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News & Views
2019–20 Season
Week 3

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

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News and Views: 2019–20 Season – Week 3 – 15 October 2019

Results

Yet again there were some very close games this week, with two matches being decided by a single point and one by two points. But of the other seven games, six were won by 27 points or more.

Six games were won by the teams that went "first first", and four went the other way. While the Specialist questions were almost perfectly balanced (according to the spreadsheet), the General Knowledge seem to have been somewhat biased in favour of the teams that went second ("first first"). For more details, please refer to the foot of this page.

Tables

The Nags Head 'B', who didn't play this week, are now the only undefeated team in the A League. They lost their place at the top of the table to the Dolphin – but only on goal difference, and of course they have a game in hand.

There is no change at the top of the B League, where the Waters Green Rams continued their unbeaten start. The only other unbeaten team in this league are the Dolphin Dragons, who've only played one game so far.

In the C League, the top four remains the same. The top two – Park Taverners and Brewers Arms – have each played three and won three.

Individual

Scott Dawson (in his first game of the season) and Alice Walker both scored 54 this week. Alice got her first 18 questions right, and was on for a perfect score until the one about the host country for the 2022 Ryder Cup. She then got the one about the destination of the first Concorde flight out of Heathrow wrong as well.

Scott was on the same side of the questions, but went fourth rather than first. He missed out on one question in each half: the nationality of Egan Bernal (in Round 5, Sport) and the price of the ring in The Owl and the Pussycat (GK Q32).

Bad luck to both of them!

There was also a 51 for Ashton Davies. Top scorer in the C League was Andy Ridgway with 36.

Alice Walker has averaged 51 in her first three games, and has opened up a 24–point lead at the top of the A League individual table. Dave Partington and Keith Pointon are tied at the top of the B League table (with Dave having a slightly better highest score); and in the C League, Shauna Barstow is currently top but Wendy Brown is only 21 points behind with a game in hand.

A League

Results

Rushton Diamonds 141 139 Royal Oak
Brian Bogie 39 33
33
Rosalie James
Alan James
Dolphin 152 153 Church House Bollington
Alan Hodgson 42 51 Ashton Davies
Weaver 146 177 Queens
Ian Grieve 36 54 Alice Walker

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Dolphin 3 2 0 1 476 4
Nags Head 'B' 2 2 0 0 358 4
Queens 3 1 0 2 512 2
Weaver 2 1 0 1 306 2
Church House Bollington 2 1 0 1 305 2
Rushton Diamonds 2 1 0 1 294 2
British Flag 2 1 0 1 293 2
Royal Oak 2 0 0 2 296 0

Individual Top Ten

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 3
Alice Walker Queens 3 153 54 48 54
Alan Hodgson Dolphin 3 129 45 42 42
Haydn Thompson Queens 3 123 48 36 48
Peter McBride Dolphin 3 108 45 27 27
Mark Watson Nags Head 'B' 2 99 51 48  
Ashton Davies Church House Bollington 2 93 51 42 51
Brian Bogie Rushton Diamonds 2 81 42 39 39
Paul Morrissey Nags Head 'B' 2 78 42 36  
Alan James Royal Oak 2 75 42 33 33
Caroline Massey Queens 3 72 30 18 18
Tim Massey Queens 3 72 27 21 21

B League

Results

Plough Horntails 124 133 Harrington Academicals
Malcolm Asquith 33 36 Rob Parkin
Robin Hood 127 128 Nags Head
Jim Kennelly 30 27 Andrew Wright
Waters Green Rams 173 110 Waters Green Lemmings
Scott Dawson 54 27 Jon Thompson

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Waters Green Rams 3 3 0 0 505 6
Nags Head 3 2 0 1 445 4
Harrington Academicals 3 1 0 2 421 2
Robin Hood 3 1 0 2 416 2
Waters Green Lemmings 2 1 0 1 238 2
Dolphin Dragons 1 1 0 0 190 2
Plough Horntails 2 0 0 2 272 0
Chester Road Tavern 1 0 0 1 102 0

