Only Connect: Series Eleven: Elimination Match

Road Trippers v. Builders

The Road Trippers - Chris Pendleton, Nick Patterson and skipper Ned Pendleton, were fairly comfortably defeated by the Athenians last time out. As for the Builders, Robin Whelan, Max Esperson, and captain Ian Orris, well, they had a bit of a ‘mare against the Scientists, and must have at least drawn comfort from the thought that things surely wouldn’t work out so badly for them second time out, lightning never striking the same place twice.

Round One – What’s the Connection?

The Builds kicked off with Two Reeds, and had some horrible mathsy thing. It began with approximately 10m X π – ((365X3)+366)X21,600) . That helped a little, since sxs65 and 366 suggested 3 years and a leap year – but what about them? 365.25 x 82,400 saw Ian somewhat inexplicably deduce it was the time it takes Halleys Comet to come round the sun again. Well, that’s 76 years, so obviously wrong. I had already plumped for various formulae for the number of seconds in a year – which the last clue – 365.25X24X60X60 seemed to confirm. Given an open goal the Trips contrived to send the ball into row Z, just giving a year as the answer. Come on chaps, you can do better than this. Lion gave the Trips seven consonants. Two vowels made it click – there are seven consonants in the word consonants, and two vowels in the word vowels. This was confirmed by three syllables, and seven letters. The Trips had no idea, and neither did the Builds. They picked Twisted flax, which was the music set. I didn’t have the first two, but recognized ‘I’m gonna wash that man right outta my hair’ from South Pacific. Long haired lover from Liverpool – they don’t make em like that any more thank goodness – proved hair was the link. At last one of the teams got a point, as the Builds saw it too. The Trips took Water, and a picture set. The first was the great Gordon Banks. The second I didn’t know. The third – Britney Spears. Hmm – present tense indicative singular verbs, I suggested. The last clue Jeremy Irons fit the pattern. Mind you it also fitted plural nouns, which was the answer given by the Trips – I’m glad they accepted that answer for frankly rather a weakfish set in my opinion. The Builds asked for an unstressed Horned Viper which gave them club sandwich – iPod – and I was floundering at this point – Billy Bookcase – and I was actually sinking at this point – Big Mac. Nope – I just didn’t have it at all. Neither did the teams. Apparently these are all things used as financial indices – to compare the buying power of different currencies. Alright, I will admit that the words – American Municipal Bankruptcies – did flash briefly through my mind – but I’m not a financier and for all I know these things are well known as such. My initial thought, though, was that this was unnecessarily obscure. Eye of Horus gave the Trips – Rut – Loam – and there was something nagging at the back of my mind – and Barset which made it crystal – fictional counties. It was clear for the Trips too, but they took Borset to be sure. All of which meant that at the end of the round the score was 2 – 1 to the Trips.

Round Two – What Comes Fourth?

Two reeds gave the builds the word endangered on a yellow background. I fancied a shy at a five pointer and gave the word extinct in white on a black background. They took a second clue – critically endangered on a red background. Robin, I think, had the right answer at this point, but they opted to take Extinct in the Wild on a blue background before giving the right answer. Well, that was a better set. Twisted flax gave the Trips Act of Settlement. Hmm – no idea. First GB Census though was in 1801, so if we were going 1701 onwards, then attack on the world trade centre would do for 2001. Ned had it worked out at this point too, but took Death of Queen Victoria to prove it. He gave the example of Goran Ivanesevic which was perfectly acceptable. The Builds took eye of Horus and received pictures. What we had were feet in ballet shoes in various positions starting with 4^th and working backwards. So if you knew that 1st position was a pair of feet with the heels touching, you could have a 5 pointer. If you didn’t, then you weren’t even going to get a one pointer. Which makes it a less than great set, as I would argue that for most people clues 2 and 3 do not make it any easier than clue 1. Neither team had it. Water gave the Trips Death Valley. Now that had possibilities – being possibly the driest place in North America, and certainly the lowest below sea level in North America. Laguna del Carbon sounded appropriately South American, and so if we were going for lowest points of continents, then the Dead Sea for Asia seemed to fit the bill. The Trips thought about depressions and Dead Sea, but actually suffered a depression after going for driest places with the Atacama Desert. The Builds took a bonus. Lion gave the Builds Conforms to EU safety standards. Then Compare. Well that was CE followed by CF, so the answer would be eg international car registration for Switzerland. Which was exactly the answer that the Builds also came up with. Now THAT’S a nice set. Horned Viper – conventionally voiced by Victoria as always – gave the Trips 2002: Cafu. So – world cup winning captains. 2014: Lahm, 5 points thank you very much. Well, not for the Trips, though. They didn’t know it was Philip Lahm. As for the Builds, well, they either couldn’t believe their luck that they were given such an easy steal, or couldn’t believe their bad luck that they didn’t pick such a plum for themselves. This gave the Builds a lead of 8 – 4.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

Lion kicked off the round for the Trips. It took a while, but they eventually resolved a set of black and white creatures – orca – skunk – zebra and giant panda. Words which can follow honey did just that, that is, they followed – badger – trap – monster – bun. A little bit of thought, and a conference, and they solved the last two lines. Brother – Remington Mandvi and Adler are typewriter manufacturers, which left Bee – Mandvi – Colbert and Oliver, which I didn’t know, all correspondents on The Daily Show. 10 out of 10, and much needed.

Water gave the Builds a bit to think of. They tried a set of heels first, then gave it up and went for orchestral conductors, then gave it up and isolated a set of Danger Mouse characters – Stiletto – Baron Greenback – Agent 57 – Penfold. Then immediately after that the conductors – Solti – Toscanini – Rattle and Beecham followed. Kitten – Cuban – wedge and cone were the heels, which left golf clubs – hybrid – wood – iron and putter. Again, 10 from 10. So going into the final round the Builds had a useful but not decisive lead of 18 – 14.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

Charity singles, the first category, went two apiece, which helped the Builds more than it helped the Trips. A 4-0 shut out on musicians and their instruments for the Builds meant pretty much game over. 3 – 1 on things you might see on a pay slip increased the lead, and there was just time for one apiece on the buildings on the heritage at risk register before the time was up. The final score was 28 – 18. A comfortable win for the Builders in the end. 

Only Connect: Series Eleven: Elimination Match

Headliners v. Bookworms

The Headliners, Duncan Enright, Dave Robinson and Paddy Baker, were beaten 25 – 16 by the String Section in the first round, and I made the comment that I didn’t think that either team was the best general knowledge team we’ve ever seen. Bit mean that, and I’m sorry. They were playing the Bookworms, Katy Bateman, Tristram Cole and Dave Knapp. The Bookworms were narrowly defeated by the Wayfarers in the first round. So the form guide says. . . hang on a minute. The form guide has been completely reliable in the other elimination matches – it’s always wrong. So hey, no predictions, and may the better team win.

Round One – What’s the Connection?

The Heads began with Two Reeds. They received a music set for their pains, and I’ll be honest, I didn’t recognize anything before Dave said Beverly Knight for the second. I knew Nat King Cole for the third, though, and that gave us chess pieces. The Heads had it too at this same point. Lion gave the Books – starting position in Shogi. Nope. The Times Crossword Grid was a lot more helpful. That is , how should one put it, diagonally reversible. Flag of Georgia followed – red cross on a white field (cross of St George) with smaller red crosses in each quadrant. The Books tried horizontal and vertical symmetry, but alas twas neither. The letter S finished. The key is rotational symmetry, as the Heads confirmed. Eye of Horus gave the Heads 1965: Opened by Harold Wilson. Hmm – I wanted more. 2011 Defunct Aerial removed. Actually it looked like Dave had it at this point – I didn’t. The next clue, though, 1971: Toppled by a kitten gave it to probably every 50 something viewing at home. The Telecom Tower. The Heads took it off 3. Dave K did his team’s chances no good at all by asking for the Horned rather than Hornèd Viper, and received – The Berlin Wall – nope, too many – Celebrity Imperfections in Heat – no, never read it – The Right Hand side of the Daily Mail website – I refer you to my previous answer – then – Losers Leaving the Weakest Link. Well, that obviously had to be –Of Shame, as in the walk of. Now, Twisted Flax gave the Heads the most obvious 5 pointer I’ve seen for some time. Apostle Matthias – well, he was Judas’ substitute/replacements, and so substitutes/replacements was my answer for 5. Ben Wishaw as a Peruvian, the next clue, was lovely. You see, Colin Firth was the original voice of Paddington, but I believe voluntarily stepped down when it just wasn’t working. Kensington Blue Whale – well, while Dippy the Dpilodocus is on his UK tour at the moment his part is being played in the entrance hall of the Natural History Museum by a model of a blue whale. Finally the Heads twigged and took it off three. This left water for the Books. First we saw the late Steve Jobs holding an apple ipod or some such device. Then we saw Marco Polo. I was very pleased with myself for noticing the copy of Il Milione he was holding or I wouldn’t have had a Scooby who he was. A VW Polo came next, so obviously all polos. Only – oh Steve Jobs was wearing a polo neck. Sneaky as hell. The Books took it off three as well. All of which meant that the Heads led by 7 – 3.

