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UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Sun May 21, 2017 6:03 pm
by Belgium
This poll appears later than its North American counterparts because of the slightly later end to the general quizbowl season. The concept remains the same: list your top 25 players of the year, and I put them together in a nice and pretty ranking after an arbitrary length of time has elapsed. I do ask that you refrain from joke ballots in your actual replies, though I guess banter is allowed in the thread. Just don't expect it to be considered.

You are limited to student players who represented a university or other institution of higher education in the United Kingdom at a quizbowl tournament in the 2016-17 academic year. The 2015-16 rankings are available here.

Links to relevant stats (feel free to notify me/post links for tournaments I may have missed):
Penn Bowl
ARTSEE + Listory
Oxford Freshers' ICQ
ACF Fall
Terrapin
Early Fall Tournament
Will Alston Open
Oxford Open
FLOREAT
NAQT Novice
ACF Regionals
(This) Tournament Is A Crime
History Intensive Tournament
Oxford ICQ
Cambridge Open
Cambidge Open Sport
Eisenhower Memorial Tournament
British Student Quiz Championships

To submit your own top 25 players, simply send me a private message or email through the forum interface, or an email to [email protected]. I will post results on May 31st, 2017, so get your votes in before then!

Side poll - staffers
Inspired by the Canadian poll, I am also conducting a poll for the top 10 staffers. In general, name the 10 people you think are the best moderators, scorers and tournament directors in the UK.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Mon May 22, 2017 6:00 pm
by Edmund

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Tue May 23, 2017 7:32 am
by Belgium
Edmund wrote:Varsity Stats
Thank you for adding this, Edmund.

I should also add the stats for Scot Bowl for completeness.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Tue May 23, 2017 5:10 pm
by Muriel Axon
Meanwhile, Americans will be conducting the "most stereotypically British-sounding name" poll, in which Oliver Sweetenham is an early favorite.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Tue May 23, 2017 5:45 pm
by Red Panda Cub
Muriel Axon wrote:Meanwhile, Americans will be conducting the "most stereotypically British-sounding name" poll, in which Oliver Sweetenham is an early favorite.
Quite French, actually. He's literally named after the character from Le Chanson de Roland.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Tue May 23, 2017 5:56 pm
by Belgium
Short-beaked echidna wrote:
Muriel Axon wrote:Meanwhile, Americans will be conducting the "most stereotypically British-sounding name" poll, in which Oliver Sweetenham is an early favorite.
Quite French, actually. He's literally named after the character from Le Chanson de Roland.
Meaning he has a more French name than myself, noted speaker of French as a first language.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Tue May 23, 2017 11:53 pm
by Auks Ran Ova
Short-beaked echidna wrote:
Muriel Axon wrote:Meanwhile, Americans will be conducting the "most stereotypically British-sounding name" poll, in which Oliver Sweetenham is an early favorite.
Quite French, actually. He's literally named after the character from Le Chanson de Roland.
I reject your reality, and substitute my own.

Image

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Wed May 24, 2017 5:13 am
by Tom Hill
Since Oliver's mother is a noted translator of Robert of Rheims, I am disappointed that he was not given a stereotypically French name like "Baldwin" or "Urban" instead.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Sat May 27, 2017 5:02 pm
by Edmund
These stats may also be relevant towards the top of people's lists:

ACF Nationals

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Sat May 27, 2017 5:40 pm
by Edmund
What's the UK group consensus on whether or not we include Marianna Zhang and Nathan Weiser in these rankings, who both played EFT for British universities but have since returned to playing for their regular US teams? Considering active players from the 2016-17 season, they would both deserve a Top 25 position, but would it be relevant to exclude them in the interest of finding more space in the Top 25 to represent more regular UK players?

