News and Views: 2022–3 Season – Week 4 – 6 December 2022

Results

There were some very close games this week: three of the seven games were won by five points or fewer. Closest of all was the Waters Green Weavers' victory over the Nags Head, by 145 points to 144.

Pack Horse Bowling Club vs. Park Timers and Plough Horntails vs. Sutton Mutton were also very close.

Tables

Four of our five previously unbeaten teams played each other this week.

In the A League, Harrington Academicals hosted the Poachers. The result was what looks like a fairly comfortable victory for the Poachers, who remain top. Academicals slipped to third place, the Nags Head 'B' (also unbeaten) going second with an even more comfortable victory over the Queens.

Waters Green Weavers' narrow victory (referred to above) moves them above the Dolphin (who didn't play) and the Queens, into fourth place.

The Dolphin Hammers are now the only unbeaten team in the B League, after their victory over the Park Taverners. The Taverners remain in second place, their closest rivals being the Plough Horntails who enjoyed a narrow victory over the Sutton Mutton.

Individual

It was a low–scoring week on the Individual listings. The highest score was 42, which was notched up by three people: Rob Parkin, Ashton Davies and Mark Watson. In the B League there were four top scorers, with 33 points each: Shauna Barstow, Wendy Brown, Malcolm Asquith and Anne Jeater.

This being Week 4, we start to register personal bests. There were eight – four each in the A and B Leagues. In the A League, out of eight people in the Top Ten who played this week, six of them failed to beat their previous lowest scores.

Questions

It was another week that the question setters may want to forget. Of 14 teams, only four scored more than their averages; star performers were the Nags Head 'B', with 110%.

The spreadsheet suggests a distinct imbalance in both sets of questions, but the bias went different ways in the two halves.  This meant that the balance overall was not too bad. The teams that went 'first first' did do better, scoring 95% of their average scores compared to 91% for their opponents. If the spreadsheet is to be believed it is possible that one or two results may have been affected, and in fact five of the seven games were won by the teams on the 'favoured' side.

The questions were not well received; this week's sets currently occupy the bottom two places in the Entertainment table as well as the overall one.

More details, including the latest table, on Page 4.

A League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

B League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

As mentioned in the introduction to this page, this week's questions (rather like last week's) scored poorly all round. Not only did they receive the lowest two scores of the season so far for Entertainment, but the scores suggest that they were the hardest we've had so far this season.

The spreadsheet also suggests that both sets were heavily biased. In the Specialist questions, the teams that went 'second first' did better (102%, compared with 85% for those that went second), but in the General Knowledge the teams that went 'first first' scored 102% while their opponents only managed 83%. On the positive side, the imbalance in the two sets went in opposite ways and so they tended to cancel each other out. Overall, the teams that went 'first first' did better, scoring 95% of their average scores compared to 91% for their opponents – and winning five of the seven games.

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2022