News & Views: 2023–4 Season, Archive Update

Lesley Bailey has kindly forwarded to me a number of newspaper clippings that were sent to her by a friend of her father, Graham Bailey. The friend works for the Macclesfield Express, and the clippings relate to events in the Quiz League in the 1980s. These, as readers will recognise, were the very early days of the League, and apart from the general interest the clips have provided some welcome new information for the Archive.

The first clipping dates from 1982, and effectively lists (in words) the League tables as they stood at the time it was published. The actual tables have been added to the website archive here. There were two Leagues of seven teams each, and each team had played six games; we can deduce that the season was half way through.

This predates any League tables that we had previously. (Previously, the earliest we had were the final tables from the 1985–6 season.)

The second clipping (below) reports on the 1983 end–of–season presentations. The top two teams in each League are the same as the top two in the first clip, so given what we know of the dates, there can be little doubt that the two clips relate to the same season – namely 1982–3. We believe that this was MQL's second season – we have rules for a season that began in January 1982, and fixture lists (Group 'A' and Group 'B') for the 1982–3 season.

The fixture list includes a team called Rogers Team, and tells us that they played at Waters Green Tavern. They would appear to have changed their name, at some point during the first half of the 1982–3 season, to Head Boys – or been replaced by a team of the latter name. (According to the fixture list, they would play at the Waters Green Tavern. If it is the same team, it sounds to me like they may have moved to the Bear's Head.)

The eight people shown in the photo below are all named in the report – including Mr. Barry Parish, Area Manager for Ansells (presumably owners of the Waters Green at that time) on the extreme right. Many of us will recognise Graham Bailey, stood next to Mr. Parish; less recognisable are Patrick Booth and Robin Morrell, while Don Medwell and Nick Dennis will both be familiar to anyone who joined the League before about 1997.

Neither John Harrison nor Malcolm Hartridge has played in the League since at least 1987. (One Don Hartridge played a few games for the Boarhound in 1997–8, and it's probably safe to infer that he is related to Malcolm. The Boarhound was the final guise of the team formerly known as the Millstone – whose personnel included Nick Dennis, and latterly Don Medwell – and they resigned after just one season as such.)

Andy Baker, who is pictured with the A League individual trophy for 1982–3, last played for Softies in the 1989–90 and 1990–1 seasons.

We can gather from these two clippings that the League was sponsored in the 1982–3 season by Linkester Chemicals. This would appear to be a part of Linkester Engineering, a company that's still in business and is listed by Endole ("a leading business information provider"). Registered at Brookhouse Farm, Rainow, Linkester is clearly a family business; the directors are Sylvia and Angela Sykes, and Frank Philemon Sykes (born 1937) is listed as a former director and secretary. This is all I've managed to find out about Linkester Chemicals; does anyone know any more about their association with the Quiz League?

The third clipping (below) is a report on the 1984 presentations. It's less informative than the previous year's, but it tells us that the Lamb Inn and the Rugby Club were the respective A and B League champions, while the St. Dunstan beat the Millstone in the knockout final. Andy Baker (again) and John Brown are named as the individual champions, and 'there was a surprise new trophy for the "best lady," which was presented to Barbara.' (The reporter appears to have forgotten to write down Barbara's second name – which, as many readers will know, was Worth. See below.)

The Best Lady trophy had a fairly short life, before Alice Walker moved (on winning it fir the first time, if she remembers correctly) that it was patronising and should be discontinued.

Graham Bailey is recognisable on the extreme right, clutching the knockout trophy. The bearded gentleman just right of centre is Andy Baker, and many of us will recognise John Brown standing between Andy and Graham, with the B League team trophy and his own individual trophy. I suspect that Barbara may be to the left of the gentleman in the white shirt, and the face between Andy and John may be that of Nick Dennis. Anyone recognise anyone else – maybe even themselves – in the photo?

Many more familiar names appear in the fourth clipping, which lists the individual Top Tens as they stood at some point in 1986. We can deduce that this is the 1985–6 season, as the names and rankings are very similar to the final ones for that season (and the actual scores would also seem to tally, each being about 80% of the appropriate final score).

The final clipping seems to date from a week or two after the previous one, and shows the top eight individuals in the A League. It seems to have been a particularly tough set of questions that week – for everyone except Nick Dennis!

Thanks to Lesley for these fascinating additions to the MQL archive.

Click on any of the pictures on this page to see the original jpg version.

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