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News & Views
2019–20 Season
Week 12

On this page:

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

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

News and Views: 2019–20 Season – Week 12 – 28 January 2020

Results

Nine of the ten games this week were won by the teams going "first first". The only team to buck this trend was the Broken Cross Club; the table would seem to suggest that their victory over the Brewers Arms was something of a minor triumph.

In the B League, the sixth and seventh–placed teams played each other. The Harrington Academicals and Plough Horntails were level on points at kick–off, but the former had a significant advantage on goal difference. It was a damned nice thing, as the Duke of Wellington might have put it, but at the end of the evening the Accies won by just one point.

Tables

Rushton Diamonds moved out of the A League relegation zone with an away victory in their local derby, leaving the British Flag (who were asking the questions this week) in seventh place.

The aforementioned victory for the Harrington Academicals moved them up two places to fourth in the B League. They may still have a bit of work to do however, as they are level on points with the Robin Hood and Waters Green Lemmings, and the Plough Horntails are only two points behind with a game in hand.

The only change in the C League table was that the Harrington 'B' took advantage of the Pack Horse Bowling Club's week on question–asking duty, to move above them into sixth place with a victory over the King's Gambit.

Individual

Top scorer this week was Haydn Thompson with 51. There were 48s for the three 'A's – Alice Walker, Alan Hodgson and Ashton Davies – and 45s for Peter McBride and Wynne Keith–Davies. Top scorer in the B League was Dave Partington with 42.

There were 23 personal bests – not bad for this stage of the season – and only five people failed to better their lowest scores of the season.

The first four individuals named above moved ahead of Mark Watson (who didn't play this week) in the A League table. But Mark now has a game in hand on all of them except Ashton; he won't be fifth for long!

In the B League, the top four was unchanged; the biggest movers were Alasdair Reid (up from seventh to fifth) and Malcolm Asquith (up from eighth to sixth). In fairness however we should point out that neither of the two they replaced – Liz Horrocks and Paul Prior – played this week.

In the C League there were re–entries for Wynne Keith–Davies and Mike Proctor – at the expense of Simon Rumsey, Tim Bloor and Andrew Vickerstaff (from last week's Top Eleven).

A League

Results

Royal Oak 150 173 Rushton Diamonds
Gill Baker (pb)
Alan James
Bill Cawley
30
30
30
42
36
36
30
Chris Bogie (pb)
Art Higham
Brian Bogie
Richard Briand (pb)
Church House Bollington 166 173 Dolphin
Ashton Davies 48 48
45
33
Alan Hodgson
Peter McBride (pb)
Derek Owen (pb)
Queens 187 160 Weaver
Haydn Thompson (pb)
Alice Walker
Caroline Massey (pb)
Tim Massey (pb)
51
48
33
30
39
39
Graham Bailey
Ian Grieve

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Nags Head 'B' 9 8 0 1 1524 16
Queens 10 7 0 3 1678 14
Dolphin 10 6 0 4 1593 12
Church House Bollington 9 6 0 3 1436 12
Weaver 9 4 0 5 1419 8
Rushton Diamonds 9 3 0 6 1331 6
British Flag 9 2 0 7 1225 4
Royal Oak 9 1 0 8 1373 2

Individual Top Ten

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 12
Alice Walker Queens 10 453 54 33 48
Alan Hodgson Dolphin 10 447 57 39 48
Ashton Davies Church House Bollington 9 432 54 42 48
Haydn Thompson Queens 10 417 51 24 51
Mark Watson Nags Head 'B' 9 414 51 42  
Peter McBride Dolphin 10 381 45 27 45
Brian Bogie Rushton Diamonds 9 324 42 21 36
Graham Bailey Weaver 9 312 42 27 39
Alan Gilday Weaver 9 297 39 24 30
Rosalie James Royal Oak 9 291 48 18 27
Alan James Royal Oak 9 291 42 24 30
Ian Grieve Weaver 9 291 42 18 39

