Only Connect Round 1 - Match 4 - General Practitioners v. Fell Walkers

General Practitioners v. Fell Walkers

The General Practitioners were Jo Durrant, Chris David and the skipper, Mike Crowe.In my final in the 4th series both our captain, Gary Grant, and the victorious Epicureans’, Katie Bramall-Stainer were doctors, so these GPs are in good company. Their opposition was provided by the Fell Walkers, Jim Taylor, Craig Almond and captain Mike Amberry. So no continuation of the alliterative match ups we’ve seen so far this season. Let’s get cracking.

Round One – What’s The Connection?

The GPs kicked off with the TF – or Twisted Flax, as I should say. This revealed Injun Joe’s Body – an allusion to Tom Sawyer, there – Roquefort Cheese – and here I was thinking caves, and so, it turned out were the GPs. The Dead Sea Scrolls seemed to confirm the hypothesis and the GPs were convinced enough to go for it. Correctly. The last clue would have been troglodytes. The Fells took two reeds, and the bong informed us that this would be the music set. I didn’t know the first one, but I knew Ultravox’s Dancing With Tears In My Eyes, A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procul Harum –Hmm – band names derived from latin, perhaps? – Status Quo completed the set as confirmation. The first group were Placebo, apparently. The GPs were the first to select horned viper in this show, and courted disaster by leaving the second vowel unvoiced. Heroes and Villains – King of the Kippax were the first two. Now, I know that the Kippax stand was a stand at the old Maine Road football ground, which suggested football fanzines to me. There’s only One F in Fulham and United We Stand seemed to agree. The GPs were on the right lines, but zigged with songs sung by football fans, while the Fells zagged with fanzines. I was rather hoping that Brian Moore’s Head Looks Uncannily Like London Planetarium would complete the set, but it was not to be, alas. Water revealed for the Fells Surfeited: 4 – 8 – 9, Encourage: 5 – 6 – 8 – 9, Strives: 2 – 3 – 4 – 6 – 7,and this so perplexed the Fells that they didn’t even get to reveal the 4th clue. When given Myself: 1 – 4 it was enough for Jo of the GPs to get a great bonus, by working out that it you took the letters indicated by the numbers, you ended up with a shorter word which means the same as the longer one. Fiendishly good clue. Lion gave the GPs James Tiptree Jr., then Isak Dinesen. Now, I knew that Isak Dinesen was the pseudonym of Karen ‘Out of Africa’ Blixen, so I wondered if we had male pseudonyms of female writers. Ellis Peters/Edith Pargeter seemed to confirm it, and George Eliot made it cast iron. That was certainly enough for the GPs – again proving it is sometimes worthwhile waiting and seeing the whole set. The Eye of Horus fell to the Fells, and it was the picture set. The second showed Jonathan Creek, and the third a little mouse with clogs on – well I declare! All lived in windmills of course. Would the last show dear old Windy Miller from Camberwick Green of blessed memory, I wondered. Yes, it would! The first, which I didn’t recognize was Baby Jake. So that timely answer meant that both teams had scored 4 by the end of the round. Good game.

Round Two – what Comes Fourth?

The GPs began with Water. We saw Puppet – then pauper, and then captain Mike made a mistake which I don’t know if we’ve ever seen before. He buzzed to give an answer, when he meant to ask for the next clue. Inevitably he was wrong, although his answer – pirate, was actually the third in the sequence. The Fells couldn’t take it either. The answer was Poet, from the song That’s Life – which Mike knew. Hard lines. The Fells opted for the Twisted Flax, finding Green: no severe conditions – Yellow: be aware – and the Fells went close enough to be given another go by Victoria. They didn’t quite get it. The GPs were given Amber: Be prepared for the third clue but they couldn’t get it. They were both right that it was to do with weather, but what was wanted was Red: take action. Two reeds brought the GPs Red and Green Ring – Black and White Sectors – Green Ring – and like the GPs, I didn’t have a Scooby. Mike’s stab in the dark with red ring brought him another go, but no cigar, and although the Fells had the connection figured – areas of a dartboard working in wards, they didn’t get red circle, the bullseye. Lion brought pictures to the Fells, and they saw a book, a pod of peas, and an old telephone. The Fells didn’t have it. The GPs though did, and when you could see it this was another egg on the face moment. Put the letter I before each of them. D’Oh! So the next would be pad. Great answer – I wish I’d seen it myself. Eye of Horus gave us 4th: Addis Ababa – 3rd:Bogota – 2nd:Quito. Now, obviously capitals, but what exactly? My guess was increasing height above sea level, and so if I was right, then we were looking for 1st: La Paz. The GPs didn’t have it, but the Fells certainly did. Their own last set was Horned Viper , and – disaster! – Victoria herself left the second vowel unvoiced. She’s a brave lady. Right then, we had homo – hominidae – primates – and so my guess was mammalia – since each group was the larger group encompassing the previous one. Correct! Which late flurry was enough to ensure that the Fells now led with 7 to 5.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

The Fells took the Lion wall first, and fairly quickly isolated Holt – Drey – Form – Den which are animal homes, and a little later military bugle calls – Last Post – Taps – Boots and Saddles and Reveille. I could see that they had a set of things you can beat, but they took the other way, seeing a set of characters from the cult drama This Life. Miles – Warren - Egg and Ferdy did the trick for them, leaving Clock – Retreat – System and traffic as things you can beat. They’d spotted that one as well, and took a well earned full house of 10. Good work.

Left with Water the GPs unscrambled a set of old video arcade game swith almost indecent haste – Asteroids – Centipede – Frogger and Scramble. Movements in Scuttle – Flit – Bustle and Dash followed. They could also see a set of baskets, but were struggling to untangle them. eventually they settled on trug – creel – bassinet and pannier, which left farthingale – basque – chemise and pannier, which were all historic female undergarments. So again, a full house of 10 – well played. this left the Fells in the lead by 17 to 15.All to play for.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

The first category was all ways of saying life’s work. This set fell to the Fells by 2 – 1, with neither team getting cannon. Water sports fell 3 – 1 to the GPs – which meant that the gap was down to 1. I loved the set of villains in animation, and these went to the Fells 3 – 1. Their lead of 3 looked good as we moved into weather phenomena, especially when they took the first, tornado. They took another two to the GPs 1, and the game looked pretty much done as we moved into prepositions. The Fells took these 2-1, and in the end they won by a relatively convincing 28 -22. Well played. But don’t be despondent GPs, since it was only the vowels that separated you much in the end. Good luck to both teams in the next match.