Only Connect Post Mortem: Series 10 Episode 5Coders vs. Gamesmasters

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

Warning: the following contains spoilers for Series 10, Episode 5 of Only Connect, first broadcast on BBC Two on Monday 29th September. If you haven't seen it yet go and watch it on iPlayer!

Missed last week's recap of the QI Elves vs. the Bibliophiles? Check it out here!

There'll be some unashamed bias in this week's coverage as Internet-acquaintances of mine make their debut. The Gamesmasters will be familiar to many thanks to the presence of University Challenge champion (and Roger Tilling nemesis) Filip Drnovšek Zorko but he's accompanied with some fresher facers to the quizzing scene (James Robson and Frederic Heath-Renn). They're up against the Coders (Zoe Cunningham, Richard Bradley and captain David Simons), who apparently used to work with Board Gamer Hywel Carver, so loyalties are split across our team!

Round 1: What's the connection?

The questions
1) Doctor; Neighbour; Friend; Spook
2) 155; 300; 27 up 27 down; 501 in 9
3) Music: Blackjack (by Ray Charles); Patience (by Take That); Under the Bridge (by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers); Poker Face (by Lady Gaga)
4) Pictures: Little Dorrit; Little Voice; Little Mix; Little Britain
5) The Little Yellow God; The Jack of Hearts; Wenlock and Mandeville; Darning needle
6) We all stand together; Brekekekex koax koax; It's not easy bein' green; Ribbit

The answers

1) Add an 's' for a TV show
2) Perfect games
3) Card games
4) 'Little _____'
5) One eye
6) Said by frogs

Our thoughts
1) A straightforward start which the Coders had after two but took a third to be safe. We were less cautious at home but almost fell for the trap of going too specific with daytime TV shows.
2) This was courtesy of a certain Richard Osman, apparently, and one that could reward the right kind of snooker nerd. The Gamesmasters were thinking sport after 300 but didn't know the technicalities of snooker quite well enough to remember that you can get a 155 break if your opponent fouls and leaves you in a free ball situation before anything is potted. It's effectively unheard of, however, hence why 147 is referred to as the maximum. The Gamesmasters ultimately needed all four for this but still safely got themselves off the mark. (I, being a huge snooker nerd, had it after two and spent the rest of the time trying - and failing - to explain to the doctor how a 155 works.)
3) A tough one to get without all four, I think, as you probably need two of the first three to have a chance at the connection. The Coders managed to spot Under the Bridge and Poker Face to take a well-earned point.
4) Neither team had this one, although the Gamesmasters had an excellent better-than-nothing guess with 'things on a Tube map'. I staggered the doctor by recognizing Little Mix (at least one of their songs is quite nice) and he reverse-engineered Little Dorrit from that because "it looked a bit Victorian". I think the setter is probably expecting a similar strategy; Little Dorrit is in 'good answer on Pointless' range for Dickens novels, so spotting the frontispiece with no clues would take some pretty expert knowledge.
5) The perils of social media were cast in stark relief as Victoria Coren Mitchell Tweeted clues two and three earlier in the day. (Scandal, public inquiry, duck island, etc.) Fortunately it didn't make any difference to me, at least, as the first clue meant nothing (The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God is a J. Milton Hayes poem, apparently). A minor issue with this is that you can argue that both the Jack of Hearts as well as Wenlock and Mandeville (together) have two eyes, not one, although I think most players would probably decide that one eye seems a more fitting link. Wenlock or Mandeville, perhaps?
6) While there are a few options for 'We all stand together', 'brekekekex koax koax' will either mean nothing to you, or (as it did the Gamesmasters) tell you exactly what the answer will be. Some solid Aristophanes knowledge meant they picked up a valuable three points ending the round down 5 points to 4.

Round 2: What comes fourth?

The questions
1) Galaxy; Universe; Everything
2) Best; Caff; Edgh
3) Mount Rushmore; Eve (1957 Joanne Woodward film); A chess clock
4) Pictures: A red bow; The Red Arrows; An asparagus spear
5) 1947: Norman Hartnell; 1981: David and Elizabeth Emanuel; 2005: Robinson Valentine
6) Hampshire; Jersey; Mexico

The answers

1) Fish ('Hitchhiker's Guide...' novels)
2) Loon (Gutted UK capitals)
3) (e.g.) Ek Mukhi Rudraksha bead (Number of faces)
4) A chariot of fire ('Jerusalem')
5) 2011: Sarah Burton (Royal wedding dress designers)
6) York (US 'New' states)

Our thoughts
1) Round 2 started off with a fairly standard general knowledge sequence, with the Gamesmasters happy to pick up a bonus after the Coders couldn't spot the Hitchhiker's link. One nice feature of this question is that you might (as happened to me) have the connection triggered by seeing 'Universe' and 'Everything' together (as in Life, the Universe and Everything, y'see).
2) A great question that defeated us at home, but not the Gamesmasters who took a valuable 2 points. The gradual change from a normal word, to something that might be read as a slang cafe, to something that's very obviously not a word, gives this a lovely gradient.
3) This one, meanwhile, was a much more straightforward sequence but with much more of a chance at five points. After seeing Mount Rushmore there's not too much more to say than 'four presidents/faces' and it would be incredibly tempting to take a punt on 'one president/face'. The second clue is a somewhat obscure opportunity to confirm or deny this (unless, of course, you're familiar with the film, which did win Joanne Woodward a Best Acress Oscar) while chess clocks gave the Coders - and us - the certainty we needed for the points.
4) The Gamesmasters couldn't quite place this and the Coders picked up their first bonus of the show. With both the first two clues being obviously 'red something' I felt there was the faintest hint of the 2-clue misdirection we've seen a few times now this series. Nevertheless, by the third it's fairly clear we're looking at weapons, but spotting the final connection was nevertheless tricky.
5) A very tough question which (I think unsurprisingly) was missed by both teams. I was somehow onto the connection after the second clue (apparently the only notable thing I can ever remember about 1981 is the wedding of Charles and Diana) but knew I'd have no chance at the final answer. This is a nice idea for a question, as the years and names provide a couple of ways into it, but there is a question of how well-defined the connection is given how many royal weddings there have been. Victoria mentioned 'future monarchs' but this seems a bit presumptuous.
6) A question that has the potential to be fun, but is just a bit too easy for the potential distraction of Hampshire and Jersey being around the British Isles to work. Making the sequence alphabetical is also a tad weak (increasing population size would seem less arbitrary but would mean Hampshire and Mexico would be the first two clues). A bit of a gift for the Gamesmasters to finish off the round here, I think, and they duly took two points to lead by 9 points to 8 going into the walls.

It was the walls which would seem to prove decisive, with an alarmingly quick solve from the Gamesmasters and a bit of a stumble from the Coders seeing the gap stretch to 19-12. Any hope of a comeback were soon dashed by the almost terrifying performance of the Gamesmasters in missing vowels, however, who took the round 11-1(!) and ran out the winners 30 points to 13. Yowzers.

Question of the Week

For the first time this series my question of the week is an easy decision: Gutted UK capitals takes the plaudits for being deceptively simple (and, if you're the doctor, rack your brains trying to think of footballers called 'Caff' and 'Edgh'). If you'd like a second opinion Series 9's Welsh Learner Stu Hern does his own weekly recaps over on his blog here (although this week we've agreed for once!).

As always though, I'd love to know what you think with the poll below!

