Only Connect Round One - Elimination Match

Corpuscles v. Cartophiles

Right, we’ve seen the 8 teams contesting this series. Now we start to get down to the nitty gritty of sorting out who’s going on, and who’s going home. Both of tonight’s teams narrowly lost their first round shows. which meant that whichever team won would live to fight another day, and whichever didn’t would go home. The Corpuscles – Paul Taylor – Seb Page and captain Sam Kay lost by a single point to the Cat Lovers in the first show of the series. The Cartophiles - Colin Kidd, Mark Cooper and Josh Mandel, were a little further behind the Celts. But both sides had shown that they were not to be easily dismissed.

Round One – What’s the Connection?

Twisted Flax brought the Carts the picture set. We saw a series of Rays –Man Ray - A Devil Ray - Ray Davies. Nicely done. Two Reeds brought the Corps Prom Video – Holiday Armadillo – and since I’m a Friends fan from way back I got it at the same time as they did after too. Nice set. Lion was the choice of the Carts, which revealed France : Spatio – China : Taiko – and here I thought if the next one is Russia : Cosmo, then these are the different words for what in English would be astro – naut. Well, the next was Russia: Cosmo, so that was just what it was. Pleased with meself for that one. Eye of Horus gave us A – Bomb dropped over Nagasaki – Fat Man – and – He Says Hey Hey Hey – Fat Albert. The Corps, on fire at this stage of the game, also got it after two. Water for the Carts gave us Gnocchi the Squirrel – Larry the Donkey – Paul the Octopus – and here I was thinking ‘psychic’ animals. The Carts went for predicting sports results, which was too specific. It was actually was just animals that made/make predictions – Punxsatawney Phil the Groundhog being the last. Bonus to the Corps. Music set for the Corps gave them problems, and they couldn’t see the connection. Metal was the connection , and it was enough to give the Carts a bonus, who started with Gold, bartered it down to precious metals, which was enough for Victoria to err on the side of leniency. Only fair after them coming so close with the previous.. After a quality round the Corps led by 5 – 7.

Round Two – What Comes Fourth?

Two reeds gave the Carts Tiger Bay – Mandalay – and I have actually used this as a connection in a quiz in the rugby club. I shouted – Bombay – Santa Fe! I love that song – well, Ian Dury and the Blockheads generally. A few series ago they did something similar with the wonderful Reasons To Be Cheerful Part Three. The Carts and the Corps just didn’t get it. Sob. The Corps opted for Twisted Flax. We saw the word one in white on a red background, two in white on a light blue/turquoise background, and three in pink on a burgundy background. Almost immediately they said four in white on a black background, knowing that these were the colours of the BBC Channel logos. Good shout that. The Carts opened the eye of Horus, and we saw American Football =60. They and I guessed playing times, which would mean that we need a game which lasts for 90 minutes. Obviously football fits the bill, and didn’t the Carts know it. A full five points for that one. Easy? Only a) if you know that American Football has just 60 minutes of playing time in a game that actually lasts a lot longer from start to finish, and b) if you have the guts to go for it. The Carts did, and reaped the spoils. The Corps chose Lion, to get The Saturdays – Brahma – Cerberus and so I opted for Janus – working on decreasing number of heads. Zaphod Beeblebrox was the example given, and the Corps said Simon and Garfunkel. Same diff. The Carts risked losing all their momentum with an unvoiced second syllable for Horned Viper. We saw a spring – a rugby football diagram and they worked out we would get something meaning back, for Spring Forward, Fall back. Nowhere near it, myself. The Corps left with water got Baidu – Bing – (Bada Bing?) and they predicted Google would be number 1. Quite right.Still, a good round for both teams, and the Carts had pulled back to one point behind, at 13 to the Corps’ 14.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

The Water wall was chosen by the Corps. I could see some Jilly Cooper Penny Dreadfuls in there. The Corps could also see a set of mints, but left that go for a while after one fruitless attempt. They were concentrating on sports played on horseback, I think. Finally they unraveled Jousting – Charreada – Point to Point and Tent Pegging. They cottoned on to some old DJs as well, but not quickly enough to unravel them, and when the time was up just the one line had been resolved. When the whole wall was resolved they could see the original radio 1 DJs were Young– Peel – Blackburn and Dee. Murray – Everton – Glacier and Scotch were the mints, and Pandora – Polo – Rivals – Riders were the bonkbusters. 5 points all told.

The Lion Wall offered a chance for the Carts to take the lead. After a bit of thought they found Millionaire – TW3 – Buzzcocks - Strictly – all popular shortened names of TV shows . Then they found Striations – Corrie – Drumlin and Moraine – all features of glaciation. Fat Cat – Mogul – Magnate and Tycoon – rich business men, and N-11 – BRIC – E7 - G20 – all economic groups were resolved fairly quickly. Which meant that they scored a well worked full house of 10, to give them a lead of 23 to 19.

Round Four – The Missing Vowels

The first group of resins fell 3 – 0 to the Corps, but – disaster! – the Carts also lost two. French actresses saw the Carts make up some lost ground, by winning them 3 – 1 to re-establish a slight lead. George Gershwin compositions fell one apiece. Methods of random selection was the last set. It looked to me like 2 – 1 to the Corps, which unless I was very much mistaken meant a tie – 26 apiece. So the tie break came into operation. Captains only could answer 1 clue for missing vowels, without knowing the category. Any wrong answer gave it to the other team by default. It was So Long And Thanks For All The Fish. Captain Josh of the Carts had it, thus sending the Corps home after a great contest. Hard lines, but well played.