OK, the penultimate Only Connect of the series, and the return of the third place play-off! Glad it's back, especially this series, where all four semi-finalists definitely deserved one more game whether they reached the final or not, even more so as both semi-finals were very close.
Anyway, playing were the Poptimists, Oliver Levy, Bob De Caux and captain Matt Loxham, who defeated the Hotpots, the LARPers and the Durhamites, but were defeated by the Time Ladies in their semi, and the Ancient Alumni, Lindsay McBryan, Ailsa Watson and captain Dave McBryan, who overcame the Three Peaks, the Westenders and the Brews, but lost their semi to the Dicers on a tie-break.
Round 1. The Alumni opened the show with Two Reeds: 'Louise: Reality Bites', then 'Older Allie Calhoun: The Notebook', then 'Tommy's mother: GoodFellas', and finally 'Older woman in cafe: When Harry met Sally'. They suggested them to be their actors' only screen credit; not right. Their opponents correctly offered them to have been played by the director's mother, for a bonus. For their own first question, the Poptimists chose Eye of Horus: 'Strawberry', then 'East Riding of Yorkshire'; they immediately saw them to be linked by 'Hull', and collected three points. The Alumni chose Twisted Flax next: 'Gromit', then 'Salamanders on the Discworld', then 'Dilbert (usually)', and finally 'Hello Kitty'. They saw them to be characters with no mouth, and collected their first point of the night. The Poptimists chose 'Horn-ed' Viper next, and got the music set: we heard Public Enemy with 'By the Time I Get to Arizona', then Nina Simone with 'Why (The King of Love is Dead)', then U2 with 'Pride (In the Name of Love)', and finally Stevie Wonder with 'Happy Birthday'. They saw them to be songs about Martin Luther King, and collected another sole point. The Alumni chose Lion next: 'Messi in OG v Wales', then 'I'm issuing a view, also', then 'Moss in agave weals', and finally 'Amassing avowals'. Neither time saw this nice cryptic one: they are phrases where the consonants are in the same order as 'Missing Vowels', and thus would be permissable answers for the Missing Vowels clue 'MSS N GVW LS'. Left with Water, and the picture set, the Poptimists saw Eva Green, then Angela Eagle, then actress Natalie Wood (who they didn't recognise), and finally Carey Mulligan. They spotted that their surnames are golf terms, and collected the point. At the end of the first round, the Poptimists led 6-1.
Round 2, What Comes Fourth? The Alumni started it with Two Reeds: 'Launch of Cultural Revolution', then 'Red Rum's third Grand National win'; they saw them to be events of 1966 and 1977, so suggested 'A certain Prince song is played a lot on the eve of Millennium', which was allowed for a 1999 event for the three points. ('Manchester United beating Bayern Munich in the Champions League final' would've been my answer there) The Poptimists chose Eye of Horus next, and got the picture set again: we saw a £50 note with James Watt circled, then Elijah Wood, and then John Travolta as Jesus Quantana in 'The Big Lobowski'. They didn't see it, and their opponents weren't quite there either: they are 'Watt', 'Wood' and 'Jesus', so a word representing 'Do' would be fourth. The Alumni chose Lion next: '123 Mock The Week', then '456 Toronto Fire Services', and then '712 Satisfiability Modulo Theories'. They didn't get it, their opponents did: they are phrases beginning with the letters of those days of the week, so their offer of '345 What The Flip' was acceptable! ('345 World Taekwondo Federation' was the model answer) For their own question, the Poptimists chose 'Horn-ed' Viper: 'Campari', then 'Aperol', and then 'Advocaat'. They didn't get it, neither did their opponents: they are drinks usually coloured red, orange and yellow, so 'Green Chartreuse' would be an acceptable fourth answer. For their final choice, the Alumni chose Water: '_ 4 _, then '_ 8 9 10 _'; they saw them to be numbers in between every second prime number, with the primes blanked out, and correctly offered '_ 20 21 22 _' for the three points. Left with Twisted Flax, the Poptimists saw 'Are you saying Mr Lewis is lying?', then 'So you are saying that Mr Lewis lied?'; at this point, they (and I) saw it to be Paxo's infamous interview with Michael Howard, so offered 'Did you threaten to overrule him?' for the three points! At the end of the second round, the Poptimists led 10-7.
On to the Walls, the Poptimists went first, and chose the Water wall. They spotted numerous possible links, and eventually isolated two sets in short order: 'Chunk', 'Mouth', 'Sloth' and 'Mikey' are characters from 'The Goonies', while 'Lust', 'Wrath', 'Envy' and 'Pride' are deadly sins. The final sets eventually slotted in after that: 'Gluttony', 'Earmark', 'Crackerjack', and 'Trumpeter' all end with boys' names, while 'Greed', 'Chuck-a-Luck', 'Beetle' and 'Craps' are dice games. A full ten there.
The Alumni thus set to work on the Lion wall. They immediately isolated 'Hastings', 'Redpath', 'Sole' and 'Laidlaw', which are surnames of Scottish rugby union captains. A second set, 'Mullet', 'Sturgeon', 'Dab' and 'Tarpon', which are fish, followed, and it didn't take them long to sort out the remainders: 'Menai', 'Cook', 'Davis' and 'Bass' are straits, while 'Skate', 'Truth', 'Mozzarella' and 'Primary' all end with girls' names. Another full ten, so as you were, the Poptimists led 19-16 going into the final round.
So, Missing Vowels would decide the game. 'Things that loosely rhyme with 'crazy'', such as 'PATRICK SWAYZEE' and 'FRANCO BARESI', was split 2-each. 'National capitals and an anagram of them', such as 'ROME AND MORE', went to the Poptimists 3-1, their guess of 'TEHRAN AND NATHER' being accepted in lieu of 'TEHRAN AND ANTHER'. 'Three members of musical families' was split 1-each, and that was time. The Poptimists won 26-21.
Good game, a pleasant interlude ahead of the final next week. Well played both teams, two fine series of performances, thanks very much indeed for playing!
Next week's match: the final! The Time Ladies vs the Dicers for the title!
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