inn regrettably resigned from the League in the build–up to this week's matches, with immediate effect, as they continued to struggle to raise a team. Their results in Weeks 1 and 2 were declared null and void (they were unable to play in Week 3, and in Week 4 it was their turn to set questions and act as question masters).

The C League fixture list has been revised accordingly. We thank the members of the Cock team for their contribution to the League over the years (going back as far as 1992) and wish them all the best for the future.

Secondly: the Nags Head 'B' conceded this week's game to the Poachers as they were unable to raise a team. Hopefully most if not all of the issues are temporary and Mark's team will be back in action before too long.

Thirdly: Rushton Diamonds have relocated to the Harrington Arms (in Gawsworth) as the Royal Oak is not expected to open on Tuesday evenings for the foreseeable future. The relocation may involve some rearrangement of fixtures on evenings when the Diamonds and the Academicals are both scheduled to be at home, but there is a cunning plan that may make this unnecessary. Watch this space ... in the meantime, the A League fixture list has been updated with the name change.

And finally, we were saddened this week to hear of the death of Anne Goddard. Anne had been a regular member of the Cock Inn team since the 2004–5 season, having first played in 2000–1. She had been ill for a while, and this was one of the reasons for the Cock's recent decision to resign from the League (as reported above), but her death was very sudden and unexpected. We send our condolences to the other members of the team, and of course to Anne's family and other friends.

Results

There were only six games this week. There was only one game in the C League, due to the reduction in the number of teams, and in the A League the Nags Head 'B' forfeited their game against the Poachers due to a (hopefully temporary) lack of players. Three were won by the teams that went "first first" and three by those going "second first". This would suggest an evenly–balanced set of questions, although the spreadsheet came up with some surprising figures for various teams. More on this in the Cars & Vans 4U Trophy section, but for now we should maybe just congratulate the Queen Bs and the Nags Head for their excellent scores.

The Queen Bs recorded their first win of the season, over Waters Green Weavers, while the Nags' score of 180 was the highest of the night.

Tables

In the B League the Nags Head and Harrington Academicals both moved up two places, to second and third respectively. But the unbeaten Park Taverners remain top by two clear points.

Any changes in the C League table were mainly down to the Cock Inn's resignation and their results having been expunged from the records (as they used to say in the Football League). The main beneficiaries were the Sutton Club, who went to the top of the table (from second) despite not playing. This was at the expense of the Park Timers, who also didn't play but had played the Cock, meaning that they've actually (well, effectively) played one game fewer than they had last week.

The only change in the A League table was that the Queen Bs went above the Harrington (formerly Rushton) Diamonds, who didn't play, thanks to their victory over the Weavers. There are still two unbeaten teams in the A League, the Queens having won a close–fought game against the Dolphin and the Poachers having beaten the Nags Head 'B' by default.

Individual

Top scorers this week were Haydn Thompson and Alice Walker, with 48 each. There were also three scores of 42: Alan Hodgson, Alan James, and Paul Prior.

There were ten personal best scores this week – 4 in the A League, 5 in the B and just one in the C. But as many as 22 players failed to beat their lowest scores of the season so far – 7, 10 and 5 in the A, B and C Leagues respectively.

With the Dolphin Dragons not playing, it was all change at the top of the B League Individual table. Last week's top two – Dave Barber and Liz Horrocks – dropped to fifth and seventh respectively, to be replaced by Paul Prior and Malcolm Asquith.

Next week neither the Queens nor the Sutton Club have a game. It's a fair bet that the majority of the Sutton Mutton team will be hoping to take advantage of their stable–mates' week on question setting duties; and in the A League there's at least one individual who will be champing at the bit!

A League

Results

Poachers Nags Head 'B'
Nags Head 'B' unable to field a team – Poachers win by a walkover
Queens 161 152 Dolphin
Haydn Thompson (pb)
Alice Walker
48
48
42
27
21
Alan Hodgson
Peter McBride
Derek Owen (pb)
Waters Green Weavers 147 161 Queen Bs
Ian Grieve
Graham Bailey
33
33
39
36
36
Neil Drummond (pb)
Phil Davies (pb)
Tony Browne

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Queens 5 5 0 0 872 10
Poachers 4 4 0 0 525 8
Dolphin 4 2 0 2 644 6
Nags Head 'B' 4 2 0 2 490 4
Queen Bs 5 1 0 4 726 4
Harrington Diamonds 4 1 0 3 599 2
Waters Green Weavers 4 0 0 4 619 2

Individual Top Ten

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 5
Alice Walker Queens 5 240 54 42 48
Haydn Thompson Queens 5 219 48 36 48
Alan Hodgson Dolphin 4 192 54 42 42
Ian Grieve Waters Green Weavers 4 156 42 33 33
Peter McBride Dolphin 4 147 48 27 27
Graham Bailey Waters Green Weavers 4 147 42 30 33
Tony Browne Queen Bs 5 147 42 21 36
Ashton Davies Poachers 3 141 51 42  
Ian Tams Queen Bs 5 138 36 24 24
Phil Davies Queen Bs 4 129 36 27 36

