TV Watch - Only Connect

Round One – Match Four – Britpoppers v. Geocachers

Yes, normal service is resumed with a proper review of OC, after last week’s account of our own first round match. Tonight’s teams were the Britpoppers, a team of British music industry stalwarts consisting of William Higham, Chris Roberts and captain Andy Ross. If that wasn’t exotic enough for you, the opposition was a team called the Geocachers.Quizzed by Victoria they revealed that Geocaching is a treasure hunting game using GPS. Frankly it makes our moniker of the Radio Addicts look positively mundane by comparison. The Geocachers were Sarah Bain, Lisa Grant, and skipper Andy Bain.

Round One – What’s the Connection ?

The Britpoppers won the toss and elected to take the first hit. They were offered a tricky bouncer to start – Sugar 2.08 kg – Vitamin C 833g – Nicotine 3.5g – Strychnine 1.1g. Time actually ran out for the ‘Poppers, and that’s a rare sight on OC indeed. The ‘ Cachers had a stab at maximum recommended intakes, - close but no cigar , despite the nicotine. It was actually lethal doses of the 4 substances. Tricky, but the strychnine made it gettable. The Cachers took the pictures, and were given prairie dog – killer whale – starfish and koala bear Yes, maybe it looks easy when they are all written down, but these two teams are no mugs, and neither managed to say that the prairie dog isn’t a dog, the killer whale isn’t a whale – and so on. No points yet. The Poppers were then given The Channel Tunnel – US Space Programme – Loom and Badminton. For the first time tonight there was egg on my face here too, since I didn’t spot the connection. Neither did the Poppers, but the Cachers swooped in for the first points of the show, correctly saying that they all used shuttles. Of course. D’oh ! The Cachers couldn’t capitalise on their head start when they couldn’t see the connection between Rocks Ricks Racks, Pif Paf Pof and others. The Poppers well deserved their bonus for answering with no hesitation that they were all Snap Crackle and Pop in other languages. Great connection – only on this show do you get anything like this. The Poppers got the music set, and with their background they were under a lot of pressure to get it right. And so they did, identifying four pieces of music linked with opposites – Night and Day for example. It remained for the Cachers to try their luck with Mao Zedong – David Hume – Casanova and Philip Larkin. Well, I would have had a stab at it from Philip Larkin, but I wasn’t certain. The Cachers didn’t get it, but William from the Poppers earned a valuable point for saying that they were all librarians. Good shout, and the Poppers led by 3 points to 1.

Round Two – What Comes Fourth ?

The Poppers continued scoring with the first set of the round. 16.666 and 33.333 gave them a good idea what it was, and 45 confirmed it. Hey confidently answered 78, this being the next record turntable speed followed. The Cachers were offered one of those where you see the connection, but what comes next is still not clear. Oregon Country – Mexican Cession – Gadsden Purchase were clearly land augmentations of the US, but there were two biggies to choose from. The Cachers zigged wrongly with the Louisiana Purchase, while the Poppers zagged correctly with Alaska – or the Alaska Purchase. Them’s the breaks. Fair play to the Poppers, when they got a decent lead they seemed to know how to build on it. Given Amsterdam – Atonement and Saturday they knew it was Ian McEwan novels, and even more impressively they knew that On Chesil Beach came next. The Cachers took the pictures, and again they knew the connection, but not the final link. Explorer , Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird, and a cub gave them the scout movement. However both teams gave terms from the Guiding movement, and missed that beavers would come fourth. Funnily enough, when the Poppers first clue of the next set came up – Hertford – I immediately showed my age by chanting “In ‘Ertford , ‘Ereford and ‘Ampshire – ‘Urricanes ‘ Ardly ‘ever ‘ Appen “ – not thinking that this would be the connection. It was though, and the Poppers got it. The Cachers were under the coche, er, cosh by now, and the next set didn’t help them. Lina Wertmuller – Jane Campion – Sofia Coppola escaped them, but the Poppers were quite ruthless, taking the bonus by identifying that the next woman director nominated for the Oscar was Katherine Bigelow – who actually won it. Good round for the Poppers, who had shown themselves a force to be reckoned with by now, and led by 10 to 1.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

The Cachers went first, and solved -Insert – Escape – Function – and Control as keys on a PC keyboard. Before time ran out they also found Home – Defence – Justice and Scottish, a series of Cabinet Secretaries. They KNEW that there was a set of stages from the Glastonbury Festival there, but three attempts to unravel them weren’t enough, and the board froze. They soon saw that Toxic – Electric – Future and Culture would be followed by shock, leaving John Peel, Acoustic, Pyramid and Other which were indeed Glastonbury festival stages. Still, 6 points well earned.

The Poppers had a comfortable lead, but a poor performance on the wall can turn many a game on its head. They saw that there must be a set of hats there, but a first attempt failed, and they let it lie for a bit. They also early on picked out Bibendum as the Michelin Man, but never got as far as really following through with other advertising characters. They could also see that a set of joints was there, but not which. Returning to hats they soon unravelled Derby – Pork Pie – Busby and Toque. However time was seeping away, and no other lines were uncovered by the end. Still , when the sets were resolved they did see that Vinnie – Aleksandr Orlov – Bibendum and Nipper were the advertising characters. Hmm – all this AND snap crackle and pop in the same show ! Butt, Dovetail , Mitre and Finger they knew were joints, and the last set were lovely – coat – carrot – pipe – scarf – all being things you would put on a snowman. So the round went to the Cachers, but not by much, and the Poppers led by 15 to 7.

Round Four – The Missing Vowels

The walls had taken a lot of time, and so there wouldn’t be a very long last round to finish. The first set of flowers saw 3 fall to the Poppers. The Cachers got one but also dropped one. They were playing cache up, sorry, catch up, and this means you have to buzz early, and sadly it didn’t quite work. Sets of Companies Founded during World War II, and Films featuring Cross Dressers saw them buzz too early another three times, and in the end the Poppers scored a comfortable win by 21 points to 4. Victoria rightly was genuinely sympathetic to the Cachers by the end – they might not have looked like winning, but with a little bit of the rub of the green they would have posted a much higher score. Guys, you have nothing to be ashamed of. As for the Poppers, they take the fifth place in the second round. Very well played gentlemen.