Round Two – What Comes Fourth?

Water gave the Books Tigris. Now, this was either going to be the river, or Thor Heyerdahl’s reed boat. If Ra II came next, then Kon Tiki was the answer. It did come next and that was enough for the Heads as well, who were impressing me a lot more than they did in their first match. The Books’ set was difficult compared to this. Basically it was a representation of the four sides of the monopoly board in terms of the streets. So the first had 40% brown and 60% blues, and second half pink and half orange and so on. Now, we’re certainly not in American Municipal Bankruptcies territory, but this was tough. The Heads spurned the opportunity to improve their chances and they too asked for a disappointing Horned Viper. Returns was followed by Forever. Hmm, these were Batman films, but, crucially Returns wasn’t the first. SO I worked out the next would be Batman and Robin, and the answer therefore Begins. A bonus for the Books, and that is what can happen when you spurn Hornèd. Reeds gave the Books ½ pint lager =3. Sorry, but I knew this one, to my shame. It was Weight Watchers points. In which case working down to 0 could only be water. 25 ml gin=2 I wouldn’t have known, but I wasn’t changing my answer. 100 ml apple juice =1, and frankly I thought that the 5 points were mine. At this point the Books saw it to gate the answer. I have to say that the Heads had another plum for their last set. I’m not saying I would have had it from 7 = 900, but I definitely did from 6 = 720. This is internal angles of regular polygons, so 4 = 360. Again, no real excuses if you don’t get that one. No mistake by the Heads who had it off two. This left the Books with Manchester United (Preston North End). Well, one which should come to mind is that D. Beckham Esq, started his pro career at Man Utd where he also had a spell on loan at Preston. Dave had the connection too, and went for it off one. He offered just Paris St. Germain, and oh, had he only had the second clue he’d have been there. That showed Real Madrid (none) . So he’d have known Paris St. Germain (none) was right. The third was LA Galaxy (Milan) which left an open goal for the Heads, and they managed to shoot over the bar with LA Galaxy (Paris St. Germain). Which lucky escape for the Books meant that they trailed the Heads by 13 - 6

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

Realistically the Books needed to pull back at least some of the lead on the Lion wall. They began trying to isolate record retailers, but then switched with success to Blackpool attractions – Winter Gardens – Illuminations – Tower and Golden Mile. Island Groups – South Sandwich – Solomon – Virgin and Windward fell almost immediately afterwards. Square dance moves were there as well as the retailers. Very quickly they resolved the last two lines – Allemande Left – Do si Do – Grand Square and Promenade being the dance moves, while Zavvi – Rough trade – Our Price and HMV were the retailers. Alas, they failed to link the word square with dance, and only received 7 points, when they could well have had 10.

The Heads had the chance to pretty much close the show on their wall. They began by trying to isolate a set of diacritics, then computer games. When these didn’t budge they tried a set of Beyonce songs. Isolating If I Were A Boy – Crazy in Love – Halo and Déjà vu. Time Crisis – Quake – Doom and Deus Ex, the games followed very swiftly. With Fringe, Grave and Call of Duty it looked fairly clear that the last set were all linked by being Beyond The . . . but the Heads couldn’t see it, and had grave as a diacritic – which it could have been. SO the wall froze. When revealed the diacritics were macron – cedilla – hacek and circumflex – while the sea completed the beyond set. This resulted in 5 points, and a lead of 18 – 13. It still looked a tall order for the Books, but at least possible.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

Issues around Scottish Independence fell 4 – 0 to captain Dave of the Books. Now we had a game. Things you can take – take a . . . saw the Heads take two and lose 1, and the Books take 2. All square. Tournament formats went to the Books 3 – 1 and they led for the first time in the competition. Painters of $100 million paintings fell one each, and that was it. Wait for it – the Books had won by 2. What? The form guide, the one time I ignored it, was right! Bad luck to the Heads, but they can be pleased with playing a good game. Congratulations Bookworms. 

Only Connect Series Eleven: Elimination Match

Collectors v. Mixologists

The collectors were, collectively, Daniel Nazarian, Anna Kirby-Hall, and captain Elliot Costi. In all honesty they weren’t great in their first round match, where they were quite comfortably beaten by the Railwaymen. On the other hand the Mixologists, Chris Beer, Ewan MacAulay and Sam Swift sowed good form in losing by a point to the distinctly useful Spaghetti Westerners. The form guide said the Gists looked by far the best bet for the win, but in a two horse race either team can win on their day.

                                               

Round One – What’s the Connection?

The Gists went first, and as a statement of intent asked for Hornèd Viper . Way to go, Sam. The Commitments’ Dean Fay. I might well have had a shy at a 5 pointer here – since I know that Dean was the saxophone player in the film/book. Maybe that was too simple and obvious. Spider Murphy didn’t mean owt to me. Zoot, though, the third, was the Muppet band’s sax player. If Bill Clinton came 4^th . . . Well, he didn’t, but Lisa Simpson worked just as well. It worked to salvage a point for the GIsts, and we moved to the Lects. They went for Eye of Horus, and their first clue was Palau. All I can tell you about Palau is that it has a simple national flag of a yellow sun on a blue field. Laos’ flag has a white disc/sun on a band of horizontal blue between two horizontal red stripes. So discs/suns on national flags was my guess. Bangladesh (red disc on green field) came third – and I guessed that Japan would be the most obvious for the 4^th. It was Daniel who clicked on the third clue, and when revealed the last actually was Japan. Both teams off and running then. Twisted Flax started with Darkness Visible. Right – it’s the title of a work by William Styron, which is a quotation from Paradise Lost. It’s also an oxymoron. I plaumped for titles of works which are quotations from other writers. So we might get ‘Tender is the Night’ for example. That looked to be blown out of the water by the second clue “The Dementors”. Sounded like Harry Potter to me, but then that’s my problem. A Bell Jar just as much screamed Sylvia Plath. Were these all, I wondered, autobiographical or semi autobiographical works about mental illness? The first and third were. A rush of blood to the head saw captain Sam offer things which contained vacuums. The last was a black dog. Now, I did know that this was the phrase that Sir Winston Churchill used to describe his periods of depression. And indeed, metaphors for depression was the answer as correctly given by the Lects. For their own clue they opted for Two Reeds, and received a picture set for their pains. In a weird echo of the UC picture set half an hour earlier we saw artists’ self-portraits, including Frida Kahlo (looking nothing like Kate Winslet, Jez was right). Lion gave the Gists the music, and a set of pirates gradually revealed itself for a point. What a lovely little set the water set was. I didn’t know the Department of Camembert cheese. I did know that Reno is the Biggest Little City in the World, and Nero – and anagram of Reno, was emperor from 54 AD to 68. I had it by this time, but Mr. Rubik – Erno – confirmed it. The Lects didn’t get it, and neither did the Gists. Sorry guys – you missed a trick there. After round one the Lects led by 5 – 2, making a mockery of the afore mentioned form guide.

Round Two – What Comes Fourth?

