Only Connect - Sudden Death Match

Science Editors v. Board Gamers

These two teams had contrasting fortunes in their first matches. The Eds, Andrew Cosgrove, Shreeya Nanda, and captain Kester Jarvis, who lost 28 – 10 to the Oenophiles before going on to beat the Press Gang on a vowel tie break in the sudden death match. As for the Gamers, Michael Wallace, Hywel Carver and skipper Jamie Karren beat the Globetrotters 26 – 21 in their first match, but lost their first qualification match by 28 – 18 against the highly impressive Lasletts. My reading of it was that the Gamers should have too much firepower for the Eds.

Round One – What’s the Connection?

The Eds kicked off with Water. We had wheat, rice , potatoes etc. – C.S.Lewis – Tubes for fastening oboe reeds – office supply superstore. All have a staples connection. 1 point. The Gamers tried to ride the Lion to victory and got music for their pains. I got it from the Paul Simon and Tom Jones – mothers – mother and child reunion and momma told me not come.. The Gamers got it from the last one. Two reeds gave the Eds Dungeons and Dragons: 1 to 10 – “Harry Potter”: - 1 to 17 – World of Warcaft: 1 to 100 – Aureus: 1 to 25. They are gold to silver conversion rates. Now that’s hard, and neither team nor I had it. Eye of Horus gave the Gamers Kniphofia – which is the scientific name for red hot pocker. I would never have gambled in the studio, but I did so at home, and went for red hot here. The next clue was Fighting Aids through pop culture and the third was 500 – 800 degrees and the last was Have Flea on Bass. The Gamers took the lot for a point. Twisted Flax gave the Eds Incognito – Unbeknownst – Misnomer – nonchalant. I didn’t get it but it’s a great set – they are all negatives with no opposite positives. Pictures lurked behind Horned Viper for the Gamers. We saw a set of things that are perfect , and the Gamers saw this early and took it for two points. This was enough to give them a lead of 5 – 1. I think that this may be the first time the Gamers have ever led after round 1.

Round Two – What Comes Fourth?

The Eds were given a picture set to kick off. It didn’t mean a lot for them or me, but the Gamers worked out that we had a set of fractions – 1/5 – ¼ - 1/3 and so the last would be a half. Yes, it made sense when it was explained. Perfect fifth – Latin Quarter etc. Eye of Horus brought the Gamers February – August – and they came up with a brilliant answer. February – with e – b – a – has three islands – enclosed bits within the letters. August with g has 2. March would have been next with one – so they worked out the last was July. Brilliant answer – I was nowhere near it. Two Reeds gave the Eds 4: Ludaeorum – 3rd: Rex – and here I had it : 2nd – Nazarenus. The Eds had it worked out, and were close enough to Iesus to get the point. A relatively gentle set followed for the Gamers with Clement Davies – Jo Grimond – Jeremy Thorpe. Neither team knew that David Steel – not the cricketer – came next to lead the Libs. The Eds had - just begun – nearly new – and with a rush of blood to the head guessed – walk out the door, wrongly. The last clue was Hardly me. The Gamers didn’t know it, neither did I. It’s the A.A.Milne poem The End, and the answer was Not Much More. Fair enough. The Viper waited for the Gamers, concealing 4th - hotel de ville – 3rd – Temple – 2nd – Bourse. They didn’t know, neither did the Eds. Funnily enough I had the correct answer for the wrong reasons. I went for 1st: Louvre, on something like the Metro stations with the most annual passengers. Which was wrong, but it was 1st: Louvre since these were Arrondissements de Paris. C’est la vie. Gamers led 9 – 3.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

Pretty quickly the Gamers saw sets of Spanish wines and breeds of cat, but they couldn’t untangle them for quite a while. Rioja – Sangria – Cava and Queimada eventually emerged. I could see a set of island dwellers, which eventually emerged for the Gamers – Manx – Diurach – Vectian and Orcadian. I fancied there might well be a set of songs by the Four Seasons in there as well. The two lines they didn’t get were Rag Doll – Sherry – Let’s Hang On – Silver Star , which were the songs which the Gamers didn’t know. The last group – Korat – Burmese – Sphynx and Cornish Rex were the cats. 5 points.

If the Eds could take a maximum then they would be right back in the game. They saw a set of gamebirds from the start, but couldn’t unravel them quickly. There was also a set of words which become books of the old testament if you put an – s – on the end. These they isolated first – King – Chronicle – Judge – Number. - Gnome – Ptarmigan – Honour and Psalm, all bearing silent first letters fell next. The time was nearly gone though, and there was no time left to untangle the last two. The third line was Quail – Grouse – Pheasant and Francolin , the game birds. The last was Partridge – Ohanrahanrahan – Wintergreen and Sisters. I had the nagging feeling I should know this, but I confess that I didn’t, no more than did the Eds. Partridge being Alan, they were all characters from The Day Today. They too scored 5 which meant the Gamers had a useful lead of 14 – 8.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

I loved the first set. Last time out we had Impressionists a la Rory Bremner. This time we had Impressionists a la Paul Cezanne. They fell out 2 apiece. The next category was words that contain C-O-R-E-N in order. 3 – 1 to the Eds. Also known as Papa went 4 – 0 to the Gamers, and sadly the Eds lost a point for an incorrect buzz. That was the lot, and it made a comfortable win for the Gamers who won with a palindromic 21 – 12. Well played both, good luck to the Gamers in the semis.

As a complete aside, I noticed for the first time that the Producer’s name is Jenny Hawker. If that’s Jenny Heap as was, congratulations on your marriage, Jenny.