Only Connect Series 12: The Story So Far

This year, two much loved and respected long running contests have introduced a risky new change in their rules to see if they work.

One is the EFL Trophy, formerly known as the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, a cup competition ostensibly to give teams from the third and fourth tiers of the Football League a realistic chance at a trip to Wembley (for the final). This year, TPTB have allowed sixteen Premier League/Championship under-23 teams to enter as well, ostensibly to give them more experience. But fans of third/fourth tier teams are not impressed that these youth teams have hijacked their tournament and have been boycotting matches.

The other is Only Connect. It's been a great series so far, with some great performances all round in the sixteen weeks so far. It's format: two groups of twelve teams, with the six winners progressing, while the four highest scoring runners-up enter a play-off round, with the winners going through as well.

Blog reader Tom Cappleman of the Verbivores, one of the runners-up to survive via the play-offs, described the format back in July as 'a slightly more generous variant of UC's format'. And that I agree with, as it means only four teams only get one outing, which sounds fair enough. Until you consider that the first round draw has been split in two to accommodate filming blocks.

Now, here are the losing scores from the top half of the draw, with the surviving teams in bold and those that won through to the second round in italics:
Verbivores (22)
Taverners (18)
Channel Islanders (13) (8)
Bardophiles (13) (6)
Cousins (13) (4)
Highgates (11)

And the bottom half, likewise:
Genealogists (22)
Maltsters (21)
Oscar Men (20)
Wrestlers (15)
Scunthorpe Scholars (14) (7)
Eurovisionaries (14) (6)

So, you see, both out-missers from the bottom half of the draw would've survived for another go had they been in the top half of the draw, or if the first round hadn't been split in two and the top eight had just survived. As I've already said, this seems to suggest that the format, while certainly not a bad format at all, isn't quite there in terms of overall fairness.

I could go on a rant here about how TPTB are putting their own convenience over fairness by splitting the draw up, and draw parallels with UC, which films at least two second round matches straight after the two teams' first matches, thus resulting in two very good teams meeting too early, but I won't, as, to be honest, it is but a minor quibble.

Also, I originally speculated that the format could easily have been the same as UC's old format, ie, twelve matches, with the twelve winners and the four highest scoring losers all going straight to Round 2. Had this been in place here instead of play-offs, all but one of the four runners-up would've been the same, so I'm not going to complain about that either. I'll just say: it's a perfectly reasonable format, but the way it's enforced needs to be tweaked slightly if they're to re-use it next year.

And it's certainly nothing compared to the unfairness that has arisen from PL youth teams hijacking the EFL Trophy.

As for the twelve winning teams in the second round draw, they are, in order of score and victory margin, with the top-halfers in plain and the bottom halfers in bold for reasons that will become clear later on:
Tubers (29, 16)
Fire-Eaters (26, 12)
Surrealists (26, 4)
Korfballers (25, 12)
Beekeepers (24, 10)
Clareites (24, 9)
Psmiths (24, 2)
Cosmopolitans (23, 5)
Policy Wonks (23, 2)
Part-Time Poets (21, 1)
Networkers (18, 5)
Shutterbugs (15, 4)

Them plus the four teams listed in italics above make up the second round. It's going to be very interesting. As you can see, some very close scores in amongst that lot. But to be honest, I don't think we can try to forecast OC in the same way we can UC, as OC scores are more based on getting questions/bonuses that you know and can get, rather than outplaying your opponents, although that is, of course, important as well.

Also, given that the first second round match next week is the Cosmopolitans vs the Tubers, and the week after the Networkers vs the Psmiths, I wonder if the first round split is still in force, and that the teams will be playing in amongst their first round groups. We'll have to wait and see, I suppose.

Whatever the case, I look forward to the rest of the series. Given that there doesn't seem to be the usual Children in Need celeb special in two weeks' time, unless its the week after instead, the show will probably finish up around the same time as UC, maybe a bit earlier provided, like last year, it doesn't break for Christmas while UC does.

Back next week with my usual UC write-up; see yous then.