Only Connect - Qualification Match

Linguists v. Gallifreyans

Another winners match last Monday saw the Linguists, Virginia Fassnidge, Gail La Carbonara and skipper Tom Fassnidge, who had taken the considerable scalp of the Chessmen in a tight and absorbing contest, take on John Dorney, Stuart Wildig and skipper Giles Sparrow, the Gallifreyans. The Gallifreyans had overcome the Wandering Minstrels rather comfortably if truth be told. On paper I couldn’t pick a favourite.

Round One – What’s the Connection?

The Linguists kicked off by putting the Gals into bat. They picked eye of Horus, and received Il Cantante (Mick Hucknall). I couldn’t quite get a handle on it at this stage. The second clue was Adega do Cantor (Cliff Richard) – which looked like Portuguese to me. Third was Inglenook (Francis Ford Coppola).That rang a bell, and going on the fact that Coppola’s inclusion meant we weren’t looking at singers, despite the first two , I plumped for wine brands made by the people in brackets. Actually it was vineyards, as it looked like Stuart supplied. Two Reeds provided the Linguists with a picture set. The first looked to me like Wells Cathedral – which made me idly think of Olympic 100m champions. I couldn’t recognise either of the people who came next, but the 4^th picture was clearly a bolt. So my hunch was correct, neither team seeing it themselves. The singer was Tony Christie and the third picture David Bailey. The Lings took the music set next behind Lion, and although I didn’t recognise the first, I did recognise the overture to Die Fledermaus, and the theme to the Michael Keaton Batman film. So bats, then. I wasn’t sure what would be next, but Bat out of Hell certainly made sense. God enough for a point for the Gals. Water gave the Lings Formal Royal Ceremonies – When Including a Religious Service – huh? – Live Parliamentary proceedings less than 30 mins and then Children's less than 30 mins escaped both them and me. However the Gals were able to pick up a bonus, knowing that these were all types of television programmes where there can be no advertising breaks. Now, Twisted Flax showed just what can happen when you have the courage of your convictions. The first clue was Nicholas Cage Magician Film (2007).  As it happened we all knew that this was called Next. However I was off about clothing retailers while the Gals decided that actually the connection could well be just as simple as ‘next’ and so they went for it. Five points in the bag, and a good lead became a commanding one. Left with Horned Viper Ling skipper Tom added to his own team’s problems by not voicing the second vowel. A rat – zombies – a paternity dispute and racism looked unpromising until Captain Tom went for Michael Jackson songs right at the death. What a good set – gettable after 2, no doubt about that, even though I didn’t. At least this put a point on the board for the Lings, but the Gals had an ominous lead of 9 – 1.

Round Two – What Comes Fourth?

The Gals, who had yet to receive a really nasty set, picked Eye of Horus, and a picture set. The first picture showed 5p, 2p and 1p pieces. Small change? Second picture showed the same three coins together with a 10p piece. The temptation now was to go for 4^th picture – 1p – 2p – 5p – 10p – 20- 50p -  – but surely that was too obvious? Well, the 3^rd picture was right if that was the sequence. I wasn’t wrong, but the important thing, as the Gals said, was that the 50p went in the right place to make up the Royal Shield, which is on the back of the coins. Lings chose Lion, and began with Venus, 5,832. OK – what did that mean? Next came Mercury: 1408. – I had a brainwave. Venus has a day that lasts longer than it’s year. So I guessed that earth: 24 would be the answer, the sequence being the bumber of hours it takes to make a full rotation. After that we were given Mars – 24.62- which looked promising. It looked like Tom who figured it out. Victoria took far too long to explain the concept, although she gained brownie points from me for using a bourbon biscuit to represent Venus.  Captain Giles of the Gals showed just why his team were doing so well by giving us Hornèd Viper as his next choice. Epsilon and Eta – then – iota – Omicron. I hazarded a guess with upsilon , since it also started with a vowel in the latin alphabet, and so did the Gals. Correct. Left with Twisted Flax the Lings kicked off with 6 in Africa. Hm – no idea off the top of my head. 7 in Europe followed, then 9 in North America. Neither team knew it was 12 in Asia. Me neither, but then I’ve never played Risk. It’s continental territories. The Gals’ last choice was Water, which they began with Ball – Cox – Moyles. The last made it totally clear – being Radio 1 breakfast show presenters, so the last would be Grimshaw. The Gals knew the connection, but not the name, ceding a bonus to the Lings, who gratefully accepted. This left two reeds for the Lings, who started with O’Brien squeezing an udder. Fair enough. Then Bracknell Twerking – then Lucan Vaulting. At this point the idea of a Lord Leaping, following a lady dancing came to mind for all of us. I suggested the idea of Pepper Picker playing a wind instrument. Neither team could suggest anything. This meant that the Gals still had a commanding lead, with 13 to 4.

Round Three – Connecting Walls

The Lings chose the Lion wall, and took out rose – sash – electric and picture windows in fairly short order. They could see a set of Sherlock Holmes stories characters, but not isolate them.Hung – Flew – Smelt and Spoke – a set of past participles fell next. With a little jiggery pokerey, Adler – Hudson – Moran and Bradstreet separated into one line, then Watson – Deep Blue – Dr. Fill and Chinook were the other. I felt Victoria was a little mean not to allow Chess computers for Watson and the others , but there we are, she didn’t. They are all computers that play different games. This meant that they earned 7 points, and were rather unfortunate not to have a full house of 10.

An abortive attempt at Agatha Christie characters produced nothing at first so then the Gals switched to something, anything else. Tow thirds of the time had gone, with nothing being produced, and John produced a heartfelt sigh of – This is NOT our wall! Club – electric – high and easy fell to a random selection, but at first they couldn’t see they were all chairs. They didn’t solve any of the other lines, but Stuart at least salvaged another point by getting chair right at the death. When the wall was resolved the other lines were – Hastings – Race – Oliver – Lemon – which were the Poirot characters – then – Nobe,l Carver – Japp and Franklin. They were all chemists, so no point for inventors. The last line was Bath – Curtain – Pension – Picture. John could see that these are all things you can draw – a good shout, that. So they finished with 4, and had somewhat fortuitously only concede three points. They led by 17 to 11.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

The first set all shared their names with BRIC countries. A long hesitation saw the Gals lose the point they had already got, and the Lings therefore take two points from the lead. The Gals took three of Party Leaders with one letter humourously changed, but they lost one point for a wrong answer after that. Didn’t matter, they were in the lead. There was just enough time for both teams to add one more point to their scores with novels by EM Forster, but that was it. The Gals were deserved winners with 20, while the Lings must