News and Views: 2021–2 Season – Week 14 – 5 April 2022

Results

Harrington Academicals beat the Plough Horntails to secure the B League title, meaning that a comfortable victory for the Nags Head over the Park Taverners was to no avail.

In the A League, the Dolphin beat the Waters Green Weavers by a single point. The Weavers had the benefit of an apparent bias in the questions, which may have given a slight advantage to the teams that went "second first".

Tables

The Queens, Harrington Academicals and Sutton Club are the champions of their respective Leagues, with the Poachers, Nags Head and Park Timers as runners–up. The Queen Bs, Harrington Diamonds, Chester Road Tavern and Waters Green Lemmings will also be interested to see how many teams start next season, as this will determine which League they play in.

Individual

There were just two personal best scores this week: Adum Carr in the A League and Tim Bloor in the C League. Seven players – one in the A League and six in the B League – failed to better their lowest scores of the season.

The top scorers were Alan Hodgson and Haydn Thompson, each with 48. Paul Prior and Alice Walker both scored 45, and the highest scorer in the C League was John Poyser with 33.

The A League Individual title goes to Alice Walker, who has led all season – starting with a 54 in Week 1, which has been equalled since by both Alan Hodgson and Ashton Davies, but never beaten. Going into the final games it was touch and go which of these two would finish as runner–up, but as it panned out they tied – Alan getting preference in the table by virtue of a better lowest score.

This is Alice's second title – or third if you count 2019–20, an incomplete season that ended with a tie between Alice and Ashton.

The B and C League Individual trophies will both have new names on them this year, as good scores this week for both Paul Prior and John Poyser meant that they held on to the top spots. John's closest challenger was his team–mate Andrew Fenton, while third place was taken by Emma Griggs. This is the first top–three finish for either of these, and for Emma it's her first appearance in the Top Ten.

Second and third places in the B League go to Harrington team–mates Dave Partington and Rob Parkin.

Congratulations to all of the above!

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 competition is decided on small margins, and it was another week of readjustment in the Question Setters' Trophy table (sponsored by Cars & Vans 4U). Last week's leaders, the Park Timers (runners–up in 2017–18) fell away to fourth place, and the winners of the trophy this season are the Waters Green Lemmings, for their General Knowledge questions from Week 8. Although they only finished in 14th place for Entertainment, they were very well balanced and scored well for Difficulty. This has been a difficult season for the Lemmings, and we hope that this will go some way towards making up for their struggles.

It was very much a game of two halves for the Week 14 questions. The Specialists, set by the Chester Road Tavern, scored well all round and finished in fifth place; but it was a very different story for the General Knowledge, set by the Sutton Mutton, which finished in last place.

The Specialist questions were slightly easier than average; teams scored, on average, 103% of their average scores for the season. The balance was pretty good, with a slight bias in favour of the teams that went "second first " (105% as opposed to 101%). They also scored well for Entertainment, with the averages across the three Leagues ranging from 6.83 in the B League to 6.50 in the C League.

The General Knowledge questions were the hardest we've had this season. Teams scored, on average, only 85% of their averages for the season. These also showed a bias towards the teams that went "second first", who scored 89% of their averages as opposed to 81% for their opponents. The Entertainment marks were quite consistent across the three Leagues, ranging from 2.50 in the B League to 3.50 in the A League.

Overall, teams scored on average 92% of their average scores for the season. Those going "first first" scored only 89%, while their opponents managed 96%. On an average team score of 131, this may have made a difference of around ten points – but there were no games were this is likely to have affected the result.

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2022