Well I certainly wasn't trying to compete! (appropriate use of kitty?!)


MTDR was hilarious. I've never heard of it but answered Matador because... well.. it basically already says Matador!

I still don't know what kitty means.

(I did say discussion, not competition. )

I got all the Scandinavian dramas right too inc Matador which I've never heard of

Then I get a lot of the missing vowels questions - that's the way my head works.

I have never recovered from the Boardgamers first connecting wall. I went off around the house describing it to a brace of uninterested teenage sons. Had had enough of Jamie on UC!

You said "who knows most" which clearly implies some level of competition... I don't know why you are splitting hairs. I was just being silly about the kitty smiley. I have no idea what it means.


First connecting wall this week or of the series? I can't remember that far back!

Well, I wasn't being serious - perhaps I'm too frivolous for this thread.

I wish I knew what the cat thing meant, though. I can see I'm never going to find out!

There used to be a yawn smiley I think, maybe the cat has replaced it? Because everyone knows that yawn equals... cat. In fact, I'm expecting that to be the next connection on Only Connect! Jamie with the big hair will guess at something vaguely cat-related, let's say wool, and VCM will elaborate that yes, cats do enjoy wool, correct answer.

Oh yeah, I forgot about this problem you have mentioned as well. It's one which the Boardgamers are particularly bad at and part of the reason why it seems a fluke they have got so far.

If a team is getting towards the connection/sequence and Vicky says 'give me more' or 'have another go,' that means expand/reduce/develop/change your guess at the final answer. IT DOES NOT MEAN waffle a bit about the one or two clues which you recognise - 'Lester is in American Beauty isn't he?' - and we'll give you the points. Although in the Boardgamers case it does.

So many times when the Boardgamers are close to an answer Jamie starts waffling about the clues (or often one clue) he recognises - which is a bizarre thing to do, giving extra info to the other team when it may be passed across - and that is enough to get the point. I think this is something which needs to be cracked down on in future series, ie feel free to waffle an actual answer but don't expect to get points just by waffling knowledge about one or two of the clues.


Also, as others have mentioned, for a team of Boardgamers, whose logical skills should be top notch, the way they approach their guesses at the connecting wall is just farcical and cringeworthy.

Red flowers was a perfectly acceptable answer

It would have been, if they'd said it. Nearest he came was "covered in rose petals" which doesn't match the 4th clue. You'd say "flowers" might be acceptable if she hadn't rejected "coloured caps" earlier.

In the missing vowels round when he got one correct he kind of seemed to shrug it off as though thinking 'what's the point'. I don't think he was a happy bunny.



Liking the reference




They annoy me on the wall round. They keep pressing the same sequences time after time getting them nowhere.
Slow and steady wins the race.



I've noticed that they do seem to get a lot of waffling time, seemingly more than other teams.
I dont know if it's one of those things, like when looking at the clock when it's 11:11

It's moving to BBC2 so if it keeps going it may get a bigger budget.
Not sure how much davidbod had to do with the format of the show but he is leaving after the next series so maybe the new bod may implement format changes.

This is the last series he's involved in if I remember right.

Can't resist the opportunity for a cheeky conspiracy theory!!

A departure following such bias in an otherwise excellent quiz show?

Don't tell me that they don't check the question content before the show, particularly if one of the questions may be insensitive to current affairs or one of the contestants?

I'm still looking for someone who has heard of that Cattan board game. Guess I need to get down to the comic book store more often?

It's more commonly referred to as 'Settlers.'

Secondly, you'd be wasting your time as it's not a comic book. I'd suggest Toys'R'Us. The one near me has an entire wall of board games, which you'll probably be amazed to find aren't all variants of monopoly.

A bigger budget but dumbed down questions?

Without a shadow of a doubt.

I notice that the Xmas Radio Times has given away the result of the second semi-final. (Strange, given the reticence to name the teams progressing in University Challenge!)

And I share the irritation at the progress of the Board Gamers. I agree at the unusual latitude on Monday, and their Wall technique is profoundly annoying (and doesn't work). Their captain was annoying enough on University Challenge.

I suppose the first few BBC2 episodes will be 'Celebrity Specials' to get a new audience on board: Giles Brandreth, Melinda Messenger and Vic Reeves versus Janet Street Porter, Graeme Souness and Pam Ayres.

There is absolutely NO WAY the BBC would allow such a thing to happen.

A BBC2 panel show without Sarah Millican? Impossible to even think of such a thing.

It's funny, I was going to put Sarah Millican on one of the teams but I couldn't remember her name, that's why Pam Ayres made the cut

Can we find out who suggested 'celebrity' version of an otherwise good quiz for bright people and make sure they never work in TV again?

I certainly don't want it dumbed down for the knuckle-draggers who'll watch something with celebrities on BBC2 but never bothered when it was clever nobodies on BBC4.

I think what they meant was the type of person who frequents a comic book store would be more likely to have heard of the game. A fair assumption I'd say.

They probably also have an entire wall of Lego but we don't expect questions about different Lego figures and shapes of bricks even if they are known to far more people.

'Only Connect' already has the occasional celebrity edition anyway, and BBC2 seems to cope quite well with un-dumb quizzes for 'clever nobodies' - Eggheads, Mastermind, University Challenge - so I'll reserve judgement until if and when any changes take place. And if it does go all pear-shaped - hey, it's only a quiz show, no-one died.

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