News and Views: 2019–20 Season – Week 2 – 8 October 2019

Results

Once again there were some very close results this week, with five of the ten games being decided by seven points or fewer. Closest of all was the one in which the renamed King's Gambit eventually made their debut: they missed out by just one point, to the Brewers Arms.

Seven games were won by the teams that went "first second". One team in each League managed to buck the odds: the Dolphin, Waters Green Lemmings, and Park Taverners.

According to the spreadsheet the overall balance was close to perfect; for details, please see below. 

Tables

Still early days obviously, but there are just five teams that have played two and won two: Nags Head 'B' and Dolphin in the A League, Waters Green Rams in the B, Park Taverners and Brewers Arms in the C.

(Let's not go into those that have played two and lost two.)

Special mention to the Brewers Arms, who last year took until Week 15 to record their second victory of the season.

Individual

Highest score this week was 51, by Alice Walker and Mark Watson. In case you were wondering (I know I would be), Alice went first on the team going "first first", and Mark went second on the team that went "second first".

You still can't put a sheet of paper between Alice and Mark at the top of the A League table; they have identical records so far.

The next best score was 45, by Keith Pointon and Wendy Brown. Wendy remains on top of the C League Individual table by some margin, while in the B League Keith is second to Dave Partington whose 48 last week is still the best score of the season so far outside the A League.

A League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

B League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

C League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

Neither of this week's sets could better last week's on Entertainment, and neither scored well for Difficulty either. But the Dolphin Dragons' General Knowledge questions got an excellent score for Balance, which puts them at the top of the table so far.

The Sutton Mutton's Specialist set scored an average mark for Balance, the spreadsheet detecting a slight bias in favour of the teams that went second (105% to 98%). Overall this week's questions were of exactly average difficulty, and there was a very slight bias in favour of the teams that went "second first" (101% to 99%). On an average team score of 136, this is unlikely to have affected the results of more than one or two games despite there being several close games this week.

These two teams had sharply contrasting results last season: the Dragons' General Knowledge questions finished fourth overall, while the Mutton finished fourth from bottom. Similarly to this season, the Dragons' greatest strength was their Balance, while the Mutton's score for Difficulty is a lot better this time round.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2019