Mo 20:00 suggested Monday at 8pm for the Gists. Tu 19:30 added nothing for me that I hadn’t got from the first clue. Captain Sam thought it was times that Eastenders is on. He said a wee prayer, then offered Fr. 20:00. The Lord helps those who watch Eastenders, apparently, since it was right. Good shout. Skipper Elliot fought back immediately by asking in his turn for Hornèd Viper too. Top man. Preston End suggested the word North to me. Stirlingshire suggested East. Working on that, Ham United or Bromwich Albion should do the trick. Not trying to be horrible, but sorry, the Lects picked a juicy wee plum with that giveaway. I’d still rather see an easy set like this than American Municipal Bankruptcies, mind you. Water showed us Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks. Then we had a spark plug. Then boxers sparring. So just something which showed a spa. Sam offered Leamington Spa, which did the trick. Twisted Flax gave the Lects 18 degrees; Astronomical dawn. Huh? Then 12 degrees nautical dawn. Huh huh? Six degrees civil dawn next. 0 degrees, Tony Orlandoan Dawn the answer then? (ask your parents). No, it was zero degrees sunrise, which was exactly the straw that Elliot grabbed at for the point. Lion then gave the Gists RN. Suggested Royal Navy, but then what? BQ didn’t help. KB was the last clue. Got it! Chess notation, so Rook – Knight – Bishop – Queen – King – Bishop – so NR – Knight – Rook. The Lects had that. So once again the form book was being given a good old British style 6 of the best, trousers down. To finish the round we had start of the 1929 Wall Street Crash. That would be Black Tuesday. So for a five pointer I suggested Start of Christmas shopping season – Black Friday. The Lects, again plucking something of a plum, took Sterling withdraws from ERM then Irish Deficit reaches 32% of GDP. Anna had already given the correct answer, but captain Elliot seemed a little fixated on Black Thursday for the Wall Street Crash. So they gave a wrong ‘un, enabling the Gists to take an unexpected bonus. Which meant that the Lects led by 11 – 8.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

The Lects opted for Water. I could see Jeremies and Football club nicknames to start with. The Lects were wonderfully methodical with the Jeremies, and soon isolated Vine – Paxman – Kyle and Guscott. They saw the teams, but not that Irons were one of them, and Cubs weren’t. Anna saw a set of yards – court – grave – scrap and dock. That was as far as they got. When the wall was resolved – wolves – cubs – lies and cards looked like things you get a pack of – but they couldn’t see it. This left the football teams – black cats – saints – irons and bluebirds. They’d played well up to this point, but 5 points showed the first chink in their armour.

Lion gave the Gists Arabian ports with Dubai, Jeddah, Muscat and Aden. Merlot – Syrah – Pinot Noir and Semillon – all wine grapes - followed very quickly. I could see a set of words like Kuwait, which could be denoted by a single letter and a single figure – Q8. There were also K9 – E10 and B4. Pooch, hound, cur and mutt are all alternative words for dogs. 10 from 10, and maybe if the Lects had picked the plums in the second round, the Gists had the slightly easier wall in this. Didn’t matter. This gave them the lead – 18 – 16 – going into the last round. Anyone’s game.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

 A disastrous round for the Gists on things with spots saw the Lects take a full house, and to add insult to injury they lost a point for an incorrect buzz. Weirdly, the Gists then won the next round – film titles with the first letters changed – eg – Sad Max – 4 – 1! 3 – 1 to the Lects on 6 syllable words meant it was 22 all as we went into Manicure kit. Sam had the first – nail polish remover. And he had the second with cuticle nipper and that was it! Time was up. 24 – 22 to the Gists. Well, the form guide was right in as much as it predicted a win for the Gists, but I thought that the Lects had played miles better than in their first match, and could go with their heads held high.

Oh, and Jenny (producer) - I hope that your cold is on the mend. x 

Only Connect Series Eleven Elimination match

Polyglots v. Operational Researchers

Here we are taking our first drink this season in the last chance saloon of an elimination match. Fellow drinkers were the Polyglots and the Operational Researchers. The Polyglots - Dan Shane, Lyndsay Coo and captain Vicki Sunter just narrowly lost out to the Yorkers first time out, while the Ops - Paul Allen, Alex Hill, and captain Clare Lynch, were pretty comfortably beaten by the Cluesmiths. For what it’s worth the Clark 50p was on the Glots to go through.

Round One – What’s the connection?

Eye of Horus gave the Glots SP: 23.12. No, me neither. D:74.08 didn’t shed much light either. H:86.74 was no more helpful than the first and neither was the 4^th, J:98.48. Then I looked at the letters again – SP was actually the most helpful – Shot put. So they were all men’s throwing distance records. My goodness that’s not an easy set to start with. Clare delighted me by opting for horned viper for the Ops. First off there was a picture of some opera. OK. Then we saw some geegees cantering around royal Ascot. OK. Then we saw some Tacos. Lightbulb – ascot – tacos – Tosca? – all anagrams. A costa coffee sign sealed the deal. The Ops didn’t have it but neither did the Glots. Twisted flax gave them Omelete – Fritata – well they were both missing double letters as well the Glots knew. Let’s be honest, that was quite a soft set after what we’d had so far, but then that’s the luck of the draw. Water gave the Ops Morocco Mole. Now, he was Secret Squirrel’s sidekick. Surely cartoon sidekicks was too simple. Akbar and Jeff suggested that yes, it was too simple. The other thing about Morocco Mole was that he wore a fez, so that was my answer. No, I don’t know Akbar and Jeff, but I mentally bet myself that Tommy Cooper would be the 4^th clue. Last-but-one Doctor was Matt Smith/ 11^th Doctor who definitely wore a fez. Then NO! It wasn’t Tommy Cooper, but the shopkeeper in Mr. Benn (whom I think may also have been a Time Lord). The Ops zigged with Smith, the Glots zagged with Bow ties (which are cool) but neither zugged with fezzes. The Glots landed on the music set, and it was nice to hear the classic ‘Don’t you want my baby’ from the Numan League. Fairytale of New York came next. All I could do with it was couples who could have featured on the Jeremy Kyle show – well, bickering couples anyway. The Glots didn’t know it, but the Ops did for a bonus. Now, Lion gave the Ops my answer of the night. The Pirate Planet is of course a Doctor Who serial, starring the brilliant Tom Baker. However, and more importantly, it was written by Douglas Adams. I was pretty sure this would have been the connection, and would have answered off one in the studio. Starship Titanic confirmed it. However, while the computer game was written by Douglas, the accompanying novel wasn’t. That was written by Terry Jones – long story. Last Chance to See was, I think, Douglas’ own favourite book – about his travels with Mark Carwardine to try to see some of the rarest creatures in the world. Stephen Fry did an updated version a few years ago. Douglas Adams was on the table at this point, but rejected, which brought up h2g2. I found it so frustrating when captain Clare offered fan websites. H2g2 is actually the shortened version of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – 2 hs and 2 gs, see – but it IS also a website ( or was – haven’t checked it out in ages myself.) That was a giveaway that the Glots couldn’t turn up their collective nose at. So the first round had gone pretty much to form, with the Glots leading 4 -1, but neither team exactly showing championship form yet.

Round Two – What Comes Fourth?

Two Reeds brought the Glots a picture set. We started with a phot of Freddie Mercury with a big 0 in the top right hand corner. Huh? Then the Venus de Milo, also with a 0 n the same place. Got it Mercury has 0 moons, as does Venus. I bet the next would be some Earth with 1, and so the answer would be a mars bar with 2. The Glots looked confident and buzzed in with Bruno Mars – which earned them nothing because they didn’t put the number on it. At last the Ops showed a little bit of form and gave us the right answer. This narrowed the gap, and they had the chance to obliterate it with their own set on Eye of Horus. ADT didn’t help. Nutrasweet came next – and I wasn’t getting the connection yet. Flora did it though. London Marathon sponsors – but who came next. Clare had it with Virgin – good shout that. Twisted Flax gave the Glots Milton – Hope – New Haven. Right, all I could think of was Hope, Arkansas was where Bill Clinton was born, so Barack Obama was born somewhere in Hawaii. I hit and hoped with Honolulu. Nobody had it. The Ops knew presidents came into it, but didn’t get the birthplaces idea. Honolulu was right. Lion gave the Ops Narnia Chronicler, which would be CS Lewis. So we had a sequence starting with either CS or Lewis. What would that be? Body scan – would that be a CT scan? Which would mean a curriculum vitae would come 4^th. Dead right. Alright, that was a rather gentle set, but at least the Ops were now taking them when they were on offer. Water gave the Glots Imprisonment/Death of a Family Member (4/43) – I couldn’t see it. Marital separation (3/43) and Divorce (2/43) – these I guessed were the top items on a list of most stressful experiences. So what would the first be? Something in the back of my mind said death of a husband/wife. The Glots had death but not that of a spouse. Death of a child was the Ops’ offer. Close but no panatella. The viper hid a music sequence for the Ops. This was a definite 5 pointer chance. We began with New Order’s World in Motion – the 1990 world cup song. So working backwards we’d have Back Home from 1970. The Ops needed We’ve got the whole world at our feet from 1986 – and they got the year wrong – but got the right answer. They’d definitely shown a clean pair of heels to the under par Glots in this round, and now led by 10 – 4.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

The Ops had a chance to compound their lead by making a clean sweep of their wall. I could see a set of Bridge builders there , but also a set of London University Colleges. The cheeky thing was that Brunel was there – which is a Uni but not part of London Uni – one to catch out the unwary there. They were Birkbeck – SOAS – Queen Mary’s and my Alma Mater Goldsmiths. Lovely to see Goldies getting a name check there. Towns in Shropshire followed with Telford – Oswestry – Wern and Ludlow. Tummy tablets/medicine and Bridge Builders/engineers remained. The engineers were Brunel – Bazalgette – Rennie and Smeaton, leaving Tums – Zantac – Gaviscon and Setlers. 10 points, and the Glots were looking down the barrel of a gun.

