Only Connect - 3rd Place Play Off

Third Place Play Off – The Listeners v. The Trade Unionists

By the time we get to the third place play off we’ve come to know the two teams quite well. So it’s a pleasure to welcome back the Listeners and the Trade Unionists. The Listeners are Jane Teather, Andrew Lyman and captain Dave Tilley. You may remember that they lost a thriller in the semi to the Antiquarians. More about that later. Their opponents were the Trade Unionists, Colin Whorlow, Nick Atty, and captain James Hastie. They were narrowly beaten last week by the Analysts.

Round One – What’s the Connection ?

The Listeners kicked off with twisted flax. Now you may remember them in their semi guessing their first set off 2, and getting it wrong. This might have cost them the whole match. They did something similar in this , They took three music clues, and working from Silver Lady and Moody Blues Nights In White Satin they guessed wedding anniversaries. Incorrect. Given a wee bit of Iggy Pop , the TUs worked out we had Soul ( David ) Blues and Pop. The first was Big Country. Types of music, and a bonus point thank you very much. Their own set behind water were blood transfusion – web rotary printing press – RMS Titanic – Eddystone Lighthouse. Neither team could see the answer – which was appropriately tricky. They all killed , in a way, the man responsible for their creation. The Lists found the pictures behind two reeds. Elizabeth Barratt Browning – Barack Obama’s Dog, a Portuguese Man of War – and I think they had it here – then Cristiano Ronaldo gave them Portuguese. Nobody knew the TUs’ next – Birds Path – Straw Road – Silver River – The Road to Santiago. They are all alternative names for the Milky Way. The Listeners’ took a good set with hecatomb – Argus – ten duotrigintillion ( I hope that’s right ) and US senate, with 100 being the connection. ( That number is a googol, which has 100 noughts. ) Finally The TU’s took Lion, for Yubari Melons – Kopi Luwak Coffee – Wagyu Beef – Saffron – which are all the most expensive of their type. Honours for the round even – 2 points apiece.

Round Two – What Comes Fourth ?

The Lists jumped wrongly with Wellington – Melbourne – Salisbury. They saw cities, which was wrong. The TUs at least saw prime ministers, but not the right one. These were all PMs at the accession of monarchs – the next, for George V, was Asquith. The Pictures behind Flax were my Moment Of The Week. The first showed Peter Crouch. The Rugby World Cup still lingering in the memory I chanted out Crouch – Touch – Hold ( Pause in the show, but I said hold ) – Engage. So it proved. I even predicted the ring, as did the TUs on the full set. I didn’t do badly on the next set either. The Lists unearthed Shu – Geb – and I had Horus by this time as the answer. The next was Osiris. The Lists correctly gave Horus, and honest Dave Tilley admitted this was a take a guess at an Egyptian God answer. Good enough. Each one was the son of the previous one. Great answer from the TU’s on the next – Doubles – Minor – Triples. They knew we were dealing with bell ringing, and gave Major correctly as the 4th. Neither team knew that sphere – sphereoid – ellipsoid would be followed by quadric. They are all less specific than the previous. Another great answer from the TUs followed. They could see that Sphinx has one vowel in 6 letters, borscht 1 in 7, and schmaltz 1 in 8. They gave strengths, the only 9 letter word with 1 vowel. For me they thoroughly deserved their lead of 8 to 4.

Round 3 – The Connecting Walls

Both teams unraveled their walls successfully. The TUs opted for water, behind which they found sets : -
Rosyth – Scapa Flow – Woolwich and Chatham – naval dockyards
Barrytown – Millennium – Border – Deptford – literary trilogies
Murrayfield – Eden Park – Flaminio – Newlands – national rugby stadia
Bull – Skye – Norfolk – cairn – terriers.
So whatever happened the lead would not be less than 4. In fact, 4 was exactly what the lead remained, since the water wall yielded up all of its secrets to the Listeners. They found sets of
trash – jerry – spray and watering – types of can
Ivar – Billy – Malm – Effektiv – all sold in Ikea
Flora – Pax – Minerva – Vesta – Roman Goddesses
Lack – Oddie – Bond – Audubon – ornithologists.
So honours shared, and the lead remained at 4, with 18 to the TUs , and 14 to the Listeners.

Round 4 – Missing Vowels

All to play for, and away we went. We began with Famous roads in the US. The Lists made a slight inroad into the lead, scoring 2 – 1. Words with 5 identical vowels fell 2 apiece , and time was running out. A great set of movie spoilers followed, and this was shared 1 -1 . That was it, and the final scores were 19 to the Listeners, and 22 to the Trade Unionists. An appropriately close result, but the Trade Unionists fair winners of the bronze, I feel , for their performance on round two. Well played both.