OK, so this is turning out to be a most enjoyable series of Only Connect! I mean, the last two series were too, but this still young series just seems so much more already. Maybe its because we've gone back to the old format where all teams get at least two games; 27 shows probably about the right length of series for OC, 37 a bit too much.
Anyway, playing on Monday night were the Birdwatchers, Chris Grandison (Fifteen-to-One and Mastermind alumnus), Keli Richards and captain Lauren Hamer (sister of Nathan Hamer, who appeared in Series 6 of OC with the Quitters), and the Dicers, George Corfield, Joey Goldman and captain Hugh Binnie; you may recall those three have all appeared on UC on Oxford teams in the recent past, Mr Corfield's Balliol team were unlucky to go out in the first round in 2013-14, Mr Binnie's Magdalen were runners up of the following series, while Mr Goldman's Balliol went one better and won the 2016-17 series, beating Eric Monkman's Wolfson in the final.
Round 1. The Dicers went first, and chose to start the show with Eye of Horus: 'Adlington's shoulder', then 'Bercow's ribs', then 'Tweddle's neck'; they spotted them to have been injured on 'The Jump', and collected two points there. (Reminds me of a similar question on The 3rd Degree a couple of years back) The Birdwatchers began with Twisted Flax: 'Early Nordic assembly', then 'Benjamin Grimm'; they saw them to all be 'things', and picked up three for that. (The remaining clues were 'Cat in the Hat's blue-haired associates' and 'Addams family's manual worker'!) The Dicers chose Lion next: 'Substitute', then 'Reticence', then 'Nature area'; they saw these to all be synonyms of 'Reserve', and picked up another two pointer. The Birdwatchers chose Horned Viper next: '24th kiss', then '19th hiss', then '15th hug', and finally '26th sleep'; that gave it to them, the corresponding letters of the alphabet can be used to denote those things (X for a kiss, zzz for sleeping, and so on). The Dicers chose Water next, and got the music question: we heard 'Ode for the Wings of a Dove' from Mendelsohn's 'Hear My Prayer', then 'A Taste of Honey', then Samantha Fox singing 'Touch Me (I Want Your Body)', and finally 'I Can See Clearly Now'. Neither side spotted the link, they all have senses in their titles. Left with Two Reeds, the Birdwatchers got the picture set, and saw an admiral catching a sailor in bed with a girl, then the same sailor getting his torso shaved, then him being hosed down, and finally him on a small rowing boat. They didn't quite see it, their opponents did: they are suggestions from the song 'What shall we do with a drunken sailor?'! At the end of the first round, the Dicers led 5-4.
Round 2, What Comes Fourth? The Dicers kicked the round off with Eye of Horus: '£3', then '£3.70', and then '£3.85'. They didn't get it, nor did their opponents: them are the sums of British coins going downwards (£2+£1, +50p+20p, +10p+5p), so you would add 2p and 1p for '£3.88' to complete the set. The Birdwatchers chose Lion next: '18th: William/none', then '19th: George/William'; they saw it to be something to do with monarchs at the start of each century, but their guess of 'Edward/Elizabeth' was incorrect. Their opponents saw '20th: Victoria/Robert', and offered '21st: Elizabeth/Tony' for the point, the link being who was monarch and prime minister at the start of each century. For their own question, the Dicers chose Two Reeds: 'at (hdmy)', then 'on (dmy)'; they offered 'in (y)', and collected three points, the link being the proposition for describing when something happened in certain time periods (at the hour, on the day, in the month, in the year). The Birdwatchers chose Horned Viper next: 'Complete the quotation: "To Be or Not To Be"', then 'They're both the same', and then 'Correct. What is Bernard Manning famous for?'. Now this was most unfortunate: they saw it to be the famous Two Ronnies Mastermind sketch, but answered the wrong question, as it were, and wrongly offered 'He is a fat man who tells blue jokes'. Their opponents made no mistake, and offered 'That Is The Question' for the bonus. For their own final choice, the Dicers chose Water: 'Jerkmeter', then 'Accelerometer'; they saw it to be devices for measuring the rate of change, so 'Speedometer' would be third and 'Ruler', or 'Odometer' as they offered, would be fourth. Left with Twisted Flax, and the pictures again, the Birdwatchers saw a statue of Robert E Lee, then JFK, then the late great William G Stewart; they saw the sequence, and offered 'William H Macy' for the two points. At the end of the second round, the Dicers led 13-6.
On to the Walls. The Birdwatchers, needing a good result, chose to tackle the Water wall. They immediately isolated 'DNA', 'Hair', 'Black Magic' and 'Salute', which are songs by Little Mix, and their second set, 'Peas', 'Whales', 'Senna' and 'Vanilla', which all have pods, followed in short order. It didn't take that much longer for them to solve what was left: 'Prost', 'Skal', 'Slainte' and 'Kanpai' are words used for toasting in various langauges, while 'Piquet', 'Hill', 'Scheckter' and 'Ascari' are F1 champions. A well solved full ten there.
The Dicers thus set to work on the Lion wall. They too had a set sorted very quickly: 'Cowardly', 'Yellow', 'Craven' and 'Chicken' are synonyms meaning 'faint-hearted'. This was followed quickly by 'Scar', 'Aslan', 'Lafcadio' and 'Wallace', which are names of fictional lines. They too had the rest solved quickly on their first try: 'Good luck', 'Green', 'Memory' and 'Debit' can all precede 'card', while 'Baker', 'Humble', 'Henson' and 'Rani' are surnames of presenters of Countryfile. Another well done full ten, so as you were, the Dicers led 23-16 going into the final round.
So, Missing Vowels to finish off, with the Birdwatchers pretty much needing a shutout to win. 'Rods', such as 'FISHING ROD' and 'ROD STEWART', went to the Birdwatchers 2-0. 'Janes', such as 'JANE FONDA' and 'JANE'S FIGHTING SHIPS' went to the Dicers 3-1. 'Freddies', such as 'FREDDIE MERCURY' and 'ANDREW FLINTOFF' was a 2-each split. 'Lists of three' was split 1-each, with the Birdwatchers being allowed an answer after the bell, having buzzed before it. The Dicers won 29-22.
Another very good high quality game, of the sort that makes you most thankful that they've gone back to the old format. Unlucky Birdwatchers, well done Dicers, best of luck when you next play!
Next week's match: Brews vs Forrests
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