Well, we've arrived at Wimbledon, which means it won't be long before University Challenge is back on our screens. Naturally, I will post here about any developments on that front as they break.
But, for now, we've got Only Connect to worry about, and last night's match was the first between two teams who'd won their first match, and needed just one more win to be safe for the time being. Playing were the Celts (Beverley Downes, captain Huw Pritchard and David Pritchard), who defeated the Cartophiles in their initial face-off, and the Cat Lovers (Roger Johnson, captain Jim Crozier and Jean Upton), who won a good close match against the highly unlucky Corpuscles first time around. Those two losing teams subsequently played off, with the Cartophiles narrowly winning. But that's another story.
The first question, a picture question, went to the Celts, who identified a series of pictures related to the word 'strip'; cue an inevitable joke from VCM, who seems to have an obsession with drinking jokes. The music round also went to the Celts, who correctly identified a series of songs by groups with dog breeds in their names. The Cat Lovers weren't so lucky with their questions, which included a complex wordplay question about removing capitalised letters to form opposites. The Celts has a strong lead at the end of the round, 8-3.
The sequences round saw a welcome return by the old OC staple, the Greek alphabet. Neither team managed that question. The Cat Lovers had an unlucky miss on a question about the Mitford sisters, not realising there was a fifth that came in the middle. The Celts failed to pick up on the error. The Celts then managed to upset Trekkies everywhere, and annoy VCM as well, by failing to identify the sequence on a Star Trek question, though they did identify the fourth, which was enough for the point.
Going into the Walls, the Celts had a big lead of 12-4. Still plenty of time for the Cat Lovers to pull it back; they managed two groups on their Wall, and three connections, for a total of five. But the Celts got all four groups, and narrowly missed out on a clean sweep by missing one of the connections. This still got them seven points, and gave them a lead of 19-9 going into Missing Vowels.
The Cat Lovers needed to dominate this round if they stood any chance, but they couldn't manage it; all in all, it was an evenly split round. Highlight of the round was 'band names overlapped with authors', which included 'REM Forster'; the Cat Lovers lost a point on that one after getting the E and the R the wrong way around.
In the end, the Celts won comfortably, by 23-13, and got generous applause from their opponents. A deserved victory, and they're now safe for now, but the Cat Lovers could yet join them, provided they win their next match.
After a run of good close games, we were due a comfy win; but was this just a blip, or has the tide turned? We will find out next week, as the Francophiles play the Fell Walkers.
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