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Review: the Only Connect App

There's a new Only Connect app in town! For £1.49 on iOS (£1.99 on Android) you can get your connecting wall fix on the go while a new challenge mode adds some missing vowels to proceedings. It's a solid app, with a respectable chunk of content, just don't expect anything revolutionary.

The app's home screen complete with non-round numbers.

The basics

An Only Connect app is always going to be about the walls and there are a whopping 108 included (the previous version stopped at just 40). 66 of these are presented as 'standalone' walls while the remaining 42 are included in the all-new 'challenge' mode.

Standalone walls are as close to the show as you can get and near-identical in gameplay to those on the Only Connect website. You have three minutes to find the groups and guess the connections with scoring just like the programme (except because this is a computer game everything is multiplied by 100). The main novelty comes in the mechanics of answering: rather than getting a single guess for each connection you can instead try out as many answers as you want until you hit on something the game accepts. While this may offend some purists it does mean much of the potential frustration caused by poor answer parsing (or merely fat fingers) is mitigated.

As long as the correct answer is in there somewhere you're fine.

CHL LNGMD

The challenge mode is an attempt to add a bit of variety, with missing vowels-style questions providing the opportunity to earn some extra time to solve a wall. Challenges are split into three rounds of four (unrelated) missing vowels clues all of which need to be solved within a fixed time limit. Each correct answer earns you five seconds of extra time (on top of a baseline two minutes) for that challenge's wall.

After each round you choose either to face the wall with the time you have or face some more clues to try and earn some extra seconds. Going for the wall early will earn you bonus points (200 after one round of missing vowels, 100 after two) but reduces how much extra time you could earn. Like the walls you can try as many guesses as you like for each missing vowels clue (which seems a little generous) as well as skip and come back to any that prove tricky.

"I don't know about you but I play 'muscle chairs' all the time."

Wall to wall walls

Overall the app is a perfectly fine way to add some connecting walls to your life but there's not much more to it than that. The challenge mode is a nice idea but doesn't really add too much to proceedings. Extra time on walls is seldom that useful and thus the 'dilemma' of scoring more points or playing more missing vowels isn't a particularly engaging one. Similarly the idea of trying to set high scores seems a little misplaced - you're only really interested in how you do on your first try.

Gameplay mechanics are fairly smooth, albeit with a touch of lag at the end of rounds. Answer parsing on walls, meanwhile, seems to err on the side of caution (I got away with 'TV' instead of 'TV sitcoms', for example), which is probably for the best, although good spelling remains crucial both to walls and missing vowels. American players may wish to take note of this second point; in an early game I tried 'theaters' to no avail.

With 108 walls you're looking at 1.4p per game (1.8p on Android), which isn''t too shabby, and it of course remains to be seen whether more content will be added as time goes on. As far as I can tell the walls are original but at least some of the missing vowels seem recycled from the show (not that this really affects gameplay much). While there are arguably better web-based options for both walls and missing vowels out there (not to mention the the official Only Connect site) this remains a good option for commutes and similar 'off-the-grid' occasions.

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The maximum possible score in ten-pin bowling without a strike is 190

We won this week :D But could you have done even better?
The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor

The ones that got away
1) How long is a ten pin bowling alley (from the foul line to the front pin)? If you get within five feet you get the point.
2) Identify the song and artist from these lyrics (you need both for the point): "I'm waking up to ash and dust \ I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust \ I'm breathing in the chemicals".
3) From which country did Bangladesh declare independence in 1971?
4) Which Texas chapel, built in 1744, takes its now famous name from the Spanish for 'cottonwood'?
5) The first Space Shuttle, unveiled in 1976, was going to be called Constitution before Gerald Ford received over 100,000 letters asking him to change it to what name instead?
6) What 1980s US TV show is name dropped in the Prince song Kiss?

The answers

1) 60 feet or 18.3 metres (55-65 feet or 16.764-19.812 metres gets you the point) or
2) Radioactive by Imagine Dragons [VIDEO]
3) Pakistan
4) The Alamo
5) Enterprise (the campaign was, of course, by Star Trek fans)
6) Dynasty [VIDEO] (the line in question is "You don't have to watch Dynasty to have an attitude")

Our excuses

1) As one who values getting a quiz question correct over looking like an idiot, I promptly got out of my seat and attempted to judge the length of a bowling alley in the bar, before pacing it out (much to some other quizzers' bemusement). This led to a guess of 50 feet, which I felt reasonably sure was an underestimate, but the doctor thought the opposite. Given that I'm blind in one eye (and so have no depth perception) I was inclined to trust the binocular member of our team, but of course on retrospect was rather frustrated.
2) I've probably said it before, but I think lyrics questions are exceptionally hard to gauge the difficulty of. When the answer was revealed it still didn't ring a bell so I assumed it was some super obscure song I'd never heard of (though I am vaguely familiar with the band name). On listening, however, I recognized it instantly, and while I'm not entirely sure where I knew it from, Wikipedia has a fairly long list of options (with Assassin's Creed III advertising the likeliest suspect).
3) Horrible. I said at the time that if this was asked on a UK quiz I would have said Pakistan with some certainty, but geography questions in North American quizzes are often just a case of knowing roughly which countries border each other. As such, I talked myself into putting down India, reassured by the knowledge of the crazy multi-level enclaves along their border suggesting their previous unity. If you're unfamiliar with this particularly odd part of international boundaries, do have a look here.
4) Considering this quiz ended with a tie-break I was incredibly relieved to win as I basically cost us a point here through sheer stupidity. The doctor initially suggested the correct answer, but didn't give any reason why other than "the battle of the Alamo is a famous thing that happened in Texas, right?". I, meanwhile, in a flash of brilliance decided that there wasn't much reason for a church to share a name with a battle and ultimately put down a last-second guess of "Westboro Baptist Church" which is fairly obviously not in Texas and very obviously not derived from the Spanish for cottonwood. I still have no idea why I was so sure Alomo wasn't right; I can only blame the bucket of beers we won at half time.
5) One of those questions where on another night our brains might have happened down the correct train of thought to get to the answer. This was certainly work-outable but we could only imagine a letter-writing campaign might be about a past President or some similarly nationalistic topic. I also had the vague idea that all the Space Shuttles had names starting with C, knowing of Challenger and Columbia. While we could rule out Challenger, Columbia seemed somewhat plausible. In fact, Columbia was the first 'space-rated' Space Shuttle (its first flight taking place in 1981), whereas the Enterprise - though technically the first Space Shuttle - was only used for test flights.
6) Another song lyric question that passed us by, with Cheers our default 80s TV show guess. This time, at least, we knew the song well enough to vaguely hum through it not that it helped.

How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!


My alternative questions
1) What comes fourth in this sequence? A standard UK 13 amp plug; A 7-10 split in bowling; A Blue Peter badge.
2) Despite the Welsh flag being super rad, only two other countries feature dragons on their national flags. One is a landlocked country in South Asia (with quite a big dragon), the other is a Mediterranean island nation (with a very small one). Name either.

Question 3

3) Pictured is an estimated distribution of what specific subspecies of mammal, the national animal of both India and Bangladesh?
4) Which American folk hero, who died at the Battle of the Alamo, is mentioned in the same line of Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire as Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, and Disneyland?
5) Along with the Challenger and Chernobyl disasters, 1986 also saw the Lake Nyos disaster in Cameroon, when a limnic eruption caused the deaths of some 1,700 people - how did they die?
6) There are currently eleven official Disney Princesses. The names of four of them (Snow White, Cinderella, Pocahontas and Mulan) feature in the titles of their respective films. Can you match up the other seven with their original Disney films below? You need a perfect set to get the point!