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Sun May 28, 2017 1:58 pm
by Belgium
Edmund wrote:What's the UK group consensus on whether or not we include Marianna Zhang and Nathan Weiser in these rankings, who both played EFT for British universities but have since returned to playing for their regular US teams? Considering active players from the 2016-17 season, they would both deserve a Top 25 position, but would it be relevant to exclude them in the interest of finding more space in the Top 25 to represent more regular UK players?
I am unsure. So far, I have left it up to respondents to decide, but if an executive decision must be taken, I wouldn't allow this, considering they only attended Oxford as part of a semester abroad. Otherwise, I do agree that both would easily make the top 25.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Tue May 30, 2017 8:23 pm
by Belgium
This poll got more of a response than I expected, and I'd like to thank all 17 people other than myself (Tom Hill, Joey Goldman, Oliver Clarke, Chris Stern, Ben Salter, Francis Clark-Murray, Daoud Jackson, Freddy Potts, Theo Howe, Ellie Warner, Freddy Leo, George Corfield, Hugh Oxlade, Ewan MacAulay, Edmund Dickinson, Evan Lynch and Nolan Dannels) who contributed by sending their player polls, plus Jonathan Elliott, who contributed a ballot for the staffer poll only. The results were as follows, including players' highest and lowest ranks:

1. Joey Goldman (Oxford) - 445 (1st - 4th)
2. Spence Weinreich (Oxford) - 411 (1st - 6th)
3. Ewan MacAulay (Cambridge) - 408 (2nd - 7th)
4. Evan Lynch (Cambridge) - 394 (2nd - 10th)
5. Aidan Mehigan (Oxford) - 374 (2nd - 11th)
6. George Corfield (Oxford) - 363 (3rd - 15th)
7. Daoud Jackson (Oxford) - 352 (2nd - 10th)
8. Charlie Clegg (Oxford) - 312 (5th - 17th)
9. Ellie Warner (Cambridge) - 273 (4th - 20th)
10. Oliver Sweetenham (Cambridge) - 256 (7th - 18th)
11. Julian Sutcliffe (Cambridge) - 250 (8th - 18th)
12. Ben Salter (Warwick) - 233 (9th - unranked)
13. Samuel Cook (Cambridge) - 225 (9th - 21st)
14. Chris Stern (Oxford) - 199 (11th - 23rd)
15. Isaac Brown (Oxford) - 159 (8th - unranked)
16. Freddy Potts (Oxford) - 148 (11th - unranked)
17. Francis Clark-Murray (Oxford) - 134 (11th - unranked)
18. Thomas De Bock (Oxford Brookes) - 114 (13th - unranked)
=19. Tom Hill (Cambridge) - 99 (14th - unranked)
=19. Richard Freeland (Cambridge) - 99 (12th - unranked)
=19. Rowland Sadler (Southampton) - 99 (6th - unranked)
22. Max Fitz-James (Edinburgh) - 68 (8th - unranked)
23. Adam Barr (Manchester) - 67 (8th - unranked)
24. Nolan Dannels (Edinburgh) - 42 (14th - unranked)
25. Ephraim Levinson (Cambridge) - 34 (15th - unranked)

Also receiving votes, in descending order: Joe Crowther (Warwick), Alex Peplow (Oxford), Nathan Weiser (Oxford/Stanford), Joseph Krol (Cambridge), Niall Jones (Southampton), Jacob Robertson (Oxford), Euan Smith (Edinburgh), Daniel Chiverton (Cambridge), Ben Beardsley (Warwick), Dan Arribas (Warwick), Nikhil Venkatesh (UCL), Yanbo Yin (Cambridge), George Davies (St. Andrews), Hugh Oxlade (Cambridge), Theo Howe (Cambridge), Vitalijs Brejevs (Cambridge), Jimmy Chen (Cambridge), Stanley Wang (Edinburgh), Freddy Leo (Oxford), Leonie Woodland (Oxford) and Dom Hewett (Bristol).

As for the staffer poll, thank you to Oliver Clarke, Chris Stern, Ben Salter, Jonathan Elliott, Ellie Warner, George Corfield, Hugh Oxlade and Edmund Dickinson for voting.

