OK all? Hope you all had, and are having, a safe New Year. Apologies that I haven't dealt with Monday's Only Connect yet, but I will definitely get it sorted tomorrow evening. I hope.
In the meantime, we still have the small matter of the remaining Christmas UC matches to deal with, so here's a look back at the second week's play.
Monday 1st: Queen Mary London vs Cardiff
Queen Mary: Marcus Chown, Bruce Dickinson, Adrian Chiles, Ching He Huang
Cardiff: Laura McAllister, Nicole Cooke, Laura Trevelyan, Rhys Jones
Another low scoring match that was decided on the bonuses; both teams answered just six starters each, with Mr Dickinson and Ms Trevelyan answering three each, but Queen Mary converted 10 bonuses out of 18 to Cardiff's just 1 out of 18. Queen Mary thus won 110-60, not enough to earn a semi-final place.
Tuesday 2nd: Brunel vs Reading
Brunel: Tony James, Iwan Thomas, Eni Aluko, Dr Shini Somara
Reading: Anna Machin, Martin Hughes-Games, Sophie Walker, Pippa Greenwood
Another one sided match to end the first round, with Reading taking an early lead off the marks, and never looking back. Brunel were limited to an admittedly decent run of three starters, including the music round, and Mr Thomas provided the comedy moment possibly of the series when, in a bonus set on types of deer, which the team were struggling on, he offered 'No-eye Deer'! Reading reasserted their authority after that though, Ms Machin ending the night the best buzzer with five, and the final starter of the night gave them the points to return, winning 155-45.
Wednesday 3rd: Keble vs St John's
Finally a good close match, as two good sides played out a close contest, with Keble taking an early lead, before St John's drew level, and took a steady lead just before the second picture round. Keble ran the show after that though, and saw it out winning 160-105. Mr Cottrell-Boyce once again proved the key player, with seven starters to his name.
Thursday 4th: U.C.L. vs Reading
This was probably the best match of the series, with two pretty evenly matched sides level for most of the night, with U.C.L. having a slight edge throughout. With only a couple of minutes to go, they led by about 40 points and looked home and dry. But then Reading pulled two successive starters and one complete bonus set out the bag to move within five. And then Ms Greenwood took the final starter of the match just in time for the gong, to give them the win, 130-125! Mr Hughes-Games was their best buzzer this time though, with three starters, same as Mr Baggini for U.C.L..
Friday 5th: Keble vs Reading
Keble took the lead early on, with Mr Cottrell-Boyce showing the same superb buzzer skill that had seen the team through the earlier rounds. By half time, they were over 100 ahead and surely already home and dry. Reading, well they did keep buzzing, which is good to see, but just couldn't get in, with Keble, Mr Cottrell-Boyce in particular, who ended the night with eight starters (for a series total of 21!), just being too quick. The final score, Keble won 240-0. Yes, 0. The first 0 in UC history (that we know of). Reading totally didn't deserve that at all; they were a good proven team who were just unlucky here. But no taking away from Keble, a deserved win after a strong series of performances.
Well done them, and thanks to all who took part in the series; as ever, a nice festive diversion from the regular series.
That regular series resumes on Monday, at the new later time of 8:30, with Newcastle vs Southampton.
Only Connect is now at 8pm it would seem; will be back tomorrow with my review of last Monday's edition.
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