News and Views: 2021–2 Season – Week 11 – 8 March 2022

Results and Tables

Congratulations to the Sutton Club, who secured the C League title with a victory over the Pack Horse Bowling Club in what was their final game of the season. But the runners–up spot is still very much up for grabs, with all other C League teams having two games still to play.

The Queens need just one more point from their last two matches to do the same in the A League – but those two matches are against the teams that are currently lying second and third!

With the Park Taverners not playing and the Nags Head losing to the Dolphin Dragons, Harrington Academicals returned to the top of the B League table for the first time since Week 7. But any one of those four teams could still take the title; it might well come down to goal difference in the end, with the Nags being in pole position in that respect.

The League structure for 2022–3 will not be decided this season, as we cannot tell at this stage how many teams we'll have. So to talk of promotion and relegation would be premature; but the bottom two places in the B League are now decided, as both the Chester Road Tavern and Waters Green Lemmings have too much catching up to do. In the A League the Harrington Diamonds have their work cut out to avoid the wooden spoon, but the Queen Bs may well fancy their chances of catching the Waters Green Weavers if they get the better of them next week – particularly if they've studied the fixture schedule for the last two weeks of the season.

Individual

Top scorer this week was Ashton Davies with a personal best score for the season, of 54. Alice Walker scored 51, and the next best scorer was Dave Partington with 48 – another personal best. (Dave's three team-mates all recorded personal worsts!) Top scorer in the C League was Susan Taylor with 33 – yet another personal best.

Apart from those already mentioned, there were only three other personal bests, and they were all in the A League: Phil Davies (42), Tim Massey (36), and Richard Briand (30).

In total, 30 of the 63 players failed to beat their lowest scores of the season so far: 10 in the A League, 11 in the B League and 9 in the C League.

Several people have now started to shed their lowest scores. In the A League the best 10 scores will count, out of 12 possible games; in the C League, the best 6 of a possible 8 will count.

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 was another challenging set of questions. Overall, teams scored on average only 91% of their average scores for the season.

According to the spreadsheet, the General Knowledge questions were just about perfectly balanced – teams on both sides scoring (on average) 96% of their average scores. But the Specialists appeared to be significantly biased towards the teams that went second; the figures were 79% for the teams going "first first" and 90% for those going "second first".

This is reflected in the table (above), where the excellent Balance score for the General Knowledge questions is the main reason for their respectable 8th place. The Entertainment scores were disappointing, placing the Specialists in 19th place (out of 22) and the General Knowledge 20th.

Overall, teams going "first first" scored (on average) only 89% of their average scores for the season, while those going "second first" managed 94%. On an average team score of 125, the apparent bias may have made a difference of 7 or 8 points. This is unlikely to have affected any results – the smallest margin of victory by a team going "second first" being 15.

The only team that managed to score more than their average for the season was the King's Gambit, with a healthy 119%.

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2022