The answers

1) Something with no pins, such as an angry baker who has had their rolling pin stolen (these are things with 3, 2, and 1 pin, respectively)
2) Bhutan and Malta - the flag of Malta features a representation of the George Cross, awarded to Malta in 1942, which contains a depiction of St. George and the Dragon

The flag of Bhutan, Malta, and a slight close-up on that George Cross.

3) The Bengal tiger
4) Davy Crockett
5) Suffocation (a limnic eruption is when carbon dioxide is suddenly released from a lake, displacing all the air nearby)
6) Those princesses and films match up as follows:

How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!

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Only Connect Post Mortem: Series 10 Episode 4QI Elves vs. Bibliophiles

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

Warning: the following contains spoilers for Series 10, Episode 4 of Only Connect, first broadcast on BBC Two on Monday 22nd September. If you haven't seen it yet go and watch it on iPlayer!

Missed last week's recap of the Wandering Minstrels vs. the Gallifreyans? Check it out here!

There's some showbiz swagger in the studio this week, with the QI Elves showing remarkable bravery by putting their reputations on the line. Of course, they're incredibly lovely and humble, and are immediately given the opportunity to clarify that they probably don't know everything about everything. They're up against the Bibliophiles, who immediately got my support for having (at least) two maths graduates on the team. Let's see what the Only Connect gods/devils (delete as applicable) had in store this week.

Round 1: What's the connection?

The questions
1) Music: Year of the Cat (Al Stewart); The Very Thought of You (Al Bowlly); Sonny Boy (Al Jolson); Let's Stay Together (Al Green)
2) Serious; Frame and Fortune; G'day Ya Pommie B.....!; It's not about the Bike
3) Millard Fillmore; Lace; Abolition of slavery; Floor of Roky Erickson's Elevators
4) Rose (in red); Tree (in blue); Pound (in purple); Bird (in yellow)
5) Ford Prefect; David Brent; Sherlock Holmes; Gandalf
6) Pictures: Trevor Peacock; Jonnie Peacock; The NBC logo; Mrs. Peacock (on a Cluedo board)

The answers

1) You can call them Al
2) Sportspersons' autobiographies
3) 13th
4) UK national parties
5) Associates played by Martin Freeman
6) Peacocks

Our thoughts
1) A tough one to start, I thought, with recognition of at least two of the singers essential (not much chance of educated guesswork here) and both teams were duly stumped. The closest I could get was vaguely recognizing the clip of Al Green. I suspect some may have known Al Jolson's Sonny Boy as the first American record to sell over one million copies, but beyond that this seemed one to only cement the music question's reputation as the show's toughest.
2) A slightly friendlier bit of standard general knowledge here although some lateral thinking could also clue you in to these being book titles related to sports or sportsmen. Playing along at home I managed to recognize Lance Armstrong's It's not about the Bike but then we foolishly went too specific with cyclist's autobiographies, supposing that Frame and Fortune was some sort of bike-related pun. Not easy, and the teams were evaded again, but I absolutely loved the Elves' idea of TV shows' names when exported to other countries (anyone else who's looked up the international versions of Come Dine With Me will agree, I'm sure).
3) After two tricky openers another question we thought was difficult but the Elves came in for an impressive point (despite having the answer on the first clue with the remainder not reassuring them any further). I'll have to admit ignorance of the 13th Floor Elevators and given their fairly sparse discography I'd imagine I'm not alone. The Elves knew Fillmore was the 13th President straight off the bat, and I presume the thinking in the question is there's not much else to know him for, although Wikipedia tells me he who was the last President was neither a Republican or a Democrat (he was a Whig), which is nice. The other clues are 'classic trivia' territory, with anniversary gifts and the number of US amendments largely the preserve of pub quizzes and not much else.
4) At this point I was starting to wonder if the show had decided "right, we've given BBC Two their easy-ish shows to lure in the new punters, now it's back to the hard stuff" and then this question popped up. A lovely idea, and a really nice question, just a touch unfortunate to come straight after three relatively difficult ones. As always, though, this is a matter of judgement and I typically find those questions with a touch more lateral thinking tend to be the hardest to gauge. The Bibliophiles had this for two, and both teams were up and running.
5) I'll admit that we found this one a touch odd. After two clues we had the answer but the link seemed sufficiently vague that we took a third expecting to work out something more specific. Perhaps a slightly harsh criticism, but I like to think that's more a testament to how tight the vast majority of the show's questions are.
6) A case of "can you recognize what's in these pictures?" but with the inclusion of the NBC logo and the Cluedo pieces providing some enjoyable alternative routes for those of us who struggle to recognize people. The Bibliophiles got the peacock link on the logo, and (I think quite impressively) deduced that either the actor or the Vicar of Dibley character he plays was called Peacock as well.

Round 2: What comes fourth?

The questions
1) First Manfred Mann hit; 2010 Noel Clark film; Gameshow featuring Dusty Bin
2) Tar Heel, NC; Palmetto, SC; Peach, GA
3) 1990: Johnson; 1997: Booth; 2007: Macaulay
4) Arthur Drewry; Stanley Rous; João Havelange
5) 1 of 4: Battleships; 2 of 4: Clue; 3 of 4: NFL Super Bowl Electric Football
6) Pictures: The Only Connect title card extremely pixellated; The Only Connect title card rather pixellated; The Only Connect title card slightly pixellated

The answers

1) (e.g.) Upper second-class degree (5-4-3-2-1, 4.3.2.1, 3-2-1, 2:1)
2) Sunshine, FL (US state nicknames along the east coast)
3) 2010: Sheffield (Prime ministers' spouses)
4) Sepp Blatter (Presidents of Fifa)
5) 4 of 4: Twister (Bill & Ted v Death in 'Bogus Journey')
6) The Only Connect title card (not at all pixellated)

Our thoughts
1) A fun sequence, and one of those gems where recognizing two clues gives it away, but recognizing just one still gives you a chance. We were in the latter camp, being familiar with 3-2-1 (thanks Challenge!), but pushed for time ended up deciding a sequence of 1, 2-1, 3-2-1, 4-3-2-1 seemed (slightly) more plausible. This was partly because we knew there was a film called 21, whereas a film called 4-3-2-1 seemed ridiculous. (The flipside, of course, is that it's much easier to think of an example of 2-1 than 4-3-2-1 for the answer, which should have tipped us off.) The Elves knew their Manfred Mann to give them the connection and the all-important direction to take two points.
2) A test of geography and either quizzing knowledge or quick thinking, here. If you know your state nicknames (see above re: wedding anniversaries), or could infer that's what they were, then you had half of this but would still need to recognize the state abbreviations and know where those states were. A lot going on, then, but the Bibliophiles managed to unravel it all for two good points of their own.
3) Back to some standard general knowledge (with the very slight challenge of recognizing Prime Ministerial years; bread and butter to veteran Only Connect viewers) where most teams would probably have the link after two but not know what the answer was. The Elves were in this camp, and smartly didn't bother asking for the third, while the Bibliophiles managed to sneak in for the bonus. I'll admit I was expecting/hoping to kick myself when the answer was revealed, but Sheffield only rang the very faintest of bells.
4) Another case of straight general knowledge which evaded the Bibliophiles (and us) but not the Elves. As a fairly avid football fan I think I'm going to claim a tiny bit of "before my time" on this; Havelange reigned for a whopping 24 years before finally being replaced in 1998.
5) One I suspect you'll either love or complain is ridiculously obscure. The doctor had this after Clue, but I was so sceptical of it really being the answer I insisted on a third to be sure. Neither team had it, and given that if you're going to be familiar with Bill and Ted's travels at all it's likely with their Excellent Adventure, I can't really blame them. Still, one of the reasons we all love Only Connect is the almost absurd range of trivia they consider fair game.
6) This, meanwhile, was somewhat at the other end of the spectrum. I'd file this under 'cute', but it felt a little like a question from a celebrity special. The doctor, remarkably, was thinking along the right lines after just one clue, and by the second we were sure. In the studio the Bibliophiles took it after three, by which point (and I don't mean this as a disservice to the team, of course) I find it hard to believe anyone would have been stumped.

