News and Views: 2022–3 Season, Week 11 – 14 February 2023

Results

Six of the seven games were won by the teams that started second, and the spreadsheet agrees that while the Specialist questions were very well balanced, in the General Knowledge there seemed to be a distinct bias towards the side went "second first". The only team to win by going "first first" were the Park Taverners.

One of the teams that went "second first", and won, was the Waters Green Nags, who managed to pretty much equal their average match score for the season despite having only three players. This was the first time this has happened this season.

Tables

The Poachers took advantage of the Waters Green Weavers not playing, and a defeat for the Nags Head 'B' at the hands of the Dolphin, to move two points clear at the top of the A League table. The next four teams are now separated by a single point!

The only change in the B League was that the Park Taverners moved above the Sutton Club, who didn't play this week, into third place (behind the Dolphin Hammers and the Waters Green Nags).

Individual

There were four scores of over 50 this week. Alan Hodgson's 54 was the highest of all, while Alice Walker, Ashton Davies and Mark Watson all scored 51. Top scorer in the B League was Liz Horrocks with a new personal best for the season, of 42.

There were 11 personal bests in all this week - 4 in the A League and 7 in the B - and only four people (3 in the A League and 1 in the B) failed to beat their lowest scores of the season.

Questions

Most teams seem to have found the Specialist rounds distinctly on the easy side, with the Dumb Britain round making a welcome return. The General Knowledge were of pretty much average difficulty overall, but while the teams going first ("second first") did much better than average, those going second seemed to struggle.

Very few adverse comments on the Forum this week, for the second week running!

A League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

B League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

It was a game of two halves for the Harrington Academicals' questions. The Specialists scored well all round and are second only to the Nags Head 'B''s General Knowledge set in the table; but this week's General Knowledge, while they're solidly in the middle of the Entertainment table, scored poorly for both Difficulty and Balance and are currently 18th out of 22 overall.

In the Specialist rounds, the teams going first averaged 109% of their average marks for the season so far, while those going second did slightly better with 111%. This makes them among the easiest of this season's questions, and for balance they are ranked (among the Specialist sets) second only to the Sutton Club's questions from Week 2. By contrast, the teams going first in the General Knowledge (second in the Specialists) managed only 89% of their averages, but those going second scored 108%. This meant that overall (according to the spreadsheet) there was a significant advantage to the teams that started second, who scored 109% overall while those that started first managed only 97%.

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

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