News and Views: 2022–3 Season, Week 7 – 17 January 2023

Results

The top–of–the–table clash in the A League was very close, with the Poachers edging out the Nags Head 'B' by just six points. Equally close was the Waters Green Weavers' victory over Harrington Academicals.

In the B League, leaders Dolphin Hammers beat the third–placed Sutton Club to make it six wins out of six. The other matches similarly went according to form, with victories for the Waters Green Nags (2nd), Plough Horntails (5th) and Park Timers (6th).

Four of the seven games were won by the teams that went "first first", and three by those that started second. This suggests a good overall balance in the questions, and this is borne out by the spreadsheet (see below).

Tables

The Dolphin moved up two places to third in the A League with a victory over the Harrington Diamonds, while the Academicals slipped back two places to sixth after losing to the Weavers.

Similarly in the B League, Plough Horntails moved up three places to third with a victory over the Pack Horse Bowling Club – going above the Sutton Club (who lost to second–placed Waters Green Nags) and the Park Taverners (who didn't play). This was the only change in the B League table.

Individual

It was a low–scoring week, with only five personal bests – three in the A League and two in the B League. One of those PBs was Dave Partington's 48, which was the week's equal highest score along with Ashton Davies and Alan Hodgson. Top scorer in the B League was Paul Prior with 33.

Only 24 of the 56 players this week managed to better their previous lowest scores of the season.

Questions

Team scores, like the individual ones, were low; no team managed to score more than their average over this season and last. Both sets of questions seemed to be biased in favour of the teams that went first in the respective halves, but this meant that they cancelled each other out, so the overall balance was very good. This is probably no consolation for the setters, who still get marked down for Balance (even though the score for the General Knowledge was pretty good).

All this was reflected in the Entertainment scores, where both sets are in the bottom half of the current table. Overall, the General Knowledge questions are in 9th place (out of 14) and the Specialists are 13th.

A few individual issues have been flagged up on the Forum, although in fairness, from the setter's point of view, it could be argued that most of them come into the "can't think of everything" category.

A League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

B League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

Everyone seems to have found the Nags Head's questions quite difficult, and no team scored more than its average mark overall – although some did in the Specialist and others did in the General Knowledge. The most comfortable teams were the Dolphin, Poachers (both scoring 98% overall) and Waters Green Nags (96%), all of whom went "first first". On the other hand, two of the three least comfortable teams (Pack Horse Bowling Club and Sutton Club) also went "first first".

There were also issues (according to the spreadsheet) with the Balance. In each half, the teams that went first did better; in the Specialist set the figures were 89% and 77%, and in the General Knowledge it was 95% and 90%. The good news is that this meant that (not for the first time this season) the two apparent imbalances virtually cancelled each out. Overall, the teams that went "first first" scored 89% of their average marks, while their opponents scored 88%. This is so close that the balance cannot reasonably be said to have affected any results.

All of this was reflected in the Entertainment scores, where Week 7's Specialist questions are 10th and the General Knowledge are 13th, out of 14.

Overall, the General Knowledge set were saved by their Balance score and are in 9th place (out of 14) in the table. Although 90% to 95% doesn't look that close, it was a lot closer than some previous figures this season (95 divided by 90 is 1.06, while on two occasions so far this season one side has scored more than 1.2 times as much, on average, as the other. Consequently the Balance score for this week's GK questions was much closer to a maximum 10 than to zero.

There was no such saving grace for the Specialists, which are currently 13th out of 14.

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2023