Question of the Week

A rather mixed bag this week and overall somewhat tougher than the episodes we've seen on BBC Two so far. Nevertheless, it was close at the top and both '5-4-3-2-1' and 'Sportspersons' autobiographies' deserve honourable mentions, but for us Question of the Week goes to UK national parties. While it may have seemed a bit easy at home, I still think this is a great example of an Only Connect question, having the potential to seem impenetrable at first with a great "a-ha!" moment when the penny drops.

Of course, if you disagree (or even if you don't) let us know what your favourite questions were with the poll below!

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The record for fastest Morse code copying is 75.2 words per minute

Your targets this week:

1+ out of 10: Well done, you beat us!
6+ out of 10: We'd have won with you on our team!

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The programmer

The ones that got away
1) Bullfighting is legal in Spain, Portugal and which other EU country?
2) How many hearts does an octopus have?
3) Which president created the post "Chief Technology Officer of the United States?
4) What four word Bible quote was the first message sent by Morse code?
5) Martha Masters, Lawrence Kutner, Chris Taub and Remy Hadley were all employed by which fictional character created by David Shore?
6) In 2004 a Fender Stratocaster nicknamed Blackie sold for $959,500 at Christie's setting the then record for the world's most expensive guitar. Who did it belong to?
7) In which movie did Tom Cruise shoot to stardom with the help of tight white underpants, prostitutes, and Joe Pantoliano?
8) In which movie did Cameron Diaz make her feature film debut?
9) Name two of the four sisters in Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women. (You need both for the point.)
10) What is the longest common English word that can be formed using only letters that rhyme with "E"? (When asked, the American quizmaster added that as he pronounces the letter Z as "zee" we should consider that in our deliberations.)

The answers

1) France
2) 3
3) Barack Obama
4) What hath God wrought
5) Dr. Gregory House, M.D. ('House' suffices)
6) Eric Clapton
7) Risky Business
8) The Mask
9) Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy (surname March, in case you were wondering)
10) DETECTED (given the word 'common' in the question, and the general complications of "which dictionary?" alternatives, however plausible, are not accepted)

Our excuses

1) We made a fairly basic mistake here and put Andorra which, predictably, isn't even in the EU. Even without that slip-up I'm still not sure we would have picked France of the remaining options, although given its proximity to Spain it does seem the 'obvious' answer.
2) The doctor thought octopuses had a heart for each chamber that a normal human heart has, giving a total of four. Apparently they have one heart pumping blood through each gill and then a third for the rest of the body. Needless to say I'm adding this to the doctor's list of 'medical' questions he's inexplicably got wrong.
3) Theorizing this was one of those "oh, it'll be more recent than you think" questions we were debating between Clinton and (W) Bush before going for the latter. The position was actually first created in 2009, so at least we'd got the spirit of the question correct...
4) The doctor had a vague memory of this, and suggested 'let there be light' which I thought worked rather well, though admittedly not as well as the actual answer.
5) A rather successful show that we've almost never seen. After watching one episode a few years ago the doctor decided "watching this as a doctor is like being a chef and watching a drama about cooking where everyone could fly and they spend all their time trying to fly and flying and none of their time cooking". Pithy.
6) There only really seemed to be two options for this: Hendrix and Clapton. Except I was the only one thinking of Clapton and didn't mention it because I only vaguely know who he is.
7) Not one any of us were familiar with, our early Tom Cruise repertoire being limited to Top Gun (1986) and Cocktail (1988) both coming rather later than Risky Business in 1983. Able to rule out Top Gun, at least, we were left with Cocktail as our 'better than nothing' guess. Risky Business was Cruise's sixth feature film appearance, his debut coming in 1981's Endless Love.
8) Another toss-up that went the wrong way. We spent a long time considering The Mask before going with There's Something About Mary which, coming out in 1998, was a whole four years later.
9) An obscenely famous book the details of which we were all entirely ignorant of. A case of "pick some random oldish names and hope for the best" for us.
10) Given our enjoyment of word puzzles I was a bit disappointed we missed this. The letters available are BCDEGPTVZ and we got as close as "if only we could use F, then DEFECTED would work" without the penny dropping. Our seven letter TEEPEED (thinking of the act of throwing toilet roll over someone's house) is, alas, not yet in my dictionary.

How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (6 or more correct)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!


My alternative questions
1) Excluding Vatican City (which is not a member of the UN), Andorra is the fifth-smallest country in Europe, name all four European countries which are smaller.
2) What character, almost certainly on your keyboard, is known by several names including 'octothorp'?
3) Barack Obama's name only has two different vowels (a and o), but which US President is unique in having a name (first and last) that contains only one unique vowel (of a, e, i, o or u)?
4) Classic trivia: what was eventually revealed to be the first name of Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse? He was named after the ship James Cook took on his first 'voyage of discovery' to Australia and New Zealand.
5) In an apparent analogy to Sherlock Holmes' opium use, Dr Gregory House is depicted as being dependent on Vicodin, a painkiller consisting of the opiate hydrocodone and which much more common analgesic also known as acetaminophen?
6) Eric Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once as a solo artist and separately as a member of which two bands?

Question 7

7) In Risky Business Tom Cruise's character does some naughty things, including driving his dad's car recklessly without permission. What make is that car? A segment of its logo is pictured here in case you can't quite remember the movie.
8) In the movie, the titular mask supposedly belongs to which Norse god?
9) In a 1997 episode of which TV series does one of the male lead characters put a copy of The Shining, and later Little Women, in a freezer because they made him too scared and too sad, respectively?
10) A hit for Perry Como in 1949, "'A' You're Adorable" takes the form of an alphabetic acrostic, with the first 11 lines matching up with a letter of the alphabet (before they presumably got bored/stuck). Fill in two of the four missing words below!

A, you're adorable

B, you're so _________

C, you're a _____ full of charms

D, you're a _______

And E, you're ________

And F, you're a feather in my arms

The answers

1) (In decreasing size) Malta, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco
2) # (hash, pound, or number sign - it has eight 'points', hence 'octo')
3) Lyndon (B.) Johnson
4) Endeavour
5) Paracetamol
6) The Yardbirds and Cream (no half marks, I'm afraid)
7) Porsche (here's the full logo)
8) Loki (often described as the god of mischief)
9) (Joey in) Friends [VIDEO]
10) B: beautiful; C: cutie; D: darling; E: exciting (and if you haven't seen Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise performing this particular number, stop whatever you're doing and watch this video)

How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!

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Only Connect Post Mortem: Series 10 Episode 3Wandering MInstrels vs. Gallifreyans

Warning: the following contains spoilers for Series 10, Episode 3 of Only Connect, first broadcast on BBC Two on Monday 15th September. If you haven't seen it yet go and watch it on iPlayer!

