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News & Views
2018–19 Season
Week 5

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A League
B League
C League
Cars & Vans 4U Trophy

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News and Views: 2018–19 Season – Week 5 – 13 November 2018

By Haydn Thompson, with input from Mark Watson.

Results

There were two very close results this week in the B League, where the Waters Green Lemmings beat the Park Taverners by 149 points to 146 and the Nags Head beat the Rushton Diamonds by 153 points to 148. Just as close was the C League match at the Pack Horse Bowling Club, where the Brewers Arms lost by 127 points to 132.

Tables

The Rushton Diamonds' defeat was their first of the season, and it left the Harrington Academicals two points clear at the top of the B League. In the A League the Dolphin are the only team with a 100% record, but they are currently one point behind the Ox–fford who have played one more game, winning three and drawing one. Meanwhile in the C League, there is a slightly artificial position whereby four teams have played five games and four have played only three. The Chester Road Tavern currently top the table with eight points, but both the Robin Hood and the Sutton Club are only two points behind and have two games in hand.

Individual

Mark Watson was once again the star performer, scoring a mighty 57 points. Mark went second on the team that went "second first" – answering questions 4 in the Specialists and 3, 11, 19 etc. in the General Knowledge. The one he didn't get was the one about the coffee balalaika; having never heard of it and faced with three hands on the table, each with five fingers extended, he conferred. No doubt if this had been his 18th or 19th question, instead of his 4th, he'd have gone for it anyway!

The last score of 57 was exactly two years ago: Season 2016–17, Week 5, by Alan Hodgson. The last one before that was just three weeks (including a Cup round) earlier: Season 2016–17, Week 3, by ... Mark Watson.

There were 24 personal bests this week: nine in the A League, 8 in the B and 7 in the C. Second highest score in the A League was Alice Walker's 54, while there were three 45s in the B League (Art Higham, Dave Partington and Jon Thompson) and the highest score in the C League was 36 for Tony Moores.

Questions

Some people have commented in Nick's blog on individual questions. The ones about Luis Suarez and the most eaten fruit were singled out for being somewhat obscure, while the one about the "rodent–like piece of computer hardware" maybe erred in the opposite direction. No one got a 3 for answering Norwich City (although at least one team apparently scored 1 on conferral); but congratulations to Keith Pointon and Paul Prior for getting the banana question right!

A League

Results

Ox–fford 'C' 189 141 Dolphin Dragons
Alice Walker (pb)
Haydn Thompson (pb)
Tim Massey (pb)
54
48
33
36
33
24
Liz Horrocks
Dave Cooper (pb)
Mike Ockleton (pb)
Church House Bollington 168 139 Waters Green Rams
Ashton Davies
Ed Baron
John Hargreaves (pb)
42
33
30
45 Keith Pointon (pb)
Weaver 160 176 Ox–fford
Graham Bailey (pb) 48 57 Mark Watson (pb)

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Ox–fford 4 3 1 0 680 7
Dolphin 3 3 0 0 487 6
Ox–fford 'C' 4 2 1 1 700 5
Weaver 4 2 0 2 667 4
Church House Bollington 4 2 0 2 637 4
Royal Oak 4 2 0 2 627 4
Dolphin Dragons 4 0 0 4 557 0
Waters Green Rams 3 0 0 3 470 0

Individual Top Ten

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 5
Mark Watson Ox–fford 4 213 57 51 57
Alice Walker Ox–fford 'C' 4 198 54 45 54
Haydn Thompson Ox–fford 'C' 4 177 48 39 48
Ashton Davies Church House Bollington 4 174 45 42 42
Ed Baron Church House Bollington 4 150 45 33 33
Paul Morrissey Ox–fford 4 144 45 27 36
Rosalie James Royal Oak 4 141 45 27  
Alan Hodgson Dolphin 3 138 48 42  
Alan Gilday Weaver 4 138 42 27 27
Alan James Royal Oak 4 129 39 30  
Liz Horrocks Dolphin Dragons 4 129 39 24 36

B League

Results

Waters Green Lemmings 149 146 Park Taverners
Jon Thompson (pb)
Bob Langstaff (pb)
Nick Peck (pb)
45
36
21
39 Graham Wallace
Plough Horntails 125 162 Harrington Academicals
Malcolm Asquith (pb) 33 45 Dave Partington (pb)
Rushton Diamonds 148 153 Nags Head
Art Higham (pb) 45 33
30
30
Andrew Wright (pb)
Paul Prior (pb)
Alasdair Reid