Individual Top Ten

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 3
Dave Partington Harrington Academicals 3 114 48 27 27
Keith Pointon Waters Green Rams 3 114 45 30 30
Jim Kennelly Robin Hood 3 105 42 30 30
Paul Prior Nags Head 3 102 42 24 24
Lorraine Hilton Robin Hood 3 93 39 24 24
Andy Johnson Nags Head 3 87 39 21 21
David Reynolds Waters Green Rams 3 81 30 24 27
Rob Parkin Harrington Academicals 2 75 39 36 36
Alasdair Reid Nags Head 2 69 36 33  
Adum Carr Waters Green Rams 3 69 30 18 18
Dave Pennington Nags Head 3 69 24 21 21

C League

Results

Broken Cross Club 81 119 Brewers Arms
Peter Wilcox 21 36 Andy Ridgway
Sutton Club 128 101 Sutton Mutton
Chris Butler 30 24
24
Mick Graves
Mike Proctor
Park Timers 100 137 Park Taverners
John Poyser 24 33 Shauna Barstow
Harrington 'B' 137 69 King's Gambit
John Green 30 18 Susan Taylor

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Park Taverners 3 3 0 0 427 6
Brewers Arms 3 3 0 0 354 6
Sutton Club 3 2 0 1 404 4
Park Timers 3 1 0 2 366 2
Harrington 'B' 2 1 0 1 261 2
Sutton Mutton 2 1 0 1 255 2
King's Gambit 3 1 0 2 166 2
Pack Horse Bowling Club 2 0 0 2 243 0
Broken Cross Club 3 0 0 3 204 0

Individual Top Ten

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 3
Shauna Barstow Park Taverners 3 102 36 33 33
John Poyser Park Timers 3 90 36 24 24
Wendy Brown Sutton Club 2 81 45 36  
Andy Ridgway Brewers Arms 3 75 36 18 36
Simon Rumsey Sutton Club 3 72 27 21 24
Tim Brewin Park Timers 3 72 27 21 21
Heather Wallace Park Taverners 3 66 27 18 18
Kenny Davenport–Slater Brewers Arms 3 63 27 15 15
Trisha Ridgway Brewers Arms 3 60 26 12 12
Graham Wallace Park Taverners 2 60 33 27 27
Pete Dykstra Park Taverners 3 60 33 12 15
Paul Heaven Sutton Club 3 60 27 12 21
Andrew Fenton Park Timers 3 60 24 15 15

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

  Week   Setters Difficulty Balance Ent'ment Total Last Yr
1 1 Spec Rushton Diamonds 6.24 5.05 6.67 17.96
2 2 GK Dolphin Dragons 4.03 8.04 5.65 17.72 17.65
3 3 Spec British Flag 1.79 9.84 6.03 17.66 14.50
4 2 Spec Sutton Mutton 5.04 6.23 4.11 15.38 8.61
5 1 GK Rushton Diamonds 7.87 0.72 6.28 14.87 18.63
6 3 GK British Flag 2.91 0.66 5.04 8.61

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

Most teams found the British Flag's questions quite difficult, with only six of the twenty teams scoring more than their average scores. Consequently both sets scored poorly for Difficulty.

The two sets had sharply contrasting results for Balance. According to the spreadsheet, the Specialist questions were almost perfectly balanced, while the General Knowledge were heavily biased in favour of the teams that went second ("first first").

Overall, the teams that went "first first" scored 99% of their average scores, while those that went "second first" scored only 90%. On an average team score of just under 127, this would have made a difference of 11 or 12 points – possibly enough to affect the results of two matches.

However ... in view of the excellent balance detected in the Specialist questions, another way of looking at it would be to see how many games were won by the team that 'lost' in the first eight rounds. The answer is only one; this was the derby match at the Royal Oak, where the Oak team won the Specialist part of the match by four points but the Rushton Diamonds came out overall winners by just two points.

The Royal Oak may therefore be entitled to feel hard done by, as they were on what seems to have been the rough end of the General Knowledge questions.

There was also one match where the Specialist part of the contest was tied. This was between the Plough Horntails and the Harrington Academicals. In this match the Academicals, going "second first", won by nine points despite apparently having the harder General Knowledge questions.

The Entertainment scores were no better than average for either set, with the Specialists being slightly more popular than the General Knowledge. The overall scores would have put the General Knowledge questions in 16th place (out of 36) last season, and the Specialists 33rd.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2019