Missed last week's recap of the History Boys vs. the Oxonions? Check it out here!

Week 3 of All New Only Connect saw Gilbert and Sullivan fans the Wandering Minstrels against the Doctor Who loving Gallifreyans. Ah yes, light opera, the Time Lords' other other greatest foe.

New! You can now vote for your own favourite Question of the Week - check the poll below!

Round 1: What's the connection?

The questions
1) Rachel Carson ecology bible; Franz Gruber carol; Forensic pathology series; (e.g.) ansWer
2) Blender; Tumbler; Grinder; Flicker
3) Peggy Mitchell; Darrin Stephens; Kristine Kochanski; Miss Ellie
4) Steve Jobs; Marcus Garvey; Dave Swarbrick; Mark Twain
5) Busy Doing Nothing (from A Connecticut Yankee in New York); The Importance of Being Idle (Oasis); Lazy Sunday (Small Faces); The Lazy Song (Bruno Mars)
6) Sugar glider; Sugar Ray Leonard; Sugar Plum Fairy; Sugarloaf Mountain

The answers

1) Silent (Spring, Night, Witness, Letter)
2) Missing 'e' internet brands
3) Different actors
4) Premature obituaries
5) Indolence
6) Sugar

Our thoughts
1) A fairly straight general knowledge one to kick off. Rachel Carson's ecology bible meant nothing to me as a clue, and little more once we worked out the answer, so the Gallifreyans were perhaps a touch unlucky to spot this early but not rake in the points (although the Minstrels were unable to take full advantage). Franz Gruber's carol strikes me as the sort of trivia chestnut that would trigger certain minds, while I assume 'forensic pathology' would get rather more brains on track. We, however, needed all four clues before the penny dropped (reverese engineering Silent Witness to give us the two clues we needed to form a link), but this seemed like a good staggering of difficulty.
2) The doctor immediately thought Blender was some sort of 3D rendering software (which it is, but it isn't Blendr) but for Internet nerds like us Tumbler really gave it away. I'm not sure whether Tumblr is really less well-known than Grindr (or at least, I'd expect the former to have somewhat less specialized penetration) but otherwise this was a neat, if a touch "easy when you know how" question, where either knowing two, or knowing one and making a bit of a leap of faith would get you the points. As it was the Minstrels needed all four to be sure, but better safe than sorry.
3) Another fairly vanilla general knowledge one this, in an area I am so terrible at it's hard for me to pass judgement on difficulty. The Gallifreyans spotted the link thanks to a familiarity with Darrin Stephens in Bewitched, which struck me as rather impressive. We completely bombed on this, only recognizing the names Peggy Mitchell and Red Dwarf's Kristine Kochanski, which was nowhere near enough for us to get anywhere.
4) This again struck us as tough, but was similarly not really in our wheelhouse. Twain's "the report of my death was an exaggeration" is of course ridiculously famous, but Twain was hardly renowned for a scarcity of good quotes. Swarbrick, meanwhile, with his "it's not the first time I've died in Coventry" gives you more of a route into this (there's far less to note about him than Twain) but I had completely forgotten it. The Gallifreyans picked up their first bonus and were starting to look good value after their early slip.
5) A relatively eclectic mix, here, which is always nice to see (or indeed, hear). Clue ordering has always struck me as particularly difficult in this sort of question, as there are doubtless plenty of people who would have recognized Lazy Sunday far easier than The Importance of Being Idle, and vice-versa. That said, the length of the Oasis title made picking out a specific link much harder (ignoring how hard the song is to identify in the first place), while the last two titles were much more to the point. It would perhaps have been neat if they'd found an alternative to using 'lazy' twice; answers on a postcard? Like us, the Gallifreyans took all four clues to get the point.
6) Like the music, an impressive range of topics covered in one clue here. I always enjoy the part of an Only Connect question where you spot a link late and then work backwards, and this one worked particularly well. After suggesting 'Sugar Plum Fairy' (we rattled through the handful of Very Famous ballet dancers or characters we could think of) we then found ourselves tasked with quickly thinking if there was a 'Sugar' boxer and small marsupial. I'm not sure how many would recognize a sugar glider without additional hints (we initially thought it might have been a bush baby) but spotting either a boxer or ballet would seem likely to cover a good chunk of quizzing society. Sugarloaf Mountain, meanwhile, is one of the more distinctive lumps of rock out there, so made for a good final clue (and duly gave the Minstrels the last point of the round).

Round 2: What comes fourth?

The questions
1) 4th: Portugal; 3rd: Angola; 2nd: Mozambique
2) a1: R; b1: N; c1: B
3) Jack Lemmon and Whoopi Goldberg; Johnny Carson; Billy Crystal
4) Picture: Florence; Rose; Endellion
5) 5: Eggheads; 4: University Challenge; 3: Only Conect
6) Subdominant; Mediant; Supertonic

The answers

1) 1st: Brazil (Lusophone countries)
2) d1: Q (Set-up of a chess board)
3) Bob Hope (Oscar hosts up to the most)
4) Cameron (making the full name of David Cameron's daughter)
5) (e.g.) 2: Pointless (Quiz shows with teams of 5, 4, 3, 2)
6) Tonic (Notes of the diatonic scale)

Our thoughts
1) More 'classic trivia' here, which I was utterly infuriated with myself for missing (I looked this list up just the other week, and even remarked to the doctor that Portugal is only the fourth largest speaker of Portugese!). Even without the classic trivia tag this is a lovely question, as knowledge of the countries themselves, or even colonial history, gives you various routes towards the answer. The Gallifreyans took all three clues but worked it out well to kick off the round.
2) As a semi-regular chess player this struck me as fantastically easy for five, but I can fully appreciate that it's something that could really catch a blind spot if you're not familiar with the notation. In fact, I'm not entirely sure if there's much of a way into it if you aren't at all familiar with chess notation, as the a1, b1, c1, seem fairly tricky to work out from the context (not to mention with the additional 'red herring' of N for Knight). The fact the Gallifreyans had the link but couldn't quite remember their chess boards quickly enough does make me wonder if this falls a little too close to the "five points or nothing" zone.
3) After the glory of a chess question, back to one of our own quizzing blind spots with the Oscars. I even got as far as thinking it was something to do with hosts but couldn't get further than that. Another standard general knowledge (and 'classic trivia') one, this, and the Gallifreyans took what seemed a comfortable two points.
4) Unusually for us, we knew what was going on in all three pictures (the doctor even recognizing Il Duemo di Firenze thanks to his antics in the Assassin's Creed video games) but had completely forgotten what is presumably the only noteworthy thing about the Cornish village of St Endellion. This seems near-impossible with only the first two clues, and then immediately becomes a "you know it or you don't" the moment you see Endellion. The Minstrels, however, did know it, to snag an impressive two points.
5) After the chess question, another one that seemed an easy five pointer from the comfort of home. I don't know how many quizzers would see Eggheads and think of anything other than the BBC Two quiz, and from there the link to the number five seems fairly obvious. The only question then is if it's going up to nine or down to two, but if you can think of quizzes with six, seven, eight and nine player teams then let me know. While this latter observation seems fairly obvious, I don't blame the Gallifreyans for taking another clue to be sure under studio pressure (not least because they were already looking at a fairly comfortable lead). On a personal note, I was amused to see that the doctor and I had appeared on three of the four quiz shows listed; we may have to look into Eggheads if and when we move back to the UK!
6) In a sequence round where from our sofa we'd scored either five points or zero on each question, we finished off with another five that was again conveniently in our wheelhouse. The Minstrels were perhaps a bit unlucky to have chosen a team name that left themselves open to mild embarrassment at missing what is some relatively rudimentary music theory, but in fairness is something I think you're unlikely to encounter beyond the classroom. Much like the chess question, I think this suffers a little from being either trivial or near-impossible (although a bit of lateral thinking might guide you to tonic after supertonic), but the Gallifreyans were happy to scoop up the bonus. This question is perhaps more notable for the truly heroic banter that followed, where in response to the Minstrels' defence that liking Gilbert and Sullivan was merely an excuse to drink plenty of gin, the Gallifreyans' John quickly replied that they therefore should have had tonic anyway. Incredible.

