Only Connect - Round One - Match Four

Joggers v. Technologists

Lets start with the Joggers. David McGaughey, and Ronald Stewart were captained by Lesley Brewis. Any relation to my conqueror from last year, and all round good egg David Brewis, from the Epicureans ? Their opposition, the Technologists were Simon Jelly, John Loveluck and skipper Bruce Lin. On with the show.

Round One – What’s the Connection ?

The Joggers won the toss, and elected to put the Technologists into bat. A good start they made, too. Picking Water they found three paintings, and correctly deduced that they all had the word night in their title, for example , Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch”. Well taken points. The Joggers put their marker down with horned viper. Defender of London – Discoverer of Niger – South Korean Red Devil –( I had it at this stage ) and Wallace and Gromit gave them Park – Keith – Mungo – Ji Soon and Nick. Safe points well taken. Again, the Technologists took only three clues for twisted flax. JLS – Full size snooker table – Sleipnir gave them a connection of 8, and when pressed for more by Victoria, captain Bruce correctly answered that all of them possess 8 legs. Well , not each member of JLS, you understand. Mind you, I’d pay to watch them if they did each have 8 legs, but I digress. The Joggers picked up their pace with the next, taking it off 3 clues. Mickey Mouse – The Queen – Tokyo Subway attendants led them to give the answer that all of them wear white gloves, and they were correct to do so. Lion rather tripped the Technos up. This was the music set. They were rather at sea, and the grateful joggers revealed that each piece was connected by captains – Beefheart – and Tennille – Beaky and Sensible. However the Joggers failed to capitalize , when they couldn’t unravel Peshitta – Hexapla – Codex Alexandria and Vulgate. I may be wrong but I thought that one of the Joggers did actually mention the word Bible during the discussion. Still , its not the answer that they gave Victoria. Neither team knew these were early versions of the Bible. So at the end of a good first round both teams had 4 points.

Round Two – What Comes Fourth ?

Behind Lion the Technos uncovered Perth – Darwin – Adelaide, and correctly answered Melbourne. Whether they quite had the rationale worked out they were right – working west to east, the next Australian capital would be Melbourne. The Joggers found pictures behind water. These showed Lennie Henry, Tracey Ullmann – David Coperfield , who were three of a kind – then a racing circuit straight, then a loo flush. Working on poker hands, the next would be a full house. No, I’m afraid I didn’t have it any more than either team did. Neither team fared any better with Man City – Mexico – Cote d’Ivoire. I would have actually had this one on the full. They were teams managed by Montgomery C. Goran Ericson, the next being Leicester City. However the Joggers were saving something special for us. Given Quartic, they needed no more to be able to say that the answer would be linear . Quite right for a full 5 points. It’s a mathematical thing. Quartic is to 4 as linear is to 1. Great answer, and very significant for the score, especially considering that neither team knew the Technos next – Product – Price – Place - . Both knew what it was getting at , but neither could supple promotion for the points. So the Joggers could increase their lead if twisted flax would permit it. Indeed it would. Pike was followed by Jones, and so thank you very much, the 4th would be Mainwaring – Dad’s Army ranks. Private , lance corporal , sergeant captain. Yes alright, perhaps a little easier than some, but then that’s the luck of the draw. Whatever the case the Joggers were looking good value for their lead at this ateg, with 12 to the Techno’s 6.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

The Joggers chose the Lion wall. Fairly quickly they unraveled two sets – Dollar – Roxette – Erasure and Inner City ( a good shout that one. Like Victoria, I hadn’t heard of them ). Pop duos. Then Precinct – Sector – Ghetto – Quarter, all areas of a city. However they just couldn’t untangle the other two sets. Wishbone – Nickel – Dime – and Shotgun was one of those you either knew, or wouldn’t guess, I think. All are American Football formations. They did know that Police – Steam – Slide and Penny are all whistles.
So, the door was at least ajar for the Technos to narrow the gap on the scoreboard with a good wall. Which they were happy to oblige with. Mecca – Lumbini – Fatima – Jerusalem all gave them places of pilgrimage. Breaker – Judge – Training and Diagram can all follow the word circuit. Mercy – Lourdes – Rocco and David are Madonna’s children. Finally copy – handle – rubber duck – Smokey are all CB terms. Was it my imagination, or did one of the chaps give a rather rude interpretation of what the term rubber duck meant ? Whatever the case a full set of 10 meant that they trailed the Joggers by just one point, with 16 to their 17.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

All to play for. The first set, Literary forms and genres, fell to the Technos by 2 to 1. So it was all square. The Technos achieved the relative rarity of a 4 point shut out with the next category , things discovered by Nobel Prize winners. It didn’t help the Joggers’ cause when they miscued on one of the next set , on alcoholic spirits and liquers, which fell 3-1 to the Technos. The last set, biopics about musicians was shared 2 apiece.
So what we witnessed really was a game of 2 halves. The Technologists ran out convincing winners by 27 to 19,but the score for once does not tell the whole story. The Joggers were well beaten on the missing vowels, but before that it had been a good contest, and they have nothing to be ashamed of. But its the Technos who go through, and although they might have missed some gettable stuff in the first 2 rounds, the fact is that their wall and vowels performances were extremely impressive. Ladies and gents, we may well have found a dark horse.