B League

Results

Harrington Academicals 165 84 Waters Green Lemmings
Alan James (pb) 42 24 Bob Langstaff
Plough Horntails 110 141 Park Taverners
Dave McGuinness
Pat Jeater (pb)
Anne Jeater
Malcolm Asquith
24
18
18
18
30
27
Graham Wallace
Heather Wallace (pb)
Nags Head 180 97 Chester Road Tavern
Paul Prior (pb) 42 33 Mitch Moores (pb)

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Park Taverners 4 4 0 0 563 8
Nags Head 4 3 0 1 674 6
Harrington Academicals 4 3 0 1 635 6
Plough Horntails 5 2 0 3 701 4
Dolphin Dragons 4 2 0 2 633 4
Waters Green Lemmings 4 1 0 3 435 2
Chester Road Tavern 5 0 0 5 546 0

Individual Top Ten

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 5
Paul Prior Nags Head 4 165 42 39 42
Malcolm Asquith Plough Horntails 5 147 33 18 18
Dave Partington Harrington Academicals 4 144 42 30 33
Anne Jeater Plough Horntails 5 144 42 18 18
Dave Barber Dolphin Dragons 4 138 42 27  
Rob Parkin Harrington Academicals 4 138 39 30 30
Liz Horrocks Dolphin Dragons 3 132 48 39  
Andy Johnson Nags Head 4 132 42 27 33
Graham Wallace Park Taverners 4 120 36 27 30
Ian Musgrave Nags Head 4 117 33 24 30
Shauna Barstow Park Taverners 4 117 33 21 21

C League

Results

King's Gambit 81 125 Sutton Mutton
Susan Taylor
Michael Taylor
21
21
27
27
Wynne Keith–Davies (pb)
Mike Proctor

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Sutton Club 4 2 1 1 565 5
Sutton Mutton 3 2 1 0 389 5
Park Timers 2 2 0 0 389 4
King's Gambit 3 0 0 3 281 0
Pack Horse Bowling Club 2 0 0 2 227 0

Individual Top Ten

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 5
Chris Butler Sutton Club 4 93 27 18  
Simon Rumsey Sutton Club 3 87 36 21  
Wendy Brown Sutton Club 4 87 24 21  
Mick Graves Sutton Mutton 3 81 36 21 21
Mike Proctor Sutton Mutton 3 78 33 18 27
John Green Sutton Club 3 75 33 21  
Wynne Keith–Davies Sutton Mutton 3 75 27 24 27
Michael Taylor King's Gambit 3 69 24 21 21
Emma Griggs Sutton Club 2 66 33 33  
Glyn Bradley Park Timers 2 66 33 33  

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

  Week   Setters Difficulty Balance Ent'ment Total Last Yr
1 3 GK Waters Green Weavers 8.91 9.16 7.00 25.08 11.37
2 4 GK Cock Inn 6.54 8.99 6.56 22.11 (21.38)
3 1 GK Nags Head 'B' 7.71 5.81 7.67 21.18 25.60
4 1 Spec Nags Head 'B' 7.40 5.53 7.06 19.99 23.74
5 2 GK Shamrock Bar 7.15 5.55 6.06 18.76 11.51
6 2 Spec Harrington Academicals 6.73 5.26 6.33 18.34 20.57
7 5 Spec Harrington Diamonds 5.29 6.03 5.78 18.10 21.29
3 Spec Waters Green Weavers 6.69 4.77 6.11 17.56 18.04
9 5 GK Harrington Diamonds 5.74 4.26 6.42 16.42 16.28
10 4 Spec Park Taverners 6.95 1.13 6.33 14.41 13.42

All marks for the Harrington Diamonds' questions are unremarkable (no pun intended): Difficulty and Balance all around the 5 mark, and Entertaimnent either side of 6. This might sound like damning with faint praise, but at first sight at least, no one has much cause for complaint about these questions.

Most teams that went "first first" scored slightly higher than their average marks, but among those that went "second first" there was a huge range. The Waters Green Lemmings scored only 71% of their average score overall, while the Nags Head scored a massive 120% and the Queen Bs weren't far behind with 118%.

The Lemmings' low score can probably be explained by the fact that they were a man short (I think I'm right in saying they are normally an all–male team these days). In view of this, the excellent scores achieved by the Nags and the Queen Bs might suggest that the even–numbered Specialist questions and the odd–numbered General Knowledge were somewhat on the easy side; but the other three teams playing this way round all scored slightly less than their averages (Queens 95%, Plough Horntails 82%, Park Timers 89%).

I can vouch for the fact that the Queens, for one, fielded an absolutely bog–standard team this week, so I am unable to explain the discrepancy. Maybe we should just congratulate the Queen Bs and the Nags for their outstanding performances.

Overall, according to the spreadsheet, the teams that went "first first" enjoyed the benefit of a slight bias in both sets (105 to 97 in the Specialist, 104 to 95 in the General Knowledge).

The Diamonds' positions in the table above might look rather disappointing, but as I've said before, the standard does seem to be quite high so far this season. Even the 16.42 scored by the General Knowledge questions would have put them in 17th position out of 34 last time around.

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2022