News and Views: Cup Semi–Finals – 21 March 2023

Semi–Finals: Results

This year's Cup Final will be a repeat of last year's, as the Poachers and the Queens prevailed respectively over the Academicals and the Nags Head 'B'.

The questions were set by the Nags Head and the Dolphin Hammers. They were suitably tricky for the semi–finals, with 21 questions going unanswered in the first semi-final and 18 in the second. Ten questions weren't answered in either. These were:

14	What was Sidney Poitier's first film, released in 1950, in which he played the role of Doctor Luther Brooks?
	No Way Out
15	In which cathedral was Henry III first crowned in 1216?
	Gloucester
17	In which town or city in the USA did the first Ryder Cup take place in 1927?
	Worcester (Massachusetts)
18	Who wrote Chicago's Number One classic If You Leave Me Now?
	Peter Cetera
21	John Dunbar was the first of whose three husbands?
	Marianne Faithfull
30	What's another name for the North American nightjar?
	The whippoorwill
36	The Schick test can be used to test for which disease?
	Diphtheria
37	What was Tammy Wynette's real first name?
	Virginia
91	Which US State, in 2004, became the first to legalise same–sex marriage?
	Massachusetts
116	What type of people are most likely to suffer from necrotising enterocolitis, or NEC?
	Very young babies (especially premature ones)

Note that five of these questions are odd–numbered and five even. So no excuses there!

The Poachers won four of the six rounds in their semi–final (with one drawn), and the Queens won four in theirs. Interestingly, the Poachers went second and won rounds 1, 3, 5 and 6 (drawing round 4 and losing round 2), while the Queens went first and won rounds 1, 4, 5 and 6. In other words, three of the rounds were won by the team that went first in one match and the team that went second in the other. Strangest of all, Round 2 went heavily the other way, and was won 12–7 by the team going first in the second semi–final, and 13–7 by the team going second in the other. So altogether, four of the six rounds went opposite ways in the two matches. That would seem to suggest a well–balanced set of questions – I think!

Final

The questions will be assembled by the Harrington Academicals and the Nags Head 'B', from those supplied by all non–participating teams.

The date will be confirmed nearer the time. The venue is also yet to be confirmed, as the Queens may not be open.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2023