Only Connect Post Mortem: Series 10 Episode 16Orienteers vs. Gamesmasters

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Warning: the following contains spoilers for Series 10, Episode 16 of Only Connect, first broadcast on BBC Two on Monday 15th December. If you haven't seen it yet go and watch it on iPlayer!

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

In the last Only Connect before their Christmas break the delightfully geeky Gamesmasters (Filip Drnovšek Zorko, James Robson and Frederic Heath-Renn) take on the probably just as geeky Orienteers (Simon Spiro, Paul Beecher and Sean Blanchflower) for a spot in the quarter-finals. The Gamesmasters opened their account this series with a 30-13 win over the Coders while the Orienteers saw off the Romantics in similarly impressive style 33-21. Since then the Coders eliminated the Romantics on a tie-break missing vowels decider, so on that basis the Gamesmasters seem to have the edge here. Interestingly, both of tonight's teams put in incredibly dominant missing vowels performances in their opening matches, so there's the potential for some fireworks later on. Filip opened proceedings with a rapid Rubik's cube solve while Victoria introduced the rules. That's just how we roll.

Round 1: What's the connection?

The questions
1) Renaissance woodwind instrument; Italian croissant; Pegg/Frost trilogy; 'O Sole Mio' rewrite
2) Syphilis; Sweating sickness; Rickets; Football hooliganism
3) North Korea; The State of Israel; Hells Angels; National Health Service
4) Pictures: Joey Dunlop; Prince; Wilson from Cast Away; Anthony Stewart Head
5) Music: 4th of July (Fireworks) (Kelis); Fireworks (Roxette); Music for the Royal Fireworks (Handel); Firework (Katy Perry)
6) Estonia; Author of 'The Enormous Room'; mc²mc²; Merger of T-mobile and Orange

The answers

1) Cornetto
2) 'The English Disease'
3) Founded in 1948
4) Tennis equipment companies
5) Fireworks
6) Two 'E's

Our thoughts
1) Good movie knowledge to kick things off for the Orienteers, who recognized the trilogy and deduced there wasn't much else that could link it with the previous clues. I wonder if this question came about from someone spotting the potential for Cornetto the instrument and Cornetto the ice cream and tried to finish the set (although Wikipedia tells me Cornetto with cappuccino is the most common breakfast in Italy, which sounds as tasty as it does unhealthy).
2) The fact everyone calls syphilis the "someone else's" disease is a bit of a trivia chestnut, but you'd be hard pushed to pull out that particular connection until the final clue (as the Gamesmasters duly did). While football hooliganism works well as a giveaway, I think having the first three all be biological afflictions does make it hard not to look for some pathological connection.
3) Opening with a pair of countries it would have taken a very good (and confident) quizzer to realize we were looking at the foundation year here. Hells Angels, however, immediately narrows down the options while the NHS perhaps gives you the best chance of getting the answer spot on. We were still completely at sea though, but the Orienteers got the link and the year for a good point.
4) It's interesting to look at the balance between clue number, ease of identification, and notability of company here. I suspect very few of Only Connect's regular audience would recognize Joey Dunlop (and even then you'd perhaps think of tyres before tennis), while Prince's symbol is familiar but not the most famous tennis brand. Wilson the volleyball is something I've only ever encountered in quizzes, for some bizarre reason, and either that or Head would presumably get you to the link if you were already thinking along the right lines. This seemed awfully tough at home, but the Orienteers still managed to pick up the bonus after the Gamesmasters' enjoyable suggestion they'd all trained Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
5) Some standard music connection fare, where knowing two would give you the answer for certain, while one would probably see you guess correctly. The Orienteers, like us at home, needed all four clues, but secured another point.
6) Filip Gamesmaster (in my universe Only Connect contestants can, like pop stars, be referred to by their first name followed by their team name) was visibly frustrated to have missed E. E. Cummings until after the mc²mc² clue, but the team still took two points on a question where two or three was the most likely return. It was a welcome boost for the team, as they ended the round trailing slightly, 5-3.

Round 2: What comes fourth?

The questions
1) 100: Bannerman, Australia; 200: Murdoch, Australia; 300: Sandham, England
2) 4th: Butler; 3rd: Kennedy; 2nd: Hamilton
3) Group; Publisher; Title
4) Pictures: Simon Mayo; James Galway; Clare College
5) estate; autunno; inverno
6) ♀ (East-coast): dress sense; ♀ (Southern): accent; ♀ (Midwest): hospitality, etc.

