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News & Views
2023–4 Season
Week 5

On this page:

A League – Full Results
B League – Full Results
A League – Summary
B League – Summary
Cars & Vans 4U Trophy

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For a PDF version of this page, please click here.

News and Views: 2023–4 Season, Week 5 – 7 December

Results

Five of the six games this week were won by the teams that went first in the Specialist questions. The closest of these five games was between the Chester Road Tavern and Park Timers, where the Timers recorded their first victory of the season by just seven points.

In the B League's top–of–the–table clash, Waters Green Nags beat the Park Taverners by a more comfortable 26 points. The other four games were all won by margins in the region of 50 or more.

Tables

The Nags Head 'B' maintained their unbeaten record and went above the Dolphin (who didn't play) to the top of the A League table. Queens of the Castle also went above the Dolphin on goal difference, while the Poachers' win meant that they swapped places with their opponents, the Nags Head.

There are now four teams tied on six points at the top of the B League table. Waters Green Nags lead the pack on goal difference following their victory over previous leaders, the Park Taverners; but the Bate Hallers are now the only unbeaten team in the B League and have a game in hand over the top three. The Sutton Club moved up from fifth to third with a victory over the Pack Horse Bowling Club, who slipped to the bottom of the table (but also have a game in hand over the three teams immediately above them).

Individual

Top scorer this week was Paul Prior with 57. Paul was in Seat 6 (third in the team that started second) and the only question he didn't get was number 69 in the General Knowledge – "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity" is a statement at the beginning of which Old Testament book? This was arguably the hardest question of all on the night, and for the record the answer was Ecclesiastes.

This would appear to be Paul's highest ever score, and by some margin; his previous best was 48, which he's achieved in three separate seasons – firstly as long ago as 1989–90, and equalling it in each of the last two seasons.

Paul's team–mate Ian Musgrave was one of four players who scored 48 this week; the others were Ashton Davies, Haydn Thompson and Ian Grieve. Haydn moved to the top of the A League table as a result – level with Alan Hodgson but with a better highest score – and Ian moved up four places to fourth.

There were three other scores above 40 in the A League (Mark Watson 45, Dave Barber and Laurence Plant 42 each) while three players in the B League (Graham Wallace, Jim Moores and Andrew Fenton) scored 39.

There were 20 personal bests this week – eight in the A League and twelve in the B League.

Questions

Most teams seem to have found the Harrington Academicals' questions fairly easy, with only three failing to beat their average scores and some beating them by up to 30%. The teams that went "first second" tended to do better, and five of these six teams won (although there were no results that could undisputably be classed as "shocks").

A couple of people have commented that there seemed to be a lot of questions on British history (kings, queens and prime ministers) in the General Knowledge.

A League – Full Results

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

Poachers Spec GK Total Nags Head Spec GK Total
Ed Baron 12 24 36 Ian Tams 12 18 30
Bob Gratton 18 18 36 Neil Johnson 15 6 21
Greg Spiller 6 30 36 Neil Drummond 9 18 27
Ashton Davies 18 30 48 Tony Browne 6 21 27
Conferred 6 6 12 Conferred 9 10 19
Passed over 8 15 23 Passed over 3 3 6
Totals 68 123 191 Totals 54 76 130

 

Dolphin Hammers Spec GK Total Queens of the Castle Spec GK Total
David Barber 12 30 42 Alice Walker 18 21 39
Pete Sayers 12 9 21 Haydn Thompson 21 27 48
Keith Duffield 3 18 21 Stuart Orford 15 21 36
Dave Cooper 9 24 33 Tim Massey 12 27 39
Conferred 12 13 25 Conferred 8 6 14
Passed over 1 5 6 Passed over 5 6 11
Totals 49 99 148 Totals 79 108 187

 

Waters Green Weavers Spec GK Total Nags Head 'B' Spec GK Total
Alan Gilday 12 24 36 Steve Carter 12 27 39
Adum Carr 9 12 21 Mark Watson 24 21 45
Graham Bailey 6 12 18 Laurence Plant 18 24 42
Ian Grieve 18 30 48 Paul Morrissey 6 24 30
Conferred 7 7 14 Conferred 7 11 18
Passed over 4 4 8 Passed over 8 10 18
Totals 56 89 145 Totals 75 117 192

B League – Full Results

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

Pack Horse Bowling Club Spec GK Total Sutton Club Spec GK Total
Reg Bloor 3 24 27 Simon Rumsey 9 18 27
Andrew Vickerstaff 9 12 21 Wendy Brown 15 21 36
Tim Bloor 6 15 21 John Green 9 21 30
Mike Vickerstaff 3 9 12 Chris Butler 12 18 30
Conferred 10 10 20 Conferred 7 9 16
Passed over 3 5 8 Passed over 12 11 23
Totals 34 75 109 Totals 64 98 162

 

Park Taverners Spec GK Total Waters Green Nags Spec GK Total
Graham Wallace 15 24 39 Bob Langstaff 12 18 30
Heather Wallace 9 24 33 Sunil Peck 9 15 24
Pete Dykstra 6 18 24 Paul Prior 24 33 57
Shauna Barstow 9 27 36 Ian Musgrave 15 33 48
Conferred 9 4 13 Conferred 8 6 14
Passed over 3 2 5 Passed over 5 8 13
Totals 51 109 160 Totals 73 113 186

