News and Views: 2021–2 Season – Week 6 – 18 January 2022

Thanks to Dave Partington, who has 'volunteered' to post a thread on our new Forum each week and hopefully generate some discussion. This week however he was beaten to the off by Rob Parkin, who like many of you was not convinced by Elton John's alleged "number one hits in six consecutive decades". And it turns out he was right to be unconvinced!

Why not check in and see what Rob has to say? Maybe even add your own two penn'orth – and indeed return each week to follow Dave's thoughts. There's a link on the home page (bottom left).

Results

There were eight games this week, and four of them were decided by fewer than ten points. In the B League, Harrington Academicals beat the Park Taverners by 139 points to 133, while in the A League the Nags Head 'B' beat the Waters Green Weavers by 162 points to 157. The C League's closest game was a 128–125 victory for the Park Timers over the Sutton Mutton, but the closest of all was at the Dolphin, where the Poachers beat their hosts by just one point – 155–154.

In the C League, the Pack Horse Bowling Club enjoyed their first victory of the season when they played the King's Gambit. But in all fairness it was only their third game.

It was a different story for the Park Timers, who were also playing only their third game. Their narrow defeat to the Sutton Mutton was their first of the season.

Another of those narrow defeats – Park Taverners going down to the Academicals – put paid to the last remaining 100% record in the B League. The only perfect records now are held by the Queens and the Poachers; these two play each other next week, so something has to give.

Tables

Two of those aforementioned close games had repercussions at the top of the B and C League tables. In the B League the top three are now separated only by goal difference; the Academicals leapfrogged the Park Taverners thanks to their 4–point victory, but they couldn't catch the Nags Head who now lead the field.

At the top of the C League, the Sutton Mutton swapped places with their stablemates, the Sutton Club (who were on question setting and mastering duties).

Individual

Top scorer this week was Peter McBride, with a new personal best (for this season) of 51. The only other score of more than 40 was Mark Watson's 45. Top scorer in the B League was Paul Prior with 39, and best in the C League was Andrew Fenton's 36.

There's a new leader in the C League Individual table, where the Sutton Club didn't play and last week's pacemaker, Chris Butler, dropped to fifth place. Mick Graves now tops the table, and previous leader Andrew Fenton returns in third place (having dropped out of the Top Ten last week!).

There were 11 personal bests this week – 5 in the A League, and three each in the B and C Leagues. But 26 people failed to better their lowest scores of the season – 10 in the A League, 9 in the B and 7 in the C.

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

Both sets scored average marks for Difficulty, with most teams scoring close to their average marks. Best performance was by the Chester Road Tavern, whose total of 126 was 124% of their average; the only teams that really seemed to struggle were the Waters Green Lemmings, who were a player short again, and the Sutton Mutton.

Both sets favoured the teams that went "second first". The bias was particularly pronounced in the General Knowledge, when those teams (the ones that went "second first") scored on average 104% of their average scores while those that went "first first" managed only 92%. This is reflected in the Balance scores – as shown in the table.

The Entertainment marks tell a similar story. As in the overall table above, the Sutton Club's score of 6.42 puts them equal sixth out of twelve, while the Plough Horntails were the first setters to get less than 6 for Entertainment this season.

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2022