Question of the Week

A lot of questions this week felt like relatively straight general knowledge affairs rather than the lateral thinking I personally tend to prefer. I'll admit we were close to taking the unprecedented step of not awarding a QotW, not because the questions this week were particularly bad, just that none particularly stood out. However, as we're only three episodes in I thought using the word 'unprecedented' just might make me look a bit pretentious, so instead we're giving it to our personal favourite: the Sugar glider... picture round! As I noted above, this one stood out a little with the range of topics it covered, as well as providing some fun work once you spot the connection to try and make it fit to the previous clues. If that doesn't convince you, then at least take it as an excuse to look at pictures of sugar gliders; those things are adorable.

Disagree? Then you can vote for your own favourite questions in the poll below!

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Bonus QuestionComic-con cosplay quiz!

Best crossover ever.

This weekend the doctor and I got our geek on and headed to Montreal Comiccon. One of the best things about conventions are all the cosplayers - attendees who put together often incredible costumes of their favourite people/characters from movies, TV, music, video games and, of course, comics. Naturally, we took a bunch of photos, and what better way to share them than through a picture quiz?

Here, then, are 22 questions about or inspired by what we saw at the con. Suffice to say this will be on the slightly nerdy side, but I've tried to keep things reasonably accessible. Sincere thanks and credit to all those pictured, some of the efforts on display were truly stunning.

Don't forget to click on an image for a larger version - but be careful: it brings up a slideshow and if you scroll too far you might be spoiled for the answers!

Questions 1-4

1) Which fictional team drive this car?
2) What is the alpha-numeric designation of this dog (hint: he has nothing to do with Star Trek).
3) In the middle here is an excellent portrayal of Rainbow Dash from the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series, but from which British TV show do the couple flanking her take inspiration?
4) Name the actor on the left and the (fictional) species portrayed on the right. (1 point for each)

Questions 5-8

5) This cosplay is of an operatic character from which 1997 film directed by Luc Besson?
6) Who is this chap?
7) Which Doctor Who 'doctor' has been shopping? I want the name of the relevant actor, please.
8) On which fictional space station might you find this staff member?

Questions 9-12

9)  (Top left) Which musician is currently in a legal battle with Disney over attempts to trademark the emblem worn here?
10) (Top right) Which character is this? He was played in a 1992 movie by Danny DeVito.
11) (Bottom left) Rocking some appropriate plaid, which Canadian superhero is this?
12) (Bottom right) This is the lead character from which critically acclaimed American crime drama which ended a year ago this month?

Questions 13-16

13) Looking a little bit lonely, this bad guy is from which comic, television and movie franchise? Its cartoon's first arrival in the UK was marked by the change of one word in its title - considered too violent for children - to 'hero'.
14) Which musician is this?
15) Real name Arthur Curry, which superhero (and founding member of Detective Comics' Justice League of America) is this?
16) Hopefully all of us can recognize a Spock at a hundred paces, but which actor played him in Star Trek?

Questions 17-20

17) (Top left) Which two characters are these? (1 point for each)
18) (Top right) Name any two of the five characters here. (1 point for each)
19) (Bottom left) Ignore what I think is a steampunk zombie and instead check out Thor. What is the name of his hammer?
20) (Two pictures in bottom right) These are two characters from which major fantasy TV series?

21) One of the pictures (and questions) above features precisely one real-life celebrity famous person. Which question/who?

And finally...

22) Where's Wally? :D

Once you've had enough of staring at that little lot, check below for the answers, tally up your score then let the world know how you got on with the poll!
The answers

The (real) IT Crowd

1) The Ghostbusters
2) K-9 (from Doctor Who)
3) The IT Crowd (it's Roy and a gender-swapped, race-swapped Moss!)
4) 2-pointer: Jim Carrey (portraying Ace Ventura: Pet Detective) and a Predator (from Predator)
5) The Fifth Element (the alien Diva Plavalaguna, played by Maïwenn Le Besco, pictured, and voiced by Inva Mula)
6) Hulk Hogan
7) David Tennant (complete with 3D glasses)
8) The Death Star (it's an Imperial gunner, in case you were wondering)
9) deadmau5 ('dead mouse' or similar is fine)

Diva Plavalaguna

10) The Penguin
11) Wolverine (James Howlett and Logan also acceptable)
12) Breaking Bad (it's Walter White)
13) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (it's Shredder)
14) Slash from Guns N' Roses
15) Aquaman
16) Leonard Nimoy
17) 2-pointer: Virginia "Pepper" Potts and Tony Stark (from the Iron Man series; pseudonyms also acceptable)

Walter White

18) 2-pointer: Standing up from left to right: Elsa (from Disney's Frozen), Mr. Freeze (from the Batman comics, perhaps most notably played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1997 film Batman & Robin), Emma Frost (from the X-Men), Ice King (from Adventure Time), kneeling is Captain Cold (from the Flash comics). Only two points available but if you knew all five please fill out an application to be friends with the doctor.
19) Mjölnir
20) Game of Thrones (it's Daenerys Targaryen - also know as Mother of Dragons among many others - and Hodor)
21) Hulk Hogan in question six is the real deal :D
22) Right at the back, just to the right of the blue door (circled here)

The latest in computerized identification.

Don't forget the two-point questions: the total score is out of 25!

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In 1652 a doorway was cut through da Vinci's The last Supper

Your targets this week:

1+ out of 6: Well done, you beat us!
4+ out of 6: We'd have won with you on our team!

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor

The ones that got away

Question 1

1) Name the band pictured.
2) To be classified as a serial killer, at least how many murders must an individual commit over a period of at least 30 days?
3) The Caribbean island of Aruba belongs to which country?
4) Which musical instrument did Mark Twain refer to as the "stomach Steinway"?
5) In da Vinci's The Last Supper, what is Judas depicted knocking over to symbolize his treachery?
6) Which baseball position does Kevin Costner's character Crash Davis play in the 1988 movie Bull Durham?

