OK, right, we're caught up with Only Connect again. I hope, from now on, I won't fall behind again, but, again, I guarantee nothing.
Anyway, last Friday's match. Playing for a place in the semi-finals were the Beekeepers, Ian Wallace, Josh Spero and captain Mark Wallace, who have beaten the Scunthorpe Scholars, the Policy Wonks and the Oscar Men, but lost to the Cosmopolitans, and the Korfballers, Taissa Csaky, Niall Sheekey and captain Michael Jelley, whose victories have been over the Channel Islanders, the Shutterbugs and the Fire-Eaters, and whose defeat has been to the Surrealists.
Round 1. The Beekeepers went first, and kicked off the match with Lion: 'S: Onopordum acanthium' (in purple), then 'NI: Trifolium dubium' (in green); they saw it quickly to be the Latin names of national flowers of the home nations and their colours, and collected three points. The Korfballers opened their account with Two Reeds: 'Iskenderun, Turkey', then 'Kandahar, Afghanistan'; they too collected three points, identifying them as cities named after Alexander the Great. The Beekeepers chose Twisted Flax next: 'Palm Jumeirah', then 'Boscombe Reef'; another three points, as they offered 'artificial structures in the sea'. (The remaining clues weren't in the sea, but they'd got the right idea) The Korfballers chose Horned Viper next, and got the picture set: we saw some Swiss cheese, then a potato, then a shot in space of a hurricane; they spotted the link to be 'eyes', and collected two points this time. The Beekeepers chose Water next, and got the music question: we heard 'Downtown', then Take That's 'Babe', then 'Fairytale of New York', and finally 'Last Christmas'. They offered Christmas number ones; not right. Their opponents tried Christmas number twos; correct, for a bonus! Left with Eye of Horus for their own question, the Korfballers saw 'Andy Riley' (I've seen at least one person say they thought it was something to do with Father Ted after seeing that!), then 'Alison Uttley', then 'Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin', and finally 'Richard Adams'. The last one gave it to them: they all created fictional rabbits. At the end of a strong first round, the Korfballers led 7-6.
Round 2, What Comes Fourth? The Beekeepers opened procedings with Horned Viper: 'A: 1 in 13', then 'AA: 1 in 17', and then 'AAA: 1 in 25'; their offer of 'AAAA: 1 in 41' was not right, and their opponents accidentally offered the same thing! They did get the sequence right though: it's the chance of drawing an ace from a deck of cards, so 'AAAA: 1 in 49' would be right. The Korfballers chose Two Reeds next: 'Y', then 'Tb', and then 'Er'. They didn't know it, nor did their opponents: they are elements named after the village of Ytterby, in order of chemical number, so 'Yb' completes the set. The Beekeepers chose Lion next: '201220', then '132014', and then '201520'. They didn't see it, their opponents did: '162017' completes the set, if you haven't seen it, it's the years 2012-2017 run together a bit differently. For their own question, the Korfballers chose Water, and got the picture set: we saw a thumb nail, then a card shoe dealer, and then a pommel horse. They didn't get it, their opponents did: 'for want of a nail a shoe was lost, for want of a shoe a horse was lost, for want of a horse a knight was lost', and they collected a bonus. (Didn't we already have that back in Series 1?!) For their own final choice, the Beekeepers chose Twisted Flax: '4th: Maidenhead (Conservative)', then '3rd: North East Hampshire (Conservative)', and then '2nd: East Ham (Labour)'; they saw it to be the biggest majorities at the 2015 election, but didn't know what would be fourth. Nor did their opponents. '1st: Knowsley (Labour)' completes the sequence. Left with Eye of Horus again, the Korfballers saw 'Musical composition', then 'Phone-readable black squares', and then 'Canonised person'; they saw it to be things abbreviated to 'Op', 'QR' and 'St', so offered 'Ultra-violet', or 'UV', for two points. At the end of the second round, the Korfballers led 10-7.
On to the Walls. The Korfballers took their turn to go first, and chose the Water wall. After taking their time to examine the clues, and try a few sets, they eventually isolated 'Mandrake', 'Rue', 'Aconite' and 'Belladonna', which are poisons. After studying the remainders some more, they suddenly spotted a set of words that precede 'goose', and slotted in 'Canada', 'Spruce', 'Grey' and 'Mother'. After that, the final sets proved not much of a problem: 'Sarkozy', 'Barracuda', 'Mullet' and 'Achilles' all start with islands, while 'Pine', 'Hemlock', 'Cypress' and 'Fir' are trees that produce cones, or conifers. A full ten there.
The Beekeepers thus needed to do likewise with the Lion wall to stay in pace. They did get a first set sorted pretty quickly: 'Fletching', 'Nock', 'Shaft' and 'Head' are parts of an arrow. They got a bit stuck with the rest of the clues though, and it was some time before they had a second set in the bag: 'Nob', 'Nave', 'Night' and 'Not' all become different words when a 'K' is put in front. With not much time left, they tried quickly to solve the wall, but ran out of lives. So, bonus points to be had: 'Deal', 'Livers', 'Nit' and 'Snug tent' are anagrams of metals, which they didn't see, while 'Walmer', 'Cooling', 'Hever' and 'Leeds' are castles in Kent, which they did. Five there, which left them trailing 20-12 going into the final round.
So, Missing Vowels to finish off the show, with the Beekeepers needing a shut-out realistically to stand a chance of catching. 'One of the Seven Dwarves and one of the Seven Deadly Sins', such as 'SNEEZY AND GLUTTONY' (yes, really), went to the Beekeepers 3-0. 'Words that can follow 'hot'' was split 2-each. 'Social media abbreviations and their meanings', such as 'OMG AND OH MY GOD', went to the Beekeepers 2-1, and that was time. The Korfballers won 23-19.
Another good match with plenty of good quizzing, good to see the standard still good at this late stage. Unlucky Beekeepers, but nothing to be ashamed of, a good series of performances, and thanks for giving us them. Very well done Korfballers though, and good luck in the semi-finals!
Friday's match: a rematch between the Psmiths and the Verbivores, with the winners taking the final place in the semis.
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