TV Watch - Only Connect

Quarter Final 1 – Epicureans v. Bridge Players

What, already at the quarter final stage, Dave? Yes, indeed we are, and tonight’s match saw the return of the record breaking Epicureans, against the doughty fighters of the Bridge Players. In the first round David Brewis, Aaron bell and captain Katie Bramall-Stainer beat the excellent Courtiers in a most memorable match, only settled by a record breaking vowels round. The Bridge Players Chris Cooper, Tim Dickinson and captain Nick Smith themselves came from behind to defeat the Fantasy Writers.

Round One – What’s the Connection?

The Players kicked off the show with an early outing for the horned viper. Which concealed the music starter, as it turned out. It kicked off with The Streets’ Dry Your Eyes. Now, they latched onto the Streets, when they ought to have latched onto the title of the song. They knew that one of the following clues was Smokey Robinson, but took it as The Tracks of My Tears, rather than Tears of A Clown, and so they went down the street/ track/ pathway route. The Eps, who got the privilege of listening to a snatch of Roy Orbison singing Crying, knew that tears were the connection. A big thank you to David B and the team for sparing us Ken Dodd’s song of the same name there. The Eps took Water, and were rewarded with The Trial – Raphael’s Transfiguration, by which time they pretty much knew the answer – and Mozart’s Requiem, which confirmed for them that these were all works finished posthumously by some one else. Nice cultural set that, I thought. The Players put points on the board knowing that the Lower Part of a Shield, the middle part of a transistor, something to do with something that accepts protons, and a home plate are all bases. I fancy I might have had the connection lurking behind reeds in 2, when Agamemnon was followed by Jim Morrison. The Eps took Marion Crane and Marat to be sure that they all died in the bathroom or bathtub. Behind Lion lurked the pictures for the Players, who guessed wrong after Thor Heyerdahl and Limahl, going down the anagram route, which is what Mr. Hamill did to become Limahl. The Eps knew it was all names ending in HL – Sophie Dahl being the last of the set. So the Eps looked behind the eye of Horus to finish the round, and found another cultural set, the Supremacy of Pericles, Between Domitian and Commodus, Wide Use of Steam locomotives, and Elizabeth I’s reign. They knew that the epithet golden age could apply to each of these. So they carried a healthy lead of 6 to 1 into round two.

Round Two – What comes Fourth?

Neither team finished Superset – Union and subset with intersection, which was the Players’ connection on Lion. The Eps again chose water, getting 4 – ship’s prow – 3 – Hand grenade - 2 Power cable under the water . It looked like David who knew that these were the way that the sharks were killed in the various Jaws sequels, and so the last would b 1 – holding an air tank which explodes when shot etc etc. Good shout. The Players took the pictures behind the viper, seeing someone they didn’t know – Buster Keaton – General Custer – by which time I was shouting Duster at the screen. Neither team got it actually, I didn’t know Mr. Auster, the writer in the first picture. Behind the Flax the Eps revealed Southampton – Cherbourg and Queenstown ( now Cobh ) which gave Katie a lightbulb moment, as she immediately knew that these were stops on the itinerary of the Titanic’s maiden voyage, with the last being new York. So the Players finished with Reeds, for Servant of God – Venerable ( and I might have guessed correctly at this point ) – Blessed . They were correct in going for saint or sainted, this being the stages in the process of canonisation. The Eps were left again with the eye of Horus, and had worked out what Cave – Arch – Stack were all about – coastal erosion processes, but neither team knew that stump would be 4th. Needless to say that I didn’t either. The Eps continued to lead by 10 to 3.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

Going first now , the Eps chose Water. They unravelled the sets extremely well, taking the first two, then checking and rechecking the last two sets before keying them in. So , Steel – Cable – Campbell and Kennedy made up a set of Lib Dem leaders. Then Browning – Owen – Lanchester and Thompson were all sub machine guns. Orange – Barlow – Williams and Donald were obviously members of Take That. However the last set , Psychic – Fighting – Dragon and Grass was one of those nasty sets probably obvious to anyone under 20, but not to the rest of us. All types of Pokemon character. Hardly surprising the Eps didn’t quite get it.

The Players then were left with the Lion wall. I was very pleased with myself for spotting that Clock – Surprise – Military and London were all Haydn Symphonies. I was impressed with the way that they also unravelled platen – ribbon – key and carriage as parts of a typewriter. However time ran out. When the last two sets were unravelled they could see that Alarm, cuckoo , candle and chess were all types of clock, while potato – storm – needle and Jupiter all have at least one eye. Tricky, but it did mean that the Eps stretched another point ahead, by 17 to 9.

Round 4 - Missing Vowels

Look out – it’s the Eps on the missing vowels again. Fireworks alert ! On ores they scored a full set of 4. They slipped a bit on Pirates and privateers, only managing the three to the Players’ 1. Likewise with theatrical script terms. Both Aaron and Katie contributed their share to the Eps, but it has to be said that David was absolutely on fire tonight. The Eps took two from both Food Writers and Ancient Cities respectively, then three on numbers, before the curtain came down before Victoria could ask any cattle breeds. So the final score was a pretty resounding 34 – 13 to the Eps. Hard lines, Players, but well done on getting this far, and take satisfaction from the fact that it took a most formidable team to beat you. The Eps then sail through to the semis. Well done !