Last week of the season - it may all end up going to “Fergie Time”!

Tonight sees the last League games of this season with many issues still to be decided. 

The Ox-fford ‘C’ are in pole position to win the A League and will do so without question if they beat the Dolphin Dragons tonight. At the other end of the table, the British Flag’s win over the Dolphin last week has lifted them out of the bottom two. Two teams from the Flag, Harrington Academicals and Church House Bollington will finish below the dreaded line after tonight’s games, in which the Flag and the Harrington play each other whilst the Church House host the Dolphin.

In the B League, congratulations to the Knot Know-Alls for ensuring their promotion to the A League next season – their second promotion on the run. They have played all their games now and can’t finish worse than in second place – indeed they could still top the table depending on other results. 

Two other teams are contesting the remaining promotion spot: the Waters Green Phoenix will be promoted – and will be B League Champions – if they beat the Nags Head tonight, whilst the Robin Hood (also going for two consecutive promotions) could be promoted if they beat the Plough Taverners and the Phoenix lose – “total points scored” could be crucial. The Nags Head need to beat the Phoenix to give themselves a chance of staying up. Calculators will be out in the B League by the end of the night!

The C League is more of a certainty in that the Lamb Inn and the Wharf are guaranteed promotion; tonight’s games will just settle who wins the title and who is runner-up. The Lamb are 2 points ahead and a win tonight against the Park Timers would guarantee them the title. Should the Lamb lose, the Wharf need to beat the Harrington ‘B’ and it is possible they could then win the title on “total points scored”.

This has been the most closely contested season for a while – and all the more entertaining for it. All that remains after all this will be the Finals Night…

The Weaver, Thornton Square, Macclesfield

Tuesday 16 April 2013

7.30pm onwards for prompt 8pm start

The evening will consist of the Cup Final between the Ox-fford and the Harrington Academicals and then the presentation of all this season's prizes.

If you haven’t done so already, please submit your 20 questions for the Cup and Plate Finals in a sealed envelope to Waters Green Tavern by close of play tomorrow. Also available on the Finals Night will be the season's last News & Views, which will give all the tables and statistics for the entire season. Please support the last “Do” of the season and come and collect your final News & Views - you may even find you have won something!

News & Views - Week 17 (12/03/2013)

News & Views - Week 16 (05/03/2013)

Cars and Vans 4U Ltd Question Setters Trophy

Here is the very latest table with just 2 weeks to go - thanks to Haydn Thompson as always...

Week 16...

Last week saw some testing questions (I remain a master of understatement...) and comfortably the lowest scoring Specialist round of the season. See Nick's blog etc for more details and discussion. 


Elsewhere, my thanks to Graham Bailey for making the necessary enquiries at the Weaver. The pub is indeed going to shut for a period starting in April as was mentioned last week, but we do seemingly have enough time to squeeze in our last event of the season, the Finals Night where we play the Cup Final and hand out all the seasons’ prizes etc.

I will announce for definite next week but we are looking at Tuesday 16 April 2013, which is the first Tuesday after the Easter fortnight school holidays etc.

Questions for the Cup and Plate Finals should be returned to the bag at Waters Green Tavern by close of business on 20/03/2013 which is the Wednesday after the last night of the season. This is NEXT WEEK.    

Questions for Cup and Plate Finals

Attached to the News and Views last week was a sheet of paper and an envelope for all teams to write 20 questions for use in the Cup and Plate finals.

You don’t need to handwrite the questions on the sheet if you don’t want to, but 20 questions from everyone are required please!

Even if you are still in either the Cup or the Plate, you should still supply the questions as they can be used for the other competition.

You should return the sealed envelope to the usual Waters Green bag as soon as you have done them or in any event by close of play on 20/03/2013 (the Wednesday after the last round of league games for the season).

Finals Night - when and where..?

We are entering the last 3 weeks of the season and thus we need to pick a date for the Finals Night where we play the Cup Final and hand out all the seasons’ prizes etc. For a good many years now – since 2002 in fact, checking through my records – we have held this event at the Weaver, Thornton Square. 

At some point in the near future, the Weaver is due to close for a period of several weeks for work to be done on the property. We should know for certain shortly exactly when that will happen so we will be able to pick a date when the Weaver is open for the Finals Night or in a ‘worst case scenario’ we might have to look for another venue.

I will keep you all posted and hopefully might have some more information next week on this subject.

Cup & Plate Semi-Final results and the Finals...

Week 15...

As you can see, one or two issues have started to be settled as a result of Week 15's results and the usual “up” and “down” arrows have started to appear.

Firstly, many congratulations to both the Wharf and the Lamb Inn who are guaranteed promotion from the C League. Those two teams cannot now be caught and they will spend the rest of the season in a personal battle for top spot. The fact they play each other in Week 16 at the Wharf could be crucial…

It would be a brave soul who would bet on who will win the B League – the competition remains far too tight to call and the top two spots are still within mathematical reach of any of the top six teams. At the other end of the table, the Plough Taverners will be in the C League next season having lost a number of games by tiny margins this year.

The B League has been as competitive this time around as I can ever remember it being. In all three Leagues, many of the League winners etc had already been decided at this stage of last season, so the fact that so much still remains open is a testament to how open the contests have been this year.