Into the home stretch now, as the show arrived at the penultimate match of the initial phase. Both teams had won one match, and lost another; the winners would take the penultimate place in the semis.
The Festival Fans (Ed Dovey, Stewart McCartney and captain Marianne Fairthorne) lost to the Francophiles (who are already in the semis), but defeated the GPs. The Cat Lovers (Roger Johnson, Jean Upton and captain Jim Crozier) narrowly defeated the Corpuscles, but then lost to the Celts (who are also already in the semis). Whichever side won would be worthy of reaching the semis.
I won't go into great details with any of the questions in the first two rounds, but, suffice to say, you couldn't pull the two teams apart throughout the first round of play. At the end of the first round, the two teams were tied 3-all. And at the end of a rather low scoring second round, it was 5-all.
The draw was finally broken at the Walls, as the Cat Lovers swept the board, getting them the full ten points, while the Festival Fans missed one of the clues, meaning they only got seven. This gave them a lead of 15-12 going into the Missing Vowels round.
And what a finish, with the Festival Fans taking all four of the first group, giving them a narrow lead. And from then on in, there was virtually nothing in it again! This was one of those occasions where I covered up the between-group scores so as to keep the score unknown. With the scores tied on 20-all, the Cat Lovers buzzed in for an answer, but were beaten by the 'gong'!
A tie, 20-all. A tie-break between the two captains. Both buzzed at practically the same time; Ms Fairthorne got in just quicker, and the Festival Fans took the victory!
Another good close match between two evenly matched teams. Well done to the Festival Fans, but very hard lines to the Cat Lovers, who were undone by being just a split second too late twice. Hard luck indeed. Possibly as unlucky as the team they beat in the first round. But thanks to them anyway for a good series of showings.
Next week, the Cartophiles play the Fell Walkers for the final place in the semis.
Before that, though, we have the return of University Challenge, with Aberdeen playing Queen's University Belfast in a Celtic opening encounter. Stay tuned for that next Monday shortly after the match.
No comments:
Post a Comment