Water for the Glots then, and they had a set of characters played by Helena Bonham-Carter. There looked to be Hindi loan words as well. These were the first set they solved, being bandana – chutney – pashmina and pyjamas. Neckwear as in Ascot – Fichu – Cravat and Kerchief followed. Three strikes did for them. When the wall was resolved they could see that Titus Andronicus – Mrs. Lovett – Mrs. Miggins and Pukka were all connected with pies. This left the Bonham Carter roles as The Red Queen – Mrs Buckett – Bellatrix Lestrange and Ophelia. 6 points, which gave them 10 to the Ops’ 20.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

The first set, novels by Thomas Pynchon gave a point to the Ops. I only7 knew Gravity’s Rainbow and V. Things a satnav might say fell 2 apiece. Surprisingly, FOR GOD’S SAKE SLOW DOWN ! was not one of them. BBC TV shows that have been running for at least 25 years fell 2 – 1 to the Ops, meaning that the final score was 25 – 13. Polyglots, I apologise for cursing you with the Clark tip – when you get right down to it this wasn’t your night. Congratulations Ops – good luck next time. 

Only Connect : Series Eleven: Match Eight

Scientists v. Builders

Right, grab a quick cuppa, for OC is about to start. In this case we have the Scientists and the Builders. The Scientists were Innis Carson, Lorraine Murtagh and Ian Volante. Innis and Lorraine come up clean on the database, but Ian appeared in the Nancy’s 2009 series of Mastermind, where a good score in the first round wasn’t enough to win his heat. Their opposition were the Builders – Robin Whelan, Max Esperson, and captain Ian Orris. Again, it’s only the skipper who registers on my database, and he too is a Masterminder. In Jesse’s 2010 series, Ian beat my mate Les Morrell in the first round, but could only come runner up to Jesse in the semi final. Ironically Les had a repechage slot and made it through to the final, still, I digress. Not much to choose between the teams on paper then.

Round One – What’s The Connection?

Two Reeds showed the builds a photo of what looked like a statue of Alan Turing. Then we had Stephen Hawking. I thought that this was either going to be characters played by best actor nominated actors at the last Oscars – or – I did know that Benedict Cumberbatch has also played both. Sensibly the Builds took another clue – Julian Assange, which meant we were looking at the Benedict Cumberbatch connection. Sadly the Builds went barking up the film tree and the Tists couldn’t get it. Water gave the Tists music – didn’t know the first but recognized The Mighty Wah! Second, and Snap! Third. So exclamation marks, and the Tists knew it at the same time that I did. For Eye of Horus the BVuilds received intensity of cosmic microwave background radiation – no, me neither. Norwegian banknotes helped me not, nor did footballers’ gestures. I’ll be honest, I probably should have got it from Dick Cheney’s residence on Google Earth, but I didn’t and that’s that. Neither did the Builds. Nor the Tists for that matter. Pixelation is the connection. Lion gave the Tists a lovely set. Milan, and Your Party saw both Lorraine and I latching on to things which Right Said Fred were Too Sexy for. Matter of opinion. Good shout. Ian opted for a horned rather than horned viper – I feared for the Builds after this, I’ll be honest – and received Abaft the Mainmast. No idea yet. The second clue 4 of 5 bells in the Elizabeth Tower, the tower commonly referred to as Big Ben, shed no light either. Every 25^th Hunger Games, though, I knew had something to do with Quarter – Quarter Quell IIRC. If the first one was quarter deck, then I felt strongly enough that I might well have gone for it at this point. Sensibly the Builds took the last clue – 113.4g hamburger – the quarter pounder, and then have the correct answer for their first point of the competition. The Tists were left with the flax, and a very nice little set gave them The Raven, and then Little Weed. Now, anyone of my vintage knows Little Weed from Bill and Ben, and knows that it just said one word – weeeeeeeeeeed. Wel also know ‘quoth the raven ‘Eat my shorts’ – ‘Nevermore’.  So I came in with- they only said one word. The Tists took Seagulls in Finding Nemo – MINE! – and that was enough to give them the same answer. This completed a good first round for the Tists who led by 7 - 1

Round Two – What Comes Fourth?

The Builds, needing to get a wiggle on, started with the flax. 35^th Anniversary LP reissue: Universal didn’t spark much in my memory to be honest, although we were clearly dealing with 1977. 1977 in music shouted punk rock, which suggested the Sex Pistols. But in what way? The Builds took the second – After one week with A&M:Virgin. Now, that made it clearer. We were dealing with record labels, and I knew that Virgin did take the Pistols on after they were shown the door by another company. I also knew that they were on the EMI label to start – in the words of the Pistols – EMI – Unlimited supply. So the first would be something involving EMI. The third clue for the Builds was kicked out after Bill Grundy interview: A &M. Ah the Bill Grundy interview. I remember being about 12 years old, watching it with my grandmother who was in her late 60s, listening in wonder to the virtuoso display of 4 letter abuse, amongst which Bill Grundy was called a ‘F”*!ing rotter’. With a totally straight face my Nan turned to me afterwards and said, ‘do people still use the word rotter, then?’ She was a class act. Going back to the show the Builds just didn’t get a record label into their answer, and the Tists couldn’t either. The answer actually was First single: EMI. The Tists opted for Eye of Horus. Ras al-Kaimah gave me the chance of a 5 pointer. This was the United Arab Emirates, and probably going up in order of size. I was fairly sure that even though Dubai gets the headlines, Abu Dhabi is the largest. Sharjah looked good for my hypothesis and Dubai hammered it home. That was enough for the Tists who gave the right answer. I could have had a 5 pointer on 2 Reeds as well. The Only Thing We Have to fear is fear itself – is a quotation from FDR. I would never have gambled in the studio, but I reckoned it could be quotes from 4 successive presidents. Therefore a JFK one would do it – I went for Ask not what your country can do for you - . That would have done, I’m sure. The Builds went for ‘read my lips’ which was George H W Bush – and I’m sorry, and don’t want to be harsh, but a set like this is the kind of thing you really should get if you’re going to make a realistic challenge for a win. The Tists offered Ich Bin Ein Berliner – correctly – which incidentally actually could be translated as I am a donut, I think.  Ian V chose a conventionally stressed horned viper, but he didn’t care, they were way ahead. RM in two different fonts followed by DM didn’t mean anything to them, but the Builds had a terrific bonus shout with Euro sign. These were rentenmark, reichsmark, deutschmark . I hadn’t had a Scooby. That made things slightly better as they went into water. We had Now Get Out of That. Sorry guys , but this was another 5 pointer chance. I knew that this was a BBC series of the 80s, and also a theme tune of Top of the Pops. If the next was The Wizard, then the answer would be Whole Lotta Love. It was. At this point the team worked it between them, and took much needed points. The Tists finished off with Lion, and set of pictures of 2 bars of music. No good for me, but they worked it out impressively off two, and Innis actually answered in the correct notes for the last one. Good shout – this was Frere Jacques apparently. All of which meant that at the end of the round the Tists led by 13 – 5.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

A good Water wall and the Tists could be home and dry, I reckoned. This was an interesting wall because I could see a completely rogue set of Star Trek characters. The Tists didn’t fall for it – maybe they knew that Christine Chappell had double letters. So Chapel – Temple – Kirk and Church all went for places of worship. Then they started barking up the Star Trek tree for a minute, before seeing famous Bens – Britten – Disraeli – Zephaniah – Spock. They could see eponymous TV crime series – eg – Castle – and also words which are homonyms for nationalities eg deign. These resolved into Castle – Bones – Luther and Lewis, then Deign – Fin – Scott – Poll. 10 points thank you very much, and to all intents and purposes, game over.

Lion gave the Builds the 4 Cs of gemstones – cut – carat – clarity – colour. I could see a set of words the first syllables of which were the names of mammals – Category – Molesley – Pigment and Bates – but the Builds missed it. This would leave shade – tincture – tint and hue as colour variations. Again they missed these. I didn’t know that the last set – Carson – Hughes – Patmore and Barrow were all in Downton Abbey. Neither did the Builds. Receiving 3 put the scores at 23 – 8 to the Tists.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

The first set – afflictions of the ear nose and throat fell 3 – 1to the Tists, but the Builds lost a point for a wrong buzz. Things abbreviated to three letters fell 3 – 1. Shakespeare play suicides went 3 – 1to the Builds. That was that.