The answers

1) Led Zeppelin
2) Three
3) The Netherlands
4) The accordion
5) Salt (fourth from the left here)
6) Catcher

Our excuses

1) Considering that the doctor has been frequently compared to at least three of the four members of this band for many years it's verging on the impressive that we missed this. Led Zeppelin crossed our minds but was dismissed in a "surely we'd recognize them" manner. We put T. Rex which for us on a question like this is actually quite a good guess (at least they're a band from the correct era).
2) Slightly weird one, this, and obviously it depends somewhat on who you ask (the FBI apparently go with "two or more"). The doctor had, however, read about this very definition fairly recently but with numbers being very much my part of the quizzing bargain his memory of four was unsurprisingly off the mark.
3) On retrospect putting down the UK for this was probably a bit foolish, as I really should have had confidence in my knowledge of the things we own. As for the question itself, I'm not convinced that 'belongs to' is quite the correct phrase, as Aruba is apparently one of the four "constituent countries" that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands (along with Curaçao, Sint Maarten and, of course, the Netherlands). I wonder if that's been an Only Connect question yet...
4) With 'Steinway' pointing towards pianos both my and the doctor's first instinct was accordion. Unfortunately we then both simultaneously second-guessed ourselves and proposed bagpipes instead (mistakenly supposing the bag is made of an animal's stomach - clearly we shouldn't be let near haggis). Predictably, attempting to verify this quote has proven tricky, with most Google results returning someone asking the same question.
5) For such a famous painting I was surprised we had so little idea, going for the relatively blind guess of wine. Still, it's an excellent excuse (if, like me, you haven't before) to read up on the various symbolism and structure of the piece.
6) Despite this being ranked the greatest sports movie of all time by Sports Illustrated, it nevertheless does not seem to have had much impact outside of North America. As such we were left to educated guessing which was immediately doomed to failure as catcher was the one position we ruled out: "you wouldn't be able to see his face!".

How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (4 or more correct)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!



My alternative questions
1) When the German Zeppelin Hindenburg was destroyed by fire it was mercifully only carrying half its full capacity of passengers. Its return flight, however, was fully booked, with many of those would-be passengers planning to attend festivities surrounding whose coronation the following week?
2) Serial Thrilla is a song on the 1997 album The Fat of the Land by which British electronic music group? As well as the band's first two UK number one singles, the album also featured a track whose mere title was banned from use on BBC Radio 1.
3) What flavour is Curaçao liqueur? It comes from the peel of a fruit grown there whose flesh is all but inedible thanks to the island's nutrient-poor soil.
4) Samuel Clemens claimed his pen name came from his life on the Mississippi. The riverboatman's cry of "mark twain!" - twain being an archaic word for two - indicated the water was two units of what distance deep and therefore safe to navigate?
5) On which day do Christians traditionally commemorate the Last Supper?
6) Who's missing from the baseball team pictured? (As always, you can click to get a bigger version.)

The answers

1) King George VI (the Hindenburg disaster took place on May 6, 1937)
2) The Prodigy (and if you hadn't guessed, that other single is this one)
3) Orange (the laraha citrus fruit was developed from the Valencia orange transplanted there by Spanish explorers)
4) Fathoms (and don't forget, 1 fathom = 6 feet)
5) Maundy Thursday (although 'Maundy' refers to the foot washing Jesus is said to have carried out after the meal)
6) The first baseman should be labelled 'Who' - these are the named players from Abbot and Costello's "Who's on first?" comedy routine. Note that the right fielder isn't identified in the routine (and if you answered this question with a simple "Yes" you get both the point and my respect).

How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!

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Only Connect Post Mortem: Series 10 Episode 2History Boys vs. Oxonians

Warning: the following contains spoilers for Series 10, Episode 2 of Only Connect, first broadcast on BBC Two on Monday 8th September. If you haven't seen it yet go and watch it on iPlayer!

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

Only Connect's second week on BBC Two featured a new sight for the show; for the first time a team from a previous series made a repeat appearance. Seen off by the eventual champions the Rugby Boys (including a certain Mark Labbett) 27-18 in the first round of Series 2, the History Boys were back for a second bite at the Only Connect cherry. This time they were up against the Oxonians, about whom there is comparatively little to say, so why not take a moment to enjoy the word Oxonion instead.

Continuing on from last week, then, here were our thoughts on the first two rounds of questions.

Round 1: What's the connection?

The questions
1) Music: Die Moritat von Mackie Messer; Comme d'habitude; Io che non vivo senza te; Dorogoi dlinnoyu
2) Pope John XX; The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 2; Australian Open 1986; 3-13 September 1752
-3) the Biography of Great Men (Carlyle); a race between education and catastrophe (Wells); a set of lies agreed upon (Napoleon); more or less bunk (Ford)
4) Henry Pym; Emberiza citrinella; Flavivirus febricis; Musical subaqueous craft
5) Guernsey; Jersey; Balaclava; Bikini
6) Pictures: Ken Dodd's teeth; Merv Hughes' moustache; Betty Grable's legs; The Titanic

The answers

1) Hits in translation
2) Didn't exist
3) Descriptions of history
4) Yellow
5) Clothing named after places
6) Insured by Lloyd's

Our thoughts
1) An interesting question where plenty of us would have had a good inkling on the first clue, but with the challenge of working out precisely what's going on. I didn't entirely like that the first two were songs so strongly associated with one artist (Frank Sinatra), but we're starting to see a trend for questions of this form - where the first two clues carry a soupçon of misdirection - both from this series and the last. The History Boys carefully dodged the Specifically Sinatra trap whereas we would've taken three clues to be sure. Jamie was close to impressing me on this, immediately announcing that Die Moritat von Mackie Messer was from The Threepenny Opera, before helpfully following up with "I know nothing about The Threepenny Opera".
2) I think a certain type of quizzer would consider this an absolute gimme for five, but having never been too interested in lists of Popes or the Wilburys it was only on the Australian Open that I was confident that my first instinct was correct. A really lovely idea for a question, particularly since once the answer comes to you there's fun to be had working out how the previous clues could possibly make sense.
3) Controversy! After the roasting my team the Board Gamers justifiably received for getting a question about a board game during our run, the History Boys get one about, er, history. Except that isn't controversial at all, obviously, but does rather go to show how silly it is to complain about teams getting questions relating to their team name. Another one where once the penny drops (for us, on Napoleon) you get some good fun going back to the previous clues.
4) A particularly frustrating one for Jamie here, who probably knew too much about Henry Pym (AKA Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath, Wasp, Scientist Supreme...) and as always had to deal with my incredulity for not recognizing a very rare disease. I think if you hit on 'yellow' a little sooner then it could be inferred that something with 'citrinella' in its name might also relate to the colour, but this still seemed a fairly tough ask for more than two points.
5) This one fell into the category of "it can't be that easy...can it?" for me. Guernsey and Jersey obviously leave a lot of room for possibilities, but once you see Balaclava in a quiz you're pretty limited in what could be expected.
6) Jamie managed to spot this once we got to a picture of a boat, rather than people (who we're reliably bad at recognizing), but I appreciate the fun lateral thinking potential in "why are they pointing at those bits of famous people?".

Round 2: What comes fourth?

The questions
1) Moore: Dr. Kananga; Dalton: Gen. Georgi Koskov; Brosnan: Alex Trevelyn
2) 1st: the aqueduct; 2nd: the sanitation; 3rd: the roads
3) 6th: Heresy; 7th: Violence; 8th: Fraud
4) Picture: Pep Guardiola; Pip (one of Gladys Kight's); Iggy Pop
5) Savannah; Isla; George
6) Mortimer 1961; Haydon Jones 1969; Wade 1977

The answers

1) Craig: Le Chiffre (First villains of successive Bonds)
2) 4th: irrigation (What have the Romans ever done for us?)
3) 9th: Treachery (Circles of hell in 'Inferno')
4) A pup (Pep, Pip, Pop, Pup)
5) Mia (The Queen's great-grandchildren)
6) Murray 2013 (British Wimbledon singles champions)

