OK, no Robot Wars tonight, so I can get this week's Only Connect out of the way now. Both tonight's teams won their first match pretty easily, so it would be interesting to see how they fared against another proven team. Winners would go straight through to the group stage, runners up would go to the play-off round.
Playing were the Wanderers, John Payne, Richard Arthur and captain Sanjoy Sen, who beat the Pedagogues in their first match, and the Inquisitors, Luke Kelly, Rob Cumming and captain Julia Hobbs, whose first match saw them beat the Inquisitors.
Round 1. The Inquisitors chose to start the match with Lion, and got the music question straight away: we heard the Boomtown Rats with 'The Elephants Graveyard', then the famous 'Baby Elephant Walk', then 'The Elephant' from Carnival of the Animals, and finally Colonel Hathi's March from the Jungle Book. They had the link from the final clue, having recognised only it and the second, and collected the first point of the match. The Wanderers opened their account with Water: 'Apple Watch: San Francisco', then 'New Yorker: Irvin', then 'London Underground: Johnston'; they saw them to be the font that is used in those instances, and collected two points. The Inquisitors chose Eye of Horus next: 'Excess weight gained from emotional overeating', them 'State of well-being in a cosy environment'; they came in here and offered 'comfort', not close enough alas. Their opponents saw 'Longing to travel' and 'Malicious enjoyment of another's misfortunes', and correctly offered 'meanings of German words used in English' for the bonus. For their own question, the Wanderers chose Twisted Flax: 'Hitchcock film: Rope', then 'British TV ad: Bird's Eye Peas', then 'Queen's Christmas Speech: 1967'; they offered them to be the first instances to be shot in colour, and collected another two points. The Inquisitors chose Two Reeds, and got the picture set: we saw Gerald Ford, then Corrie characters Betty Williams and her husband, with an arrow pointing at the latter; they offered them as husbands of women called Betty, and collected three points. (The other clues would've been Barney Rubble and Frank Spencer) Left with Horned Viper, the Wanderers saw 'Claude Levi-Strauss (2009)', then 'Joao Havelange (2016)', then 'Lord Denning (1999)'; they saw them to be people who died aged 100 in those years, and collected two points. At the end of a strong first round, the Wanderers led 7-4.
Round 2, What Comes Fourth? The Inquisitors opened with Water, and the pictures again: we saw a sword, then a statue of Juno, and then some gold bars; they saw them to be the Normandy Landing beaches, and correctly offered 'Omaha' for two points. The Wanderers chose 'Horn-ed' Viper next: 'Throat', then 'Hump', and then 'Skin'; they saw them to be Kipling's Just So Stories in order, so offered 'Spots' for two points. The Inquisitors chose Twisted Flax next: '0.1', then '0.04', and then '0.001'. They didn't get it, nor did their opponents: its the decimals of pi, so '0.0005' would come fourth. A tough one that! The Wanderers chose Two Reeds next: '2004: Israel (Windsurfing)', then '2008: Panama (Long jump)', and then '2012: Grenada (400 metres)'. They didn't quite work it out, their opponents did: it's first Olympic golds won at successive golds, so '2016: Fiji (Rugby sevens)' for example, would satisfy. For their own final choice, the Inquisitors chose Eye of Horus: 'North America (23)', then 'Oceania (14)', and then 'South America (12)'. They ran out of time before being able to answer; their opponents came in with 'Antarctica (0)' for a bonus, the sequence being the continents with the fewest countries in descending order. Left with Water for their own question, the Wanderers saw 'Girls', then 'Babes in the Wood', and then 'The Liver Birds'; they saw it to be TV series with four, three and two female title characters, so 'Miranda' as one with one would be fourth. At the end of the second round, the Wanderers led 12-7.
On to the Walls. The Wanderers took their turn to go first, and chose the Lion wall. Their first two sets came almost instantly: 'Falkland', 'Dunfermline', 'Linlithgow' and 'Falkland' are Scottish palaces, while 'Good Omens', 'American Gods', 'Stardust' and 'Neverwhere' are novels by Neil Gaiman. After that, they quickly but carefully had the final sets solved: 'Holder', 'Ferry', 'Pop' and 'Bolan' are surnames of seventies glam rockers, while 'Bowie', 'Scone', 'Controversy' and 'Uranus' are words the pronunciation of which are much argued over. A well worked out full ten there.
So the Inquisitors set to work on the Water wall. They too had their first two sets done pretty efficiently: 'Procol Harum', 'Van der Graaf Generator', 'Yes' and 'Focus' are prog rock bands, while 'Rongeur', 'Lancet', 'Curette' and 'Retractor' are items of medical equipment. After that though, in a repeat of what happened in their first match (they even said so before starting), they got stuck getting the final sets together; they ran out of tries, and had to collect bonus points: 'Caliper', 'U', 'Hydraulic' and 'Disc' are type of brake, which they got, while 'Drum', 'Egg', 'Traffic' and 'System' are things you can beat, which they got in the nick of time. Six points there, which left them trailing 22-13 going into the final round.
So, Missing Vowels to finish with. 'Fruit and a noted variety' was split 1-each. 'Meanings of PA', such as 'PERSONAL ASSISTANT' and 'PENNSYLVANIA' was split 2-each. 'Bacharach and David songs' was a clean sweep to the Inquisitors 4-0. 'Squares and their cities' saw the Inquisitors take one, then get somewhat unfairly lose one as time ran out while they were answering the second. The Wanderers won 25-20.
Another fine match, well played both teams. Unlucky Inquisitors, best of luck in the play offs. Well done Wanderers, best of luck in the group stage!
No match next week due to a Women's World Cup qualifier, England vs Bosnia, or the week after due to an FA Cup match, Fylde vs Wigan, so we're back on the 8th of December, presumably with the Dandies vs the Beeks, followed by the Detectives vs the Arrowheads.
Back tomorrow with my usual UC write-up; see you then, I guess.
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