Only Connect

[Pie Pie Eater]

On a similar note, does anyone else think that the horned viper is rarely chosen explicitly, and is often the last category left so that the final team to go in the round just get given it? It seems that way to me, and I suspect that's because lots of teams don't fancy running the one-or-two-syllable gauntlet.

It's definitely possible, although I think it's also quite easy to project things onto the hieroglyphs - for example I have this sense that the music question is more often behind the Eye of Horus than the other ones

[jobotic]

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

but Emma Kennedy was on

[Pie Pie Eater]

I'm on this again tonight, in the unlikely event that anyone wants to see me specifically

[Utter Shit]

How do you know your teammates PPE? My wife was very impressed with your insider info about the slightly simplified studio version of the wall.

[Pie Pie Eater]

We met doing maths PhDs at Manchester about 10 years ago. There were a bunch of us who started doing puzzlehunts together and over time it sort of gradually whittled down to mainly the three of us doing them. They're still in Manchester while I moved back to Edinburgh but despite the slight inconvenience we kept applying to OC as a team

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

Nice, been keeping an eye out! Will watch after university challenge. (Slowly tiring of that so I save only connect for the pudding)

[Utter Shit]

Not sure how I've done this PPE but I had it in my head that you were the 'other guy' in the team with Emma Kennedy and Mitch Benn! So are you Ali or Paul, I want to know so I can encourage/shout abuse at you through the TV.

[Pie Pie Eater]

Ali! Paul and Katie are married and in Manchester.

[lankyguy95]

I would've just spent the show gawking at Rachel on the other team.

[Gurke and Hare]

Has Katie been on another quiz show (or some other telly) before? She looks familiar.

[Pie Pie Eater]

Heh, she was on a repeat of QI the other day explaining a maths joke about infinitely many drinks - I expect it's that. Although she does do various Maths-related things online too. And she was on Mark Watson's Watsonathon a few times this year talking about her parallel 24 hour maths/magic-athon

[Gurke and Hare]

Ah yes, that's it, I saw her on the Watsonathon!

[EOLAN]

No one outside Ireland would have a notion who Imelda May in fairness. Had you unlocked that clue it may have opened up board a bit for you.

[Pie Pie Eater]

Yeah, not managing to get groups gives you a sort of escalating set of problems to deal with alongside the general panic that sets in. Things like the African countries one are very difficult to spot when you haven't managed to narrow things down. When you get a couple of groups you can sometimes use the red herrings to figure out what remaining categories are. And when the wall resolves you have a bit of time to answer with the categories you know whilst simultaneously continuing to look at the remaining clues.

I thought the Sliders word one was slightly more obvious (because wtf are Orzoi and Oxer) and we'd have been happy to have a Peep Show category, although it's obviously impossible to really judge how difficult they are unless you are doing them in 'exam conditions' and I thought the wall difficulty was pretty even. Sliders did really well to eke 20 points out of that game I think.

[Ray Travez]

Definitely thought the first wall was harder, more confusing.

I don't understand the Waley-Cohen running joke. It's some kind of Jekyll and Hyde thing, but I don't get why.

[touchingcloth]

The first wall was a lot harder. It felt like there were more red herrings than usual thrown in where. One of which was the literal word "herring", if memory serves.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Ali! Paul and Katie are married and in Manchester.

Look at you, lording your lustrous long locks over these big baldy boys.

[Norton Canes]

Well that was a nail-biter

[Olarrio]

I don't recall the scores being shown during the final round. Very tense indeed.

Spoiler alert

And well done to get through

[close]

.

What was your intro? I missed it but just heard GY!BE referenced.

[Olarrio]

I went on C5's Brainteaser years back and totally choked, so hats of to you. I remember feeling relieved I managed to guess "name this American hip hop star" with the letters N_S available on the crossword.       

[Pie Pie Eater]

Fucking nerve-wracking watching that and I knew what was going to happen. I remember sort of keeping score but not quite in the missing vowels and just hoping Paul would get them.

What was your intro? I missed it but just heard GY!BE referenced.

It was that I spent the night in a bath in order to see GYBE - it was at QMU in Glasgow - we were kicked out of our halls in the easter holidays so as I had nowhere to stay in Edinburgh (I'm from SE England) so after getting back at about midnight I blagged my way into the halls building knowing they had communal bathrooms on every floor and just locked myself in one. I thought that phrasing was more fact-worthy than 'slept in a bath after seeing GY!BE'

[Norton Canes]

I genuinely thought that at the end of the wall you weren't going to call that group as types of ancient wonder. So much vacillation.

[Pie Pie Eater]

Probably my fault as I just didn't know them and managed to cast doubt over the whole thing

[EOLAN]

Glad ye won. Impressive on the Wall and Missing Vowels PPE. Think I managed to beat your buzzer once or twice shouting out. Did it click straight away that the answers were going to be the previous questions - and had them half remembered or a bit more of a blur in the heat of battle.

[Pie Pie Eater]

It clicked after I got Copenhagen and I remember the moment of thinking 'oh shit, what were the other questions' but it was incredibly difficult to remember in the moment. Tim and Paul were both very quick, so it was hard to get in there

[EOLAN]

Loved the Walls yesterday, particularly with all the

Spoiler alert

Snooker nicknames

[close]

. Other one was quite handy for me as well. Rare to have me doing well on both.


Managed to create my own wall on Puzzgrid as well. Number 41980

[Pie Pie Eater]

Solved the wall but only got 6 (

Spoiler alert

I'm pretty weak on Oscars related things, put 'actors' for one and 'eponymous films' for the other but would never have got them more specifically. Found it tough until I spotted the rugby captains which cut down the beers and then realised the specific connection there. Also enjoyed the prime ministers red herring!

[close]

).

Loved the Walls yesterday

Yes these were good, think we would have done alright on them - I was spoiled on the

Spoiler alert

snooker nicknames

[close]

as we were in the green room at the time, and Lindsay was (understandably) excited about having pulled that out of nowhere

[EOLAN]

Solved the wall but only got 6 (

Spoiler alert

I'm pretty weak on Oscars related things, put 'actors' for one and 'eponymous films' for the other but would never have got them more specifically. Found it tough until I spotted the rugby captains which cut down the beers and then realised the specific connection there. Also enjoyed the prime ministers red herring!

[close]

).

Yes these were good, think we would have done alright on them - I was spoiled on the

Spoiler alert

snooker nicknames

[close]

as we were in the green room at the time, and Lindsay was (understandably) excited about having pulled that out of nowhere

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.

[Gurke and Hare]

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

[Norton Canes]

Spoiler alert

Nice! Trailing up to the wall, as well.

[close]