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Harrington Academicals 4 4 0 0 670 8
Rushton Diamonds 4 3 0 1 599 6
British Flag 4 2 0 2 596 4
Nags Head 3 2 0 1 455 4
Park Taverners 4 1 0 3 554 2
Plough Horntails 4 1 0 3 541 2
Waters Green Lemmings 4 1 0 3 629 2
Sutton Mutton 3 1 0 2 399 2

Individual Top Ten

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 5
Dave Partington Harrington Academicals 4 168 45 39 45
Brian Bogie Rushton Diamonds 4 153 42 36 36
Rob Parkin Harrington Academicals 4 144 42 33 36
Art Higham Rushton Diamonds 4 135 45 27 45
Bob Langstaff Waters Green Lemmings 4 132 36 27 36
Jon Thompson Waters Green Lemmings 4 129 45 24 45
Graham Wallace Park Taverners 3 120 45 36 39
Stuart Mills Harrington Academicals 4 120 36 21 21
Phil Davies British Flag 3 117 48 33  
Anne Jeater Plough Horntails 4 117 36 24 24

C League

Results

Pack Horse Bowling Club 132 127 Brewers Arms
Reg Bloor (pb)
Andrew Vickerstaff
27
27
30
30
Trisha Ridgway (pb)
Tim Hayes (pb)
Harrington 'B' 124 156 Chester Road Tavern
John Green
Martin Biss
Tom Aindow (pb)
33
30
21
36
33
30
Tony Moores (pb)
Steve Moores (pb)
Mitch Moores (pb)
Park Timers 121 133 Robin Hood
John Poyser
Glyn Bradley
24
24
27 Phil Moss

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Chester Road Tavern 5 4 0 1 678 8
Park Timers 5 3 0 2 661 6
Robin Hood 3 3 0 0 450 6
Sutton Club 3 3 0 0 417 6
Harrington 'B' 5 2 0 3 649 4
Pack Horse Bowling Club 5 1 0 4 580 2
Cock Inn 3 0 0 3 362 0
Brewers Arms 3 0 0 3 354 0

Individual Top Ten

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 5
John Green Harrington 'B' 5 171 39 30 33
Andrew Fenton Park Timers 5 135 36 21 21
Glyn Bradley Park Timers 4 123 39 24 24
Andrew Vickerstaff Pack Horse Bowling Club 5 120 30 18 27
John Poyser Park Timers 4 114 36 21 24
Tim Bloor Pack Horse Bowling Club 5 114 33 12 21
Mitch Moores Chester Road Tavern 4 111 30 27 30
Jim Moores Chester Road Tavern 3 102 39 27  
Geoff Parkin Harrington 'B' 4 96 36 12 12
Wendy Brown Sutton Club 5 93 33 27  

Cars & Vans 4U Question Setters' Trophy

  Week   Setters Difficulty Balance Ent'ment Total Last Yr
1 1 Spec Ox–fford 9.47 7.66 7.17 24.30 24.69
2 1 GK Ox–fford 7.68 9.08 7.22 23.97 17.22
3 5 GK Sutton Club 6.49 8.60 6.33 21.42 19.98
4 2 GK Dolphin Dragons 5.15 8.89 6.22 20.26 17.65
5 3 GK Plough Horntails 5.07 9.32 5.51 19.90 8.76
6 4 Spec Waters Green Rams 4.52 9.89 5.39 19.80
7 2 Spec Dolphin Dragons 6.10 6.83 6.22 19.16 20.42
8 3 Spec Plough Horntails 3.64 9.47 5.76 18.86
9 5 Spec British Flag 6.04 5.56 6.72 18.32 24.61
10 4 GK Waters Green Rams 6.35 0.89 5.22 12.46 18.84

This week's questions reversed the trend of falling Entertainment scores, and are currently ranked third (GK) and fourth (Specialist) in that respect. Both sets were also slightly easier than average, earning good scores for Difficulty. On Balance, the Sutton Club's General Knowledge set scored well and the British Flag's Specialist questions earned a perfectly respectable score.

Overall, the teams that went "first first" scored 106% of their average scores, while those that went "second first" scored 109%. This would mean a difference of a fraction over four points on an average team score of 137. In other words, if you went "first first" and lost by four points or less*, you can maybe consider yourselves unlucky. As it happens, in each of the three closest games this week (mentioned at the top of this page), the losing teams went "first second" – so (according to the spreadsheet) the questions were not to blame!

The Flag's position of ninth out of ten so far this season doesn't look great at first sight, but their total score is (like that for Balance) perfectly respectable and would have put them in ninth place last season. This speaks well for the standard of questions this season – if you agree with the criteria on which they're judged by the spreadsheet – and if this trend continues then I think we can all give ourselves a pat on the back.

* or fewer, if you prefer.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2018