1. Edmund Dickinson - 86
2. Afham Raoof - 72
3. Ewan MacAulay - 58
4. Hugh Binnie - 50
5. Emma Laslett - 46
6. Aidan Mehigan - 30
7. George Corfield - 29
8. Ellie Warner - 23
9. Francis Clark-Murray - 17
10. Joey Goldman - 12

Also receiving votes: Emily Wolfenden, Ashley Page, Ben Salter, Spence Weinreich, Thomas De Bock, Dave Bishop, Oliver Clarke, Daoud Jackson, Samuel Cook, Andy Shaw, Jonathan Elliott, Chris Stern, Andrew Teale and Rob Linham.

Thank you once again to all who responded, and I'll come up with some random interesting stats over the coming days.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Tue May 30, 2017 8:44 pm
by naan/steak-holding toll
The fact that there's enough quizbowl in the UK to make this A Thing is awesome.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Tue May 30, 2017 9:15 pm
by Slightly Less British
For some context, here's a brief description of the Oxford players on the poll.

Joey Goldman
Probably should be the unanimous #1 in the UK. Top scorer at the majority of tournaments he plays, and is particularly good at VFA, philosophy and literature. Has won pretty much every competition there is to win, including University Challenge. The circuit will become much more competitive next year, largely because of Joey's departure.

Spence Weinreich
Scales to a very high difficulty on lit, history and religion, as evidenced by his top-scoring on Oxford A's Nats team. Quiz tournaments will be significantly harder to start next year without Spence's shouting. Probably has the most 'real' knowledge on the British circuit, evidenced by his very low neg counts.

Aidan Mehigan
Has a deeply-felt passion for clues, and is probably the best player in the UK on easy question packets. Can get buzzes on just about any area of the distribution, and scores buckets of points as a result.

George Corfield
Best biology (particularly human bio) player in the UK, and one of the best music players as well. Ranking on the US player poll is very much deserved. Also has a very good claim to be the nicest person on the circuit.

Daoud Jackson
Knows a lot of 'thought' stuff, and is a very good history player as well. One of the best all-round players on the circuit: is deceptively good at trash, and is irritatingly better at buzzing on my degree than I am.

Charlie Clegg
Probably the best at 'British stuff' in the UK: see his strong BSQC stats for proof. One of the best film players in the country, and overall very good across the humanities.

Chris Stern
A very solid science player, who is also one of the best music players in the country. Still negs too much. Probably Oxford's best player heading into next year.

Isaac Brown
The best in the country on French things (mainly literature), but also a solid player on social science and philosophy. His EMT statline was absurd.

Freddy Potts
Strong history player all round, with a particular fondness for Eastern European and/or Soviet things. Likes sleeping even more than playing quiz.

Francis Clark-Murray
I'm pretty good at trash, current events and assorted things at the bottom of the distribution. Can't buzz on anything requiring culture or scientific knowledge.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 1:26 am
by What do you do with a dead chemist?
Atack Snooker Centre wrote:For some context, here's a brief description of the Oxford players on the poll. ...

Chris Stern
Probably Oxford's best player heading into next year. ...
This is deeply worrying given that I don't actually know anything.

Also, are there any interesting stats along the lines of the ones Daoud did last year?

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 3:17 am
by Tom Hill
...and some Cambridge context

3. Ewan MacAulay

Knows tonnes of science. Can buzz on most other categories too. Likes triathlons. Phwoar.

4. Evan Lynch

Competes with Ewan for science; also good at painting and literature. Probably the second highest points scorer behind Joey over the year (I'm not going to do the maths), but has presumably lost out to Spence and Ewan because he's more of a generalist than a specialist. Will make Southampton annoying good next year when he goes there for his PhD.

9. Ellie Warner

Has a tendency to buzz early on the things that sound the most difficult and obscure to me. Areas of deep knowledge include world literature, religion, ballet and linguistics.