 

Chester Road Tavern Spec GK Total Park Timers Spec GK Total
Bill Moores 12 15 27 John Poyser 12 24 36
Mitch Moores 12 9 21 Karyn Johnston 6 18 24
Tom Radley 6 21 27 Andrew Fenton 12 27 39
Jim Moores 9 30 39 Tim Brewin 3 24 27
Conferred 11 8 19 Conferred 8 6 14
Passed over 8 2 10 Passed over 4 6 10
Totals 58 85 143 Totals 45 105 150

A League – Summary

Results

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

Nags Head 130 191 Poachers
Ian Tams 30 48 Ashton Davies
Queens of the Castle 185 148 Dolphin Hammers
Haydn Thompson 48 42 David Barber
Waters Green Weavers 145 192 Nags Head 'B'
Ian Grieve 48 42 Mark Watson

Table

  Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Nags Head 'B' 4 4 0 0 677 8
Queens of the Castle 4 3 0 1 737 6
Dolphin 4 3 0 1 667 6
Poachers 3 2 0 1 520 4
Nags Head 4 1 0 3 563 2
Dolphin Hammers 3 1 0 2 451 2
Harrington Academicals 4 0 1 3 643 1
Waters Green Weavers 4 0 1 3 614 1

Individual Top Ten

  Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 5
Haydn Thompson Queens of the Castle 4 198 57 42 48
Alan Hodgson Dolphin 4 198 54 42  
Alice Walker Queens of the Castle 4 192 60 39 39
Ian Grieve Waters Green Weavers 4 165 48 33 48
Peter McBride Dolphin 4 162 51 33  
Rob Parkin Harrington Academicals 4 156 48 33  
Dave Partington Harrington Academicals 4 150 45 27  
Alan Gilday Waters Green Weavers 4 141 45 24 36
Mark Watson Nags Head 'B' 3 138 54 39 45
Alan James Harrington Academicals 4 135 36 33  

B League – Summary

Results

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

Pack Horse Bowling Club 109 162 Sutton Club
Reg Bloor 27 36 Wendy Brown
Park Taverners 160 186 Waters Green Nags
Graham Wallace 39 57 Paul Prior
Chester Road Tavern 143 150 Park Timers
Jim Moores 39 39 Andrew Fenton

Table

  Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Waters Green Nags 4 3 0 1 635 6
Park Taverners 4 3 0 1 596 6
Sutton Club 4 3 0 1 569 6
Bate Hallers 3 3 0 0 343 6
Chester Road Tavern 4 2 0 2 556 4
Park Timers 4 1 0 3 510 2
Pack Horse Bowling Club 4 0 0 4 415 0
Sutton Mutton 3 0 0 3 370 0

Individual Top Ten

  Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 5
Paul Prior Waters Green Nags 4 168 57 30 57
Ian Musgrave Waters Green Nags 4 153 48 24 48
Graham Wallace Park Taverners 4 135 39 27 39
Shauna Barstow Park Taverners 4 132 42 21 36
John Poyser Park Timers 4 120 36 24 36
Andrew Fenton Park Timers 4 117 39 21 39
Heather Wallace Park Taverners 4 114 51 30 33
Simon Rumsey Sutton Club 4 108 39 15 27
Tony Moores Chester Road Tavern 3 102 51 21  
John Green Sutton Club 4 96 30 18 30

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

  Week   Setters Difficulty Balance Ent'ment Total Last Yr
1 1 GK Nags Head 'B' 10.00 9.35 7.16 26.51 21.64
2 5 GK Harrington Academicals 8.23 8.65 5.83 22.70 12.37
3 2 Spec Sutton Club 5.44 8.54 6.66 20.64 21.98
4 4 Spec Dolphin Hammers 4.47 8.31 6.17 18.96 11.27
5 3 Spec Queens of the Castle 3.50 8.98 5.50 17.98 16.72
6 2 GK Sutton Club 3.72 7.43 6.58 17.73 20.28
7 1 Spec Nags Head 'B' 9.26 0.00 7.25 16.51 19.80
8 5 Spec Harrington Academicals 5.87 4.76 5.67 16.30 23.24
9 3 GK Queens of the Castle 3.06 5.20 5.75 14.02 13.47
10 4 GK Dolphin Hammers 2.82 4.53 5.16 12.51 20.60

This week's Specialist questions garnered average marks all round, but are eighth out of ten in the table. Their total score of 16.30 would have put them 25th out of 36 last season. The General Knowledge did much better, with good scores for both Difficulty and Balance; but despite this they scored only slightly more than the GK for Entertainment. With a total of 22.70 they would have been 7th last season.

Five of the six games this week were won by the teams that went first in the Specialist questions. These teams scored on average 116% of their average scores since the start of last season, while those that went second scored 106%. The apparent bias was more pronounced in the Specialist set, where the scores were 108% and 91%.

On an average team score of 158, the apparent bias may have made a difference of around 15 or 16 points. There was one game where the winning margin was less than this, but in the other four matches (ignoring the one where the first team won) the smallest margin was 26.

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2023