Only Connect Post Mortem: Series 10 Episode 6Chessmen vs. Linguists

Scroll down for this week's Question of the Week poll!

Warning: the following contains spoilers for Series 10, Episode 6 of Only Connect, first broadcast on BBC Two on Monday 6th October. If you haven't seen it yet go and watch it on iPlayer!

Missed last week's recap of the Coders vs. the Gamesmasters? Check it out here!

It was a 'welcome back' to one of tonight's teams, as the Chessmen (Nick Mills, Henry Pertinez and Stephen 'Alex Ferguson' Pearson) returned after 'only' finishing third in Series 2. Following in the footsteps of the History Boys they're now the second team this series who were previously defeated by the Rugby Boys so I'm expecting the Series 2 runners-up Cambridge Quiz Society to show up soon to complete the set. They're up against the Linguists (Virginia Fassnidge, Gail La Carbonara and Tom Fassnidge) who got my support for a) being newbies, and b) having excellent surnames.

Victoria Coren Mitchell opened with some Klingon, which elicited this comment from an associate: "Her Klingon accent is quite poor. I don't think she could pass as a native." I'm afraid to say we both agree, but here's hoping the new tie break decider is Bat'leths at dawn.

Round 1: What's the connection?

The questions
1) N.E. Smith; Jon E.-S.; T (or K); D. O'Lenz
2) Bundeskanzlerin; Boat Race dead heat; English pope; Black US president
3) 19 hand in cribbage; 'Cry Baby' by Jemini; Don Bradman's last Test innings; Blank tile in Scrabble
4) Music: Take a Bow (Rihanna); Hold me now (Thompson Twins); Love Can Build a Bridge (Children for Rwanada, I think); Deck the Halls (some choir business)
5) Pictures: Dad's Army title card; An Easyjet plane; Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys; Only Connect title card
6) Apt; Apposite; Awl; Anion

The answers

1) The Monkees
2) Only one
3) 0
4) All parts of a ship
5) Same typeface
6) Opt, Opposite, Owl, Onion

Our thoughts
1) A decidedly odd one to start, we thought, as after two it seemed too obvious that these were (not particularly well) disguised surnames. The Linguists knew what they were doing, however, and recognized these as not only surnames, but the surnames of the members of the Monkees for a strong opening to the show. This seems like an 'easy or impossible' one, but being entirely unfamiliar with the Monkees (beyond knowing that they, allegedly, monkey around), it's difficult to judge. We spotted that names were going on but couldn't get any further than that.
2) The Chessmen knew their German well enough to recognize that the first clue meant female chancellor (I got as far as remembering that Bundes, as in Bundesliga, means 'federal' or 'nationwide'), and that plus "Boat Race dead heat" was enough to give them three points in return. I think most quizzers would have had this on two, as there's very little to know about the English Pope other than there was only one and his name sounds a bit like Shakespeare, but the opening clue offered an elegant route in for three.
3) Unlike the previous question, here knowing enough about any one of the clues would probably give you the answer. The Linguists (like me) knew their terrible British Eurovision entries well enough to get it for three, and deduced that a 19 in cribbage was something to do with zero (this seems to be more of a colloquialism than an actual gameplay mechanic, though, but thanks to Gavin in the comments, below, who provides an explanation).
4) After a very strong start the music question brought everyone back down to earth with what seemed a spectacularly tough ask. Unusually for us at home we identified the first song correctly and were immediately trying to think of things that Take a Bow could somehow fit into. The next two meant nothing to us, however, and with Deck the Halls coming too late to give any serious thought we joined the contestants in scoring as many as Donald Bradman in his last Test innings. Even if you knew all the songs, picking out the words Bow, Hold, Bridge and Deck seems frightfully tough, and I think you'd need at least three to stand any chance. A fun idea (the titles alone could have been a question without the extra musical challenge) but perhaps one that was a touch too hard, especially for a first round game.
5) Onto the pictures and another one that stumped the contestants but was perhaps easier at home (rather than staring at monitors across a studio floor). It would take particularly sharp eyes to spot Cooper Black lurking in the first three pictures, but the clever use of the Only Connect title card was enough to make you think that something wasn't quite right. Looking at the Wikipedia page, it seems there were a number of other options that could have been used for this question, and I'll be sure to bring up my knowledge of the Tootsie Roll font to impress my North American friends.
6) A straightforward wordy one to finish the round, of a format I expect to see more of over the series. Once again the key is realizing as soon as possible that there really can't be anything linking the actual things listed, and while it took all four at home for this particular penny to drop, the Chessmen had it after three and ended the round trailing by 5 points to 6.

