News and Views: 2022–3 Season, Week 16 – 4 April 2023

Results

Six of this week's games were won by the teams that started second. The only team to win by starting first were the Dolphin Hammers.

The Chester Road Tavern won their second game in a row, and only their third of the season overall.

Tables

Congratulations to the Dolphin Hammers, whose victory over the Sutton Club confirms them as B League champions. They remain unbeaten with only two games left to play, against the Pack Horse Bowling Club and the Park Timers.

The other aforementioned victory moved the Chester Road Tavern off the bottom of the B League table. The Pack Horse Bowling Club must pick up at least a point from their final two games (or score 160 points more than the CRT do in their final game) to avoid the wooden spoon.

The Poachers returned to the top of the A League with a narrow victory over the Nags Head 'B'. The Queens, who last week went top for the first time this season, didn't play this week and dropped to third, as the Dolphin went second by beating the Harrington Diamonds. The Queens need to beat the Waters Green Weavers next week to retain any hope of winning the title, while any hopes the Dolphin might still harbour are already hanging by a thread.

Individual

There were 14 personal bests this week: nine in the A League and fourteen in the B League. With the season nearing its completion, this must mean that the questions posed few difficulties.

Top scorer was Ed Baron with 51, and Paul Prior was close behind with 48. There were nine other scores in the 40s – six in the A League and three in the B.

Alan Hodgson extended his lead slightly at the top of the A League table, but either Ashton Davies or Alice Walker might think they still have a chance of catching him in the final run–in. In the B League however, Paul Prior's lead is looking pretty unassailable.

Questions

The Park Taverners' questions seemed to suit most people. The Specialists were particularly received, going by comments on the Forum, and are in second place in the Cars & Vans 4U Trophy table – behind the Nags Head 'B''s General Knowledge set from Week 1. There are a few detailed comments about this week's General Knowledge questions, but these also scored quite well and are 15th (out of 30).

A League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

B League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

According to the spreadsheet, the Park Taverners' Specialist questions were the easiest so far this season, and were well balanced. They also got a decent mark for Entertainment – the sixth highest of the season so far – and overall this puts them in second place, behind only the Nags Head 'B''s General Knowledge set.

This week's General Knowledge are in a highly respectable 15^th place (out of 32) in the overall table. This despite being somewhat harder than the Specialists (pretty much average difficulty), not quite so well balanced, and slightly less well received (19th out of 32 for Entertainment).

In the Specialist rounds, every single team scored more than their average for the season so far – except for the Waters Green Nags, who unfortunately had only three players once again. The teams that went second did slightly better – 120% of their average scores, compared with 115% for those that went first.

In the General Knowledge, every one of the teams that went first (second in the Specialists) beat their average score, but four of the seven teams that went second did not. On average, the teams that went first scored 110% but those that went second scored 101%.

Overall, the teams that started second scored 114% of their averages, while those that started first scored 107%. On an average team score of 142, this may have made a difference of nine or ten points; there were one or two games where the result may have been affected.

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2023