Only Connect – Polymaths v. Strategists
The Polymaths consisted of Andy Kelly, Nicola Morgan, and husband and captain Alan Morgan. I believe that Alan is the fine quizzer who won the People’s Quiz Wildcard shows of 2007, and thus took a place in the final. I stand willing to be corrected on this one. The team said that they felt that the name polymath fits the show better, than the more appropriate Jacks of All Trades But Masters of None.
The Strategists consisted of Chris Cummins, Sarah Higgins, and Michael Dnes. On first glance the Strategists looked young enough to be the surprise package of this year’s contest, like last year’s Mathematicians. Time would tell.
Round One – what’s the connection ?
The Polymaths managed to pick out the unloved music connection, but proved more than equal to the task, picking out rivers as a connection or two points. As if to make up the Strategists picked out the picture question straightaway. I thought that they showed excellent thinking to work out that Pegasus, Toucan and Pelican are all types of road crossing. 2 points apiece.The Polymaths would have benefited from taking the 4th clue for their next set, rather than answering on the third, as they missed out on seeing that Medina etc. were where religious founders died. The Strategists gratefully took the bonus, but then they also obliged by failing on their next set, though. The Polymaths redeemed themselves with 2 points on names of Seas on the Moon. The Strategists also managed to get a couple on phrases originally from Shakespeare since reused for other things, eg book titles. As the round ended they led by 5 to 4
Round Two – what comes last ?
The Polymaths struck back quickly by getting a good answer on imperial measures. They did even better by picking up a bonus, predicting that Wellington would indeed be the last on a list of the world’s most southerly capitals.Then they got the next connection on 2 clues, prompting Victoria to tell them they were too good. Well, they were impressing me ! Mind you , both teams will be kicking themselves for not seeing a list of longest ever reigning queens, and picking Victoria to complete the list. Full marks to the Strategists for seeing that Income Tax and VAT both come from the lyrics to the theme of Only Fools and Horses, so the 4th would be guarantee. The Strategists picked up the little bit of ground lost at the start of the round, and honours were evenly shared. The scores at the end of the round were just as close at the end as they had been at the start, and the strategists led by 9 points to 8.
Round Three – The Connecting Walls
The Strategists went first, and found the Dad’s Army connection in double quick time. In fact, the whole of the wall was solved in impressively short order, as the team had a good minute to go as the music told us that it was done. So all the pressure was on the Polymaths. My goodness, these teams were sharp tonight. They’d hardly looked at the wall before they solved the first set of shades of green. The last two sets defeated them, though, and I have to say that I couldn’t see them either. Sometimes you just can’t see them for looking , as it proved with words which could be followed by maid. D'Oh ! Still, the last 4 were nasty. All were famous violinists, the only one of which I knew was Kennedy, as in Nigel. I guess I might have gone for it, since I couldn’t think of anything else Kennedy might be, other than assassinated, which had gone already, or US Presidents, which clearly was wrong. Oh well, at last there was daylight between the teams, as the Strategists now led by 19 to 12.
Final Round – Missing Vowels
Last week we saw two well matched teams go into the last round, which well and truly sorted them out once and for good. The result in the end was pretty clear cut this week too. The younger team proved tonight to be a little sharper on this round, although the Polymaths gave it a good old lash. It didn’t make a difference, but they just failed to get out the name “Eva Braun “ in time as one of a set of mistresses, meaning that they lost a point, and handed it over to the opposition. As I said, it made no difference. In the end, the Polymaths scored a praiseworthy 15, but the Strategists managed a whopping 31. Good show
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4 comments:
The new series of OC is shaping up to be great (as expected!) Monday nights are quiz heaven, maybe they could consider moving Mastermind to Monday, though that might be quiz overload and would also mean there'd be no other quizzes to look forward to for the rest of the week since Brain of Britain is on Mondays too! It could start a tradition of national quiz Mondays though, I quite like that idea!
I was feeling very pleased with myself for getting the connections about books based on quotations from Shakespeare plays from the first clue until I realised that 'Cakes and Ale', the first clue, had been answer to one of the questions on our UC match which asked after a book named for a Shakespeare quotation, then I didn't feel quite so clever!
"Then they got the next connection on 2 clues, prompting Victoria to tell them they were too good... Mind you , both teams will be kicking themselves for not seeing a list of longest ever reigning queens, and picking Victoria to complete the list."
She hasn't been doing the programme anything like that long!
Oops - I see what you mean ! I bet Victoria would not be amused at that one !
As regards question repeat Rach, its not uncommon fo at least one question in UC to be repeated somewhere amongst the week's quizzing at all. If you're a Brain of britain lover too you'll know that its quite common for BoB questions to recur in short order later in the week somewhere.
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