Round 2: What comes fourth?

The questions
1) Thames; Dover; Wight
2) Birmingham 1992; Manchester 1996; Manchester 2000
3) Move MS Word scrollbar left; Bleaching allowed; Play
4) (e.g.) SDR, DDR; Berry, Buck, Mills, Stipe; Blackberry creators
5) 4th: Exploded on stage; 3rd: Spontaneously combusted; 2nd: Choked on vomit
6) Pictures: A still; Muddy Waters; People going for a run

The answers

1) Portland (Shipping areas east to west)
2) London 2012 (British Olympic bids)
3) Give way (Rotating triangles)
4) (e.g.) Read-Only Memory (RAM, REM, RIM, ROM)
5) 1st: Bizarre gardening accident (Fates of Spın̈al Tap drummers)
6) e.g. the blue sea (Still waters run deep)

Our thoughts
1) No-one was falling for a possible 'longest rivers' trap here, as any fule kno the Thames is the second-longest in the UK so unlikely to start or end a sequence. After Dover that quiz classic shipping forecasts seemed likely, and at home we were already resigning ourselves to zero points. The Linguists took an impressive two points, however, knowing their late night Radio 4 action well enough to produce the answer Portland. This seemed a bit unsatisfying to me, as I expected to at least think "oh, huh, that makes sense" when the answer was revealed. I assume this means I need to spend more time on the (radio) waves.
2) The years immediately point to Olympics, and the presence of Manchester did hint rather strongly at British bids. Both teams were thinking along similar lines but missed that there weren't any bids between 2000 and 2012, with the sequence 1992, 1996, 2000 making it all-too tempting to opt for 2004. Another plausible thought was that the London bid for the 2012 games was made in 2004 (it was actually in 2003). I think my future tactic for any Olympics sequence question will now be "are we absolutely certain it's not just London 2012 again?".
3) I'd love to know how often knowledge of clothes washing labels helps in a quiz compared with how often it helps with, y'know, washing clothes. I'm pretty sure for me it's entirely on one side of the equation (not that I don't wash my clothes, I hasten to add, just that my wardrobe is hardly one that screams domestic god). The first clue was, however, a bit confusing (the phrasing made me think of keyboard shortcuts rather than the little arrow you can click on the scrollbar) and like the Linguists we needed to see 'Play' to work out what was going on. With a touch more lateral thinking this would seem a fun one to get for three.
4) DDR makes me think of either East Germany or the video game Dance Dance Revolution (an important pair not to mix up), whereas the name Stipe gave the doctor REM. Having seen a similar question of this form the other week (Pep, Pip, Pop, Pup) I'd got my eye in and figured the first clue must be RAM and that it was another progression of vowels. The Chessmen, without the advantage of having seen previous episodes this series, needed to recognize RIM (an impressive feat in itself) and got to the answer from there.
5) Speaking of other questions from this series, this one seemed cut from a similar cloth to the Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey affair of a couple of weeks back. If you know your Spın̈al Tap it's just a matter of when you work out what's going on (and a bit of brain-wracking) while the rest of us look on blankly. The Linguists seemed to have this on clue one, but after a (very) long bit of thinking quickly raced through two and three to make sure.
6) Another new 'type' of question that we've seen since the change of question editor in Series 9. I'm still not convinced by these and this one hangs a little too heavily on recognizing Muddy Waters. Without him I think you're nowhere, although even with him it's not easy, and the Chessmen picked up a good two points to head into the walls 9-12 behind.

The walls were, atypically for this series and last, both solved perfectly, complete with the unusual experience for us of spotting a group of four and being sure there were no red herrings (Greek letter homophones). I was pleased to see Star Trek inventions make an appearance (even though I'm sure it means VCM's opening Klingon joke will spawn the usual conspiracy theories). A three point gap in missing vowels is very little, but it made the difference as the Linguists managed to (just) run out winners 26-24 in a very well fought game.

Question of the Week

After an easy decision last week, picking a standout option from this episode has proven much trickier. However, after some serious deliberation (by which I mean, a chat and a cup of tea) we've decided that our Question of the Week goes to Same typeface. While maybe a bit tough on contestants in the studio, for those of us at home this offered a real test of observational skills while the final clue worked as a trigger as you try to figure out why something didn't seem quite right.

It's a very hard one to call this week, however, so do please let me know which questions you enjoyed with the poll below!

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