The final score was 30 – 12. A very good night’s work for the Scientists, who look to be a rather useful outfit. As for the Builders, well, it was one of those nights when nothing goes right and be honest, we’ve all had them in our time. They still have the chance to make amends in their next game.

Only Connect - Season 11 - Match 6 and Match 7

Match 6: String Section v. Headliners

And so to match 6, which I missed when I was away last weekend. The String section consisted of Tessa North, Peter Sorel-Cameron and captain Richard Aubrey. I don’t think I know any of them personally, and they all came up clean on LAM. Their opposition were the Headliners, Duncan Enright, Dave Robinson and Paddy Baker. Likewise all of them have clean records on LAM. So you pays yer money and you takes yer choc ice, as they say.

Round One – What’s The Connection?

The Headliners put the string section in to bat first, and they chose Two Reeds. I didn’t have it after Norfolk PE35 6EN, but I did after Aberdeenshire AB35 5TB. They had postcodes, but not royal residences. Berkshire SL4 1NJ saw them rather inscrutably barking up the postcodes that are not actually in the county they are supposed to be tree. London SW1A 1AA is of course Buckingham Palace, and so the Headliners were never going to turn their collective nose up at that windfall. Lion gave a picture set. We started with a cockerel. Hmm. Then two flying ducks. Hmm Hmm. Then JS Bach. Hmm hmm hmm. Then a jar of honey. All I could come up with, and I didn’t like it very much, were terms of endearment. Which turned up to be the correct answer. Fair enough, but I can’t say that this was my favourite set, and neither team had it. I was delighted to see Richard stress Hornèd in Viper, and hoped this would bring him a good set. Barley grains from the middle of the ear – nope. A London candle. Still nope. A days work from a team of oxen – ah – lightbulb. These were all definitions of old units of measurement – the oxen one being one acre, I thought. The Strings took a Thumb for the last clue, and this gave it to them. The Liners chose Eye of Horus and received God Bless America and The Cuckoo’s Calling – and I was fairly sure that the first of these was not written under a pseudonym. Ah, the Entire output of Dorothy Parker, though gave me an inkling that this might well be proceeds to charity. I made a mental bet that the last would be ‘Peter Pan’. Yes! Now, the Liners really ought to have had it from Peter Pan, but they didn’t, and neither did the Strings. Sorry everyone, but that’s the sort of thing you probably should be getting right. Twisted Flax gave the Strings the Flag of Vietnam. Yellow star on a red field. Let’s see the next. Google O’s. As the Strings knew, one is yellow and the other red, so I asked myself whether we’d also get the Pied Piper. No, after the Strings took the points after 2, we also had MCC tie and Rupert Bear’s clothes. Water inevitably brought music to the Liners. I didn’t get the first, and though I knew Kim Wilde and Sandie Shaw I needed Shakespeare’s Sister to push me to Playwrights. Ditto the Liners. So at the end of the round the Strings led by 4 - 2

Round Two – What Comes Fourth?

Right, the round that separates the men from the slightly younger men. The Strings again kicked off with Two Reeds. We saw One Direction – Chris Martin, then Kylie. No, I just didn’t have it. Neither team did in the time allotted. It was artists who have sung the opening line to a recording of Do They Know It’s Christmas, and of course the first was Paul Young. Duncan of the Liners also opted for Hornèd Viper, just the way we like it. Now, the first clue was Oath. I immediately wondered if we were dealing with the Coronation – in which case what would come 4^th. Anointing? Procession? Anointing and Investiture followed, so I went for crowning. So did the Liners, who said coronation. Nobody had it – the next is enthronement. Fair enough, but a pretty tricky set, I dare say. Lion saw the Strings kick off with Saw III. Part of a popular film franchise I’m reliably informed. Cars IV followed. Hmm – the set had to be harder than it looked. Then I looked at the words. Saw has 3 letters – Cars has 4. So a 6 letter word followed by VI. George VI was the example that the Strings came up with after Alien V. The Liners needed a kinder set, and hoped that they would find one behind Eye of Horus. Mikhail Youzhny didn’t help me, and he was followed by Fernando Verdasco. Jerzy Janowicz didn’t help me – sorry but this set just passed me by. Novak Djokovic looked like a complete guess by the Liners, but it was right. These were Andy Murray’s successive opponents in Wimbledon 2013. Actually that’s a good set – kudos to the setter. The Strings finished with water, and started with 4^th Foot=foot. Huh? 3^rd: hand=hand. Huh? 2^nd Tooth= Tooth. Ah, I mused – were we in eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth territory? Yes we were. This left Twisted Flax for the Liners. We began with Jefferson City Missouri. Now, I was switched on for this one. Jefferson City is the capital of Missouri. He was also the 3^rd president. Working forward, the next should be Madison Wisconsin (4^th president) and Jackson Mississippi (7^th). Which would mean Lincoln Nebraska would be 4^th (16^th president) . A well earned 5 pointer for me. The Liners could see it was Presidents, but went for Washington DC – not a state capital – not part of a state at all – and he wouldn’t have been next in line anyway – he should have been first if he qualified. Richard knew that and took a timely bonus. That meant that the Strings led 9 -4 and at the moment looked like the only winners in this show.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

The Liners opted for lion, and began trying to isolate a set of cigars. Now, I think that the best way to go is once you see a set, keep trying all combinations until you get the right one. They didn’t, and abandoned the set to go chasing pianos. Then they switched again, and this time isolated Hamlet – Eugene Onegin – Swan Lake and Capriccio Italien – all works by Tchaikovsky. In short order a set of canals – Erie – Herengeracht – Grand and Suez followed. A moment’s thought, and the cigars – Panama – Henri Wintermans – King Six and Castella, and the pianos – Upright – Player – Spinet and Console were resolved. Sadly they went for ballets rather than Tchaikovsky, and so ended up with 7 points, when a full house had been there for the taking.

The Strings sized up their water wall before taking out a set of things which can be preceded by the word Turkish – Coffee- slippers – carpet and delight. There was a set of Liverpool FC players that they seemed to be going for without much success, before switching to things you can run – risk – bath – race and errand. It looked like Tessa who worked out that Busby – Cabbage – Tankard and Vandal all begin with words for vehicles. This left Callaghan – Rush – Venison and Fowler as the Liverpool footballers. 10 points, and with the lead standing at 19 – 11 they really looked as if they should win with daylight between themselves and the Liners.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

The first set, Scottish authors, saw a complete 4 – 0 shut out by the Strings. Game over. Items on an Indian takeaway menu fell 2 all, but the Strings also dropped a point for a premature buzz. Consecutive Shipping Forecast areas went 3 – 1 to the Liners. French novels saw just enough time for the Strings to take a point and then lose it again. In the end the final score was 25 – 16.

Well played Strings – you came on stronger and stronger as the quiz went on. If I’m honest I don’t see either of these teams as the series winners, since I think that there are teams with a wider general knowledge in the competition, but with the Strings I kind of feel that you underestimate them at your peril.

Match 7: Road Trippers v. Athenians.

Quick – dash to the kitchen and make yourself a cup of tea – or maybe something a bit stronger (coffee). The next contest is about to start, and there’s no time to draw breath. So in this 7^th match we see the first run out for the Trips and the Aths. The Aths were Jon Stilcher, Ben Holmes and Amber Marshall. Jon and Amber came up clean on Lam, but Ben was a semi finalist in the 2014 series of Mastermind. Nice to see Masterminds having a go at the OC, I always think. The Trips were Chris Pendleton, Nick Patterson and skipper Ned Pendleton. All three of these guys came up clean.

Round One – What’s The Connection? 