10. Oliver Sweetenham

Rarely beaten to British literature, or indeed literature in general. Also very good at visual fine arts and film.

11. Julian Sutcliffe

Has a tendency to buzz early on his hunches, leading to sublime powers and hilarious negs. "Joanna Lumley helping the gurkhas" when the answerline was "the Ulster Plantation" was a favourite. Does nonetheless know a whole lot of history.

13. Samuel Cook

The best geography player in the country, by a distance. Also knows lots of history.

=19. Tom Hill

I study history, but don't ever actually buzz on it (excepting niche areas of specialism, like 11th century Sicily). I do my best to make up for it by knowing a bit about mythology and music.

=19. Richard Freeland

Very good at maths, music and mythology. Also will not be beaten to Dylan Thomas. Probably too good to be playing on Cambridge C, and has led them to some big upsets.

25. Ephraim Levinson

Like Spence, has extraordinary, deep, "real" knowledge. Seems to have memorized most British and American poetry. Strong on philosophy, opera and film too. I suspect he would be ranked higher if he came to more tournaments.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 4:18 am
by Ben Salter
Since only one Warwick person made the list, I'll controversially provide some flavour for everyone from Warwick that got votes:

Ben Salter
I like to (ambitiously) think I’m in the UK top 2 for maths and music, and can fraud science against teams that don't have a scientist. Unfortunately, I've gotten worse this year (turns out degrees are hard!), and everyone around me has improved noticeably.

Joe Crowther
Learnt loads of stuff from a non-quizbowl perspective before coming to Warwick, so has good coverage of “British quiz stuff” like politics and trash, which caused him to top-score for Warwick at BSQC. An elite film player, buzzes really early on anything related to prog rock, and knows a lot of stuff about philosophy.

Ben Beardsley
Knew a few things when he first arrived, then decided to learn the entire HS canon in like a month, which led to him out-scoring Joey at EFT, a feat that he has since been unable to replicate. A fair generalist, but he seems to have found his niche on the A-team in physics, myth, and anything tangentially related to Japan. Negs maths/CS with things that don’t exist. Had a girlfriend who was “obsessed” with the statistical jackknife method. Will probably get a lot more points now that I’m leaving.

Dan Arribas
Despite being a maths student, knows a lot of things from seemingly random areas of the distribution, including linguistics, the Catholic Church, and philosophy. Potentially a UK top 5 player in both film and music, though shadowed pretty hard by Joe and me respectively. Gets at least 30% of his powers by knowing the Spanish word for something.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 5:52 am
by StabbedCat
To provide information on the Cambridge player who captured the most hearts and minds:

Hugh Oxlade
Arguably the ost mysterious man on the UK student quiz circuit. Might be my pick for the best film player in UK quiz, though Oliver Sweetenham and Charlie Clegg would give him a run for his money. A powerful figure of trash in general. Also did the filthiest buzz of the year that will doubtless enter the annals of CUQS history when he powered eigenvalues based on the fact that 'the question sounded like it was having a hard time telling you what it was looking for'. Knows a lot about boring British history as well as areas of literature that you probably can't define within a single sphere. Is known to self-identify as 'cricket' and will destroy you if you neg him out of it. Still not the most confident buzzer and, given the fact that he has still put up some impressive scores, will likely improve further. Probably the most fun person to be on the same team as for the memes that will doubtless be created.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 10:22 am
by tempohouse1729
Ben Salter wrote:
Joe Crowther
buzzes really early on anything related to prog rock
Finally, we have found the words that will form my epitaph.

Out of interest, and without wishing to sound too egotistical (this is a lie, I am being completely egotistical here) what was the difference between 25th and 26th place?

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 2:28 pm
by Belgium
tempohouse1729 wrote:
Ben Salter wrote:
Joe Crowther
buzzes really early on anything related to prog rock
Finally, we have found the words that will form my epitaph.