B League

Results

Harrington Academicals 140 139 Plough Horntails
Dave Partington
Steve Dale (pb)
42
27
33
33
Malcolm Asquith
Julian Amey
Nags Head 169 125 Robin Hood
Andy Johnson (pb) 39 30
27
Lorraine Hilton
Tony Wilkinson (pb)
Waters Green Lemmings 127 146 Waters Green Rams
Sunil Peck
John Thompson
24
24
30
30
27
21
Adum Carr (pb)
Keith Pointon
David Reynolds
Keith Bebbington (pb)

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Waters Green Rams 10 9 0 1 1475 18
Nags Head 10 8 0 2 1480 16
Dolphin Dragons 8 5 0 3 1209 10
Harrington Academicals 10 4 0 6 1388 8
Robin Hood 10 4 0 6 1317 8
Waters Green Lemmings 9 4 0 5 1140 8
Plough Horntails 9 3 0 6 1186 6
Chester Road Tavern 8 0 0 8 796 0

Individual Top Ten

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 12
Dave Partington Harrington Academicals 10 390 48 27 42
Keith Pointon Waters Green Rams 10 357 45 27 30
Jim Kennelly Robin Hood 9 303 48 21  
Jon Thompson Waters Green Lemmings 9 303 45 24 24
Alasdair Reid Nags Head 9 282 42 21 36
Malcolm Asquith Plough Horntails 9 273 36 21 33
Liz Horrocks Dolphin Dragons 8 270 42 21  
Andy Johnson Nags Head 9 267 39 18 39
Paul Prior Nags Head 8 252 42 21  
Rob Parkin Harrington Academicals 7 219 39 27  

C League

Results

Brewers Arms 117 128 Broken Cross Club
Andy Ridgway (pb) 36 33
24
Jackie Hulme (pb)
Anne Goddard (pb)
Sutton Mutton 147 141 Sutton Club
Wynne Keith-Davies (pb)
Mike Proctor
John Stein (pb)
Gill Dyson (pb)
45
30
24
21
33
27
27
Wendy Brown
Emma Griggs (pb)
Chris Butler
Park Taverners 127 146 Park Timers
Shauna Barstow 30 33
30
27
Glyn Bradley (pb)
John Poyser
Tim Brewin (pb)
King's Gambit 104 141 Harrington 'B'
Michael Taylor (pb) 27 30
30
Geoff Parkin
John Green

Table

Played Won Drawn Lost Total Points
Sutton Club 11 8 0 3 1423 16
Park Taverners 11 8 0 3 1399 16
Park Timers 11 7 0 4 1322 14
Brewers Arms 11 6 0 5 1256 12
Sutton Mutton 10 6 0 4 1227 12
Harrington 'B' 10 4 1 5 1209 9
Pack Horse Bowling Club 10 4 0 6 1169 8
Broken Cross Club 11 3 1 7 1110 7
King's Gambit 11 1 0 10 899 2

Individual Top Ten

Team Played Total Highest Lowest Week 12
Andy Ridgway Brewers Arms 11 315 36 18 36
John Poyser Park Timers 11 306 39 12 30
John Green Harrington 'B' 10 285 36 21 30
Wendy Brown Sutton Club 9 276 45 18 33
Shauna Barstow Park Taverners 10 249 36 15 30
Graham Wallace Park Taverners 9 243 33 18 27
Kenny Davenport-Slater Brewers Arms 11 237 30 15 18
Tim Brewin Park Timers 11 237 27 12 27
Wynne Keith-Davies Sutton Mutton 7 225 45 24 45
Mike Proctor Sutton Mutton 9 222 33 12 30