The Trips started with water and a character from my favourite film, The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne. Characters imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit? The Trips considered it. Ross Geller though really muddied the issue for a moment. At about the same time the Trips were looking at Palaeontologists, I was going with rock collectors. Next came Obelix the Gaul. Now, I wish to be pedantic here. Did Obelix REALLY collect Menhirs? I ask because he is always described as a Menhir Delivery Man – which suggests not. I’ve never watched In The Night Garden, so had no idea whether Makka Pakka collects rocks or not, but guessed that he did.  Victoria showed quite an amount of leeway allowing another go after palaeontoligsts, then allowing fossils. Fossils – rock collectors? Well, she allowed it and that’s that. Twisted Flax gave the Aths a photo of Ellen DeGeneres, then a chap I don’t know. The third picture showed Lee Mack and Tim Vine. Now, that had to refer to Not Going Out, in which I knew they played characters called Lee and Tim. Ellen Degeneres played Ellen in Ellen, so I guessed that they played characters with their own first name. Terry and June confirmed this in the last picture. Two Reeds gave the Trips the music set and it was the third one, a Natalie Cole/Nat King Cole duet on Unforgettable that gave it to me – duets recorded after one of the artists had passed away. The Trips didn’t have a Scooby and the Aths went barking up the parent and child duet tree. Lion gave the Aths Elizabeth and James – which looked on the surface like monarchs and successors. Menace II Society blew that out of the water, and left a void because I didn’t have a clue. Harvard Connection rang a bell as something to do with the origin of Facebook, then I’m Gonna Be (500 miles) – well, we all know about that, but what was the connection? The Facebook thing helped, since I recalled something to do with twin friends of Mark Zuckerberg being supposedly involved in the early days of Facebook, so made by twins was my guess. The Aths had no idea, the Trips were close but no cigar with brothers. Eye of Horus gave the Trips Fliffus. That’s a manoeuvre in trampolining – but I wasn’t fancying a 5 pointer on that. Next came Oliver! And I was out with the washing. The Sixth Sense did nothing to bring me back in again. Mobius Strip finished it off. None of us got it. Now, when its explained – that they all have a twist in them, it makes sense, but oh, I don’t know, it’s just not satisfying as a set. Clever, but not satisfying. We know that Victoria never gives the preferred pronunciation of Horned Viper, and this is what was left for the Aths. 35 Out of Money was followd by 33 Illogical interchange. This was clearly an IT , error message sort of thing – but what exactly? 16 Outside zone – ah – this looked like Oyster card underground turnstile error messages. 09 ticket damaged seemed to confirm it. The Aths thought so and earned a point for their trouble, to double their score and give them a 2 – 1 lead.

Round Two – What Comes Fourth?

The Trips kicked off with Lion. I thought that they were barking up the right tree when Marty came up, looking generally at Oscan winning films. Next The Apartment. Now, when I started quizzing in the 80s, this was the last Black and White best picture winner. Then along came Schindler’s list which is mostly B and W, and then the Artist. So that’s what I went for. The Trips took Schindler’s List and then gave the right answer. For water the Aths got a picture showing a dog on the left, and cat on the right, with a red arrow from cat to dog. Huh? Then bird to the cat – and that was my lightbulb moment. I went for fly to spider – as in there was an old lady who swallowed a fly etc etc. The Aths had it at this point as well. Top marks to Ned for both having the guts to sing a verse of the song, and then for asking for Hornèd Viper. France. . . offered little in the way of enlightenment. Arme followed – ah some French inscription of dedication – maybe Napoleon. What would come last? Peuple ? (people) . Tête d‘armée added weight ot this conclusion, but no help in deciding what was next. Apparently these were the last concerns of Napoleon on his deathbed, and the last was Josephine. What a surprise! Nobody had it! What were the chances of that happening? Alright, we’re not exactly in American Municipal Bankruptcies territory here, but come on, that’s a bit obscure I would have thought. The next set for the Aths began with Kelly. Too many possibilities there. Kelly came next, and didn’t help. However Kennnedy was the lightbulb moment. Now, the problem for the Aths was that they were far too old to remember Game for A Laugh, and so I would guess were most of the Trips. Now, there are TV shows which haven’t been on for 30 years which are still well remembered enough to give younger people who weren’t even born when it was on a reasonable chance. . . but Game for a Laugh? Oh well. Beadle was missing. Eye of Horus gave the Trips 20: Brodick. Nope, me neither. 10: Glamis though sounded more like it. Scottish castles would give Edinburgh as the top, but what number? 5: Cluzean came third, so I bit the bullet with 1: Edinburgh. These it turned out are the castles on Scottish banknotes. Having worked out pretty much everything the Trips still missed out and passed a bonus to the Aths. This left them with twisted flax and ageing – aluminium. That gave me an inkling – in the US the second I is missed out. So if the next one had an o which is dropped in US spelling, then the last could be colour/color or some such example. Foetus proved it. The Aths saw it was spelling, but not why, and so there was a bonus for the Trips. The score after round two was 6 – 4 to the Aths.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

Dolls and Ron Howard movies sprang out at the Aths from the start of their wall. After having several goes at the films they took out the dolls – Cabbage Patch – Dutch – Voodoo – Matryoshka. Then they switched to Aussie clang words – pash – Barbie – drongo and shonky. In one go they separated the last two lines – hi-hat, crash, splash and sizzle, all types of cymbals, and then this left the films – Coccoon, Backdraft, Apollo 13 and Rush. 10 points.

The Trips went for cakes from the start, then suddenly stopped and took out a set of Oceans’ films actors – Pitt – Clooney – Mac and Cheadle. Back to the cakes – no dice, and so they took out Royal Parks – Bushy – Regent’s – Green and Richmond. Sudddenly they realized there were areas of Greater Manchester – and took out Sale – Hyde – Eccles and Salford. This left the cakes which turned out to be Marble – Dundee – Madeira and Angel. Again – 10/10. 16 played 14 and it was anybody’s game.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

We began with phrases said by Del Boy. 2 apiece – which helped the Aths more than it helped the Trips. I enjoyed Book titles with the colour changed. The Aths took a very tricky full house, and that for me was the game over. Fictional TV chat show hosts was always going to have Mrs. Merton, Alan Partridge, Ali G, and the Kumars – well, I couldn’t think of any others – maybe Larry Sanders – was he a chat show host? 2 each. Onto British wrestlers but we only had time for the Aths to pick up Giant Haystacks. At the end the Aths won by 25 – 18. Good show. 

Only Connect: Series Eleven: Match 5

Wayfarers v. Bookworms

The Wayfarers, the first team to be introduced in this show, certainly had some names to conjure with. Collectively they own a Brain of Britain title, and two Fifteen to One titles, and that’s just off the top of my head. First up we had Barbara Thompson – Brain of Britain Champion , Fifteen to One Champion – Mastermind grand finalist – do you need me to go on? Matt Beatson does, I believe, have quite a bit of experience on the Grand Prix circuit, and their captain, Gerard Mackay won the second series of the revived Fifteen to One. They must rank among the series favourites. Their opposition, the Bookworms, were Katy Bateman, Tristram Cole and Dave Knapp. Katy is a Masterminder who took the blessed subject of Doctor Who in the first round of the last series. Tristram is a LAM reader who was part of a very good Sheffield University team in University Challenge 5 years ago. Dave Knapp played in the next series as one quarter of a very useful team from Worcester , Oxford. So no shortage of experience in the Bookworms either.

Round One – What’s the Connection?

Two Reeds gave the Worms a music set. Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite and Crocodile Shoes gave us reptiles – the Worms took Karma Chameleon to be certain. Well, discretion is the better part of valour, but you felt they were going to need to be a little more headstrong to beat the Ways. They opted for Twisted Flax, and kicked off with Ring of Integers, which I’m afraid enlightened me not at all. Gerard seemed to be onto it with the second – Oskar Kokoschka’s later paintings – suggesting they could all be linked with OK. I didn’t know this, but change-accept button for the third clue made it look right on the money, which indeed it was. Dave of the Worms opted for the nonchalant Lion, and this kicked us off with Gluteus Maximus. Now, I honestly wouldn’t have gambled in the studio – but look, it’s never going to be a set of muscles or body parts is it? So I went for characters’ names from Asterix the Gaul. Personally I think that the translators of Asterix deserved a medal. I’ve read some of them in both French and English, and the way they have kept the word play true to the humour of the French originals is wonderful. Superfluous, the second didn’t prove anything, but the Worms were on to it at this point. Once again discretion won, and they took the third clue. Marcus Ginantonicus proved it. Victoria reminisced how brother Giles took Asterix as his SS in sleb Mastermind. What she didn’t say was that he had a stupendous round of 18, and won the show with 30 points overall. Captain Gerard of the Ways asked for Hornèd Viper – well, he’s a class act and I wouldn’t expect anything less. We started with ‘Song from ‘High Society’’ True Love? Well, did you ever? Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Next clue. Whiskas slogan – well, as we know that’s 8 out of 10 owners said their cats preferred it. TV shows/ panel shows/ quizzes shared their names. The Ways needed Kenneth Wolstonholme Commentary to get it – ah, what a terrific show ‘Some People are on the pitch’ was. The Worms chose3 Water over the seductive charms of the eye, and were given a Snowflake. Hmm – things with 12 sides? Unlikely, and a windsock made it look even unlikelier. Road hazard signs seemed pretty good though. Dave had it, Tristram backed him, and they gambled successfully off two. Good play. This left Eye of Horus for the Ways, and they started with 1877 Arthur Sullivan song. Now, specifically it said Sullivan and not Gilbert, so I discounted any of their collaborations. I came up with the Lost Chord about the same time as Barbara. Man Booker Prize for 1970 Novels confirmed that Lost things was the link, since this was the so-called Lost Booker. So they too came in off 2. This had been a high quality first round, and the Ways led by 7 – 6.