Out of interest, and without wishing to sound too egotistical (this is a lie, I am being completely egotistical here) what was the difference between 25th and 26th place?
Exactly one point. Commiserations.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 5:52 pm
by jonathanelliott
tommykl wrote:… plus Jonathan Elliott, who contributed a ballot for the staffer poll only.
Oops, that doesn't look great. Sorry about forgetting to send you my player votes in time. As there are so many good players at the moment, I hadn't got much further than deciding to put Joey top.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 6:41 pm
by Edmund
As a non-student looking in, I wanted to write up my own choices properly this year, so here they are. I emphasise that these rankings are highly subjective and based on a pretty arbitrary value judgement on different skills as a player. As last year I seem to have ranked generalists higher than the average respondent, and skilled specialists a bit lower. With hindsight I might juggle a few positions, but this is the list I submitted. All 25 people on this list are good players whom I enjoy watching improve.

1. Joey Goldman (equal to results)

Joey is still the best student player in the country. I think he has focused a bit more on his studies compared to quizbowl this year (maybe a good thing), so he may have lost a little of his 2015-16 edge, but he still consistently scores very strongly and has both deep and broad knowledge in lit, thought, and fine art. The fact that Joey was on the winning team of all four major UK opens this year (MKULTRA, QLL Buzzer, Oxford Open, Cambridge Open) says a lot.

2. Evan Lynch (+2 vs results)

I ranked Evan higher than the average last year and I did it again this year. Evan is prone to frustration and can lose matches through unwise negs, but more than anyone else except Joey on this list, he can single-handedly take a game out of your grasp. I watched Evan score 10 tossups against my team at Oxford Open and I've seen many other performances where he has put together strings of powers and good buzzes. Being a science player who is forced to spend almost all of his time alongside Ewan, the UK's best science player, Evan has had to diversify - he's one of the best on the student circuit at world lit and trash, but he's also capable of scoring almost any question on middle clues. Expected to continue to improve.

3. Ewan MacAulay (equal to results)

Ewan is the best science player in the UK, and one of the best in the world in that subject. He writes a lot and knows a lot outside science. In spite of his protestations when he loses, I have never seen Ewan playing quizbowl and not absolutely loving it. He deserves more national titles.

4. Aidan Mehigan (+1 vs results)

Whenever I saw Aidan playing this year, he was playing well. With George locking down the science player's spot on Oxford A, Aidan has profited through sheer breadth of knowledge, which carried him to strong results with Oxford B teams at TTIC and ACF Regs and Nats.

5. Spence Weinreich (-3 vs results)

In spite of occasional volume, Spence is the calm influence that has kept Oxford A winning things from BSQC 2016 onwards. Definitely one of the best history and religion players in the UK and one of the most reliable, metronomic scorers. Notable for a creditable play style of almost never negging but I would still like to see him be more daring sometimes.

6. George Corfield (equal vs results)

George impressively snuck into the US Top 25 this year, mainly on the back of a hugely strong Nats performance in his speciality subjects of biology and music. George has mastered physical sciences far better than I ever covered biology - while the Ewan/Evan pair are still usually ahead of him, George gives Oxford A reliable science coverage against almost any other team.

7. Daoud Jackson (equal vs results)

With Charlie, probably the top player of British content on this list. Daoud is someone who impresses me away from the buzzer with how much he knows about the world. Definitely in the top three history and RMP players in the UK, and hands-down the best UK student player on Islam and cricket.

8. Charlie Clegg (equal vs results)

Charlie's result of a power in every game at BSQC - and two powers in 9/12 games - is a tremendous achievement that shows just quite how much he knows about British things. Through the last three rounds of EMT, Charlie had a stat line of 8 0 0. What Charlie knows, he knows very very well indeed, which makes him dangerous and unpredictable to face as a player.

9. Ben Salter (+3 vs results)

Warwick is the third best quizzing university in the UK, and a lot of that is because of Ben Salter. He can challenge George Corfield on music and is one of the best active maths players, as well as having built enough general coverage to carry his team to middle or better placings in every tournament he plays.

