News and Views: 2022–3 Season, Week 13 – 7 March 2023

Results

Five of this week's matches were won by the teams that started first. The margins in three of those games were pretty convincing, but the Pack Horse Bowling Club beat the Park Timers by only nine points, while the Plough Horntails scored the narrowest possible victory over the Sutton Mutton: 139 points to 138.

Tables

Every team in the A League has now played ten games. The Poachers maintained their two–point advantage, but the four teams immediately below them are separated by a single point. Second plays third next week, when the Dolphin host the Queens.

The bunching at the top means that three teams have become separated from the other five. With four games to go this might be described as "squeaky bum time" for the Nags Head and the two Harrington teams.

The Dolphin Hammers continue to keep the B League's chasing pack at arms' length, having been one of the two teams (along with the Waters Green Weavers) to win by starting second this week. But the Waters Green Nags and Sutton Club both get a chance to make up ground next week, when the Hammers don't play.

Individual

Individual scores this week were modest, the highest being 45 for Dave Partington, Alice Walker and Haydn Thompson. Dave Barber's 42 was the highest score in the B League, and Bob Gratton also scored 42.

There were only seven personal bests, and nine people failed to beat their lowest scores. Eight of the latter were in the B League, and only one in the A League.

Alan Hodgson and Alice Walker are now separated by only one question at the top of the A League table, and Ashton Davies is only 42 points behind Alice with a game in hand.

In the B League, several teams have now played twelve games and so individuals' lowest scores will start to be discounted next week. Paul Prior however has only played eleven, putting him in a very strong position at the top of the table.

Questions

Both of the Dolphin's question sets find themselves just above half–way in the Cars & Vans 4U table – the only weak point being an apparent bias in the Specialists, towards the teams that started first.

There aren't many gripes on the Forum, which is to the credit of the setters considering the questions hadn't been vetted (for completely understandable reasons). One point that has been made is that they were printed on rather a small font (10 point), making them quite hard to read. Other things being equal we would be right behind any efforts to minimise paper usage; but we should maybe bear in mind that the lighting in the typical public house may not be as bright as on our desks and dining tables at home – not to mention that the eyesight of some of us is not what it used to be!

A League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

B League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

The Dolphin's questions scored quite well all round, and both sets are just above half–way in the table.

They were of pretty much average difficulty; on average, teams scored 99% of their average scores for the season. The teams that started first did slightly better with 101%, while those starting second scored only 97%.

On an average team score of 141, this may have made a difference of five or six points. Most matches this week were decided by a much greater margin than this, but it's hard to avoid the conclusion that the result of the match between the Plough Horntails and the Sutton Mutton may have been affected.

According to the spreadsheet, the bias was mainly in the Specialist section, where the teams that went first scored 105% while those that went second scored only 96%. In the General Knowledge, the balance (according to the spreadsheet) was very good: the teams that went second (first in the Specialists) scored 98% and those that went first scored 97%.

Despite the apparent bias, the Specialists went down rather better and are 8th (out of 26) in the Entertainment table, while the General Knowledge are 18th.

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

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