News and Views: 2023–4 Season, Week 17 – 9 April 2024

Results and Tables

Congratulations to the Poachers, who beat a weakened Nags Head 'B' team to increase the gap between first and second in the A League to an uncloseable six points, meaning the Poachers retain the title that they won for the first time last season.

Not only did 1st play 2nd in the A League this week, but 3rd played 4th, 5th played 6th and 7th played 8th. The Queens of the Castle were previously above the Dolphin only on goal difference, but they opened up a two–point advantage with a narrow victory (which could easily have been narrower still) this week. The other two matches went against previous form – Waters Green Weavers and Harrington Academicals taking the points. The Weavers' victory lifts them out of the bottom two, meaning that the Nags Head will have to beat Queens of the Castle next week to be sure of retaining their place in the A League. But other things being equal, the Academicals will be playing in the B League next year, as they remain in last place (despite their win) and have now played all of their games.

In the B League, Waters Green Nags were already assured of the title, and the Park Taverners strengthened their hold on second place with a victory over the Chester Road Tavern. Only the Sutton Club can deprive them of it now, and will do so if they beat the Park Timers and the Taverners lose to the Bate Hallers.

Individual

Top scorers this week were Bob Gratton (pb), Ashton Davies and Ian Grieve, all with 48. Alan Hodgson and Tony Browne (pb) both scored 42, and the top scorer in the B League was Mick Graves with 39 (pb).

There were five personal bests this week: two in Seat 4, and one each in seats 3, 6 and 8. But twice as many people failed to better their lowest scores of the season.

Alan Hodgson increased his lead over Alice Walker at the top of the A League Individual table to 12 points. Mark Watson can catch Alan in theory, if everything goes his way, but the only person other than Alice with any real chance is Ashton Davies, who has still only played ten games. If my sums are correct, Ashton's twin objectives must be to score at least as many as Alice and nine more than Alan.

After Week 16 it looked most unlikely that anyone would catch Paul Prior and Ian Musgrave at the top of the B League table, and that is now a mathematical impossibility. Paul and Ian remain neck and neck – their team having not played this week – but (according to my sums) Ian needs to score more than 30, and six more than Paul, to take the title.

Questions

The Waters Green Nags were one of the two teams that drew short straws this season and were asked to set two lots of questions. In Week 8, while the Specialist questions were well received, the General Knowledge proved to be quite difficult and were not popular.

This time there were no such issues. The Specialists are third (out of 34) in the Question Setters' Trophy table, and the General Knowledge are exactly in mid–table.

A couple of minor issues have been raised on the Forum: the descriptions of Dubai as a capital city, and of Exeter as a "city on the south coast". It turns out that Dubai is the capital of the Emirate to which it shares its name, and the most populous city in the UAE; but it is not (as the question implied) the national capital. And Exeter is arguably about ten miles from the coast, although if you count the Exe estuary as the sea (which I have suggested you maybe can) it's a lot closer.

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

A League – Full Results

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

Queens of the Castle vs. Dolphin

Poachers vs. Nags Head 'B'

Dolphin Hammers vs. Waters Green Weavers

Nags Head vs. Harrington Academicals

B League – Full Results

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

Chester Road Tavern vs. Park Taverners

Sutton Club vs. Bate Hallers

Pack Horse Bowling Club vs. Sutton Mutton

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

The Waters Green Nags were one of the two teams that drew short straws this season and were asked to set two lots of questions. The previous time, as the above table shows, the Specialists scored well and are currently in eighth place (out of 34). But most teams struggled with the General Knowledge, which (as the setters later acknowledged) had been made deliberately on the difficult side; and this resulted in poor marks for both Difficulty and Entertainment.

This week saw a noticeable improvement. According to the spreadsheet, the Specialist questions were easier than average, and well balanced, and a decent Entertainment mark puts them in third place on that measure. Overall they're three places higher than the previous set, in eighth. And this time the General Knowledge questions did much better; while still apparently slightly on the hard side, they scored well for Balance and are 19th out of 34 on Entertainment (just outside the top half of the table). Overall they just made it into the top half, ranked 17 out of 34.

The spreadsheet detected a slight bias in both sets towards the teams that started first. Those teams scored (on average) 111% of their average marks in the Specialists, 97% in the General Knowledge, and 103% overall; for the teams that started second the figures were (respectively) 101%, 94%, and 97%.

We should point out that of the teams that went second, one had only three players and at least one other was missing their star player. The former managed to win despite their handicap, scoring 99% of their average mark, but the latter scored only 79% and lost – albeit to the A League leaders, whose victory makes them Champions Elect.

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2024