OK, here we are at the second match of the series. And, after the close match to start the series, would we get a similar one this week? To my knowledge, none of the participants have been on other shows before, but do please correct me if I'm wrong.
Playing tonight were the Cartophiles, who were Colin Kidd, captain Josh Mandel and Mark Cooper, and the Celts, who were Beverley Downes, captain Huw Pritchard and David Pritchard. The Cartophiles were linked by an interest in maps, while the Celts are all graduates of the University of Wales who live in that nation. Victoria subsequently engaged in some Welsh dialogue with Huw!
Another deliberately complex explanation of the new rules preceded the start of the game. The Celts elected to go first. Among the question of the first round was an interesting one on women and how many years older they are than their husbands (eg Princess Anne +5). The dreaded music question went to the Celts, and they managed to identify that all the songs in question shared their names with films. Another amusing question began with what sounded like a line from the Modern Major General song, but the question was actually about malapropisms.
It was a good round for both teams, with the Cartophiles leading 7-6 going into the Sequences round. Another good round here, with the Celts identifying a sequence on winners of the Tour de France after just two clues. One of the two picture rounds (it seems that two picture questions in the sequences round is going to be a permanent thing now) showed a very odd sequence of coloured shapes; neither team managed to identify them as the aerials of the Teletubbies! Cue a huge laugh! If Only Connect has a studio audience, it would have been very loud indeed!
Going on to the Walls, the Celts now led 12-9. The Cartophiles went first, and managed to solve the wall, and only just slipping up on one of the connections, meaning they scored seven points. The Celts also managed to solve their wall, but they managed all four connections, which got them full marks of ten points! This also meant their lead now stood at 22-16 going into the final round.
Still a closeable gap, and all was to play for going into Missing Words. Both teams have a good showing here, with both picking up points consistently. In the end, the Celts just managed to maintain their lead, and won by 28-24. But a very impressive showing from both sides there, and both are worthy of another match.
So far then, I think we can say that the standard has been high enough to warrant this rule change. We'll see if that standard is maintained next week.
I think that the lack of an audience is a good thing. With no audience, you feel less pressure and can almost quiz as if the cameras weren't there.
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