Well, it's Christmas Day tomorrow, but there's still time for one more Only Connect. In fact, Friday's was the last to be shown on that particular day, as the show is returning to Mondays as of New Year's Day! And it's at 8pm, so maybe this will be a permanent switch with UC? We'll see.
Playing the final Friday night kick-off for now were the Meeples, Tom West, Hugh Trimble, and captain, UC legend Gail Trimble, sister of Hugh and wife of Tom, who beat the Tequila Slammers but were narrowly beaten by the Belgophiles, and the Parishioners, Tracey Rawlins, her husband Andy and captain Ian Fellows, who overcame the Stewards, but were then beaten by the Vikings. Winners stayed on for another play-off, runners-up would bow out.
Round 1. The Parishioners kicked the match off with Eye of Horus, and the picture set: we saw a raspberry, then a joystick controller, then a boot, and finally a globe; they identified them as things that follow 'Golden' to give the names of awards, and collected a point. The Meeples opened their account with Twisted Flax: 'Sutton Coldfield', then 'Tunbridge Wells', then 'Leamington Spa', and finally 'Wootton Bassett'; they saw them to be towns that have had 'Royal' added to their names, and they collected a point. The Parishioners chose Horned Viper next: 'Same-sex fan fiction relationship', then 'Closed HTML tag', then 'Saul Hudson', and finally 'Doing a wee'. They didn't get it, their opponents did: they are all 'Slash'. For their own question, the Meeples chose Two Reeds: 'Blockbusters', then 'Rorke's Drift', then 'Fox and Geese'; they came in at this point with 'hexagons', but were not right. Their opponents saw 'Ice hockey power play', and offered that they all involve unequal sides; correct for a bonus. For their own question, the Parishioners chose Water: 'Paul Newman's first film', then 'Third Indiana Jones film', then 'First Robert Langdon film', and finally 'First "proper" Monty Python film'. They offered 'crusade'; not right. Their opponents offered 'Holy Grail'; correct for a bonus. Left with Lion, and the music question, for their own question, the Meeples heard Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, then 'Hunting for Witches' by Bloc Party, then the Eagles with 'Witchy Woman', and finally 'Ding Dong the Witch is Dead' from the Wizard of Ox. They saw the link, and collected the point. At the end of a lowish scoring first round, the Meeples led 4-2.
Round 2, What Comes Fourth? The Parishioners chose Eye of Horus first again: '1st: 100', then '2nd: 500', and then '3rd: 1'; they saw it to be Roman numerals in order of where the letters come in the alphabet, and offered '4th: 50' for the two points. The Meeples chose Horned Viper next, and got the picture set: we saw a statue of saxophone inventor Adolphe Sax, then the male and female sex symbols, and then the Roman numeral VI; they saw them to be 'sax', 'sex' and 'six', and so offered 'the Boston Red Sox' for the two points. The Parishioners chose Lion next, and got a music sequence: we heard Wilson Pickett's 'Land of 1000 Dances', then 'Another Hundred People' from the musical Company, and then the Beautful South with 'Perfect 10'. They didn't get it, their opponents did, and offered 'The One and Only' by Chesney Hawkes for a bonus. (Cue an actually pretty good singalong!) For their own question, the Meeples chose Water: 'Ghostly being', then 'Something dropped from the heavens', and then 'Discrete unit of consolation'. They couldn't come up with anything, and their opponents didn't quite see it: they are Daniel's Craig's Bond films, 'Spectre', 'Skyfall' and 'Quantum of Solace', so something representing 'Casino Royale', such as 'Gambling place of regal nature', would complete the set. For their final choice, the Parishioners chose Two Reeds: 'pH scale', then 'Friedrich's younger siblings in 'The Sound of Music'', and then 'Beaufort scale'. They didn't get it, their opponents did: they are things that go up to 14, 13 and 12, so something that goes up to 11, such as 'Spinal Tap's amplifiers', would be fourth. Left with Twisted Flax for their own final question, the Meeples saw 'Roger Taylor', then 'Jeremy Bates'; they offered 'Andy Murray' at this point, not right. Their opponents saw 'John Lloyd', but their offer of 'Tim Henman' was also not right. They are captains of the GB David Cup team, so 'Leon Smith' would be fourth. At the end of the second round, the Meeples led 8-4. (Both teams had exactly doubled their score)
On to the Walls. The Meeples went first, and chose to tackle the Lion wall. They quickly spotted two sets and had them in place: 'Simon', 'Wilson', 'Miller' and 'Hellman' are American playwrights, while 'Trash', 'Flag', 'Knuckle' and 'Wedding' can all follow 'white'. After carefully studying the final clues, they had the final sets sorted on their first try: 'Mammoth', 'Elephant', 'Albee' and 'Briefly' all end with the names of insect, which they got, while 'Yankee', 'Goliath', 'Treble' and 'Alphabet' are terms in betting, which they didn't get. Just the one slip, so seven points.
The Parishioners could thus recover some lost ground if they could clean sweep the Water wall. They too isolated their first groups pretty quickly: 'Dome', 'Noddle', 'Coconut' and 'Onion' are slang terms for the head, while 'Wailer', 'Shadow', 'Miracle' and 'Supreme' are backing groups. They too took their time with the final sets, and solved them on their first go: 'Railway', 'Crow', 'Dover' and 'Swanky' all begin with the names of birds, while 'Agency', 'T', 'Village' and 'Theory' can all follow 'model', which they didn't. Another seven there, so as you were, the Meeples led 15-11 going into the final round.
So, still all to play for going into Missing Vowels. 'Geographical food', such as 'CHICKEN KIEV', was split 2-each. 'Film titles advanced by one month', such as 'THE HUNT FOR RED NOVEMBER', went to the Meeples 3-1. 'African languages' was split 1-each. 'Novels with birds in the title' had time for two clues, which the Meeples took both of. The Meeples had won 23-15.
Another good match well quizzed by both teams with some good tough questions. Unlucky Parishioners, but a perfectly respectable series effort, thanks very much for playing. Well done Meeples though, and best of luck in your second play-off.
Next match: the Snake Charmers vs the Inquisitors, on New Year's Day at 8pm.
Back next weekend with summary of the first week's play of Christmas UC; until then, good night and have a Happy Christmas!
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