OK people, here we are at the eleventh Only Connect grand final! As a nice touch for the end of the series, an actual string quartet were live on set playing the incidental music riffs. Nice idea, but could've maybe been done a bit better. Playing for a place in the OC champions lists were the String Section, Tessa North, blog reader Richard Aubrey and Pete Sorel Cameron, and the Wayfarers, Barbara Thompson, Gerard Mackay and Matt Beatson. These two met earlier in the series, with the String Section narrowly emerging on top. They also defeated the Headliners, the Scientists and the Cluesmiths en route, while the Wayfarers defeated the Bookworms (twice), the Builders and the Yorkers. Both teams came through their semi-final on a tie-break; hopefully, tonight's match wouldn't go that far.
Round 1. The Wayfarers went first, kicked the final off with Twisted Flax, and got the music question: we heard Dido's Lament from Dido and Aeneas, then the Queen of the Night from the Magic Flute, and they immediately offered that they were all sung by queens. Correct, for three points. (And, thankfully, we were spared having to hear 'Let It Go' from Frozen!) The String Section, as ever, opened their account with Two Reeds: Relating to emperor of Rome, 14-37AD', then 'Relating to ancient Georgian kingdom', then 'Girl on 'Bad''; and at this point, they offered 'they all end in 'erian''. Close enough: they all end in 'iberian' (Tiberian, Iberian, Liberian and Siberian, for the final clue, 'Between Erals and Pacific', which we didn't see) The Wayfarers chose Lion next: 'Torn apart by horses', then 'Skewered by grappling hook', then 'Shot by orcs' arrows', and finally 'Fell, crushed by satellite antenna'. The final clue gave it to them: they are the deaths of characters portrayed by Sean Bean! Excellent set! The String Section chose Eye of Horus next: 'Uralic', then 'Slide Mountain', then 'Paleo-Tethys', and finally 'Panthalassa'. They didn't know it, their opponents did: they are oceans that no longer exist. For their own question, the Wayfarers chose Water, and got the picture set: we saw Miley Cyrus and an elderly lady, then some lady we didn't recognise and Marilyn Monroe, then Winston Churchill and an anchor; that was the giveaway clue, and they offered 'tattoos' for two points. Ms Cyrus had her grandmother tattooed on her, while the Marilyn Monroe lady was Megan Fox. Left with Horned Viper, the String Section saw 'Foke', then 'Hombay', then 'Egantic', and finally 'Leakfast'. Now, this was absolutely excellent, but far too tricky for either side to spot: they are portmanteaux words reversed ('Smog', 'Bollywood', 'Ginormous' and 'Brunch'), with the others halves used instead! At the end of the first round, the Wayfarers led 7-2.
Round 2, What Comes Fourth? The Wayfarers went first again, chose Eye of Horus, and got the picture set: we saw Marlene Diertrich, then Joe DiMaggio; this was enough for them to spot the link to be Madonna's 'Vogue', and they offered 'Fred Astaire'. Not right. Their opponents saw Marlon Brando for the third clue, and correctly offered 'James Dean' for a bonus. For their own question, the String Section, once again, chose Two Reeds: '36: Hidden', then '18: Lazy', and then '10: New'. They didn't get it, their opponents did: '2: The Sun' comes fourth; they are derivations of names of the Noble gases. For their own question, the Wayfarers chose 'Horned or Horn-ed Viper, depending on taste'(!): 'AGG', then 'GGW', and then 'VEG'. They didn't get it, their opponents did: 'EGE'. This was another excellent one: they are the first letters of the names of the last twelve monarchs in sets of three. For their own question, the String Section chose Twisted Flax: '1s = 0.964s', then '1m = 1.44m', and then '1h = 2.4h'. They correctly offered '1d = 1d' for two points, albeit for the wrong reason; they are expressions of decimal time conversion. For their final choice, the Wayfarers chose Water: '4th: Fishmongers', then '3rd: Drapers'; again, they knew the sequence, livery companies, but got their early answer wrong. The String Section saw '2nd: Grocers', but were none the wiser. '1st: Mercers' is the fourth, the sequence being the livery companies in a set out order of precedence. Left with Lion, the String Section got a music sequence, and heard 'Farewell and Adieu, Ye Spanish Ladies', then 'Home Sweet Home', and then 'See the Conquering Hero Comes'. They didn't know it, the opposition did, offering 'Rule Britannia' for a bonus, the sequence being Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs. And the guest string quartet completed the set with a rendition of Rule Britannia. At the end of the second round, the Wayfarers led 9-6.
On to the Walls then. The String Section went first this time, and chose the Lion wall. They immediately isolated 'Niet', 'Nao', 'Nej' and 'Nein', which are the word 'no' in different languages. That was as far as they could get, though, and they spent the rest of the time trying to untangle what was left. They were eventually timed out, and so were left to collect bonus connection points: 'Nato', 'Nardo', 'Ntes' and 'Nine' can all have 'Leo' added to them to give Shakespearean characters, which they spotted just in time, 'Nerve', 'Nape', 'Nates' and 'Nose' are body parts, which they didn't get, while 'Nyssa', 'Nipa', 'Nerine' and 'Nettle' are plants, which they also didn't spot. Just three points there then.
The Wayfarers thus could pull further away if they could make the most of the Lion wall. Again, they resolved one set fairly quickly: 'Mutter', 'Moeder', 'Mere' and 'Matka' are the word 'mother' in various languages. They then went one better by getting a second set: 'Mamsa', 'Matsya', 'Madya' and 'Mudra' are Sanskrit words for tantric rituals, but they didn't quite spot that, so dropped the point. That was as far as they got though, as they unsuccessfully tried to solve what was left, and ran out of lives. So, they too had to pick up bonus connection points: 'Molly', 'Martin', 'Mantis' and 'Mink' are animals, which they didn't get, while 'Matthew', 'Mark', 'Matthias' and 'Mash' are biblical characters, which they did get. Just four for that, which gave them a 13-9 lead going into the final round.
So, the match and indeed the series would be decided, once again, on Missing Vowels. 'A king and an actor who played him onscreen' proved quite troublesome due to the use of Roman numerals(!), with three wrong answers meaning the String Section took it 1-(-1). 'Eye rhymes', such as 'DROUGHT AND THOUGHT', went to the String Section 3-1. 'Question a waiter might ask' went to the String Section 2-(-1), and that was time. The String Section won the match, and the series, 15-12.
Excellent final to a great series. Unlucky Wayfarers, but an excellent series of performances, and nothing to be ashamed of, so thank you very much indeed for taking part. Very very well done to the String Section, though, who have also played superbly throughout, and are worthy champions and additions to the champions list. Well done indeed!
And thank you all sixteen teams for making this series so enjoyable and fun to cover on here! I'll definitely carry on when the show comes back. Word is, they are added another ten shows to it next series, taking it up to UC's run of 37 shows. How? Don't know yet.
I'm still undecided on whether it's worth going back to Series 1. I think I'd prefer to catch up on Series 8, and Series 9. Watch this space.
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