News and Views: 2024–5 Season, Week 4 – 19 November 2024

Results

All B League teams played this week, so there were seven matches instead of the usual six. Four of the games were won by the teams that went "first first", and three by those that went "second first".

The Cotton Tree played for the first time at their new home. The visitors were the Nags Head 'B', and this proved to be the closest match on the night. The home team won the Specialist section by 14 points; the Nags came back strongly in the General Knowledge and were five points ahead going into the final round. But the Cotton Tree scored a full house in the last round plus one passed over, winning the round 13–7 and the match by 163 points to 162.

In the B League, the Sutton Club notched up their first win of the season, with a comfortable 149–115 victory over the Park Timers. And the Nags Head suffered their first defeat – beaten 127–108 by the Pack Horse Bowling Club.

Tables

Queens of the Castle, early leaders in the A League, didn't play this week – setting and asking the questions – and this allowed the Waters Green Weavers to go top on goal difference. The top two in the B League are also separated only on goal difference; the Nags Head held on to first place despite their defeat, but Harrington Academicals still have a game in hand.

Individual

In a week of modest scoring, Mark Watson's 45 was the only score over 40. Alan Hodgson was next highest with 39, and Rob Parkin was third (and the top scorer in the B League) with 36.

It was a week that many will want to forget – only five personal bests, and of those who've played at least three games (four being the maximum at this stage), 17 out of 32 failed to better their lowest scores so far.

With the Queens not playing, Dave Barber and Alan Hodgson moved into second and third place behind Ian Grieve in the A League table. In the B League, last week's leader Tom Radley didn't play, and this allowed Ian Tams to go above him. Dave Partington moved up from fifth to third, despite (like Tom) having played only three games.

Questions

It was a game of two halves for the Queens of the Castle's questions. The Specialists scored well all round (including the highest mark yet for Difficulty) and are currently second (out of eight) in the Cars & Vans 4U table, but the General Knowledge are eighth, mainly because they seemed to show a marked bias towards the teams that went second (first in the Specialists). More details in the Cars & Vans 4U Trophy section.

Apart from the imbalance in the General Knowledge, there weren't many complaints. The second question of the night failed to recognise that the Horseshoe Falls at Niagara are also known as the Canadian Falls; and in the final round, a question described Proteus and Nereid as the two biggest moons of Neptune, when of course they're actually the second and third biggest (biggest of all, by quite some margin, being Triton).

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

A League – Full Results

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

Bate Hall Wanderers vs. Hammers of the Castle

The Cotton Tree vs. Nags Head 'B'

Waters Green Weavers vs. Park Taverners

B League – Full Results

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

Nags Head vs. Pack Horse Bowling Club

Park Timers vs. Sutton Club

Harrington Academicals vs. Bate Hallers

Sutton Mutton vs. Chester Road Tavern

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

This isn't the first time we've made such a comment, but this week was a pretty extreme example of it being a game of two halves for the questions.

The table shows the Queens of the Castle's Specialist questions in second place (out of eight), but the General Knowledge are propping all the others up.

The Specialist questions were the closest we've had yet this season (i.e. since the change in the scoring system) to the average, in terms of Difficulty, and they also scored well for Balance. The teams that went first scored on average 97% of their averages, while those that went second did slightly better with 101%. The Specialists also got a decent mark for Entertainment, giving a very healthy mark overall.

The General Knowledge were somewhat harder – an overall average of 89% giving a reasonable mark for Difficulty (just below average). But the unavoidable statistic for this week's questions is that the teams going 'first first' seemed to find the General Knowledge a lot harder than their opponents. While the latter scored exactly 100%, the former managed only 79%. This made the Balance just a shade better than the worst since the start of last season, with the result that you see in the above table.

A post–mortem is under way. If the Queens can learn anything from it, they will at least have a chance to put those lessons into practice, in Week 13. Unlucky for some?

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

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