News and Views: 2023–4 Season, Week 5 – 7 December

Results

Five of the six games this week were won by the teams that went first in the Specialist questions. The closest of these five games was between the Chester Road Tavern and Park Timers, where the Timers recorded their first victory of the season by just seven points.

In the B League's top–of–the–table clash, Waters Green Nags beat the Park Taverners by a more comfortable 26 points. The other four games were all won by margins in the region of 50 or more.

Tables

The Nags Head 'B' maintained their unbeaten record and went above the Dolphin (who didn't play) to the top of the A League table. Queens of the Castle also went above the Dolphin on goal difference, while the Poachers' win meant that they swapped places with their opponents, the Nags Head.

There are now four teams tied on six points at the top of the B League table. Waters Green Nags lead the pack on goal difference following their victory over previous leaders, the Park Taverners; but the Bate Hallers are now the only unbeaten team in the B League and have a game in hand over the top three. The Sutton Club moved up from fifth to third with a victory over the Pack Horse Bowling Club, who slipped to the bottom of the table (but also have a game in hand over the three teams immediately above them).

Individual

Top scorer this week was Paul Prior with 57. Paul was in Seat 6 (third in the team that started second) and the only question he didn't get was number 69 in the General Knowledge – "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity" is a statement at the beginning of which Old Testament book? This was arguably the hardest question of all on the night, and for the record the answer was Ecclesiastes.

This would appear to be Paul's highest ever score, and by some margin; his previous best was 48, which he's achieved in three separate seasons – firstly as long ago as 1989–90, and equalling it in each of the last two seasons.

Paul's team–mate Ian Musgrave was one of four players who scored 48 this week; the others were Ashton Davies, Haydn Thompson and Ian Grieve. Haydn moved to the top of the A League table as a result – level with Alan Hodgson but with a better highest score – and Ian moved up four places to fourth.

There were three other scores above 40 in the A League (Mark Watson 45, Dave Barber and Laurence Plant 42 each) while three players in the B League (Graham Wallace, Jim Moores and Andrew Fenton) scored 39.

There were 20 personal bests this week – eight in the A League and twelve in the B League.

Questions

Most teams seem to have found the Harrington Academicals' questions fairly easy, with only three failing to beat their average scores and some beating them by up to 30%. The teams that went "first second" tended to do better, and five of these six teams won (although there were no results that could undisputably be classed as "shocks").

A couple of people have commented that there seemed to be a lot of questions on British history (kings, queens and prime ministers) in the General Knowledge.

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 – 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

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

This week's Specialist questions garnered average marks all round, but are eighth out of ten in the table. Their total score of 16.30 would have put them 25th out of 36 last season. The General Knowledge did much better, with good scores for both Difficulty and Balance; but despite this they scored only slightly more than the GK for Entertainment. With a total of 22.70 they would have been 7th last season.

Five of the six games this week were won by the teams that went first in the Specialist questions. These teams scored on average 116% of their average scores since the start of last season, while those that went second scored 106%. The apparent bias was more pronounced in the Specialist set, where the scores were 108% and 91%.

On an average team score of 158, the apparent bias may have made a difference of around 15 or 16 points. There was one game where the winning margin was less than this, but in the other four matches (ignoring the one where the first team won) the smallest margin was 26.

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2023