News and Views: 2023–4 Season, Week 2 – 14 November 2023

Results

Four of the six games were won by the teams that went second in the Specialists. The spreadsheet did suggest a slight bias towards those teams, but the margin of victory was quite significant in each case so (according to the spreadsheet) no results are likely to have been affected.

The closest game was the Bate Hallers' victory over the Park Timers by 121 points to 102. The biggest margin was notched up by the Waters Green Nags, who scored 149 to the Pack Horse Bowling Club's 101, while the other four games were all decided by margins of between 23 and 27.

Tables

With four teams having played two games and four having played one, in each League, there are two teams in each League that have played two and won two: Queens of the Castle and the Dolphin, in the A League, and Waters Green Nags and the Chester Road Tavern in the B League.

Individual

Top scorer this week was Mark Watson with 54. Next best was Alice Walker with 51, and with Mark having only played one game, Alice retains top spot in the A League Individual table. There is no change either in the next three places, as Haydn Thompson, Alan Hodgson and Peter McBride all scored 42. Best of the rest was Rob Parkin, whose 39 saw him pull away from the three others that scored 48 last week and into fifth place.

39 was the best score in the B League, by Paul Prior and Anne Jeater. This was the first game of the season for Anne's team (Bate Hallers), but Paul's 39 puts him level with Tony Moores on a total of 81 points in the first two games. Tony holds on to first place in the table by virtue of his 51 last week, which is the best score of the season so far in the B League. (The Park Taverners, for whom Heather Wallace also scored 51 last week, didn't play this time.)

Questions

The Sutton Club's questions were well received, both sets scoring exactly 6.50 for Entertainment, and there was consistent marking across both Leagues. The marks for Difficulty and Balance were just as good, and we can expect to see two decent placings come the end of the season.

A few minor niggles have been mentioned on the Forum: one wrong answer (Independent Savings Account), one ambiguous question (one dart or three?), a collective noun for which there are at least five possible answers, and one player (in each game) getting two tricky football questions, in consecutive rounds, in the General Knowledge. (We all know how the last one will have happened, and we've probably all done it at one time or another, but this is the sort of thing that should be picked up in vetting.)

Full Results – A League

Note: in this section, the teams that went "first first" (first in the Specialist questions) are on the left.

Full Results – B League

Note: in this section, the teams that went "first first" (first in the Specialist questions) are on the left.

A League – Summary

Results

Note: in this section, the home teams are on the left and the away teams are on the right.

Table

Individual Top Ten

B League – Summary

Results

Note: in this section, the home teams are on the left and the away teams are on the right.

Table

Individual Top Ten

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

Last week was always going to be a difficult act to follow, but the Sutton Club's questions scored well all round. In last season's table, the Specialists would have been 10th (out of 36) and the General Knowledge 20th.

Both sets scored exactly 6.50 for Entertainment, which would have put them in 13th place last season, and the scores were also quite consistent across both Leagues. According to the spreadsheet, both sets were of pretty much average difficulty – teams scoring on average 97% of their average scores in the Specialists and 98% in the General Knowledge.

The spreadsheet did suggest a slight bias in both sets of questions, towards the sides that went second in the Specialists. The extent of the apparent bias was pretty much the same in both halves, and overall the teams that went "second first" scored exactly 100% of their average scores, while those that went first scored 95%. On an average match score of 140 this may have made a difference of about seven points – and the margin was quite a bit bigger than this in all six games, so no results are likely to have been affected.

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2023