News and Views: 2023–4 Season, Week 3 – 21 November 2023

Results

Three of the six games this week were decided by four points or fewer. In the Park derby, the Taverners won by four points; and in the Dolphin derby, the Hammers won by two. But the closest match of all was the one at the Bate Hall, where the home team beat the Pack Horse Bowling Club by just a single point – 109 to 108.

In the other two derbies, the Nags Head 'B' and the Park Taverners came out on top, while at the Harrington the Poachers won fairly comfortably.

Tables

In the A League, three teams have each won two games. The Dolphin are currently in the lead, but have played three games, while the Queens of the Castle and the Nags Head 'B' each gave a game in hand.

In the B League, the top four have all played two and won two; the Waters Green Nags are top on goal difference, and are followed by the Chester Road Tavern, Park Taverners and Bate Hallers.

Individual

Top scorer this week was Alan Hodgson with 54. Close behind on 51 was Greg Spiller; Greg was making his MQL debut playing for the Poachers, but is an experienced quizzer in other forums (fora?).

In the B League, Anne Jeater, Reg Bloor and Wynne Keith–Davies all scored 30.

Alan Hodgson is now top of the A League table, with his team–mate Peter McBride in second place and Rob Parkin third. The leader in the B League is John Poyser, but there are three players just one question behind him: Tony Moores, Paul Prior (each of whom has a game in hand) and Wynne Keith–Davies. In fact, the top twelve players in the B League individual table are separated by only 21 points (seven questions).

Questions

Most teams seem to have found the Queens of the Castle's questions quite tough. Eight of the twelve teams scored between 91% and 97% of their averages since the start of last season, while one team managed to match their average exactly and three scored less than 90%.

The Entertainment scores were correspondingly low; the Balance was good in the Specialist questions (according to the spreadsheet) but slightly worse than average in the General Knowledge. The apparent bias was in favour of the teams that went second in the first half.

On the Forum, one contributor has described the questions as "hard but fair", while another commented that there were "few gimmies but ... not a lot left unanswered".

A League – Full Results

Note: in this section, the teams that went "first first" (first in the Specialist questions) are on the left.

B League – Full Results

Note: in this section, the teams that went "first first" (first in the Specialist questions) are on the left.

A League – Summary

Results

Note: in this section, the home teams are on the left and the away teams are on the right.

Table

Individual Top Ten

B League

Results

Note: in this section, the home teams are on the left and the away teams are on the right.

Table

Individual Top Ten

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

Most teams seem to have found the Queens of the Castle's questions quite tough. Only the Dolphin Hammers managed to equal their average score; the percentages (as compared with the averages) for most teams were in the 90s, while three (all in the B League, and all going "first first") were below 90%.

According to the spreadsheet, the Specialists were harder than the General Knowledge – teams scoring 88% compared to 95%.

The spreadsheet suggests that the Balance was pretty good in the Specialists, where the teams going first averaged 90% and those going second averaged 87%. In the General Knowledge it was less good, but at least the apparent bias was the other way round: the teams going second (first first) scored 102% while those going first averaged only 89%. Overall, the teams going first in the Specialists scored 89% and those going second (first in the General Knowledge) scored 96%.

On an average team score of 136, this apparent overall bias may have made a difference of around 9 points. As we've seen, there were several matches this week where the winning margin was a lot less than this; but in each of those the winning teams went "first first", and thus had what appear to have been the harder questions.

The Entertainment marks were disappointing, but understandably so in the circumstances. The General Knowledge questions scored 5.75, which would have put them in 23rd place last season (out of 36), and the Specialists scored 5.50 (26th).

Overall, the Specialist questions would have been 19th last season and the General Knowledge 26th.

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2023