Only Connect

[jobotic]

You won again!

[Pie Pie Eater]

They might be the type of questions where Victoria gives you a little nudge towards expanding on the answer. If I was on I be worried I be too specific and get it wrong. Like one where they were all wrestlers' films but the one I didn't recognise wasn't in the WWE which I would have noted.

We almost had this in tonight's episode - because I had initially said

Spoiler alert

female British tennis players

[close]

in the wall, Katie said that at the end and I interrupted to say not necessarily

Spoiler alert

female

[close]

in case we didn't get the point. They were unable to edit round it so they had to re-record with Katie saying the less specific version

*Exactly* pi kilograms is just trolling nerds, right?

Totally - we are all maths graduates! It worked nicely with the pedant-baiting missing vowels too.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I said Mongolia.

[jobotic]

Yeah me too.

[Pie Pie Eater]

I had Kazakhstan stuck in my head in a 'Time Trumpet University Challenge Venezuela' style and just couldn't think properly about the question even when the nature of the sequence was described

[Ray Travez]

We thought your questions tonight were generally harder than the other team, and the wall was more obscure as well. We really struggled with that one.

My wife reckons you are trolling us all with the prominence of your lustrous hair!

[Pie Pie Eater]

On the subject of the Epicureans

easily the most irritating team I've ever seen on there

One of their team is now a tory mp https://twitter.com/AaronBell4NUL?s=09

My wife reckons you are trolling us all with the prominence of your lustrous hair!

Haha well if I recall correctly it is in man bun form in the next ep

[Norton Canes]

So anyway what's all this puzzlehunt malarkey? I've tried a couple online over the last few weeks and had to give up because I rapidly lost a grip on my sanity.

[Utter Shit]

The more I watch this, the more I think coming up with the questions must be even more difficult than working out the answers.

Great work PPE!

[Pie Pie Eater]

So anyway what's all this puzzlehunt malarkey? I've tried a couple online over the last few weeks and had to give up because I rapidly lost a grip on my sanity.

It'll do that to you. What did you try? There's a vast range of difficulty and accessibility, and I think it generally helps to try them with other people (preferably at least one of whom has done them before). God, sounds like I'm talking about drugs.

Anyway, this blog post looks like a good 'intro', and has some suggestions of puzzles to start with. Another way is to pick one (eg https://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/ub/sums/puzzlehunt/2010/puzzles) and see how far you can get (probably using the hints), and don't worry too much about giving up and looking at solutions - I definitely think there's value to just reading the solution even if you made no progress, as long as you stare at the puzzle for a bit and try to have some ideas. I guess one important thing is to try not to think "I would never have got that" unless the puzzle relies on something really esoteric in which case fair enough!

I'd recommend doing puzzled pint as they are less subtlely hinted and are a good way to get used to the basics, especially when we are no longer in lockdown and you can actually turn up somewhere and ask people for hints if there's one in your city.

I'd also be up for trying to work through some puzzles / a hunt on here if people are interested!

[Norton Canes]

What did you try

Started out on the CRUMS Puzzlehunt with a couple of friends just before Christmas. We managed to crack Disoriented and /r/vexillologygreatcirclejerk but agonized over Mixed Drinks for hours without working out how the clues fit into the triangular grid. Having looked at the answers, all the puzzles are really well constructed with two or three layers to them before arriving at the final answer (we didn't get as far as attempting to solve the meta puzzle).

Then there's the Royal Statistical Society Christmas Quiz 2020 - fifteen questions I've been trying to crack even though it's now past the solution submissions deadline. Managed to get 1, 2, 3 and 7 but the rest are pretty impenetrable. There are a couple that look like they need prolonged working out but most of them seem fairly quick, once you see the trick. Feel free to flag up any suggestions.

Perhaps I should start a dedicated thread.

Anyway I'll have a look at some of those other links, ta.

[Pie Pie Eater]

Ah ok cool, you're probably beyond puzzled pint then! I haven't seen the most recent Christmas quiz, they're definitely really hard and a slightly different thing to puzzlehunt style puzzles I guess, but might be fun to try and solve them collaboratively.


CRUMS looks interesting, missed that one! Might give it a try

[jfjnpxmy]

Please tell Katie Steckles that my missus liked her jumper and ask her where she got it.

[beanheadmcginty]

Anybody notice that the question this week where the answer was "rows and columns" had "SAVILE'S KID" hiding in plain sight right across the middle of it? Disgusting. I put my boot through the TV.

[EOLAN]

Anybody notice that the question this week where the answer was "rows and columns" had "SAVILE'S KID" hiding in plain sight right across the middle of it? Disgusting. I put my boot through the TV.

Think I did alright. Was a bit of a quirky risqué entry right.

[jobotic]

Yeah me too.

I should confess that I only said Mongolia after I knew what the sequence was!

[Pie Pie Eater]

Please tell Katie Steckles that my missus liked her jumper and ask her where she got it.

Next apparently, although she says it was a few years ago and is probably no longer available

[dissolute ocelot]

Anybody notice that the question this week where the answer was "rows and columns" had "SAVILE'S KID" hiding in plain sight right across the middle of it? Disgusting. I put my boot through the TV.

It had DEATH in one of the columns as well. I didn't get the connection quickly and thought, this is a bit dark.

[EOLAN]

Aside from the missing vowels round; was at a total loss in this week's show. Apart from the snooker terms on one of the Walls which may have opened up things a bit more for me if I was playing.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Yeah the walls were carnage this week, both teams ended up just mashing the buttons with ever-increasing panic as the time ran out.

[Pie Pie Eater]

Got the

Spoiler alert

Eastenders, US flag and cryptic solfege

[close]

ones, and the same wall category as you but basically nowhere on anything else. I think they didn't do very well at picking a wall category and sticking at it. Barons were unlucky to get the one beginning with Ubi as the first group post-resolve, as I think that needed staring at for a bit to figure out

[Norton Canes]

Spoiler alert

SHIT JUST GOT REAL

[close]

[jobotic]

Spoiler alert

Nice one!

[close]

Haven't watched it properly yet, only caught the end.

[C_Larence]

Well done on the JSYV one, that was very impressive!

[kalowski]

Well done on the JSYV one, that was very impressive!

Yes. Hats off there. So obvious afterwards, but brilliant to spot it. I had no idea.

[Pie Pie Eater]

Thanks yeah, that was definitely my favourite 'get' of the whole series! I've been waiting almost half a year for that particular moment to be broadcast.

[EOLAN]

Great stuff. I was shouting at ye about Fort Sumter on the wall though. Ye outclassed me elsewhere though.
Love how the possible misreading of marital may have helped get the poetic Anagrams.
Got nervy in final round but ye all pulled through. Fantastic on the Four letters away from four effort. Was a fun program. Many questions I couldn't get but enough to keep me interested.

[Pie Pie Eater]

Hah, yes I do not know American history very well at all. We'd maybe have got there if we'd made other progress a little earlier.

[Attila]

Mr Attila was trying to guess the forts one, too, but kept insisting Sumpter was some sort of made-up word. My intel is ignored, despite the fact 1. I'm American, so we learn about it in various incarnations of history class and 2. I deliberately wanted our wedding anniversary to coincide the anniversary of the War of 1812 (and go to Fort McHenry after the ceremony).

He's no fun.

[bgmnts]

Still haven't got a single answer on this yet, which is quite impressive.

I mean, I at least guessed the answer "Carravagio" on University Challenge once but 8 was playing the Karl Pilkington game so it doesnt count.

Only Connect makes me feel I've stumbled into a middle class dinner party playing parlour games or something.