News and Views: 2021–2 Season – Week 9 – 15 February 2022

Results

According to the spreadsheet (see below), the teams that went "second first" seem to have had the less tricky end of a challenging set of questions this week; but with eight matches being played, four of the teams that went "first first" still managed to win. They were the Dolphin, Nags Head 'B', Dolphin Dragons and Sutton Club.

The closest game was in the C League, when the Pack Horse Bowling Club beat the Sutton Mutton by 117 points to 111. This was the Mutton's first defeat of the season, leaving the Queens (who held off a strong challenge from Waters Green Weavers) as the only unbeaten team.

Congratulations to the Chester Road Tavern, who enjoyed their first win of the season over Waters Green Lemmings.

That's covered seven of this week's winning teams, so it would be churlish not to mention the Nags Head – who enjoyed the biggest winning margin, over the Plough Horntails.

Tables

The Nags Head's victory saw them return to the top of the B League table, as the Park Taverners suffered only their second defeat of the season, to the Dolphin Dragons.

The Sutton Club went two points clear at the top of the C League, ahead of their stablemates, the Sutton Mutton.

Otherwise the only changes were due to teams not playing.

Individual

Top scorer this week was Mark Watson with 48. Alice Walker, Haydn Thompson and Alan Hodgson each scored 45. Top scorer in the B League was Alasdair Reid with 39, and in the C League Andrew Vickerstaff's personal best score of 33 helped the PHBC to register that narrow victory over the Sutton Mutton.

The only other personal best score was Neil Drummond's 39. And 31 of the 63 players failed to better their lowest scores of the season – 7 in the A League, 12 in the B League and 12 in the C League. (Not for the first time this season, Waters Green Lemmings were a player short.)

As in the League tables, there were very few major changes in the leading Individual standings. The biggest climber was Andy Johnson, who not only took advantage of the Academicals' turn on QMing duties but also managed to score one more question than Dave Barber, resulting in a move from 5th to 2nd in the B League table.

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

This being Week 9, we have played the equivalent of half a normal season. This is the time when the spreadsheet stops taking last season's scores into account and just uses those from the current season. We would normally expect to see bigger changes than usual in the Difficulty and Balance scores, and some shuffling of the rankings.

This season we have three big 'climbers' and three that have gone the other way. Three sets of questions have moved up four places: Sutton Club up from 6th to 2nd, WG Weavers up from 11th to 7th, and Park Taverners up from 13th to 9th. And three sets have moved down five places: Cock Inn, down from 3rd to 8th, Nags Head 'B' down from 5th to 10th, and Pack Horse Bowling Club down from 10th to 15th. Five of these are Specialist questions; the only General Knowledge set to move significantly was the one set by the Cock Inn.

The Waters Green Lemmings will, I'm sure, be relieved to know that their General Knowledge questions from last week remain at the top of the table.

So what of this week's questions – all set by the Poachers? Well ... according to the spreadsheet, the Specialist questions were of pretty much average difficulty and balance; but it was a different story for the General Knowledge, which were not only the most difficult GK questions we've had so far this season but also the least well balanced. The teams that went "first first" scored, on average, only 85% of their average marks for the season, while those going "second first" managed, on average, 98%. Overall, the figures were 89% and 98%. On an average team score of 138, this could have made a difference of about 12 points.

Despite this apparent imbalance, four of the teams that went "first first" did manage to win; and of those that lost, only one lost by less than 12 points.

Neither set scored well for Entertainment; the Specialist questions find themselves 16th out of 18, and the General Knowledge 18th.

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2022