Right, Only Connect. I'll be honest, I don't think the show works in a format this long; I prefer it in shorter series. As opposed to UC, which, despite dragging out somewhat in the later stages, still seems to run fairly smoothly throughout, Only Connect just doesn't seem the right sort of show to run this long. But that's another matter, and possibly another article.
Anyway, playing last Friday night were the Psmiths, Mark Smith, Nick Holland and captain Nick Reed, and the Verbivores, Phyl Styles, blog reader Tom Cappleman and captain Graeme Cole. Now you may recall these two met in the first round, with the Psmiths narrowly winning. Since then, the Psmiths have beaten the Networkers and the Oscar Men, but lost to the Cosmopolitans, while the Verbivores recovered by beating the Channel Islanders, the Taverners and most recently the Fire-Eaters, but have also lost to the Surrealists.
Round 1. The Psmiths went first, and kicked off the match with Two Reeds, and the pictures: we saw a beige looking colour, then pop singer Sage the Gemini, then the Sage Gateshead, and finally some actual sage. They didn't see it, their opponents did for a bonus. For their own first question, the Verbivores chose Eye of Horus: 'In Greek: act as a question mark', then 'According to Vonnegut: 'show you've been to college''; this was enough for them to offer 'semi-colons', which was correct for three points. The Psmiths chose Water next: 'or, Virtue Rewarded', then ''Top Gear' theme tune', then 'Former capital, Duchy of Lorraine'; they tried 'womens names ending in A', not correct. Their opponents saw 'Roman hunting goddess', but their answer of 'womens names mentioned in Mambo No 5' was also wrong! They are the first names of the Mitford sisters, which both teams realised once pointed out. The Verbivores chose Lion next, and got the music set: we heard Bruce Springsteen singing 'State Trooper', then 'Ghetto Bird' by Ice-Cube, then 'Police Officer' by Smiley Culture, and finally 'Gee, Officer Krupke' from West Side Story. They didn't get it, their opponents did, offering 'the Police', which was close enough for a bonus. For their own question, the Psmiths chose Twisted Flax: 'Think Tools', then 'theGlobe.com', then 'Pets.com', and finally 'Boo.com'. They offered 'much hyped Internet companies that failed'; correct for a point. Left with Horned Viper, the Verbivores saw 'Flying Balloon Girl: West Bank', and this was enough for Mr Cappleman to spot, and them to offer, 'Banksy artworks' for FIVE POINTS! Well spotted sir! At the end of the first round, the Verbivores led 9-2.
Round 2, What Comes Fourth? The Psmiths went first, and chose Two Reeds to start with: 'Potomac: 1', then 'Congo: 2', and then 'Nile: 3'. They didn't get it, their opponents did, offering 'Danube: 4' for a bonus, the sequence being how many capital cities lie on those rivers. For their own question, the Verbivores chose Twisted Flax: 'Osborne (2005-2010)', then 'Darling (2010-2010)'; they saw it to be Shadow Chancellors, but their offer of 'McDonnell (2015-present)' was surprisingly not right. Their opponents saw 'Johnson (2010-2011)', but couldn't identify the fourth. 'Balls (2011-2015)' completes the set. The Psmiths chose Water next, and got the picture set: we saw a hieroglyphic ox, then an aleph; they saw it to be symbols developing into an 'A', so offered that, for three points. The Verbivores chose Horned Viper next: we saw the British flag and the German flag with an A each, then the same two flags with a B flat next to the British and just a B next to the German; they saw it to be the musical scales in these countries, and offered the two flags both with a C for three points. For their final choice, the Psmiths chose Eye of Horus: 'Content', then 'Padding', and then 'Border'; they didn't get it, their opponents did, offering 'Margin' for a bonus, the sequence being HTML elements on web pages. Left with Lion for their own final question, the Verbivores saw '1 (2)', then '2 (3, 5)', and then '3 (7, 11, 13)'. They spotted the sequence to be prime numbers, and thus offered '4 (17, 19, 23, 29)' for the points. (Victoria jokingly tried to deny them the points for not including the brackets!) At the end of the second round, the Verbivores led 16-5.
On to the Walls. The Verbivores went first, and chose to tackle the Water wall. They spotted a couple of sets, and isolated their first set of 'Cherry', 'Plum', 'Beefsteak' and 'Grape', which are types of tomato. After spending quite a bit of time trying, they spotted a set of words that can precede 'tower', and eventually isolated 'Cooling', 'Bell', 'Clock' and 'Shot'. They tried to resolve the wall, but ran out of tries, and thus had to settle for bonus points: 'Late', 'Tope', 'Bar' and 'Tonic' all form other words when 'Iso' is added in front, which they didn't see, while '7', 'Cream', 'Kiss' and 'Sexy MF' are songs by Prince, which they also didn't see. Four points there.
The Psmiths thus could make up much lost ground if they could clean sweep the Lion wall. They got a bit stuck trying to work out sets, and it was well into the time when they eventually worked out a first set: 'Zebra', 'Pegasus', 'Puffin' and 'Toucan' are types of road crossing. A second set followed, 'Ladybird', 'Bloomsbury', 'Penguin' and 'Doubleday' are publishers, and they then proceeded to solve the wall with barely any time left! 'Eagle', 'Orion', 'Aquarius' and 'Snoopy' are lunar landing craft, which they didn't see, while 'Sparrow', 'Swann', 'Turner' and 'Barbossa' are characters in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, which they didn't get close enough to. Six points there, which left them trailing 20-11 going into the final round.
So, Missing Vowels to finish off as usual. 'Shakespearean characters and their killer' went to the Verbivores 3-1. 'Geographic features of Australia' saw the Psmiths unluckily lose a point for a rogue 'THE', but still take the set 2-1. 'Sources trusted on 'Only Connect'' was split 1-each, with neither side working out the very tricky third clue and getting timed out! At the end of the show, the Verbivores 25-15.
Another good half hour of quizzing all round. Unlucky Psmiths, but nothing to be ashamed of in your series of performances, so thanks very much indeed for playing. Well done Verbivores though, and very best of luck in the semi-finals!
Tomorrow night's match: the first semi-final! Between (checks Radio Times), ah, a Surrealists vs Verbivores rematch, followed by the Cosmopolitans vs the Korfballers the week after. Should be good matches both of them; best of (retrospective) luck all four teams!
Thanks to Jack for his faithfully executed blog, much enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteI expect he will expand on why he feels that OC sustains a long series less well than UC, but I am not convinced by the 'wrong kind of snow, I mean show' idea. Someone suggested that OC perhaps takes itself less seriously and that no-one remembers who won the previous series in any case, which is a point in its favour, in my view, and reinforces the idea that the length of the series is irrelevant. If I love a programme, it could be on 10 times a week and I'd be happy! It remains to be seen how long Series 13 will be, or if it will move back to Mondays, but I hope its popularity is maintained, and have every confidence that the question-setters will carry on being extravagant and inventive and testing a broad range of knowledge and skills.