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

  Week   Setters Difficulty Balance Ent'ment Total Last Yr
1 12 Spec Chester Road Tavern 9.92 9.56 7.03 26.51 (15.29)
2 7 Spec Royal Oak 9.47 8.39 5.15 23.00 8.43
3 4 GK Waters Green Rams 7.13 9.11 6.20 22.44 18.84
4 4 Spec Park Timers 10.00 5.47 6.47 21.94 18.44
5 1 Spec Rushton Diamonds 8.24 6.45 6.67 21.36
6 6 Spec Queens 5.59 8.34 6.03 19.95 15.92
7 9 GK Broken Cross Club 6.27 8.84 4.43 19.54 18.23
8 2 GK Dolphin Dragons 5.17 8.33 5.65 19.16 17.65
9 3 Spec British Flag 2.69 9.89 6.03 18.61 14.50
10 6 GK Queens 6.07 5.81 5.86 17.74 21.09
11 11 GK Church House Bollington 4.81 6.50 6.09 17.39 11.71
12 1 GK Rushton Diamonds 10.00 0.58 6.28 16.86 18.63
13 2 Spec Sutton Mutton 6.27 5.95 4.11 16.33 8.61
14 11 Spec Church House Bollington 4.65 3.84 6.67 15.16 11.85
15 7 GK Royal Oak 4.10 4.93 5.98 15.01 17.10
16 5 GK Sutton Club 6.74 1.71 6.11 14.56 21.28
17 12 GK Pack Horse Bowling Club 6.30 1.84 5.97 14.12 (21.93)
18 8 Spec Brewers Arms 0.00 9.98 3.86 13.84 (8.05
19 9 Spec Robin Hood 1.55 7.20 4.37 13.12 (15.73)
20 8 GK Nags Head 1.70 7.00 4.08 12.78 (15.49)
21 10 GK Harrington 'B' 0.00 4.50 5.28 9.78 13.84
22 5 Spec Sutton Club 3.43 0.00 6.19 9.62
23 3 GK British Flag 3.71 0.00 5.04 8.75
24 10 Spec Plough Horntails 0.36 2.90 4.19 7.45 (19.31)

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

Specialist Rounds

Entertainment marks: A League7.00 B League6.83 C League7.25 Overall 7.03 Last year6.44

Average team score going "first first": 62 Average team score going "second first": 62 Season's average: 55

On average, teams going "first first" scored 113%of their average for the season
On average, teams going "second first" scored 114%of their average for the season
The difference between these two figures is statistically insignificant.

General Knowledge Rounds

Entertainment marks: A League6.50 B League5.17 C League6.25 Overall 5.97 Last year5.96

Average team score going "first first": 92 Average team score going "second first": 75 Season's average: 79

On average, teams going "first first" scored 111%of their average for the season
On average, teams going "second first" scored 98%of their average for the season
On average, the teams going "first first" did 13%better than their opponents

Overall

Average team score going "first first": 154 Average team score going "second first": 137 Season's average: 134

On average, teams going "first first" scored 112%of their average for the season
On average, teams going "second first" scored 104%of their average for the season
On average, the teams going "first first" did 8%better than their opponents

Thanks and congratulations to the Chester Road Tavern, whose Specialist questions were judged by both the contestants and the spreadsheet to be the best of the season so far. In fact the spreadsheet reckons they're the best we've had since we've been marking the questions this way (in other words, since the start of the 2006–7 season). Only one previous set has scored more than 26: the Ox–fford's General Knowledge in Week 5 of the 2012–13 season.

So far this season, the only Specialist questions that people have found easier than the CRT's contribution were the ones set by the Park Timers in Week 4. The spreadsheet couldn't argue with the balance of the latest set; on this criterion they're second only to the British Flag's questions from Week 3. And on Entertainment they are the first set this season to score over 7.

The gauntlet is well and truly thrown down to those setting questions in the remainder of this season – not least the Nags Head 'B', whose turn comes in Week 18 this time.

The General Knowledge questions, set by the Pack Horse Bowling Club, scored well on Entertainment and Difficulty but (according to the spreadsheet) were let down by their Balance.

Overall, teams going "first first" did 8% better (compared to their average scores this season) than those going second. On an average team score of 140, this could have made a difference of 11 points. It's always dangerous to read too much into these figures, but this may have affected the results of up to three matches.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2020