Only Connect Series 13: Round 1: Match 5: Lapsed Physicists vs Belgophiles

OK, Only Connect time. One of the advantages of the much hated Friday night slot for me is being able to do my reviews on Sundays; will be hard for me to make the switch back to Tuesdays if/when the show returns to its correct Monday slot. Anyway, on with Friday night's episode, which demonstrated why UC's tournament structure doesn't really work with OC...

Playing were the Lapsed Physicists, Lizzy Crawford, Andrew Taylor and captain Adam Tumber (UC and Mastermind alumnus), and the Belgophiles, Helen Fasham, Phil Small and captain Ben Fasham (relationship not stated).

Round 1. The Belgophiles kicked off the show with Eye of Horus, and the music set: we heard 'Roundabout' by Yes, then Oasis' 'Slide Away', then 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot', and finally 'See-Saw Margery Daw'. They identified the link of 'playground equipment', and collected a point. The Physicists opened their account with Twisted Flax: '1779 hymn to the tune of 'New Britain'', then 'Character inspired by Amy Elliott Dunne', then 'Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man', and finally 'Joseph's Technicolor Dreamcoat'. They didn't see it, neither did their opponents; I did though: they all involve the word 'Amazing'. (The first two being 'Amazing Grace' and 'the Amazing Amy') The Belgophiles chose Two Reeds next: 'Music (Denmark)', then 'Lobbying (K)', then 'Banking (Wall)'; they spotted the brackets to be streets and their associated professions, for two points. The Physicists chose Water next: 'Oscar the Grouch', then 'Central Line', then 'Top stripe on Netherlands' flag'; they tried that they all changed from red to their current colours. Not right. Their opponents saw 'French portion of EE Telecom', but were none the wiser; they are changed to their current colours from orange, not red. The Belgophiles chose Lion next: 'Britain: Twenty to eight', then 'Trafalgar: Five past six'; they spotted them to be battles and their years expressed as 24 hour times, and collected three points. Left with Horned Viper, and the picture set, the Physicists saw two US army servicement, then some Bombay duck, then the Calcutta Cup, and finally a jockey wearing jodhpurs. They spotted them to be things named after Indian cities (the first clue representing the Bangalore torpedo), and collected their first point of the match. At the end of the first round, the Belgophiles led 6-1.

Round 2, What Comes Fourth? The Belgophiles opened with Eye of Horus again: 'Individually', then 'Crocodile', and then 'Sudoku subgrid'; they saw them to be 'one by one', 'two by two' and 'three by three', so offered a 4x4 car, which was sufficient for the two points. The Physicists chose Water next: they saw the first clue 'Dodecahedron (12,5)', saw the sequence to be platonic solids in descending order of sides on each face, and thus offered 'Tetrehedron (4,3)', which was correct for the first FIVE POINTS of the series! Good work! The Belgophiles chose 'Horn-ed' Viper next: 'Young', then 'Pooh', and then 'Six'. Again, neither team saw it, but I did: its the final words in the titles of the original AA Milne books, and so 'Corner' completes the series. (The books being 'When We Were Very Young', 'Winnie the Pooh', 'Now We Are Six', and 'The House at Pooh Corner' respectively) The Phycisists chose Twisted Flax next, and got the picture set: we saw Harold Wilson, then Gordon Brown, and then Anthony Eden. They didn't see it, their opponents did: it's prime ministers with descending numbers of letters in their surnames, so Theresa May would complete the set satisfactorily. For their own final choice, the Belgophiles chose Two Reeds: 'Thornton', then 'O'Leary', and then 'Flack and Murs'; they saw it to be presenters of some show called The X Factor, but didn't know who came fourth. Their opponents did, offering 'O'Leary' again for the bonus. Left with Lion for their own final question, the Physicists saw '1st= England, 1st= Australia', then '3rd South Africa, 4th West Indies', and then '5th New Zealand, 6th India'. They saw it to be something to do with cricket, but couldn't provide the right answer. Their opponents could, offering '7th Pakistan, 8th Sri Lanka' for a bonus, the sequence being debuts in test cricket. At the end of the second round, the Belgophiles led 10-7.

On to the Walls. The Physicists took their turn to go first, and chose the Lion wall. They quickly had two sets sorted: 'Gaggle', 'Parliament', 'Murder' and 'Flock' are collective nouns for birds, while 'Tandy', 'Lange', 'Biel' and 'Chastain' are surnames of actresses called Jessica. After that, the final sets slotted in pretty comfortably: 'Bejam', 'Rumbelows', 'Presto' and 'Comet' are defunct retailers, though they went too specific with defunct electrical retailers, thus dropping three points, while 'Parliament', 'News', 'Alba' and 'Two' are BBC TV channels. Just the one (unfortunate) mistake, so seven points.

The Belgophiles thus set to work on the Water wall. They spotted some links straight away, and quickly isolated 'Manatee', 'Dugong', 'Sea lion' and 'Narwhal', which are marine mammals, and then 'Book', 'Pillow', 'Brief' and 'Stair', which can all precede 'case'. The final sets were then pretty easy pickings: 'Walrus', 'Fu Manchu', 'Handlebar' and 'Pencil' are types of moustache, while 'Saddle', 'Pedal', 'Seat post' and 'Fork' are parts of a bicycle. A full ten there, meaning they upped their lead to 20-14 going into the final round.

So, still just about all to play for going into Missing Vowels. 'US Presidential campaign slogans' was split 2-each. 'Puddings' went to the Physicists 2-1. 'Game show catchphrases' went to the Physicists 3-1. 'Basic maths' saw the Belgophiles take the first, and the second get timed out. The Belgophiles won a good match 25-21.

A good match, well played by both sides. Well done Belgophiles, and good luck in the second round! Unlucky Physicists, but hopefully your score will deservedly bring you back, so best of luck on that. Does mean we won't see the Geocachers again though; hopefully, for fairness sake, the two scores in the second half of the draw are both above 19. Why does the draw need to be split in two anyway?

Next week's match: Meeples vs Tequila Slammers (with UC legend Gail Trimble on one of the teams!)