10. Ellie Warner (-1 vs results)

Ellie has improved a lot this year and seems to be especially strong on ACF-style questions, with a particular strong Regionals performance, a lot of buzzes at Nats, and scoring close to Evan and Ewan at TTIC. Can be trusted to lead a team herself, as at ACF Regionals and BSQC where she earned good results for Cambridge B on both occasions.

11. Freddy Potts (+5 vs results)

Freddy missed BSQC which may have put him out of people's minds by the team this poll came around. I ranked him this high mainly on his strength as a history player - he scored the most powers after Julian and Daoud of the student players at HIT.

12. Richard Freeland (+7 vs results)

Richard doesn't play very often, but when he does it becomes clear that he knows a lot, most notably in a 2 7 0 statline for the Varsity Committee team but also in helping Cambridge C to a top bracket finish at BSQC.

13. Isaac Brown (+2 vs results)

Especially strong on literature and one of the most rapidly improving players on the British circuit. One to watch.

14. Max Fitz-James (+8 vs results)

Another player who sadly missed BSQC but has improved noticeably since the start of the year. This ranking was based on his current level rather than autumn 2016 - particularly considering his strong performances at Cambridge Open and EMT. Max is a very strong generalist at the forefront of the nascent Edinburgh quiz scene.

15. Julian Sutcliffe (-4 vs results)

Pros: with Daoud one of the two best history players in the UK. Cons: uncontrolled negging. Julian brings hilarity to tournaments he plays, which is a good thing because quizbowl is supposed to be fun, but even slight attention to his gameplay would propel him into the Top 10 in my rankings.

16. Francis Clark-Murray (+1 vs results)

With Isaac one of the new wave of Oxford players who is improving rapidly. Top scored for a very solid UG Oxford B team at BSQC.

17. Adam Barr (+6 vs results)

Adam doesn't play very often, which means that his style can be quite raw - plenty of powers and a lot of negs. One of the only strong science players outside Oxbridge and solid general knowledge too.

18. Oliver Sweetenham (-8 vs results)

Oliver is extremely good at British literature, especially pre-20th C, and film. If tournaments were 10/10 prewar Brit lit and 10/10 film, Oliver would be the best. As long as that's not the distribution, it would be exciting to see Oliver broaden his range. Nonetheless he's a very solid fourth scorer for the full strength Cambridge A - and looking at his power count from EMT, maybe I underrated him a little here.

19. Daniel Chiverton (not ranked in results)

Highly underrated history player; also solid on maths and science.

20. Samuel Cook (-7 vs results)

NAQT-style specialist with excellent play on geography and British things. Admitted to being caught out by the geography at BSQC being a little broader in content this year! Possibly the best Tolkien student quizzer in the world; certainly he is responsible for an insane streak at Tolkien Varsity.

21. Thomas de Bock (-3 vs results)

Tireless effort to improve brought Thomas's Oxford Brookes to an undefeated bottom bracket playoff at BSQC this year. Self-reliant player due to a lack of experience playing alongside people stronger than him. Only got 10 on the Belgian literature bonuses I wrote for BSQC.

22. George Davies (not ranked in results)

Responsible for St Andrews making their appearance on the British circuit. Solid generalist who will improve with practice after a hiatus in play since a strong high school career.

23. Chris Stern (-9 vs results)

Reflecting on Chris's 4 powers through 24 questions in the Varsity B game, I worry I underranked him. Still work to be done to hone his play but he knows a lot of science and is improving fast. Notably valuable contribution as a science player for Oxford A at EMT.

24. Joe Crowther

Joe has set some good scores for Warwick; other than that I don't know too much about him.

25. Rowland Sadler

The best player at Southampton right now.

People I didn't find space for but still wanted to mention as significantly improved or in my opinion underrated this year: Hugh Oxlade, Tom Hill, Nikhil Venkatesh, Niall Jones, Dan Arribas.

