OK, Only Connect, on time for once. Thanks to Phyl Styles for her comment on last week's review, and I do indeed intend to go further into what I meant when I said OC wasn't the right sort of show for the extended format. Possibly tomorrow night even.
Anyway, on Friday night, we had the first semi-final! And a rematch to boot! Playing were the Surrealists, Jeremy Partington, Chris James and captain Jonathan Carter, who got here by beating the Genealogists, the Part Time Poets, the Korfballers and their opponents tonight, the Verbivores, Ms Styles, fellow blog reader Tom Cappleman and captain Graeme Cole, who have beaten the Channel Islanders, the Taverners, the Fire-Eaters and, last week, the Psmiths, who are the other team they have lost to this series. Hope yous understand all that!
Round 1. The Verbivores went first, and opened the match with Lion: 'Preion', then 'Detive', then 'Inenza'; they spotted it to be words with their shortened versions removed, and claimed an early two points. The Surrealists opened their account with Twisted Flax: 'May Irwin & John Rice (The Widow Jones, 1896)', then 'Jack Powell & David Armstrong (Wings, 1927)', then 'Beth Jordache & Margaret Clemence (Brookside, 1993)'; they identified it as notable first screen kisses, and collected two points of their own. The Verbivores chose Eye of Horus next, and got the picture set: we saw Stewart Grainger and James Stewart, then Michael Keaton and Michael Douglas, then Katy Perry and Kate Hudson, and finally David Bowie and Davy Jones. They only recognised Bowie, so didn't know it; their opponents did though, offering that the first changed their name to avoid confusion with the second. For their own question, the Surrealists chose Horned Viper: 'Vocals: Lawrence Payton', then 'Vocals: Abdul 'Duke' Fakir', then 'Vocals: Renaldo 'Obie' Benson', and finally 'Vocals: Levi Stubbs'; they identified them as the Four Tops, and picked up the point. The Verbivores chose Two Reeds next, and got the music question: we heard Haydn's 'Clock' symphony, then 'The Syncopated Clock' by Leroy Anderson, then 'Clocks' by Coldplay, and finally Bill Haley's classic 'Rock Around the Clock' (one of my least favourite songs of all time). They didn't see it, their opponents did, and collected a bonus. Left with Water for their own question, the Surrealists saw 'proximal stimulus prompting organism to make inferences', then 'buffered data-processing tasks awaiting FIFO operation', then 'bridge between Chiswick and Richmond', and finally 'least common letter in the OED'. They spotted the link at the last, and offered 'Q', or homophones of, for the point. At the end of the first round, the Surrealists led 6-2.
Round 2, What Comes Fourth? The Verbivores kicked off the round with Horned Viper, and the picture set: we saw a dart board with a dart in the four, then one with a dart in the one, and then one with a dart in the 18; Mr Cole saw it and slammed the buzzer through the desk, offering a dart in the 20 for the points, the sequence being spelling out 'DART'. (Remember when UC used to have questions like that?) The Surrealists chose Eye of Horus next: 'Peasant's Revolt', then 'Knighting of Francis Drake', and then 'Battle of Yorktown'. They saw it to be events of years ending 81, and offered 'attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan' for the points. (Slapped wrists for the graphics people who put '1351' instead of '1381' in the answer box!) The Verbivores chose Twisted Flax next: 'Wanderer' (accompanied by a single circle), then 'Horch' (accompanied by two interlocking circles); they offered 'Audi' accompanied by four rings, and were correct for three points, the sequence being the car companies that merged to eventually become Audi. The Surrealists chose Lion next: 'A,... D, E,...', then 'G,... J,... L,...', and then 'M,... Q, R,...'; they randomly guessed 'T,... X,... Z', and were right! The sequence is the letters which are not single word chemical element symbols. For their final choice, the Verbivores chose Water: 'HORN', then 'FARM' (vertically), and then 'PASTE'. They saw it to be the sample game from the official rules of Scrabble, but didn't know what would come fourth. Nor did their opponents. 'MOB' completes the set. Left with Two Reeds, the Surrealists got a music sequence, and heard 'What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?', then 'Greensleeves'; they thought it to be the last night of the Proms, and offered 'Land of Hope and Glory'. Not right. Their opponents heard 'Men of Harlech', but were none the wiser. The sequence is Radio 4's 'UK Theme', so 'Scotland the Brave' would be fourth. (Cue an enforced whistle/hum-along!) At the end of the second round, the Surrealists led 10-7.
On to the Walls. The Surrealists went first, and chose to tackle the Lion wall. Spotting a set of fish quickly, they eventually isolated 'Fugu', 'Dace', 'Hoki' and 'Dab'. They searched for the remaining sets, but couldn't come up with anything else. So, bonuses to be collected: 'Stalk', 'Umbo', 'Cap' and 'Volva' are parts of a mushroom, which they didn't get, 'Oven', 'Courage', 'Auction' and 'Leaf' can all follow 'Dutch', which they did get, while 'Vaux', 'Flowers', 'Bass' and 'Castles' are British breweries. Four points there.
The Verbivores thus had a big chance to catch up if they could get a good result on the Water wall. A first set came to them quickly too: 'Irish moss', 'Wrack', 'Sargasso' and 'Tangle' are types of seaweed. A second set, 'Earl', 'Larry', 'Rodney' and 'Carole', which are forenames of famous people with the surname 'King', followed suite. They looked over what was left, and had the groups on their first try: 'Labrador', 'Irish', 'Wadden' and 'Bothnian' are North Atlantic seas, which they didn't get, while 'Dog', 'Imperial', 'Pink' and 'Stephen' can all precede 'Pound', which they also didn't get. Six points there, which reduced the gap to 14-13 going into the final round.
So, it would all come down to Missing Vowels. 'Cookery books' went to the Surrealists 2-1. 'Films titles merged with US states', such as 'THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARYLAND', went to the Verbivores 2-(-1). 'Types of rock' only managed one clue, which the Verbivores took. At the end of the show, the Verbivores had pipped it, 17-15!
Another fine half hour, closely fought by both teams. Unlucky Surrealists, but nothing to be ashamed of in what you've performed this series, so thanks very much indeed for playing. Very well done Verbivores though, and very very best of luck in the final!
This week's match: the Comsopolitans vs the Korfballers for the other semi-final berth.
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