OK, time to look back at one of the most hotly anticipated episodes of Only Connect for a long long time!
For playing we had the Meeples, Tom West, Hugh Trimble and captain Gail Trimble, one of the all-time UC greats, accompanied by her husband and brother, and the Tequila Slammers, Michael Tomsett, of last year's Bristol UC team, George Ferzoco, Mastermind alumnus, and captain Roderick Cromar, alumnus of Mastermind, Brain of Britain and UC, captain of the Aberdeen side that reached the semis of Paxo's first series.
Round 1. The Meeples went first, and kicked the match off with Eye of Horus: 'Tom Finney', then 'Joe Wurzelbacher', then 'Thomas Crapper'; they tried 'inventors of things that sound like they were named after them', not right. Their opponents saw 'Mario', but were none the wiser: they were plumbers. The Slammers chose Two Reeds to start with: 'Charging bull's testicles', then Juliet's right breast', then 'John Harvard's left shoe', and finally 'Abraham Lincoln's nose'. They saw them to be things rubbed for good luck, and collected the first point of the night. The Meeples chose Twisted Flax next: 'Wine and Beverage Appreciation', then 'Cult Satanic Stories', then 'Critically Acclaimed Animal Tales', and finally 'Cerebral Scandanavian Movies'. They didn't get this, nor did their opponents: they are micro-genres on Netflix. The Slammers chose Lion next, and got the music question: we heard Motown Junk by the Manic Street Preachers, then Tom Waits singing Downtown Train, then Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat, and finally Billy Joel with Uptown Girl. They didn't see it, their opponents did, and collected their first point of the game. For their own question, the Meeples chose Horned Viper, and got the picture set: we saw Stan Lee, then Eric Bana, then Kyle Edmund the tennis player; misidentifying him as Stan Wawrinka, they offered that they are all called Stan. Not right. Their opponents saw Kenny Everett, but were none the wiser. They, of course, share their names with those of the main characters in South Park! Left with Water, the Slammers saw 'The Fleadh Cheoil', then 'Archbishop of Armagh', then 'Sinn Fein', and finally 'Irish national rugby team'. They didn't get it, their opponents did: they operate in both Northern Ireland and the Republic as one entity. At the end of a surprisingly low scoring first round, the Meeples led 2-1.
Round 2, What Comes Fourth? The Meeples kicked the round off with Lion: 'Triangle 0', then 'Trapezium 1', and then 'Parallelogram 2'; they saw it to be shapes with that many parallel lines, and offered 'Regular hexagon 3' for two points. The Slammers chose Two Reeds next: 'George II', then 'George IV', and then 'William IV'. Neither side got it: they are monarchs who were not succeeded by their offspring, so 'Edward VIII' would complete the set. The Meeples chose Water next: 'Larry', then 'Leslie'; they saw it to be the Durrell siblings in order of age in 'My Family and Other Animals', so 'Margo' would be third, and 'Gerald', who wrote the book, fourth, for three points. The Slammers chose Twisted Flax next: 'Question', then 'Suffer', and then 'Fortune'. They didn't spot it, their opponents did: it's the final words in the lines of the 'To be or not to be' soliloquy, so 'Troubles' would be fourth. For their own final choice, the Meeples chose Eye of Horus, and got the picture set: we saw the band Rage Against the Machine, then a cash machine; they saw them to be 'RATM' and 'ATM', so offered 'Judi Dench as M', and collected another three points. Left with Horned Viper, and in need of points, the Slammers saw 'Journey', then 'Heuretics', and then 'Minutest'. They didn't get it, nor did their opponents; they are words that begin with French units of time descending, so something like 'Seconded' would satisfy. Now that's a bit hard for the first round IMO! At the end of a rather one sided second round, the Meeples led 11-1.
On to the Walls. The Slammers chose to tackle the Lion wall. They promptly isolated 'Bullpen', 'Mound', 'Diamond' and 'Foul line', which are features of a baseball pitch, followed shortly by 'Samurai', 'Killer', 'Jigsaw' and 'Tredoku', which are variants of Sodoku. After spending a good long while looking over the final clues, they solved it on their final go: 'Deadly', 'Kate', 'Hardy', 'Quick' can all follow 'Kiss Me', while 'Matrix', 'Cuticle', 'Plate' and 'Lunula' are parts of a fingernail. Fully solved, so a much needed full ten points.
The Meeples thus set to work on the Water wall, and quickly got stuck. They eventually spotted a link of types of chip, and isolated 'Micro', 'Tortilla', 'Wood' and 'Blue'. That was as far as they could get though, so they had to settle for bonus point collections: 'Thatcher', 'Tufnell', 'Blackburn' and 'Brooks' are surnames of I'm A Celebrity winners, which they didn't get, 'Caroline', 'Marshall', 'Cook' and 'Solomon' are islands in the Pacific, which they did get, while 'William', 'Potato', 'Spot' and 'Talk' can all follow 'Sweet', which they didn't. Just three points there, which left their lead at 14-11 going into the final round.
So, suddenly, we had a close match, and it would be decided on Missing Vowels. 'Expressions involving body parts', such as 'HARD SHOULDER', was split 2-each. 'CD', such as 'COMPACT DISC' and 'FOUR HUNDRED', went to the Slammers 3-1. 'Things that come in sevens' went to the Meeples 3-0, and that was time. The Meeples won 20-16.
A surprisingly low scoring match, but certainly not a bad match by any means. Unlucky Slammers, who did very well to recover after the second round, and have alas fallen short of the repechage, but well done anyway on a valiant effort. Well done Meeples though, and best of luck in the next round!
Next week's match: Cricketers vs Inquisitors
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