Only Connect Series 14: Grand Final: Dicers vs Time Ladies

OK, here we are at the grand final of Only Connect's fourteenth series, the last one I'm reviewing on here. For now at least. I may sit the next series out and try again with Series 16 if I feel like I missed it. And I may decide to go and look back and some of the older series seeing as I've just found a whole load of them online, including the entirety of the fifth (and best IMO) series. Anyway, on with this week's final, which, following on from the orchestra in Series 11 and the acapella group last series, the opening theme for today was provided by a guest performer, this time an organ grinder, complete with toy monkey!

Playing for the title were the Dicers, George Corfield, Joey Goldman (hoping to be only the second person to do the Quizzy Mondays double) and captain Hugh Binnie, who got here by beating the Birdwatchers (twice), the Brews and the Ancient Alumni, and the Time Ladies, Charlotte Jackson, Emma Harris and captain Rebecca Shaw, who defeated the Motorheads, the Pyromaniacs, the LARPers and the Poptimists en route here.

Round 1. The Time Ladies opened the final with Eye of Horus: 'D-Day', then 'Charles and Camilla's wedding', then 'Launch of BBC2' (I had it here), and finally 'Wimbledon final between Ivanisevic and Rafter'. They suggested them to have happened on dates where the number of the day and the month were the same; not right. Their opponents knew that they were all postponed (by one day), and collected the first point of the match. For their own first question, the Dicers chose Lion: 'Rebecca and Rowena', then 'Mrs De Winter', then 'The Wide Sargasso Sea'; they came in here and offered 'retellings from a different perspective', which wasn't quite right. Their opponents saw 'Death Comes to Pemberley', and offered 'sequels written by a different author', which also didn't quite hit the X either. They are follow-ups written by other authors, none of them retellings and one of them a prequal, not a sequel. The Ladies chose Two Reeds next: 'envy <-> rail', then 'abjurer <-> nowhere', then 'cheryl <-> purely', and finally 'clerk <-> pyrex'. They didn't have an answer, their opponents did: the second words are what you get if you move the letters in the firsts on by 13 letters. For their own question, the Dicers chose Horned Viper, and got the music set: we heard Verdi's 'Force of Destiny' overture, then 'A Simple Twist of Fate' by Bob Dylan, then 'Carmina Burana'; they saw their names to mean 'fate', and collected two points. The Ladies chose Water next: 'di Niccolo di Betto Bardi' (in purple), then 'Sanzio da Urbino' (in red), then 'di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni' (in orange); they saw them to be the surnames of those who the Teenage Mutant Mutant/Hero Turtles were named after and the colour of the turtle in question's headband, and collected their first points of the night. ('da Vinci' in blue would've been fourth) Left with Twisted Flax, and the pictures, the Dicers saw Sue the PG Tips chimp, then a field of red poppies, then Narandra Modi alongside a Om-style swastika, and finally Gail Porter. They didn't get this, nor did their opponents: they are things that have been projected onto parliamentary buildings. At the end of the first round, the Dicers led 4-2.

Round 2, What Comes Fourth? The Ladies started with Two Reeds: 'Y: 8760-8784', then 'M: 672-745', and then 'W: 167-169'. They didn't get it, nor did their opponents: they are the number of hours in a year, month and week, so 'D: 23-25' would be fourth. The Dicers chose Eye of Horus next: 'United Arab Emirates', then 'Nigeria', and then 'Ghana'. They saw them to be the countries with the first three capital cities to come alphabetically (Abu Dhabi, Abuja and Accra), and so offered 'Ethiopia' (Addis Ababa, home of Ted and Dougal's friend Mwengwe) for the points. The Ladies chose Lion next: 'Elephants', then 'Diplodocus and Triceratops', and then 'Diplodocus'. They saw them to be what was on display in the Hintze Hall of the Natural History Museum, and so offered Alan Davies' favourite 'Blue Whale' for the points. The Dicers chose Horned Viper next, and got the pictures again: we saw a map of the world with certain countries highlighted in black, then one with a few more in green, and then one with even more in red. They guessed that the rest would be in blue, and were correct for the points, the sequence being what colour passports issued in those countries are. For their final choice, the Ladies chose Water: 'The Show', then 'Greedy Italians', and then '-2-1'. They saw them to be TV shows with a 1, a 2 and a 3 missing, so offered 'in a Bed' for the two points. Luckily they offered a Channel 4 show, as the more precise sequence would've been that the number removed was that of the channel they're shown on, and we've had quite enough contention this series. Left with Twisted Flax again, the Dicers saw '12: Nitrogen', then '3: nothing', and then '6: Sulphur'. They saw them to be the elements represented by the numbers on each compass point on a clock, so '9: Tungsten' would be fourth. At the end of the second round, the Dicers led 10-6.

On to the Walls. The Dicers went first, and chose the Lion wall. After spotting some potential links, and some wrong tries, they had their first set: 'Sue', 'Bob', 'Dec' and 'Dom' are first names of one half of a double act. A second set, 'Jan', 'Aug', 'Sep' and 'Nov', which are abbreviations of months, followed, and the final sets slotted in after that: 'Mar', 'Gel', 'Era' and 'Eto' are anagrams of body parts, which they got, while 'Mal', 'May', 'Arm' and 'Cus' can all have 'Dis' added in front to make longer words, which they didn't see. Seven points there.

The Time Ladies thus set to work on the Water wall with a chance to claw back lost ground. They also spent time looking carefully for links, before eventually isolating 'Arc', 'Tac', 'Sep' and 'Exo', which can all form longer words by adding 'tic' afterwards. That was all they could get in line in the time though, so they had to try for bonus points: 'Jan', 'Aug', 'Nov' and 'Dec' are abbreviations of months, which they got, 'Ape', 'May', 'Gif' and 'Wha' are anagrams of fruit and vegetables, which they didn't see, while 'Mar', 'Ear', 'Mer' and 'Sat' are the first letters of the names of planets, which they did see. Four points there, so the Dicers now led 17-10 going into the final round.

So, Missing Vowels to finish with, with the Time Ladies needing a good round to stand a chance. 'Things with an extra dimension', such as 'BERMUDA PYRAMID' and 'TRAFALGAR CUBE', went to the Dicers 2-(-1). 'Mnemonics with the words in the wrong order, such as 'RICHARD OF VAIN GAVE BATTLE IN YORK', went to the Ladies 3-1, though the Dicers win the award for best working out of the series by getting 'DIVORCED DIED DIVORCED BEHEADED SURVIVED BEHEADED'! 'Words containing four consecutive vowels' have one to the Ladies before time ran out. The Dicers won the game and the series 20-13.

A fine end of the series, some great quizzing by both teams, well done both teams. Unlucky Time Ladies, but a great series of performances, thanks very much indeed for playing. Very very very well done Dicers though, very worthy series winners!

And that's it for this series! Thanks to all who have read my OC reviews over the past four series. As I said at the start, I'll probably be sitting out the next series, but I may decide to start reviewing again with the one afterwards. We'll see. I may be back with some final thoughts on the Quizzy Mondays season some time in the coming days. But if I don't, then, until we next meet, bye for now!