OK, Only Connect time. Unless I say otherwise, we shall carry on on Sunday nights until the show returns to its rightful place on Monday nights. And when Victoria mentioned having been visited by three spirits in her intro, I can't have been the only one expecting her to go on to say she drank them!
Playing the final match of this half of the first round (I think) were the Cricketers, Andrew Burford, Simon Williams and captain Neil Clarke, and the Inquisitors, Luke Kelly (winner of £64,000 on Millionaire), Rob Cumming and captain Julia Hobbs (Mastermind regular and runner-up to Beth Webster in Make Me an Egghead Women's tournament).
Round 1. The Inquisitors went first, and kicked the match off with Lion: they saw 'Cat Flap: head', and after a bit of discussion, buzzed and offered 'spoonerisms'. Correct for FIVE POINTS! Excellent work! (The other clues were 'Marking Peter: street', 'Flock of Bats: residential area' and 'Belly Jeans: sweet shop') The Cricketers thus set to business with Twisted Flax, and the picture set: we saw a racoon, then Madonna, then a submarine; they saw them to be Beatles song titles, and collected two points. The Inquisitors chose Horned Viper next: 'Ffynnon Garw', then 'Football League First Division', then 'Pluto'; they offered at this point that they were all things that were downgraded, and they too collected two points. The Cricketers chose Water next: The Pied Piper of Hamelin', then 'Dolly Parton', then 'Colin Baker's Doctor Who', and finally 'Joseph'. They didn't see it, their opponents did: they all famously wear coats of many colours. For their own question, the Inquisitors chose Eye of Horus, and got the music set: we heard Little Boots with 'Remedy', then Little Jimmy Osmond singing 'Tweedle Dee', then Little Richard singing 'Lucille'; they spotted the link, and collected another two points. (I can name all the Osmonds by heart, despite being far too young to remember them BTW!) Left with Two Reeds, the Cricketers saw 'Dumbo', then 'Nolita', then 'Soho', and finally 'Tribeca'. They identified them as neighbourhoods of New York, for a point. At the end of the first round, the Inquisitors led 10-3.
Round 2, What Comes Fourth? The Inquisitors kicked the round off with Twisted Flax: 'Cheltenham (567)', then 'Puniness (3456)'; they identified them as words with descending numbers in them, but having buzzed, couldn't provide an acceptable answer. Their opponents saw 'Freighters (34567)', but couldn't pick up either. They are words with descending numbers in them, but the numbers represent where the hidden number is, so, for example, 'Seventy (12345)', would be acceptable. Nice cryptic question, but maybe too much for the first round! The Cricketers chose Lion next: 'Sundar Pichai', then 'Larry Page', and then 'Eric Schmidt'. They didn't get it, nor did their opponents. They are CEOs of Google, so 'Larry Page' again would be fourth. The Inquisitors chose Eye of Horus next: 'Le chagrin', then 'La joie', and then 'Une fille'; they saw it to be the Magpie rhyme in French, so 'Un garcon' would be fourth. The Cricketers chose Two Reeds next, and got the picture set: we saw Wendi Deng, Rupert Murdoch's ex, then Ding Junhui the snooker player, and then the Vietnamese dong; they saw the sequence, and offered 'a pile of dung', for two points. For their final choice, the Inquisitors chose Water: 'Calida', then 'Almeria'; they spotted it to be the Spanish costas, but their offer at this point of 'Brava' was not correct. Their opponents saw 'Tropical', but couldn't pick up. It is the costas, but going south, so 'Del Sol' is fourth. Left with Horned Viper, the Cricketers saw 'Glenn', then 'Anil'; a rather appropriate question for them, they quickly saw it to be leading wicket takers in Test cricket, so 'Shane' would be third, and 'Muttiah' fourth. At the end of the second round, the Inquisitors led 12-8.
On to the Walls. The Cricketers took their turn to go first, and opted for the Lion wall. They immediately isolated 'Whippy', 'Muscle', 'Kipling' and 'Sheen', which all follow 'Mr' to give brand names. This was followed by 'Bolton', 'Ball', 'Portillo' and 'Palin', which are surnames of famous Michaels. They took their time with the final sets, and eventually worked it out on their first try: 'Hockey', 'Age', 'Lolly' and 'Floe' can all follow 'Ice', while 'Ball', 'Staccato', 'Sheet' and 'Forked' are types of lightning. A full ten well worked out there.
The Inquisitors thus set to work on the Water wall. They too isolated a set immediately: 'Knoxville', 'Vegas', 'Morris' and 'Ball' are surnames of famous Johnnys. A second set came pretty easily too: 'Measure', 'Shaker', 'Muddler' and 'Shot' are bartending terms. They came unstuck with the remainders though, and thus had to pick up bonus connection points: 'Butter', 'Pucker', 'Cough' and 'Wrap' can all precede 'up', which they got, while 'Set', 'Belly', 'Barn' and 'Tap' are dances, which they spotted when they saw it. Six points there, which left the scores level at 18-each going into the final round.
So Missing Vowels would decide who went straight through, and who'd have to hope for the play-offs. 'Planes' went to the Inquisitors 3-1, as did 'Trains'. 'Automobiles' went to the Inquisitors 2-1, while 'Films with transport in the title' finished 2-0 to the Inquisitors, and that was time. The Inquisitors won the show 28-21.
A high quality show, well played both teams. Well done Inquisitors on a very impressive first performance, could be a team to watch in the next round, best of luck in it! Unlucky Cricketers, but a decent effort, and, if I understand the format correctly, they will survive to play-offs alongside the Escapologists, having scored the same number of points as the Lapsed Physicists, but acquired more in the first two rounds. If someone could explain precisely what is going on, that'd be much appreciated.
Next week's match: Wanderers vs Pedagogues
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