OK people, time for me to continue with my retro-recapping of the first series of Only Connect. First of all, my congratulations to VCM, who gave birth to her and hubby David's first child over the weekend; many congrats to them!
Anyway, on with the show: playing the second ever match were the Crossworders, Mark Grant, David Stainer and Ian Bayley, and the Birkbeck Alumni, Richard Wheatley, Catherine Arbuthnott and the late Ken Brown. The Crossworders need no introduction, except to say that they are all quizzers of high renown; so too the Birkbeck Alumni, all of them having represented the college on University Challenge in the late 90s.
On with the first round. The Alumni went first, picking Alpha, which gave them 'Haiku', then 'Flying Fortress', then 'Chlorine', and at this point Mr Brown spotted the link to be the number 17. Two points for that. The Crossworders chose Zeta for their first ever question, and saw 'Silmarillion' and 'Arabicus Pulp', noticing that these are all original names of bands for three well earned points. Delta gave the Alumni pictures: a 'B' note, a crown coin, the a knot, and finally some beer; they didn't have anything, nor did the Crossworders, not spotting they are all halves (as in a half knot and a half of beer). The Crossworders picked Epsilon next: 'Baltimore & Potomac station' gave them nothing, the 'the Temple of Music', and 'Ford's Theatre' led them to suggest they are all found in Washington DC. When shown the extra clue of 'Dealey Plaza', the alumni spotted that these are all places where US presidents were assassinated. (How ironic that I am watching this the day the infamous 'JR' episode of Pointless was repeated!) The final selection of the round, Gamma for the Alumni, unlocked the music round: after just two tracks, they buzzed in, spotting they were all excerpts from the works of Shakespeare. Well spotted, and three good points. Left with Beta, the Crossworders got 'St Jerome', then 'Erasmus', and they two took three points on Bible translators. Another good call. After a good first round, the scores were 6-all.
Round 2, What Comes Fourth? The Alumni chose Gamma for their first question: 'Fire', 'Phoenix', and they spotted a possible Harry Potter link, then went for 'Half-Blood Prince'. Unlucky. Shown 'Prince' for the third, the Crossworders took the point for 'Hallows', as they're the final word of the final four Potter books. The Crossworders picked Beta, and got 'Toddington', then 'Newport Pagnell', and immediately latched onto a connection with the M1; Northampton was third, and David S. shot in with 'Watford Gap' for two points. The Alumni picked Delta next: '23', '57', '1113', and tried desperately to think of something; they eventually guessed '1', as that is the usual answer to a complicated maths question! The Crossworders didn't know it; they are pairs of prime numbers, so '1719' would be next. Great question! Alpha gave the Crossworders 'Tin', then 'China', and they spotted this to be wedding anniversary decades, and gave 'Ruby' for three points. The Alumni chose Zeta, saw 'Rentenmark', and immediately went for 'Euro', suggesting these to be successive currencies of Germany. Great shout, and five very well earned points. Left with Epsilon and the pictures: they saw Burt Lancaster, Michael York, and spotted these to be successive royal houses; they proposed Jimmy Stuart, which was acceptable enough for three points. After a very good second round, the Crossworders led 15-11.
Round 3, the Connecting Walls. The Crossworders chose the Beta wall, and spent a bit of time searching for connections, apparently struggling. They eventually isolated 'Tonic', 'Heavy', 'Bath' and 'Barley' as types of water and 'Major', 'Clarke', 'Darling' and 'Brown as Chancellors of the Exchequer. After some more studying they got the final two groups: 'Marina', 'Minor', 'Oxford' and 'Isis' are all Morris cards, but the link between 'Computer', 'Constable', '%' and 'Postcard' eluded them; they can all be abbreviated to 'PC'. So, one missed link meant they scored seven points.
The Alumni were thus left with the Alpha wall. They immediately latched on to a few connections, and after some unsuccessful attempts, isolated 'May', 'Gower', 'Lamb' and 'Fry' as England cricket captains, then 'Cork', 'Ash', 'Lime' and 'Willow' as types of tree. They carefully worked out the final two sets: 'Carter', 'Dole', 'Gore' and 'Bush', all unsuccessful US presidential candidates, and 'Galway', 'Mayo', 'Clare' and 'Kerry', which are Irish counties. A full house, ten points, and the Crossworders' lead was down to 22-21.
So, it would all be decided on the Missing Vowels round. Remember, no points were lost for wrong answers here in the first round of Series 1. 'Wading birds' was evenly split 2-all, 'Booker Prize-winning novels' saw only one point given out, to the Crossworders, 'Proverbs about money' went to the Crossworders 3-0 and they took 'Famous Westerns' 2-1. At the end of the match, the Crossworders won 30-24.
Brilliant match, two very fine teams who definitely met each other far too early in the series. Unlucky to the Alumni, who were an excellent team and proved their worth here. A good first outing for the Crossworders, and one of the hardest matches they have faced over the many years. Superb quizzing by all, and this show was probably the first that demonstrated the potential of the show.
I'll hopefully carry on to the third match tomorrow.
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