Good evening all!

It was an incredible day on Saturday! Weather aside, and those folks who found themselves buried, I am sorry you were unable to make it, it was so great to see so many new faces at Quiz Bowl. We had 18 teams total, and that number would have been even higher if it hadn’t been for the storm. Easily our largest post-pandemic turnout…quiz bowl is alive and thriving in NH again. 

The folks at Merrimack always put on a great show, and they off course did not disappoint! There were snacks and so many Merrimack alumni back to quizmaster for us, it was great, all the new coaches could spend the day with their teams instead of having to read.

So, on to the important stuff. Merrimack’s varsity team had their way with everyone on Saturday, but since they’re already in the state tournament, we jumped down to the next level. St. Thomas and Nashua South, both newcomers (St. Thomas for the first time ever, I think (at least since I’ve been involved), and South has been in the past but not recently) finished at 8-2. But South held the tiebreaker over St. Thomas, and so punched their ticket to the state finals, congrats South!  On the J/V side, Merrimack E (the Merrimack J/V teams were oddly designated, and that’s on me and some of my organizational choices in the run up to the tournament, sorry) went 10-0, so congrats to them!

Here are the full results: 

Merrimack, 12/17/22
Varsity			J/V
Merrimack	10-0		Merrimack E	10-0
South*	8-2		ASD A	8-2
St. Thomas	8-2		Plymouth B	6-4
Plymouth	6-4		Trinity B	6-4
Trinity	4-6		Merrimack B	5-5
ASD	2-8		Merrimack F	5-5
Salem	2-8		Raymond A	4-6
Raymond	0-10		Trinity A	4-6
			Merrimack D	1-9
			Salem A	1-9

and the standings:

Overall Season At-Large Standings
Tournament Winners			Varsity Points standings			J/V Points Standings
Merrimack			Plymouth	20		Merrimack	20
Hanover			Trinity	10		Plymouth	11
South			St. Thomas	8		Trinity	8
			Fall Mtn.	3		ASD	8
			John Stark	2		Raymond	4
			Salem	2		Kingswood	2
			ASD	2		Salem	1
			Raymond	0

So, our next tournament will be at the end of January/early February. I’m actually thinking that if GSC gets their tapings in with no weather delays, we might try for the last weekend in January, but we’ll check back in on that after the new year.

I’ve been asked about an online tournament, perhaps as well. We could conceivably do both, before heading off to Libson in March. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, happy holidays and happy New Year everyone! It’s been a great 2022, and hopefully quiz bowl continues growing into 2023!