Only Connect - Quarter Final 3

The Tefl Teachers v. The Scribes

The Tefl Teachers, Saul Jones, Emma-Louise Mutter, and captain Chris Sowton, fought their way through to the second round with a tough tussle against the IT Specialists, winning 22 – 19. Their opposition , the Scribes, Holly Pattenden , Gareth Price and Dom Tait, had a fairly resounding victory over the Ciphers, winning 31 – 13. First round form indicated a probable victory for the Scribes.

Round One – What’s the Connection ?

The T’s began with Twisted Flax, which revealed a picture set. Neither team could untangle pictures of a cot – a Michelangelo painting with Sin in the title – a cos lettuce, and a tan line. Untangled like that I’m sure we can all see Mathematical / trigonometric functions. I didn’t see it until this , though. The Scribes took Water, and this gave us the music set. I didn’t get the first when I heard it, but the second was Dave Edmonds’ Queen of Hearts. Playing cards, possibly. The Steve Miller Band ( and how much of shame it is that Ed and David Milliband didn’t have a brother called Steve ? ) with the Joker confirmed it, for both me and the Scribes. The Ts put their first points on the board with 2 reeds – Copper Poisoning – Matisse Portrait of his wife – US Ceasefire zone in Cyprus were enough to give them Green Line as a connection.Lion gave the Scribes a good shout on the next. Nisi Dominus Frustra – Peidiol Wyf I’m Gwlad – gave them that these are all around the edges of pound coins. Good early shout that. I had the set behind eye of Horus, which escaped the T’s. Irish Adventurer’s Exile in 1607 – 1986 Disney Sci – Fi film – Rimsky Korsakov Interlude – and New Zealand comedy duo. I’m afraid that they were sidetracked by the sci fi film – thinking that The Black Hole was back in 1986. It wasn’t – it was considerably earlier. No – even if they weren’t fans of the Flight of the Conchords – and if not, then why not ? – but they probably should have got Flight of the Bumblebee. The Scribes were happy to take a bonus on that one. Finishing the round the Scribes missed their own set – Sara Lee – Brita – Wendy’s – Lily O’Briens. They were on the right lines with saying that these were all named after the founders’ wives, but it took the Ts to give the correct answer, that all were named after the founders’ daughters. An enjoyable round which ended with the Scribes leading by 6 to 3, and looking fairly good value for their lead too.

Round Two – What Comes Fourth ?

The second round is often the one that sorts out the great from the merely good. The T’s picked Lion to start. Newcomen’s Steam Engine – Battle of Borodino – Sinking of the Titanic – game me the connection, and I suggested the Diamond Jubilee . The Ts just didn’t get it, I’m afraid. The Scribes knew that these happened in 1712, 1812 and then 1912, but they gave the London Olympics – good enough. For their own first set they chose horned viper. This gave bovine – tigrine and they had the connection there, with the Chinese zodiac. I was pleased with myself for firstly guessing correctly that we would finish with Dragon – so I went for draconic. The Scribes took one more – rabbit – to be sure, and then they offered dragonlike – and once again , that would do nicely. None of us – T’s, Scribes or me got the next set. This was – Welcome in German – Welcome in French – Welcome in English. The Ts were closest – they knew it was from Cabaret, but didn’t get the next – which is ‘stranger’ in German. Well, many things are stranger in German. The Scribes got a very nice set behind Twisted Flax. Kookaburra – Platypus and Echidna could have been a number of things - for example the other names on the Beckham's shortlist for their daughter. Two greek children - then – Fish – panda – antelope and swallow followed. Australia – I said – Greece . . . then the penny dropped. Olympic Games , so mascots. The Scribes had it, and offered Wenlock and Mandeville, and then when pressed by Victoria defined them as strange Cyclops things – a pretty good description as it happens. The Ts, like me, failed to complete this sequence. Interest – Taxes – Depreciation. The Scribes had it – completing the sequence with amortization. It’s from EBITDA in accounting. Now we know. Finally the Scribes had the picture set. The first showed a leopard in the snow . “Snow leopard – that’s an ounce !” I said about half a second before the Scribes did. Working it out, then would be pound – stone –hundredweight – a possible five pointer. The Scribes played safety first by taking a photo of Ezra Pound, then supplied the answer. This completed a very good round for them, and they now led by 15 to 3.

Round Three – The Connection Walls

The game wasn’t over , despite the Scribes ‘ lead. Indeed, they just offered the Ts a glimpse of a way back when they unscrambled two lines of the water wall, but could get no further. The lines they quickly unraveled were – Kim – Captain’s Courageous – If and Gunga Din, which were all exceedingly good works by Mr. Kipling. Beano – Session – Bender and Binge they knew as terms for a drinking spree. They were so close to the last two lines, but didn’t quite get there. When the wall was resolved they knew that Rem – Data – Print and Goto are all terms in computing, but they didn’t get that they are all commands in BASIC. I wrote a couple of programmes in BBC BASIC many years ago for school, which is the only reason I got that. Rosey – Bishop – Glodos and Metal Mickey they knew as TV robots. That was a tricky set because Data is also an android ,from Star Trek the Next Generation, as is Rem – from the very shortlived Logan’s Run TV series. 5 points, scored, and a chance for the Ts to make inroads into the lead.

The Lion wall also yielded half of its secrets to the Ts . They unraveled a set of Paris Cabaret venues – Moulin Rouge – Lapin Agile ( didn’t know that one ) – Crazy Horse – Folies Bergere. They also found Banzai – Geronimo – Rebel Yell and Hooah , which are a set of war cries. even when Kontiki – Apache – Man of Mystery and Foottapper were resolved they didn’t know that they were all hits for the Shadows. I should think that Apache was the key to that one. Finally they avoided falling into a trap with Captain Jack – Cochise – Pontiac – Sitting Bull. They gave the correct answer of Native American leaders, rather than tribes. So we ended the round pretty much where we started it, with a 12 point gap between the teams, the Scribes leading 20 – 8.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

I’ll be honest, I didn’t really see any way back for the Ts, but you can never tell. The first set was Paralympians. Unfortunately the Ts gave an incorrect buzz and lost a point. The Scribes took 2. They also took a couple from inventions from Canada – did you know that the paint roller is Canadian ? You do now. Bontanists gave the Ts back their point, but it gave three more to the Scribes. There was just time for the Ts to take a point from internet memes.

The final score was 27 – 9 to the Scribes. Bad luck Teachers, but there’s no shame in losing to a very good team. As for the Scribes, well, don’t think I didn’t notice the overall strength of the team tonight. I observed how strongly they leant on captain Dom in the first round, but in this show the whole team weighed in strongly. With this performance the Scribes have to be taken seriously as contenders .