Only Connect - Semi Final 2

Analysts v. Trade Unionists

You pays yer money, ladies and gents, and you makes yer choice. On a straightforward general knowledge quiz I don’t think you’d find many punters willing to bet against the Analysts. But the Trade Unionists – Colin Whorlow – Nick Atty and skipper James Hastie had shown themselves particularly adept at coping with the special demands of OC. They beat the much fancied Edwards Family in the quarters, while the Analysts – Paul Steeples, William de’Ath and captain David Lea had seen off the Editors and the Technologists. Who would take their place in the Grand Final, then ?

Round One – What’s the Connection ?

We saw last time out how a rush of blood to the head in the first round proved dangerous . So it was pleasing to see the Analysts take the full time to come up with the correct answer to a difficult set. Stark Raving Reasonable – Ruly Mob – Tea Parties are for Little Girls and Congress should do Stuff were all slogans from the Rally to restore sanity and/or fear. Good shout. Eye of Horus not only defeated the TUS, it also defeated the Lists. La Strada – Kelly – Ubu Roi – Oscar Wilde the Musical were all shows that closed on their first night. That has to rank as a gettable one gone begging. Neither managed the picture set behind Lion – Underpants – Mini Skirt – Big Mac and House sale. All of these are used at different times as economic indicators. Remember – this is a semi and it’s not meant to be easy. The TUs flexed their metaphorical muscle by taking the music set behind two reeds off three clues. Flanders and Swann’s song about the gasman , The Cure’s Friday I’m In Love ( an all time fave chez Clark ) , The theme of Happy Days – all of them go through the days of the week in the lyric. Lovely set that. – Anything you can do - was the nature of the Lists’ riposte, since they took the next off 2 clues. Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden and To Insure Promptness were NOT the derivation of Golf and Tip, and they explained this succinctly. Good shout. Moment of the week for me came in the next set. Neither team got the link between Jezebel – Frederic Chopin’s Piano – Jan Masyryk – The Burghers of Prague. Now, I didn’t know about the middle two, but Prague and Jezebel suggested the D word to me – defenestration. So it proved. Going into the next round, the Lists led by 4 to 2.

Round Two – What Comes Fourth ?

The Lists chose water, but it fell as a bonus to the TUs to explain that Attack – Decay – Sustain would be followed by Release. These all relate to the ASDR envelope of sound. The Lists knew the connection, but not the full sequence. The TUs had a nice set of pictures – Ai Sugiyama – Jay Leno – Kaye Adams. They offered L. Ron Hubbard which was accepted, although the example was Elle Macpherson. I was shouting El Greco at the telly , which I hope would have been accepted too ! I – J – K – L you see. Second moment of the week . Nobody could complete Time and Chance – The Path to Power – The Autobiography. They knew it was politicians, but I knew it was successive prime ministers . The Path to Power was Margaret Thatcher’s second I think – certainly it covered the years leading up to the period she covered in The Downing Street Years. So working on the sequence I knew the next would be A Journey. A fantastic bonus followed from William of the Lists. I thought that Neoprotero – Paleo – Meso being followed by the TUs – lithic was a wrong but sensible shout. I didn’t think of zoic, though, which William did. Top class answer. They compounded this with working out that Jan 1st, Jan 8th , Jan 27th would be followed by March 5th- all being cube numbered days. Don’t be ridiculous, of course I didn’t ! The TUs , maybe feeling a little shell shocked now, missed a gettable one next. 4th France : 1960 – 3rd UK 1952 – 2nd USSR 1949 . Now, the last one gave it to me, since I knew that the USSR carried out its first successful atom bomb test in 1949. I’m sure the TUs knew it as well, but they offered 1st : USA 1947, while as the Lists knew it was actually 1945. That just extended the lead , so that the Lists led by 8 to 5.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

A top class exhibition of wall play followed, as both teams took full sets. The Tus’ Lion wall revealed Poisson – Laplace – Normal – Binomial which were all about Probability Distribution. Well, probably . Fish – Chi Rho – Peacock – and Crucifix they knew as christian symbols. Glover – Russo – Gibson and Pesci had all starred in Lethal Weapon movies. Finally Medicine – Advice – Pez and Justice are all things which can be dispensed. Great work.

The Water wall held few problems for the Lists. They saw watusi – Charleston – Madison and Bunny hop, a set of dances. They found Plushenko – Dean – Cousins and Witt and knew a set of Olympic figure skating gold medallists. Pumpkin Pie – Turkey Trot – Macy’s Parade and We Gather Together – well, was this the reason why this show was held back to make way for children in Need ? This meant that in the week of Thanksgiving, we had a set of things associated with Thanksgiving. Finally Jerk – Curry – Baharat and Masala – a set of hot and spicy sauces.
With 10 points each the lead remained the same. Analysts had 18, and Trade Unionists 15.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

With only a three point gap anything could happen. We began with people after whom airports were named. 2 – 1 to the Lists. French names for the Mr. Men, and an incorrect answer for the TUs made their task a lot more difficult. Deux points pour les Analysts, et un autre pour les TUs. However, the next four points on the bounce fell to the TUs – 2 on Game Show catchphrases, and two on air pollutants. Too little, too late, although the gap narrowed, to give the Lists a win by 22 to 20. Well played both teams , and to the Analysts , best of luck for the Grand Final.