Week 1...

And they're off...

A seamless start to the season occurred last Tuesday with every Question Master in place and all teams turned up. The quest for knowledge (and possibly a drink to go with it) goes on...

The A League saw a mighty early season clash between the Dolphin and the Principals, with the game finally ending in a draw at 151 apiece. Surely this should have been televised? If they can get away with showing Fulham v Newcastle...

Good scores were the order of the day from all players as you would expect in such a high scoring game, Peter McBride (39) & Alan Levitt (36) top scoring for each side.

The other games were less close with the Dolphin Dragons, Castle and Ox-fford registering early wins to get their campaigns off to a flyer.

Generally closer in the B League where the Puss Heads stand proudly atop the table after a 140 - 111 win over the Church House Bollington. Dave Pennington (33) led the way and that long time traveller (not time-traveller, although he does live Oldham-way where time is a bit behind) Andy Johnson also scored an excellent 30.

The closest game was at the Waters Green where the newly named Waters Green Phoenix just edged the Baths Hotel by 3 points. A solid team effort here in the absence of Captain Nick who is floating around the edge of Africa in a boat for a couple of weeks in a loin-girding exercise for updating his blog upon his return. Jon Thompson, Wendy Brown and Bob Langstaff all flew the flag with 21 each.

The Plough Taverners and the Cock Inn also won to complete the set for this first week.

In the C League we warmly welcome two new teams from the Lord Byron, namely the Byron Laureates and the Byron Bards. Both had tricky fixtures against teams with several hundred years (quite literally) of experience in this format and both were beaten by the Harrington 'B' and Sutton Church House respectively. Geoff Parkin (36) and Win Greenwood (30) did the trick for their respective teams as they so often do.

The newly relocated Prince of Wales, aka the Crown got off to a winning start in their new home by beating the Waters Green Rams 116 - 100. Kenny Davenport-Slater top scored with 21 in his first appearance since 2006-07, during which time he has also grown a new bit on his name.

Finally the Lamb Inn beat the Albion 131 - 106 with Marshall Barnard and Simon Rumsey chipping in 24 each.

Well done to the Knot Inn and the Chester Road Tavern who produced some entertaining questions with much less notice than every other team gets during the season. Of the 12 games this week, 5 were won by teams who went “first first”, i.e. first in the Specialist Round, with 6 won by teams going the other way around, plus 1 draw.