If you’ve been following my recent posts about the changes to the marking system in our quiz at the Aberavon Rugby club and my suspicions about the scores emanating from one of the teams during our ‘mark your own’ era then you’re maybe feeling that it’s all rather distasteful and shows me up as small-minded and petty. Probably guilty as charged if I’m being totally honest. Well, if you are of this opinion, this post is the latest installment of the mini-saga and you might want to give it a miss.
Right, now they’ve gone, let me tell you what happened last
night. To recap, from the end of lockdown until a fortnight ago we had a
marking policy in the quiz that everyone would mark their own answers, relying
on the fact that it’s just a fun quiz with no prizes to be able to trust teams
not to inflate their scores. For all bar one team I trust their scores
implicitly. With the other one, no, ‘fraid not.
I’ve mentioned these suspicions on the blog from time to
time, but never tried to discuss it at the quiz. Just didn’t think I could,
really. Blimey, the way that team reacted when I asked them how they managed to
score 15 on a 14 point round would put anyone off making a scene in the club. Then a fortnight ago our esteemed and valued
organiser, Dai Norwich (his name is David and he has spent a lot of time in
Norwich) announced that with Covid hopefully receding ever further behind us we
would be switching to swapping our answer sheets with another team for marking.
The team I have my suspicions about were not there. Last week, when I was the
question master, two of that team were there. Now, bear in mind that they have
several times played with just two of them there. I gave them the answer
sheets, and the picture handout and they did not say a word about not playing.
I announced we were carrying on swapping answers for marking. Then, when it
came to swap answers they said that they weren’t playing.
Right, so what happened last night with them then? Answer –
nothing. They weren’t there. Maybe they were all away on holiday. One of the
guys has an injury at the moment I believe as well. On the other hand, I just
can’t help wondering whether the change in marking policy has anything to do
with it. Dan, Jess and I were discussing this in the car on the way home and we
all agreed that we’d just really like to be certain about it all. Yes, I think
that they were inflating their scores somehow, but all I have is evidence, not
proof. I’d just like to see how they perform in a few quizzes where someone
else is marking their papers and knows what they really, honestly scored. And
if they still score as well as they were scoring when they marked their own
papers then that’s absolutely fine. We’ll know. Likewise, I really don’t want
to thrash them week in week out – it’s not that kind of quiz. I don’t want them
to be driven out of the quiz. But I do want to feel we can trust the scores
that teams are saying they had , and I don’t want to be leaving the quiz on a
Thursday evening feeling that one team is taking us all for mugs, which to be
honest is a feeling I’ve had a lot over the last 5 years.
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