I took the staffers' poll according to a mixed ranking according to capabilities as a moderator, tournament director, and/or general organiser. Here are my top ten:

1. Emily Wolfenden

Emily is the most organised person in British quizzing, and without her, BSQC would not have happened, so for those reasons alone she gets top spot.

2. Ewan MacAulay

Ewan runs good tournaments and he runs tournaments to time. He also reads at almost everything he doesn't play. His strength as a player means that his contribution to the community may get overlooked sometimes, so here are your props, Ewan.

3. Edmund Dickinson

I edit and write a lot. I think I'm a decent reader. Tournaments I direct do tend to run late, but not excessively late.

4. Afham Raoof

Excellent reader and scorer; always willing to volunteer to do something helpful at tournaments.

5. Hugh Binnie

Very clear reader. Writer of good music questions.

6. Ellie Warner

Makes side tournaments happen and reads at a lot of things that people have fun at.

7. Emma Laslett

Responsible for one of the UK's four open tournaments and travels extensively to moderate, which she does very well.

8. Aidan Mehigan

Ran EFT to time with frightening military precision. Probably a good moderator if I could understand his accent. #britishproblems

9. Jonathan Elliott

A stalwart member of the post-student community who is usually present to help out at events. Very trustworthy reader and scorer who can keep a room to time.

10. Daoud Jackson

One of the most clear readers and also someone who goes out of his way to organise events that wouldn't otherwise happen. Has run two Oxford Inter-Collegiate Quizzes which deserves a special medal of its own.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 7:57 pm
by Too Late
Edmund wrote: 8. Aidan Mehigan

Ran Penn Bowl to time with frightening military precision. Probably a good moderator if I could understand his accent. #britishproblems
This was actually Salman.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 8:24 pm
by Kouign Amann
Quantumhovercraft wrote:
Edmund wrote: 8. Aidan Mehigan

Ran Penn Bowl to time with frightening military precision. Probably a good moderator if I could understand his accent. #britishproblems
This was actually Salman.
Scared Edmund so much at EFT he forgot what tournament it was, I guess.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2017 8:44 am
by enwolfenden
Edmund wrote: 1. Emily Wolfenden

Emily is the most organised person in British quizzing, and without her, BSQC would not have happened, so for those reasons alone she gets top spot.
Aww - very kind of you to say, though not a title I'd give myself! I aspire to be as good a staffer as yourself and others mentioned one day.

While I didn't contribute to the poll and broadly agree with things that have been said above, I'd like to give a mention to Sasha Mottaghi Taromsari. I don't recall ever having him moderate a game I've played, but he produces the most beautiful scoresheets so must be doing something right. Props also go to Warwick generally for going along with various hair-brained schemes.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2017 2:08 pm
by Too Late
Edmund wrote:
12. Richard Freeland (+7 vs results)

Richard doesn't play very often, but when he does it becomes clear that he knows a lot, most notably in a 2 7 0 statline for the Varsity Committee team but also in helping a scratch Cambridge D + Warwick team to a top bracket finish at BSQC.
I agree that Richard was probably underrated in the poll but he was on Cambridge C (topscoring it in fact) at BSQC. He's also been learning chemistry and twentied most of the chemistry sets we got at BSQC.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 1:25 pm
by Edmund
My bad, fixed along with the erratum concerning Aidan's tournament direction.

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2017 8:46 am
by Belgium
Because it seems like the thing to do...
Thomas De Bock
The sole constant member of the Brookes quiz team, I've had to become a generalist by default. I still have major gaps in knowledge, even at easier difficulty, and I don't scale particularly well for harder stuff. I'm probably best at geography and pockets of history (especially the 1950s for reasons I prefer not to expand upon), as well as particularly trashy trash content. I may or may not answer the one/two question(s) per tournament concerning my degree, and will get any motorsport question (unless it's bikes).

My ability to get questions on Belgium depend greatly on how Walloon the content is.