Round Two – What Comes Fourth?

Dave showed scant respect for tradition by asking for Horned rather than Hornèd Viper, and received a clock with question marks instead of numbers with the famous 10 to 2 ‘smiley face’ on it. Yes, I love Dave Gorman myself. Next was a photograph of Harry Houdini. I’ll be honest, I didn’t see it until the last picture of the rotating sign outside New Scotland Yard. By a circuitous process I got Metropolitan Police – colloquially the Met. The clock was the When – the Houdini was Harry – so the last would be a Sally of some description. Groan inducingly wonderful, although neither team had it. Lion gave the Ways T:Tunis. Having nothing to lose I gambled for a five pointer with Z: Harare – Z being Zimbabwe – the last African country alphabetically, and Harare being its capital. Having plenty to lose the Ways took U:Uganda – which brought me a sigh of relief if truth be told – then Z: Lusaka. I have to be honest, I felt they missed out on points they might have had when the time ran out. The Worms just didn’t get it either, and a chance to close the gap went begging. For their own next set they kicked off with the word green in green letters. Then we had the word Blue in Yellow letters. I didn’t see it at this point but Indigo in orange was the clincher. This was colours of the ranbow working outwards from the centre. And the two colours at either end are red and violet, so the word violet in red I went for. It looked like Tristram who had, although Dave was onto it as well. Two Reeds gave the Ways 4^th: Lucky. No, not a Scooby. 3^rd: Pozzo was one which gave you the sequence – characters in Waiting for Godot – but would the last be Vladimir or Estragon? I had to wait for the third clue which made it clear that the answer was 1^st: Estragon. Barbara had it, and we moved to the last picks of the round. Water gave the Worms the cryptic T.! T.! b.b. Now funnily enough I had an inkling about this. This was William Blake’s Tyger Tyger etc. But what would the abbreviation be for the end of it Could Frame thy Fearful Symmetry is the last line of that set- so CF thy FS? -. Katy had the right idea before the second clue was revealed, but rather than gamble they went for the second clue – In the f. of the n. Now, games can be won and lost on small margins. The Worms had done all of the hard work, but were foiled by one word. Could. They went for a version of just Frame thy Fearful Symmetry. The Ways were not going to make any mistake, and punished the Worms by taking the bonus. For their own last set they could and possibly should have compounded it. They started with General Post Office. I wouldn’t have gambled at this point, but did wonder if this was changing names, in which case Royal Mail was where we were heading. The Post Office which came second seemed to confirm this, and yes, the Ways had the right idea, but opted for it going back to the Post Office. Given Consignia third they had a gilt edged chance to take back that bonus they had just conceded, but they were barking up the Post Office tree as well. Which meant that going into the third round the Ways had eked out another point’s lead, with the scores at 10 – 8.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

With their very first shot at the board the Ways hit bullseye with Mort – Wyrd Sisters – Going Postal and Soul Music – all Terry Pratchett Discworld novels. Lifestyle/ Home stores fell in one go as well – Harveys – DFS – Magnet and Habitat. I could see posh restaurants, and song titles where the word ‘sweet’ had been missed out. So could the Ways. In just three visits to the board they isolated four lines. Perfect performance. The songs were – Dreams – Georgia Brown – Talking Woman – Little Sixteen – which left restaurants Sketch – The Fat Duck – Hibiscus – Le Gavroche. 10 from 10.

The Worms saw quickly that they had song titles missing Mr -. One go, then they left them to try coffee types. Back to the missing Mr and Bojangles – Vain – Sandman and Brightside fell. Types of thinking – Blue Sky – Wishful – Negative and Lateral fell in short order. They knew there were coffees and terms in photography left, and they did it first time. The coffees were espresso – Flat White – Lungo and Irish – leaving Filter – DSLR – Focus and Exposure. Again, 10 out of 10. This meant that the score was 22 – 20 going into the vowels.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

On Italian cheeses the Worms went for the first one and dropped a point with a wrong answer. The Ways took the next two, but a mispronunciation of Dolcelatte by Gerard earned him a lost point, and a hit on the arm from Barbara. American words and their British equivalents fell 2 apiece, and this kept the gap at 3. A score of 2 – 1 on one of my favourite things – bridges – to the Worms meant that the gap at the end was the same as it had been at the start of the round, and the Ways won by 24 – 22. 

Well played Ways, but well played Bookworms as well – I have a feeling that both of these teams are going to do some damage in this competition before all of the dust is settled.  

Only Connect Season 11 - Match 4

Collectors v. Railwaymen

The collectors were, collectively, Daniel Nazarian, Anna Kirby-Hall, and captain Elliot Costi. Their opponents, the Railwaymen, were Sree Kanthamneni and captain Bob Thompson. Not knowing who to root for I settled on the Rails, since I was quite partial to railways in my younger days.

Round One – What’s the Connection?

Two reeds gave the Rails a picture set to start. We saw Elvis Presley – too many possibilities – then Chaser Paul Sinha. Hmm – Paul is the Sinner Man on the Chase – could it be that? No, the Rails had it with White Suit. Elvis wore a spangly one in his Las Vegas period. Very good shout that. The Colls began with com – internet domains being an obvious possibility. However I’d think that com would come last for that set, being the most obvious. Next was gem which seemed to blow that hypothesis out of the water. I needed the next – qual, to give me Of – regulators. The Colls also took sted. Fair set, but not easy. The Rails took water, and began with – pointing at your eye. Hmm – would I have taken a flyer on charades in the studio? The Rails knew it but went for the second clue – unfolding your palms to be sure. Now, when given the music set, as the second and third clues the Colls recognized both The Reynolds Girls and Tina Turner. Having done the hard part, they couldn’t put Reynolds and Turner together for painters.  Almost predictably the Rails were given a blast of The Rembrandts for the last one – and they didn’t get it, which was a little surprising. For their own last set they kicked off with Llanelli RFC. The first thing to occur to me was Scarlets. Which would have been the right answer since A for Adultery, the second, is The Scarlet Letter. The Rails had it with Sir Percy Blakeney, the Scarlet Pimpernel. What a lovely set the last was. We began with Obama (1965) and then Washington My Dear (1968) Well, George Washington’s first lady was Martha , and Martha My Dear was a song on the White AlbumMicehelle Obama gives you Michelle – so first ladies names making up Beatles songs. Kudos to the setter for that. Roosevelt Rigby (1966) didn’t help the Colls, and so Hayes in the Sky with Diamonds (1967) gave them a point in the end. Which took the score to 8 -2 to the Rails.

Round Two – What comes Fourth?

The Rails were fortunate to opt for Two Reeds, since the first clue gave them a real chance of a 5 pointer – 31,102 verses begged for the answer – 2 testaments, being divisions of the Bible in increasing order. They needed 1,189 chapters and 66 books before they got it. Twisted Flax gave the Colls Garth Morrison – nope – George Purdy – nope . Anna clutched at the gun straw, and fatally went for a guess which was wrong. Given Peter Duncan the whole set became very clear, and the Rails – well, I’m afraid that they didn’t know that Peter Duncan was the last but one chief scout, and that Bear Grylls is the current incumbent. Eye of Horus gave the Rails ANOTHER five pointer chance! We saw an African lady in traditional costume, and I guessed it was Zulu, - phonetic alphabet – and working backwards we’d see a bottle of whisky. Next was a player for the New York Yankees, so I was right. They didn’t see it, nor did they see it when an X ray came up for the third picture. The Colls had a bonus on this one, and slightly narrowed the gap. With a rush of blood to the head, captain Elliot chose to use our unfavoured pronunciation of horned viper, and received AZ Alkmaar – hmm, Dutch football team – Bayern Munich – hmm, German football team – and chastened by their experience on the previous set had the sense to take the third clue – Netherlands. Something clicked, as these were the last 3 teams managed by Louis Van Gaal – so Man Utd would be the answer. Daniel had it. The Rails took Lion, and for the first time this round I would say that there was little chance of a 5 pointer, as they kicked off with riots. Next was Death of Lady Thatcher, and to be fair to them they had the connection at this point with Parliament being recalled. They took the last clue – Chemical weapons in Syria but neither team knew that the last one was Iraq air strikes. The Colls were left with water and Ditto – Rhenium. Now, I knew that Ditto can be abbreviated to Do -  Rhenium is Re, so my guess was that the last would be Fa, so being a polite sort I went for Football Association. The Colls had not a clue, while the Rails got it. That meant that they led by 11- 5.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

The Colls desperately needed a good performance on the water wall. They could see there was a set of words connected with the outset or beginning of things, but couldn’t isolate them at first. Daniel got them working methodically and they resolved Genesis – Seed – Dawn – Fount. They labored for a while under the misapprehension that a set of words all preceded – er – or – or. I could see a set of words for areas of land, but they lighted upon a set of marks. Again they sniffed up a blind alley with tract, and eventually time ran out with just one line resolved. When resolved they could see that Question – Birth – Trade and Water were the marks – Stretch – Plot – Parcel and Belt were the areas of land. This left Barb – Fruit – Sect – Tract – and I’ll admit that I didn’t see that they can all be –arians. Very tough one that in my opinion. 4 points wasn’t great, and left them in danger of being well out of it before we even got to round 4.

