News and Views: 2022–3 Season, Week 18 – 18 April 2023

Results and Tables

In the A League, the top three played the bottom three this week, and the top three all won. So there was no change at the top or bottom of the table and our congratulations go to the Poachers, who finish as champions for the first time. The team formerly known as the Church House Bollington have been in the A League for the last five seasons; last year they were runners–up, and this year their name will be on the trophy.

In the middle of the table, the Waters Green Weavers scored a relatively narrow victory over the Nags Head 'B' (the priorities of the latter's star player being elsewhere on this particular Tuesday evening). This meant that the Weavers leapfrogged the Nags 'B' into fourth place.

The Dolphin Hammers were confirmed as B League champions last week, despite losing their 100% record. But with the Plough Horntails on question setting duties, the Waters Green Nags (who had a full complement of four players, for the first time in a while) knew that they'd finish as runners-up if they avoided defeat against the Sutton Club (or scored more than 142 points). In fact they only managed a modest 104 points, but the Club scored the same – the match ending in the B League's first (and only) draw of the season. The Nags duly moved above the Horntails to finish in second place.

The only other change in the B League table was that the Sutton Mutton moved above the Park Timers into sixth place by beating the Chester Road Tavern, while the Timers were the latest victims of the Dolphin Hammers.

We can't be sure about promotion and relegation until we know how many teams will be taking part in the League next season. But in anticipation of at least two teams being promoted, we congratulate the Dolphin Hammers and the Waters Green Nags.

Individual

After several weeks of above–average scores, this was a low–scoring week. Top of the tree were Brian Bogie and Ashton Davies, with 45 each (on opposite sides in the same game), and no one else managed more than 40. Peter McBride and Alan Hodgson each scored 39, and the top scorer in the B League was Dave Barber – whose 36 was the only score above 27 in that league.

In what we currently expect to be the Harrington Diamonds' last ever game, Brian Bogie's 45 was his best score of the season. He was the only player in either League to achieve that feat this week; and by contrast, no fewer than 28 people – 14 in each League – failed to beat their previous lowest scores of the season. This is the equivalent of seven teams, or nearly half of all those taking part this week.

There were no changes in either Top Ten, which means that the League individual champions are Alan Hodgson and Paul Prior. This is Alan's 13th A League individual title, but his first since the 2013–14 season. Paul retains the trophy he won for the first time last season; and it looks as though he'll be challenging for one in the A League next year.

Paul won the B League title by a margin of no fewer than 54 points from Dave Barber, but in the A League it couldn't have been much closer. Alice Walker was just one question behind Alan, and Ashton Davies was only two behind Alice.

Questions

It fell to the Plough Horntails, as the only team not playing this week, to set the questions for the second time this season. Their first set (Week 9, 31 January) did not go down well, and it has to be said that this week's were no better received. Most teams struggled, and only the Park Timers even managed to equal their average score for the season; no team did better. On the plus side however, the balance was excellent (according to the spreadsheet), and this enabled this week's questions to finish in a much better place than those from Week 9 (25th and 32nd in the overall table).

The Horntails definitely drew a short straw when the question setters were selected for this season, and we hope they fare better next year. At the very least we hope that they will be able to call on some vetters.

A League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

B League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

The final results are now in, and the news is that the winners of the Cars & Vans 4U Question Setters' Trophy this year are the Park Taverners' Specialist questions, from Week 16. After Week 17 they were tied with the Nags Head 'B''s General Knowledge set from Week 1, but Week 18's questions were so out of the ordinary (see below) that the latter have dropped to third place and the runners–up re the Park Timers' General Knowledge (from Week 10). The Timers' Specialist set are in fourth place, so congratulations to them on a consistent all–round set.

This week's questions were set once again by the Plough Horntails, and the good news is that (according to the spreadsheet) the overall balance was just about perfect; each of the two individual sets were themselves pretty well balanced, with a slight bias in each half towards the teams that went first.

Most teams struggled to answer the questions however, and on average scored only 83% of their averages over the season. This makes Week 18's questions the hardest we've had, except for the Horntails' first set (Week 9). The Entertainment marks reflect this: the Specialist questions are 33rd out of 36 (with an average score of 4.37 across the Leagues) and the General Knowledge are 35th (with 3.37).

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2023