The answers

1) 400: Lara, West Indies (Test cricket landmark scores)
2) 1st: O'Hara (Surnames of Scarlett O'Hara)
3) Check digit (ISBN sections)
4) (e.g.) There once was a quiz host named Vicky... (Irish counties)
5) primavera (Seasons in Italian)
6) ♀ (Northern): osculation (California Girls)

Our thoughts
1) There are two names you need to know when it comes to cricket trivia. One is Donald Bradman, the other is Brian Lara. The Orienteers tried the former, having deduced the theme of the question, but it was Filip Gamesmaster who stepped in with supposedly the only thing he knew about cricket to earn the bonus. In the comfort of home I was quite pleased to have 'buzzed in' for three points, having decided that once I've realized a question is about cricket any more clues aren't going to mean anything to me.
2) I don't doubt this was a question seasoned quizzers would have had very early, but Gone With the Wind is one of those things I have never found myself interested in, despite its fame. Neither team had this either, with both thinking along presidential lines.
3) Two questions in a row to stump both teams, as while this was obviously something to do with books you'd be unlikely to guess the correct answer unless you'd realized it was specifically to do with ISBN codes. James Gamesmaster had apparently studied them during his degree and still didn't spot it, but did get to say 'whateves' on Only Connect, so he's still a winner.
4) I maintain that Simon Mayo is much more recognizable than anyone who is (predominantly) a Radio 2 DJ deserves to be, but once he's paired up with flautist James Galway it's hard not to think of that quizzing staple of Irish counties. Part of why we moved to Canada was getting fed up of these coming up on pub quizzes (maybe), so we were nowhere, while the Gamesmasters took a reasonable punt with Cork as it's the largest. Unfortunately for them (but not the Orienteers who swooped in for the bonus) we were travelling down the West coast.
5) Perhaps there is more nuance to this than I'm giving it credit for, but this seemed a 'three points or no points' style of straight general knowledge, to which the Orienteers were in the former group. I presume anyone familiar with Vivaldi's Four Seasons would have a good chance at this, but beyond that and knowledge of Italian itself, there's not much to work with here.
6) The Gamesmasters needed a good score here to risk losing touch, but were unfortunate to finish the round with an absolutely brute. I imagine even if the lyrics had been written out in full they would have struggled (I certainly would have had no chance) but the obfuscation, while potentially fun, makes this horribly difficult. (I also wonder if the inclusion of the female symbol was a late addition to make the question more accessible.) Unsurprisingly neither team got it, and so the Orienteers headed into the wall with a 9-4 lead.

A five point deficit before the walls means that a perfect ten is almost essential. The Gamesmasters delivered just that, however, including what I thought was a particularly impressive spot of Panama, Adam, Even and Elba forming a group of final words in famous palindromes. Unfortunately for them the Orienteers followed suit, with a wall that featured the rare sight of a homophone that doesn't work in received pronunciation ('your' sounding like 'ewer'). Given their previous missing vowels performance a five point comeback wasn't out of the question, but while the Gamesmasters did pull two points back in the final round, the Orienteers ultimately held on to a well-deserved 22-19 victory. Of mild note, however, was the set 'Same spelling, different pronunciation', where Filip Gamesmaster's "protest and...prottest?" was ruled invalid causing a three-point swing. There was some mild consternation on social media about this, but for me it seems like a fair ruling on an ill-advised group. It's certainly a fun idea: the challenge of figuring out the pronunciations adds an extra dimension to the usual "buzz when you spot it" mentality of the round, but I felt it needed slightly stronger clues to justify the potential for harsh-seeming (with the emphasis on seeming) adjudications. Still, congratulations to the Orienteers on two impressive performances, and commiserations to the Gamesmasters (don't worry, all the cool teams lose once...).

Question of the Week

After some debate, we've taken the difficult (and unprecedented) step to withhold Question of the Week. While most of the questions were perfectly good, none stood out at all to me as being particularly special, and so in the interests of non-competitive sports days we won't be picking one for the coveted title. As always, however, the regular poll is below for you to help crown the people's question champion!