Good evening friends, and welcome to the final full Quizzy Mondays line-up of this season! And possibly ever, as I have a funny feeling the BBC might be about to uproot Only Connect to BBC1, seeing as that seems to be the norm these days for BBC2 shows that start beating EastEnders in the ratings. More on that final later on; firstly, though, tonight's UC, pitted the two teams that came through the repechage (as Paxo called it for possibly the first time ever!) against each other. This was also evidently the first show back after a filming break, as Paxo has his casual tie-less attire from the Xmas shows back!
St John's College Cambridge lost to fellow QFers Imperial in the first round, but recovered with a thrilling 175-170 win over U.C.L. and a comfortably 220-45 win over Queen Mary of London. They were unchanged from those three previous games:
Thomas Clark, from the USA and Japan, graduated in Linguistics
Louie George, from Lyme Regis, studying Human Social and Political Sciences
Captain: Jonathan Chan, from Cambridge, studying Veterinary Medicine
Kyanna Ouyang, from New Jersey, studying Natural Sciences
Emmanuel College Cambridge were narrowly beaten by St Andrews in the first round, but they also recovered with a close win and a comfortable one, firstly beating RNCM 180-115, and then St Catharine's of Cambridge 125-120. They were also unchanged from before:
Nicole Pullinger, from Hong Kong, studying English
Nicholas Thatte, from Oxford (originally Greece), studying Physics
Captain: Kara Malcolm, from Guildford (originally Capetown), studying Engineering
James Wrathall, from Mistley in Essex, studying Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
So off we set once again, and St John's scored first in the derby with Mr Clark identifying the origins of the word 'trivia'; events of 1991 provided them with one correct answer. Mr Wrathall's answer of 'chicken' adjudged to be close enough to 'rooster' gave Emmanuel their first starter in quick order; they went one better on the bonuses taking two and taking the lead. St John's quickly reclaimed it through Mr Chan, and the gradually improving bonus form continued as they took a full set on mythical creatures. The first picture round, on theatre layouts, went to Emmanuel; one correct bonus left them trailing 40-35.
St John's duly increased that advantage as Ms Ouyang took the next starter, but the resulting bonuses didn't fall for them, none taken. Emmanuel, in contrast, took the next starter and took a full set on a good old fashioned UC bonus set on pairs of words differing in an extra T. They now led, but Mr Clark pulled St John's back level by taking the next starter and one bonus on caves gave them the lead back. Only for Emmanuel to take it straight back with a starter and single bonus of their own. They also took the music round, on classical pieces requiring unusually aggressive instructions; no bonuses were taken, but they did still now lead 85-65.
Mr Chan halved that gap as he took the next starter; only one bonus fell for them again, but a second starter in a row to their captain gave them the lead back again, followed by another sole bonus, on Icelandic literature. Mr Thatte took Emmanuel back into the game then though and, again in contrast, took a full bonus set and the lead back. Now, for the next starter, as soon as Paxo said the words 'move of which chess piece', I'd have been half tempted to take a flyer on 'the knight'; Mr Clark sensibly waited before doing so correctly, and the bonuses finally fell for his side, two on maize gave them the lead back. Mr Chan added to that advantage by knowing that Napoli renamed their stadium after Maradona after his passing two years ago, and a full set of bonuses duly followed. Back came Emmanuel though with the (rather late) second picture round, on artists influenced by Goethe's thoughts on colour; just the one bonus nonetheless cut the gap to 140-125.
And Mr Wrathall then took the next starter to pull them back to within five points; bonuses on years ending 99 gave them the one bonus they needed to pull level, setting up a one starter shoot-out. Mr Thatte won it for them with 'the photoelectric effect' (ironically, an incorrect answer offered by St John's earlier in the game); they took the one bonus there was time to answer, and that was the gong. Emmanuel won 155-140.
A good contest between two well matched teams there; well played to both. Well done to Emmanuel and best of luck in the qualifiers! Hard lines to St John's, but still a decent performance and best of luck in the eliminators!
The stats: Messrs Chan and Wrathall were joint best buzzers of the night with four each for their respective teams, taking their running totals to 26 and 14 respectively. On the bonuses, St John's managed 12 out of 24 and Emmanuel 13 out of 26, and there were no penalties all night.
Next week's match: by process of elimination it must be Edinburgh vs Trinity
Only Connect’s seventeenth final,
and 400th episode overall, was competed by the Golfers, Evan Lynch,
George Charlson and Frances Clark-Murray, and the Data Wizards, Claire Turner,
Jonathan Cairns and Tim Brown. The Golfers led 4-3 after a close first round, but
the Wizards had the better of a very impressive second by both teams to lead
11-9. A better wall allowed the Wizards to increase their advantage to 21-14
going into Missing Vowels, and though the Golfers recovered well, the Wizards
held on to win the game, and the series, 23-20. Many congratulations to them,
and thanks to all who took part on another most enjoyable series!
Mastermind was won by Paul
Risebury-Crisp, who led by two points after the specialist round and did so
after General Knowledge as well, winning with 19 points, with Kim Humphreys
second on 17, Pam Douglas third on 16 and Clare Lowe on 15.
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