Our thoughts
1) Bond is one of those areas of trivia that come up time and time again, so it didn't surprise me to see the History Boys take maximum points here. I'm sure many at home would also have got this for five (while grumbling about the show dumbing down, no doubt), but it still takes a calm head to manage it on the show. A nice enough question, but perhaps a bit too much in the "you'll get it for five or not at all" bracket.
2) This question reminded me of the Dead Parrot sketch that came up in our semi-final last year. Then, like now, both teams knew the link but no-one could remember the answer. It's obviously very tricky to judge whether this is just Too Hard or merely an unfortunate blind spot of the six contestants who happened to face it, but particularly when compared to the preceding question it does seem a bit tough.
3) I do enjoy sequence questions where you can get some extra information by using the numerical clues. Starting at 6th you know it's probably going down to 3rd or up to 9th, and when I said that Jamie twigged it must be circles of hell. From there it's just a case of whether you know your Divine Comedy, but again this is a question where I don't think the extra clues help all that much.
4) A nice question even if we did completely mess it up at home (Jamie thought it was 'car insurance mascots'). Recognizing at least two of three should give you enough.
5) Given the latest royal baby news I wonder if someone at OC HQ is kicking themselves for having now used up this question. While Elizabeth does (currently) have four great-grandchildren, and so this makes for a neat Only Connect group, it nevertheless seems tricky to ask a question about them that doesn't end with George. Mia was born back in January, a few months before this series filmed, so it was nevertheless a good spot from the History Boys to remember the name.
6) A fairly standard question to end the round, here, with Virginia Wade the giveaway should you need all three clues. The earlier clues, of course, reward those with a more encyclopaedic knowledge of British tennis (or, alternatively, those who paid more attention to the "he's the first male champion in 77 years!" stories).

Question of the Week

Another strong set of questions, although I think the quality and difficulty was a touch more erratic than last week. Things continue to seem easier (but by no means easy) compared with the infamous series 9, and the teams' scores reflect this. This time around it was a two-horse race for Question of the Week, with 'Descriptions of history' a very close second. For us, though, Pope John XX... takes it by a nose, being both fun trivia and requiring some careful "wait, how could that make sense?" thinking once you land on the answer.

Disagree? You can vote for your own favourite questions in the poll below!

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The Vice President flies in Air Force Two

Your targets this week:

1+ out of 7: Well done, you beat us!
4+ out of 7: We'd have won with you on our team!

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor

The ones that got away

Question 2!

1) At 5,642m Mount Elbrus is the highest mountain on which continent?
2) Can you identify the disguised famous face pictured?
3) Which US beer brand was originally sold in miniature Champagne bottles? Its bottles still bear the slogan "The Champagne of beers".
4) Which of the following would you most likely hear at 16th and 17th century feasts? Galliard, Requiem, Capriccio, Passacaglia, Liederspiel, Tafelmusik.
5) Which of these athletes was not a famous figure skater? Vitaly Scherbo, Tenley Albright, Christopher Dean, Dick Button, Viktor Petrenko, Sonja Henie.
6) The US President's plane, Air Force One, is a modified version of which aircraft? Airbus A380, De Havilland Comet, Cessna 140, Boeing 747, Sopwith Camel, McDonnell Douglas DC-7.
7) Which of these movies was given wide release (in the US) in January 2000? Mrs Doubtfire, Babel, A Few Good Men, Toy Story, Magnolia, Saw.

The answers

1) Europe (it's in Russia, near the border with Georgia)
2) Jerry Seinfeld
3) Miller
4) Tafelmusik (literally, 'table music')
5) Vitaly Scherbo (a gymnast)
6) Boeing 747 (although technically any US Air Force aircraft carrying the President can use this call sign)
7) Magnolia, although it had a limited release in December 1999 (release dates for the others were Mrs Doubtfire: 1993; Babel: 2006; A Few Good Men: 1992; Toy Story: 1995; Saw: 2004)

Our excuses

1) Oof. An absolute horror show to start. My only defence is that I thought Mont Blanc was the highest mountain in Europe, and while there is the mildest of controversy on this issue depending on how you define Europe, that really would be clutching at straws. Being relatively sure of most of the remaining mountains that make up the Seven Summits (a Wikipedia page I have read more than once, in fact) I suggested Antarctica whose actual highest peak - Mount Vinson - is over 700m lower.
2) We're bad enough at recognizing celebrities without the additional impediment of some Microsoft Paint shenanigans. Perhaps 'clown' was meant to be a clue, but we thought the conspicuous covering up of the chin was evidence for our initial instinct of John Travolta. One thing I've learned from a year of quizzing in North America: they really like Seinfeld here.
3) Another slightly US-centric one, but still a highly recognizable international brand. A cursory Wiki-ing suggests that this description applies specifically to Miller High Life, the company's oldest brand.
4) A slightly embarrassing miss given our combined musical backgrounds. In hindsight I should perhaps have spotted the potential for 'tafel' to mean 'table' in German, but we went with galliard as I - it seems correctly - remembered from my double bass playing days was popular during roughly the correct time period.
5) Only recognizing Christopher Dean we took a guess on Petrenko thinking that a Soviet-sounding name might be an obvious red herring to throw in.
6) The doctor confidently (and, it turns out, accurately) described four of the six, leaving us with the Airbus and the Boeing 747. My initial instinct was, of course, the latter, but given his confidence in the others I had to defer to his preferred guess. "It has stairs in it, and I've been up and down the stairs of Air Force One enough time in computer games to know it has them too."
7) Having confidently ruled out all but Saw and Magnolia our coin toss went awry. While Saw was at least the 'closest wrong answer' the fact it was still four years out rather undermines any claim we could have to feeling unlucky.

How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (4 or more correct)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!


My alternative questions

Question 3!

1) Named after a 19th century baronet what name is given to mountains in Scotland with a height of over 3,000 feet? I shan't be too picky about spelling, but as a clue it's homophonous with (but not identical to) the names of a US President and a famous actress.
2) The series finale of Seinfeld, airing in 1998, was watched by over 76 million Americans making it the third most-watched series finale in US television history. Broadcast in 1983 and 1993, name one of the two shows whose series finales attracted more viewers.
3) Which English football club, whose crest is pictured here, is nicknamed The Millers?
4) Which composer began his Requiem Mass in D minor in 1791, but died before its completion?
5) When Torvill and Dean made ice dancing history in 1984, Olympic rules dictated that the free dance must be at most 4 minutes and 10 seconds long. The version of Boléro the duo performed to was, however, 4 minutes and 28 seconds long - how did they avoid disqualification?
6) Who became the first (and currently only) sitting US President to travel in a regularly scheduled commercial airline flight, in part to "set an example" during the then energy crisis? The call sign for such a plane, in analogous fashion to Air Force One, is Executive One.
7) Magnolia contains numerous references to the Book of Exodus, including raining frogs - one of the ten Plagues of Egypt. Name five of the other nine plagues.

The answers

1) Munro
2) M*A*S*H (105.9 million viewers in 1983) and Cheers (84.4 million viewers in 1993) - the finale of Friends in 2004 was watched by a comparatively few 52.5 million
3) Rotherham United
4) (Wolfgang Amadeus) Mozart - it was commissioned anonymously by Count Franz von Walsegg to commemorate the death of his wife
5) They discovered the rule book stated that the timing of the start of a routine began when the skaters started skating. At the beginning of their routine they knelt down, keeping the blades of their skates off the ice for the first 18 seconds. (This is why they do a slightly weird period of kneeling ice waving at the start - here's a video.)
6) Richard Nixon (for more on that energy crisis, see this)
7) Water into blood; Lice; Wild animals/flies; Diseased livestock; Boils; Storms of fire; Locusts; Darkness; Death of firstborn (and in case you're wondering, frogs comes after blood and before lice)

How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!

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