The Secret Service codes are well known and have been for many years. Anyone reading anything about American politics or even watching their soap operas will have heard them. The more obscure one for people further down the food chain will not be widely known but POTUS and FLOTUS are widely known for quite a number of Presidents.

I suspect that all the professional quizzers will know the radio callsigns for Presidents all the way back to George Washington.

The first clue made it easy.

41st: Timberwolf

With the clue 41st chances are that it was about US presidents. As there are currently 44, it would fit in very well with the pattern of only connect that they are rising to 44th Obama instead of going in reverse.

So with that established, you have to work out what "timberwolf" means. With all the shows about Obama on recently, due to the election, the secret service codenames were all over them. Its not a great stretch to see that "timberwolf" was a codename, so all you needed was Obamas.

44th "renegade" was the answer, a relatively easy 5 points.

Its not witchcraft, the quiz was designed so that you could get those 5 points. They are absolutely not "guesswork".

Out of 12 questions in the first two rounds this week, I scored two 5 point answers. I found the other questions particularly difficult.

Not stumped, but you would never get "4" as the first clue in the sequence round. Its just not a good question and it could never appear on the show like that. If you think it could, you do not understand the rules of that round.

Here is a good (but easy) sequence question. Everyone should
A) get 5 points on this
B) be able to say why its not "cardiff" as the 4th answer

1st clue "Sedgefield"

I really do admire how your brain works, you're a marvel.

I did suspect the 41st was something like presidents, but as I said previously Timberwolf was utterly meaningless to me. Had it been a connections round I'd maybe have guessed they were some sort of nickname after the second clue (but then in a connections round they'd probably not have 41st as part of the clue), but as a sequence round I was clueless even where to begin to guess the last answer.

Maidenhead assuming is the last answer, unless its whitney 3 and 4?

Being Only Connect the answer will have to be Islwyn, Cardiff would too easy anyway. But the point is that there are numerous possible correct answers from only the first clue and further clues is needed to be sure, unless you like gambling.

my guess


Don't know how the Cardiff reference fits in with that though

You just have to stick at it, there is a set pattern in the sequence round.

You were spot on with your idea of presidents. "41st" was a big clue and as you said, you knew it was rising to 44th on the final (because its the last in the sequence) and that it would be about Obama.

You did the difficult bit.

The final bit is all about general knowledge, you either knew his codename or you didnt.

Below

Pretty sure George Washington didn't have a "radio call sign"!

You are absolutely correct.

It could not be cardiff-south which is the Callahan constituency, as that's not how the only connect question setters work.

If there is an end to a sequence on the 4th clue, thats the direction you work towards. You worked towards Maidenhead because thats the direction you knew you had to go in.

We started with the 41st president and we knew we had to work towards the 44th (the end of the sequence) and not backwards to the 38th President.

Here is another clue to a sequence:

Clue 1: Carnedd Dafydd

You should be able to tell us what the 4th in the sequence is, and why the answer is not

An easy 5 points.

Its not witchcraft, and you would not be a troll for getting it!

That's where my brain fails at quizzes, I just don't have the retention and recall of facts in the required manner. No matter how long I looked at a list of Kings & Queens, ask me a week later and it's gone.

Sorry but I've watched both the elections and soaps and haven't heard them.

But that doesnt mean to say nobody has heard of them.

The bbc has some great shows recently about the white house.

You will be claiming next that he did not have an iPhone!

Oooops, POTUS's aren't allowed to have them anyway.

I heard that on the no such thing as a fish podcast.

The discussion on the backwards technology in the white house was enlightening!

It was widely written about soon after Obama started in office, he wanted to use his smartphone and to keep him quiet it was arranged for a secure version to be made for him to use.

No response? I think this tells us all we need to know

more hate in this room, what a shame

Are you up for it or not?

I never said it was.

I am at least the 3rd person here who hasn't heard it.

You're a special person Codeblue but I don't believe a word you utter.

Its quite ridiculous. I get two questions correct on a TV quiz and everyone thinks i am a liar.

If i were claiming to have unified gravity with the electro weak, strong and magnetic fields i could understand somewhat the skepticism received but no, all i claim is to be a fan of Depeche Mode and watched a show on the white house 2 weeks ago!

A Depeche Mode fan who thinks Vince Clarke appeared on Enjoy The Silence ?

its a favourite (all they wanted was a song by depeche mode, as indicated by VC on the show). I was going to choose "just cant get enough" but could not bring myself to, after it was ruined by Luis Suarez.