So, the second round of Only Connect. Thanks to Tom Cappleman for confirming our suspicions that the second round is following the first round groups, and also confirming that play-off survivors will play each other as well; this means, unless they mix things up later on, it's quite easy to foresee who's playing who.
Playing each other last night were the Cosmopolitans, Annette Fenner, Emily Watnick and captain Amy Godel, who defeated the Taverners (who survived to the play-offs and are through to the second round as well), and the Tubers, David Prevezer, Hugh Brady and captain Jack Welsby, who won out over the Bardophiles (who the Taverners defeated in their play-off). So, who would triumph in the battle of the Fifteen-to-One legend captains?
Round 1. The Cosmopolitans began the match with Twisted Flax, and the picture set: we saw a young Frank Sinatra, then a young Jane Fonda, then Justin Bieber; they spotted that all the photos were mug shots of the celebs in question, and duly collected two points for it. The Tubers opened their account with Lion: 'Malabo', then 'Conakry'; they identified them as the capitals of Equatorial Guinea and Guinea respectively, and offered 'capitals of 'Guinea' countries'. Correct, for three points. The Cosmopolitans chose 'Horn-ed' Viper next: 'Con: +0. -0 = 1', then 'Lab: +0. -40 = 1', then 'Lib Dem: +0. -40 = 1'; they knew it had something to do with election swings, but couldn't boil it down precisely. Their opponents saw the final clue of 'SNP: +50. -0 = 56', and offered the election results in Scotland for a bonus. (Coincidence that this question came the same week as that question about Mhairi Black on UC last night) For their own question, the Tubers chose Two Reeds, and got the music question: we heard 'Anarchy in the UK', then 'Word Up!' by Cameo, then 'It's Raining Men', and finally 'What I Am' by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians. They didn't get it, their opponents did: they are songs that have been covered by ex Spice Girls as soloists. (I shudder to think!) For their own question, the Cosmopolitans chose Water: 'Nguyen That Thanh', then 'Tafari Makonnen', then 'Shimon Persky'; at this point, they offered 'original names of heads of state'. Correct, for two points. (The missing clue was the nicely topical 'William Jefferson Blythe III', aka Mr Hilary Clinton) Left with Eye of Horus, the Tubers saw two clues in foreign alphabets that I can't reprint here, then the third clue of 'Alles ist moglich: Die 10-Millionen Show', and finally 'Quien quiere ser millionario?'. That gave it to them: they are the titles of foreign versions of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. (Reminds me of the foreign version, I can't remember which, where the host prolonged tension after a final answer with a DIY ad break!) At the end of the first round, the teams were tied at 5-each.
Round 2, What Comes Fourth? The Cosmopolitans kicked the round off with 'Horn-ed' Viper: 'G C C E' (in a column', then 'D G G A' (ditto), and then 'A D D D' (likewise). They didn't get it, nor did their opponents; they are tunings of instruments in the violin family, so a columned 'E A A G', would be fourth. The Tubers chose Two Reeds: 'Higher managerial, administrative & professional', then 'Intermediate, managerial, admin've & professional'; they spotted the sequence to be NRS demographic categories, but their offer of 'Semi-skilled manual' wasn't acceptable enough. Their opponents saw the third clue of 'Supervisor / clerical / junior management, admin've & professional', and offered 'Skilled manual', which was right for a bonus. For their own question, the Cosmopolitans chose Twisted Flax: 'Meankieli', then 'Voro', and then 'Estonian'; they thought it might be languages going up the Baltic, and offered 'Finnish'. Right answer, wrong reason: they are Finnic languages by number of speakers. Still get the two points though. The Tubers chose Lion next, and got the picture set: we saw broadcaster James Burke, then the Fibonacci sequence accompanied by some traffic lights, and then the Great Wall of China and another wall. This was great: they are visual depictions of the four rounds of Only Connect (Connections, sequences and walls), so something representing Missing Vowels would be fourth! Excellent stuff, and they had it for two points. For their final question, the Cosmopolitans chose Water: '4: qwerty', then '3: 123456789', and then '2: password'. Both teams saw it to be the most commonly used passwords, but neither could complete the sequence. '1: 123456' would be fourth. Left with Eye of Horus again, the Tubers saw 'China - Indonesia', then 'United States - United States', and then 'Canada - India'. They offered 'Russia - China' which would be right. It is the largest countries in terms of land area and population increasing. At the end of the second round, the Tubers led 9-8.
On to the Walls. The Tubers went first, and chose the Lion wall to solve. This was a tough wall; they spotted some links, but couldn't isolate anything. Eventually, they locked in 'Saint-Lazare', 'l'Est', 'Bercy' and 'Austerlitz', which are Paris railway stations. Running out of time, they eventually worked out a second group, 'Eylau', 'Copenhagen', 'Jena' and 'Marengo', which are Napoleonic battles. (Why am I somehow reminded of 'Chicken Austerlitz' from last year's UC?) With little time left, they quickly tried to solve the final groups, but ran out of time. They still could collect bonuses though: 'the Lateran', 'Lyon', 'Trent' and 'Constance' are Catholic councils, while 'Rome', 'Edinburgh', 'Sheffield' and 'Istanbul' are all said to be built of 'seven hills'. Six points for that.
The Cosmopolitans thus had a chance to pull away if they could clean sweep the Water wall. They quickly spotted two links, and eventually worked out their first group: 'Sebastian', 'Prince Eric', 'Flounder' and 'Scuttle' are characters in Disney's Little Mermaid. A second group came fairly quickly: 'Lady Lazerus', 'Daddy', 'Ariel' and 'Tulips' are works by Sylvia Plath. They tried to work out the remaining groups, and soon had them isolated: 'Calibri', 'Tahoma', 'Impact' and 'Cambria' are fonts, which they got, while 'Titania', 'Umbriel', 'Oberon' and 'Miranda' are moons of Uranus; alas, they offered 'Saturn' instead, and thus dropped the set point. Seven points there, which left the scores at 15-each going into the final round.
So, Missing Vowels would decide who went through to the group phase, and who joined Open in the 'unluckily eliminated early' club. 'Things that cause pain to runners', such as 'SPRAINED ANKLE', went to the Cosmopolitans 3-1. 'Cubes', such as 'STOCK CUBE' and 'SEVEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE', was a 2-each split. 'People you might give a tip to' went to the Tubers 3-1. 'Films about assassinations' only managed one clue, which the Cosmopolitans gave just in time. At the end of the show, the Cosmopolitans won 22-21!
An excellent close match between two fine teams that nicely complimented last night's epic UC! Unlucky Tubers, who just missed out at the post, but a very creditable effort, so thanks very much for playing. Well done Cosmopolitans though, and best of luck in the group stage!
Next week's match: the Networkers vs the Psmiths
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