OK, finally can get around to looking at last week's Only Connect, sorry again for the wait. Before I start though, my condolences to the family of OC alumnus Neil Phillips, teammate of Mastermind champs Gary Grant and our friend Dave Clark as the Radio Addicts, runners-up of OC Series 4, who passed away recently.
Playing the first quarter-final last week were the Eco-Warriors, Jonathan Kershaw, Peter Barlow and captain Brett Bostock, who came straight here beating fellow quarter-finalists the Escapologists in the first round, then sneaking past the Snake Charmers in the first round, and the Inquisitors, who have beaten the Cricketers, the Snake Charmers as well and the Meeples, but lost to the Wanderers.
Round 1. The Warriors kicked the show off with Horned Viper: 'Boring Ted', then 'Violent Vic', then 'Devout P', and finally 'Repulsive Od'. They didn't get it, nor did their opponents: they all form adjectives meaning the former when 'ious' is added to the latter. The Inquisitors opened their account with Lion, and the music set: we heard Simon & Garfunkel with 'Bleecker Street', then '42nd Street', then Bob Dylan with 'Positively 4th Street', and finally 'Across 110th Street' by Bobby Womack. They didn't get it, their opponents did: they are New York streets. For their own question, the Warriors chose Twisted Flax: 'Library at Queen Mary College London', then 'Brian Fantana's penis', then 'Bolton theatre', and finally 'Ultimate Fighting Championship enclosure'; they identified them all to be octagonal shaped, and collected a point. The Inquisitors chose Eye of Horus next: 'Saying goodbye', then 'Stepping into the ring left foot first', then 'A bird flying around the tent', and finally 'Sitting with your back to the ring'. They didn't get this, nor did their opponents quite: they are considered unlucky in the circus. The Warriors chose Two Reeds next: 'Felipe DeAlba (Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband)', then 'Dietmar Hamann (Bolton Wanderers player)', then 'Joseph Goebbels (German Chancellor)', and finally 'Louis XIX (King of France)'. They didn't get this, nor did their opponents: they are people who were those things for one day. Left with Water, and the pictures, the Inquisitors saw Jesse James, then Denis Norden, then Harry Carpenter, and finally David Baddiel. Again, both sides missed it: they all formed a duo with men called Frank. At the end of a tough first round, the Warriors led 2-0.
Round 2, What Comes Fourth? The Warriors opened the round with Lion: 'Jermain Defoe, 22 November 2009', then 'Garfield Sobers, 31 August 1968', and then 'Frankie Dettori, 28 September 1996'. They worked it out: they achieved a notable five, six and seven on those dates, so someone acheiving a notable eighth, such as a team winning an eighth FA cup match as they offered, would be right for two points. ('Michael Phelps, 2008 Olympics' was the model answer) The Inquisitors chose Twisted Flax next, and got the picture set: we saw some Moai heads, then a moa bird, then Sir Mo Farah; they saw the sequence, and offered 'Judi Dench as M' for their first points of the night. The Warriors chose Water next: 'Escudo', then 'Tolar', and then 'Drachma'. They offered 'Lira', which was correct, the sequence being the weakest Euro legacy currencies. The Inquisitors chose Eye of Horus next: 'Sank into the swamp', then 'Swank into the swamp' again, and then 'Burned down, fell over, then sank'. They didn't see it, their opponents did: they are the fates of the King of Swamp's castles in Monty Python, so 'Stayed up' would be fourth. For their own final choice, the Warriors chose Two Reeds: 'Tuberculosis lab', then 'Great Britain lab', and then 'District of Columbia con'. They saw them to be things that can be abbreviated to the initials of prime ministers and their parties, so something for TM, such as 'Transcendental Meditation con' would be acceptable for the two points. Left with Horned Viper, the Inquisitors saw 'Canadian short stories', then 'French novels', and then 'Belarusian journalism'. They didn't get it, nor did their opponents: they are the nationalities of Nobel Literature prize winners and what they are best known for writing, so 'American songs', as in Bob Dylan, would complete the set. At the end of the second round, the Warriors led 9-2.
On to the Walls. The Inquisitors took their turn to go first, and chose to tackle the Lion wall. After some initial errors, two sets slotted in quite comfortably: 'State', 'Department', 'Hundred' and 'Riding' are sub-national divisions, while 'Field', 'Canton', 'Hoist' and 'Fly' are parts of a flag. After carefully studying the remaining clues, they had it on their first go: 'Work', 'Power', 'Place' and 'Wall' can all follow 'Fire', which they didn't see, while '12', 'Cuba', 'Carbon' and 'MI6 Chief' are all represented by C, which they did get. Seven points there.
The Warriors thus set to work on the Water wall. They struggled at first, eventually isolating 'How', 'Rich', 'Bern' and 'Ger', which are given names minus an 'ard' on the end, though that wasn't what they had in mind. That was all they could manage in the time though, so they had to settle for bonus connection points: 'Short', 'Waiting', 'Bucket' and 'Laundry' can all precede 'list', which they got, 'Pert', 'Conquest', 'Speelman' and 'Nunn' are chess grandmasters, which they didn't, while 'Brassy', 'Smart', 'Fresh', 'Forward' are words meaning 'cheeky', which they also got, though Victoria seemed to be struggling not to lose it at an earlier suggestion that they could be terms used to describe women! Three points there, which meant they still led 12-9 going into the final round.
So, Missing Vowels would decide who went where. 'Difficult', such as 'COMPLEX' and 'ROCKET SCIENCE', went to the Inquisitors 3-0. 'Easy', such as 'FACILE', was split 1-each. 'Love in song titles' went to the Inquisitors 3-1, and they took the only clue there was time for in 'Law firm departments'. The Inquisitors won 17-14.
A good match, some very hard questions in the first round at least, good scores considering. Unlucky Warriors, good luck in the eliminator round; well done Inquisitors, good luck in the qualifiers!
Next match: the Wanderers vs the Vikings. Blog of that on Thursday I hope.
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