MM Links Results December 2011 Week 1

[gen2]

The MM Links Game is now closed and my trusty abacus has been brought into play. But how taxed was it?

Firstly an apolgy for the uncertainty suronding the start of this game.
AB didn't play ball with the Royal Jockey's original post. There was then a breakdown in communication between the setter and myself, resulting in us both posting a later-than-usual preamble - At least you all had time to read it though.

Further confusion followed - the challenge words were misplaced, and when I offered guidance on a thread, AB became obstinate and included its own instructions in the message "Type Your Answer Here..." which Aquagility took literally . . .

I admire Aquagility's determination to cover all bases but as it turned out, it was for 'nul points' :-(

One of the most popular answers was OXFORD BAGS, selected by Roslyn, evsajo, Dinkypuzzled, Christiana, and eleven others. (Did you spot the Oxford Comma in that sentence?) - all to no avail.

I can now reveal that 'King John', (aka jobjockey) chose the following links this weekend:-

BRISTOL BOARD (how many of you players were/are artists/graphic designers?)
BATH CHAIR (Did that apeal to the 'silver surfers' amongst you?)
OXFORD GROUP ( Can anyone reliably recall the 1920s?)
EPSOM DERBY ( A Jockey's classic)

To find out, read on below . . .

[gen2]

Slaney and Christiana both picked up two points very quickly for BATH CHAIR.

Shortly thereafter - well 5 minutes later - centrino also wanted a BATH CHAIR but was also first to suggest EPSOM DERBY - the first double-hitter and for 3 points.
Brenden was within the 2 minute window to also earn 2 points for thay Classic race.

All then went very quiet as throughout the day, only three extra single points were scored by Elspeth, kawakiri, and mirandasmum (there's that Oxford comma again) for those same pairings.

Sunday morning came and went and then I had to go out. Upon my return, there was jubilation. I found that at the impossibly late hour of 10 to 3 on a Sunday afternoon, Kettledrum had discovered not one, but BOTH of the remaining links (BRISTOL BOARD & OXFORD GROUP) for a total of FOUR points. That doubly qualifies her as Hotshot of the Week'.

*** BEAT THE TAMBOUR ***
****** HIT THE DRUM ******
*** HOTSHOT ON FOUR ***
***** IS KETTLEDRUM *****

. . . and for completeness, here are all the points:

4 kettledrum
3 centrino
2 Brenden
2 Christiana
2 slaney
1 Elspeth
1 kawakiri
1 mirandasmum


Thank you jobjockey for an entertaining challenge.
We promise to get it better next time.

Until next weekend then, Happy Linking,
This is gen2 signing off.

[Manxiemo]

Well, despite having an ex-graphic designer for a son-in-law, I excelled myself this week with nil points. Can only get better!

[tearinghair]

Thanks Gen2 and Jobjockey - I didn't even consider any of those links, so will have to try harder to get on the right wavelength for next week. Congratulations to all points scorers, particularly Kettledrum.
Gen2, I've worked in Oxford and until quite recently in Cambridge. I support Oxford in the Boat Race, but I still don't like its comma!

[boxtops]

Well, I didn't get any of those - thanks gen2 and jobjockey, that was a hard one!

[Brenden]

Thanks gen2 and jobjockey, cannot believe I scored a 2 - that will probably be my total amount for the month.

[paulineward]

Thanks gen2 and King John.

Nowt for the Wards. :-(

[Euphemia]

.... and nowt for me!

[roslyn251254]

Nil points pour moi aussi! Thank you jobjockey & gen2. & well done kettledrum - you do well with obscure answers!!

[kettledrum]

Gosh! Golly! Wow! I've certainly never been in this position before! Thank you to King John for setting the links, Gen2 for nominatiung me as Hotshot of the week, and everyone else for not having chosen those two particular links before I had my go.

Out of curiosity I looked back to see when was the last time I'd scored at all, and was somewhat surprised to discover it was 20th November when Gen2 again called me (half) a Hotshot. I can't think how I missed that. I think I must be so unused to getting any points that I didn't bother to look. How ungracious of me. Sorry Gen2 & Regal Roslyn for not acknowledging this honour. I'm not sure that I can cope with this sudden success.

[BigMac]

Yes!!! Back to normal - zilch, zero, nought, nothing, nada... ... ...

Well done to the scorers.

[cupid04]

I've been doing this MM links for a couple of months and I've never quite
understood how it works. Do you have more chance of guessing the
correct links if you have done the actual crossword?

[evsajo]

Well that's a surprise......no points for me !! I was ready and waiting on Saturday and thought I had missed you !! Thanks JJ and Gen, perhaps I will do a bit better next week :-(

[evsajo]

Hi cupid, no the MM links are just words which the setter (Jobjockey this month) chooses and are nothing to do with a crossword.
The KM links earlier on Saturday morning are to do with a crossword but don't think they are the actual answers, but I am sure someone will tell you about KM definitely.
Hope that helps a bit !!

[cupid04]

thanks evsajo.x

[Christiana]

Hi Cupid. The MM links were originally to do with the Saturday Telegraph and Monday Telegraph Herculis General knowledge crosswords. However there was a break in transmission and so they took their present form as esvajo describes. There is a new setter each month who chooses four pairs of link words with no crossword connection at all. Gen2 organises it and holds the matching words in each link until Sunday evening.
On the other hand KM links have gone back to the original format. It uses the four answers highlighted in the Saturday Telegraph general knowledge crossword, then we all try to guess what the setter, Kate Mepham (hence KM) has linked them with in the Monday Herculis crossword. However no knowledge of the crossword is needed to guess correctly.

[ladyalex]

No points for me this week....nothing new there.

Thanks to the Royal Jockey and to gen2.

Why the Oxford comma ? It has painful memories for me as I had an English teacher (for 3 long years) who insisted on the Oxford comma, only for it to be marked as incorrect in every exam not marked by him and by every other teacher I had.
(That was in the days when half marks were deducted for spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes.....note no Oxford comma there !)
Not that I bear grudges......

[seekeerz]

Hmmm, I let Mr S loose on these and with nil result and looking at the matches he should have picked Bristol Board [ but then it was many years ago that he was studying in Bristol]

Many thanks to King John and gen2, now for KM

[twix123]

Thanks King John and Gen2, especially with the problems starting the game this week! Well done the few point scorers, although none for me.

[cupid04]

thankyou christiana.x