The Rails began with a set of lawmakers – eventually leaving them to go for a set of comedians, then coming back, then leaving them, then coming back, then leaving them and finally untangling the set of stand up comedians – Whitehall – O’Briain – Solon and Djalili – which made it easier to get the lawmakers – Justinian – Hammurabi – Draco – Moses - . I could see mulled alcoholic drinks, and mild curses, but the Rails ran out of time. The mulled drinks were Glogg – Gluhwein – Bishop and Negus, leaving Rats – Brother – Bother and Damn as the curses. 6 points meant that they had a commanding lead of 17 – 9.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

The first set – ways to descend a mountain – fell 3 – 0 to the Rails, extinguishing any slight hopes that the Colls might have held. Famous people who lived together saw me beat both teams to get Michael Caine and Terence Stamp. Tommy Lee Jones and Al Gore went begging, and the others fell one apiece. We had time for two of They might contain insects, which both fell to the Rails. In the end the score was a crushing 23 – 10.

Being harsh, both teams missed a fair bit of gettable stuff, but the Rails were clearly the better team and deserved to win comfortably. As for the Colls, well, it looked like one of those nights, but they will have to play much better to win their next match and stay in the competition. 

Only Connect - Series 11 - Match 3

Spaghetti Westerners v. Mixologists

How delighted was I to see Andrew Fraser, as skipper, and Paul ‘Just Quiz’ Philpot, making up the Spaghetti Westerners, together with Neil Macaskill. “These boys’ll be good.” I told Mary. I said the same, mind you, when I saw the Mixologists. Chris Beer and Ewan MacAulay both proved themselves to be good quizzers in the 2014 series of UC. Sam Swift I didn’t recognize, but that means absolutely nothing. My reading of it, prior to the match, was that the Spags might well have an advantage on rounds one and two, but they claimed not to look forward to the vowels, and so if the Gists were still in contention by this stage, then look out.

Round One – What’s The Connection?

Eye of Horus kicked off the Spags’ bid for the win. Coca-cola 2009 didn’t suggest a lot to me. The Spags were looking down the sponsorship route. St. James’ Park 2012 saw them barking in the right street, with the fact that they were all renamed, but when Victoria asked them which particular tree they barked up the wrong one with sponsorship. The Gists happily took the bonus, with the fact that they were all renamed, but then in those years they reverted to the original name. Harsh luck for the boys, but a correct adjudication, I think. Sam compounded his team’s excellent start by opting for Hornèd Viper. They received High- to start – which offered, to my mind, no chance whatsoever of a five pointer. Predictably this was followed by Low-. Science – saw me throw the possibility of the word Fi following each when shortened, and the last clue – Wireless- seemed to confirm it. The Gists just didn’t see it, and the Spags tried Tech – but no cigar. For their own next clue they took Twisted Flax. This showed us first and foremost a self portait of JMW Turner. Artists’ self portraits? I mused. Next we saw a portrait of Samuel Johnson. Prizes in the world of the Arts, I exclaimed. An orange confirmed it. The Spags misidentified Turner, which meant they also needed Hg – the symbol for Mercury. It looked like Paul who had it then. We moved back to the Gists for Two Reeds. This was the Music set – and I didn’t know the first. The Second was the Maple Leaf Rag, didn’t know the third, and the last was Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree. So trees then. That’s what the Gists went for. For their last set the Spags plumped for Water. This was a lovely set which began with Jennifer Green. I didn’t quite have it until we also got David Geller. To be fair to the Spags they had worked this one out on the first, but understandably took the second to be certain. What you had was the actor’s christian name and the character’s surname from the principals in Friends. Lion gave the Gists Daddy Warbucks – obviously from Little Orphan Annie. Famous fictional bald characters? Could be anything. Ellen Ripley was the Sigourney Weaver character from Alien. Wasn’t she shaved bald in one of the films? Not sure. Sherlock Holmes gave it to me. In a way, both he and Ripley were killed off, then brought back in sequels – alright, it was a cloned Ripley, but the principle held true. Bobby Ewing confirmed it, and the Gists were right not to guess early, and take all 4 clues. This meant that at the end of the round the Spags had carved out a 4 – 3 lead.

Round Two – What Comes Fourth?

Eye of Horus began with Extra – then Roadchef. The connection looked like groups with most motorway service stations, so I guessed Welcome Break at this point. They were the next answer. Given this the Spags correctly identified Moto. The Gists took Twisted Flax. This gave me one of those ‘at home, but never in the studio five pointers’. Commune, as part of a sequence suggested French regional divisions, and I went for Département. The Gists had the connection, but not the end of the sequence at first, so took Canton, then Arrondissement before giving the right answer. Two Reeds gave a funny little set, with King George VI and Prince George of Cambridge. Great great grandson and great great grandfather. So really the question was were we going up or down. Down probably, which was confirmed by Lord Randolph Churchill and Nicholas Soames – great grandfather and grandfather. So the last would be any prominent father and son. This was the point that the Spags also offered Princes Philip and Charles. Lion gave the Gists 4: Free for All. Nope. 3. A,B & C didn’t help however The Chimes of Big Ben very much did. That’s the second episode of The Prisoner – the first is Arrival. The Gists just didn’t know the connection while the Spags did, but not the title of the first episode. Andrew proved himself the equal of Sam by also asking for Hornèd Viper – nice one. Kentish Resort could have been anything. Heraldic gold, though is Or. Now, my answer of the night was to immediately spot that we had Deal – Or – so that the last one would be Kentish resort again. What a set! Magnificent. The Spags needed Japanese theatre  but they just didn’t see it. This provided a timely bonus for the Gists. For their own last set they had  pictures. Freida Pinto kicked us off. Next was a pint. So at this point I could see that Pi would be the answer. A pin came next, but the Gists were struggling, not knowing Ms Pinto. Right at the death Ewan had it. Good round, and the Gists led 9 – 8.

Round Three – The Connecting Walls

The Gists kicked off with the Water wall.They saw pork products, but didn’t resolve them at first. Then words for a small amount of, but again these were unresolved. Words with silent endings – Crumb – Autumn – Debris and Coup fell first. Lechon – Prosciutto – Bacon and Speck were the pork products. They could see the small amounts – Smidgen – Trace – Iota – Morsel – which left Anchor – bear off – pip and Gammon, and these they didn’t know as terms from backgammon. Me neither. 7 points.

With Lion, the Spags had a good old look at it before they began having a go – which is a valid tactic. When they started they got the first set in one go – Liverpool – Lime – Cannon and Queen are all stations with the word Street in their names. Next they separated Pear – Kumquat – Tomato and Greengage – all fruits. Neil could see we had numbers in another language – Spanish in this case. The last set were all words following blind – spot – alley –faith – date. Quince – Dos – Once and Mil are all Spanish – 5 – 2 – 11 – 1000. 10 points. All of which meant that they led 19 – 15 going into the vowels. Could be enough to see them home, I thought.

Round Four – Missing Vowels

The first set – movies with Blue in the title went 3 – 1 to the Gists. Lead cut to two. Famous Belgians fell 2 apiece. Things that make you sleepy – also 2 apiece. Time was running out as we went to brass instruments. Sam took the first two and it was all square. Then Neil nipped in with the next, just before the end of the round. The Gists finished with 24, and the Spags with 25.

Great game gents – looking forwards to your next appearances.