Chessmen
v. Gallifreyans
After a false start, losing to the Linguists,
the Chessmen – Henry Pertinez, Nick Mills and
skipper Stephen Pearson, had to endure a tiebreaker against the Felinophiles in
their sudden death qualification match. Their opposition, the Gallifreyans,
John Dorney, Stuart Wildig and captain Giles Sparrow defeated the conquerors of
the Chessmen, the Linguists and also the Wandering Minstrels to come straight
through to this match. Now the thing is, in a straight general knowledge quiz
between these two teams I would be backing the Chessmen every day of the week –
but OC is not a straight general knowledge quiz. So let’s see what actually
happened.
Round One – What’s the Connection?
Put into bat by the Ches, the Gals opted for Eye
of Horus, which meant that we started with a music set. I’m sure that all Spurs
fans like myself were gratified to head Glen Hoddle and Chris Waddle’s Diamond
Lights again – they don’t make ‘em like that any more. Obviously they were all
recorded by footballers – an idea confirmed by the execrable Gazza version of
Fog on the Tyne. They offered Celebrities singing songs, and were given quite a
bit of latitude by Victoria to allow them to supply footballers. Maybe a little
bit fortunate to get the point there. The Ches opted for an unstressed Horned
Viper – playing with fire if you ask me – and received Memory Stick – nope –
Jazzercise. Hmm – were we by any chance in the realm of OED words of the year?
Jacuzzi came next which blew that one out of the water. The last was Portaloo
and the Ches gave the answer that these are all proprietary tradenames – put it
another way, you may call any memory stick a memory stick, but that’s a brand
name . Hoover, I suppose would be another one. All Hoovers are hoovers, but not
all hoovers are Hoovers. Lion gave the Gals Acland and Sydney, then Michael and
Emeric. Now these two, I felt sure, were Powell and Pressburger. So were these
pairs of film makers? The Gals thought so, but no. Jack and Peggy – Jeffrey and
Mary were the other two clues. The connection is Archers, as the Ches knew.
Archer was Powell and Pressburger’s film company. Ah. For their own set the
Ches received Norfolk, West Sussex – and they what looked like a brilliant
shout. The Duke of Norfolk’s family seat IS in Arundel, West Sussex. Great
shout, and a well earned 5 points. Two Reeds gave the Ches some pictures. We
saw an appendix. Is it as simple as parts of a book, I wondered. The spine
appeared next which proved it was. Hmm. This is a quarter final – isn’t that a
little bit too simple? 3 points anyway. This left the Ches with Speedway:
Pedersen – nope – then Squash – Khan. Now I had a punt at this , that it was
sports with more than one world champion with the same surname – Jahangir and
Kansher being world champion Khans in squash. Squash: Higgins confirmed it for
me with Alex and John. I bet myself that the last would be Formula 1: Hill –
Phil, Graham and Damon – and I was right. The Ches hadn’t seen it, then with
hardly any time left they did for a point. Which meant that they led by 8 – 4.
Round Two – What Comes Fourth?
The Gals kicked off with a picture set. We saw
Amy Adams, and unchastened by their Powell and Pressburger experience they decided
the last would be a double D name like David Dimbleby. They went for 5, and got
nowt. The next pictures were Beth Ditto and Jo Brand. Hmm. Amy – Beth – Jo –
obviously we’d need a Meg as in Ryan to complete the March girls from Little
Women. An easy bonus for the Ches there. They opted for the viper again, and
kicked off with paktika. That’s a province of Afghanistan – but it didn’t help
me a great deal. Zabul then Kandahar followed – so Kabul looked like a pretty
good shout to me. The Ches thought so too and we were both wrong. Helmand was
the answer as the Gals knew. Good shout for a bonus that. Eye of Horus gave the
Gals – Nobody. Possibility overload there. Guildford Dudley, the second clue –
was the husband of Lady Jane Grey. So working from nobody being spouse of
Edward VI. My guess was Nobody for Elizabeth I, with Phillip II of Spain in 3rd.
The Gals only had it right at the last knockings, but had it they did. Water
gave the Ches Has Anybody Seen My Gal? – not enough for me to go on, and then –
East of Eden. John Steinbeck novel, and James Dean film. The next was Rebel
without a cause. So, guessing that Has Aybody Seen My Gal was a film in which
James Dean had a minor role, I went for Giant, so did the Ches, and we both had
a point. Two Reeds gave the Gals Gonna Stay Up Late – Grab Your Crucifix –
Better Lock Your Door. I remembered this from those interminable Nightmare on
Elm Street films – and thought that the last would be Freddy’s Coming for You,
or summat like that. Again it was right at the last that they snatched the
point. Only Twisted Flax remained and it gave the Ches 4th: Polish,
1978 – no idea. The Ches had popes straightaway. That was wrong though since
the next was 3rd: Czechoslovakian 1978. Nowm the third nationality
in space was a Czech, so I went for 1st: Russian 1961. The Ches
needed 2nd American 1961, and offered Soviet rather than Russian. Well,
Gagarin was born in Russia, so hopefully I would have had the point. As for the
match score, at this point the Ches led by 13 – 9.
Round Three – The Connecting Walls
The Ches kicked off seeing 5 islands of the
Hebrides. A good process of elimination isolated the correct four. I saw words
like pease and wise, which are pronounced like letters of the alphabet. The
Ches saw them too and added use and seize. Three goes didn’t enable them to
untangle the last two lines. We had Harris – Bentley – Terry and Harrow. I went
for Chopper Harris and John Terry – Chelsea captains. Correct – the Ches didn’t
see it. Twee – Elf – Otto and Cent – well – they looked like numbers to me
apart from twee. The Ches didn’t have a Scooby, but numbers were correct. Twee
apparently is two in Dutch. 4 points and the door was wide open for the Gals.
Names mentioned in Bohemian Rhapsody was the
first set that the Gals went for. Scaramouch also fit into a set of Commedia Dell’Arte
characters which were there too. Come to think of it there was a set of rabbit
breeds too. Come to think of it Edward Scissorhands, Audrey Roberts and Sweeney
Todd all cut hair at one time or another, For me this was an easier board, but
the Gals had solved nothing yet. They isolated Pierrot – Scaramuch – Pantalone and
Columbine, but it didn’t sound to me like they had the connection. They then
took out the rabbits – Dutch – English Lop – Flemish giant and Harlequin.
Everything suddenly clicked. They took out Audrey Roberts – Zohan – Sweeney Todd
and Edward Scissorhands - leaving Beelzebub – Figaro – Fandango And Galileo
from Bo Rap. By this time they had figured out Commedia Dell Arte and that
meant they had a full house of 10. Which meant also that they now led by 19 –
17.
Round Four – Missing Vowels
Well, which team were the vowels going to suit?
The first set was people in the famous 2014 Oscars selfie. These fell 2 -1 to
the Ches, but crucially the Gals lost the point they gained for an incorrect
answer. The next category was different British and American pronunciations. 2 –
1 to the Gals, who now led by 1 point. Numbers with their equivalent roman
numerals were actually harder than you might think, and these fell 3 – 1 to the
Ches, who now led by one. Battles of the Napoleonic Wars should, I felt, seal
the deal for the Ches and 2 – 0 did just that. The final score was 25 – 22. A
very good match, with the Ches deserving a narrow win.
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