News and Views: 2022–3 Season, Week 14 – 14 March 2023

Topic for discussion

Following some confusion over the scoring in one of the games in Week 12, it has been suggested that match scores should maybe be confirmed and agreed after every round. There is a thread on the forum to discuss this, and the plan is to raise the topic at the AGM in the Autumn. Please have a look, and be prepared to vote when the time comes – if not to comment in the meantime!

After logging in to the Forum, click Post Here (even if you don't want to post anything) and then open the thread called 'Checking the scores'.

Week 14 Results

Once again there were some very close games this week, with five of the seven being won by 12 points or fewer. Closest of all was the Poachers' victory over the Waters Green Weavers, by 162 points to 160.

Top played bottom in the B League, and the Chester Road Tavern came within nine points of pulling off a major shock. But it wasn't to be, and the Dolphin Hammers remain unbeaten with only three games to play.

Tables

In the A League second played third, and the Queens (previously second on goal difference only) just managed to shade it to go ahead of the Dolphin on points. At the other end of the table, the Harrington Academicals scored a handsome victory over the Nags Head (missing their captain, I believe) to open up a four–point gap between themselves and the relegation zone.

A defeat for the Sutton Club at the hands of the Park Taverners means that the Hammers are assured of promotion, as only the Waters Green Nags can now catch them.

Individual

Top scorer this week was Ian Grieve with 48. There were only two other scores in the 40s – Alan Hodgson and Haydn Thompson each scoring 45. In the B League, three players scored 39: Karl Burgess, Dave Cooper and Anne Jeater.

There were only eight personal bests – three in the A League and five in the B League. But only seven people failed to beat their lowest scores of the season – two in the A and five in the B. Interestingly, the two in the A League were Alice Walker and Ashton Davies!

Very little movement in the A League table this week, but in the B League, Liz Horrocks took advantage of Shauna Barstow having already played her scoring quota and Wynne Keith–Davies not playing, to move up from fifth to third. Although having now played twelve games herself, Liz will have to go some to catch either Dave Barber or Paul Prior.

Questions

The Sutton Mutton's Specialist questions, which had an overall boozy theme, scored better all round than the General Knowledge. Overall, the Specialists are 8th out of 24 and the General Knowledge are 21st.

A quiet week on the Forum, and no major gripes, although one person has suggested that there may have been a bias towards the teams that started second. This is borne out by the spreadsheet, and by the fact that five of the seven games were won by those teams.

A League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

B League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

Cars & Van 4U Question Setters' Trophy

Most teams seem to have found the Sutton Mutton's Specialist questions somewhat easier than the General Knowledge. On average, teams scored 105% of their average marks in the Specialists but only 97% in the General Knowledge.

The teams that started second did better than their opponents – 105% as opposed to 95%. This is reflected in the fact that five of the seven games were won by the teams that started second.

According to the spreadsheet, both sets were biased towards the teams that started second. The apparent bias was more pronounced in the General Knowledge – 103% compared to 90% – while in the Specialists it was 108% and 102%.

So the Specialists were quite a lot easier than the General Knowledge, and better balanced; they were also more popular, scoring 6.21 compared with 4.41 for the GK. This meant that the Specialists scored better all round and just made it into the top third of the table (8th out of 28), while the General Knowledge's position is the exact mirror image: 21st, and just in the bottom third.

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2023