The connecting wall

[Bunnylump]

OK all you Only Connect fans. I've been asked to make up a few "Connecting walls" for an Only Connect game on New Year's eve. I also need a "find the connection" round. My friend Janet is on a mission to make the missing vowels round, so I don't need that too. We plan to buy blonde wigs and wear tight dresses with high heels to get the full VC effect.

So, I suddenly thought, it might be fun to see if anyone can come up with any good / unusual connections for me to use?

[Laura]

I am not one of those people who are a fan of this. In fact, I've not the foggiest what you're on about! Explanation please????

[Bunnylump]

I'm sure you'd like it. Have a look at this!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lskhg

[LAT]

The connecting wall is like the puzzle "The Sign of the Four" in the latest mag. You have to sort 16 words into 4 groups of four with some connection. Often some words could connect in more than one way so you have to work out which way to sort them so that you can get the four groups.
Other rounds involve being given four words/names and you have to work out the connection. Or getting three words and you have to work out what the fourth item is. These are usually given one at a time so you get more points for getting the connection/guessing the fourth item if you do it after being given only the first one or two words.

[Bunnylump]

OK this is the kind of thing you might have in the find the connection round. No cheating and googling!!

What connects
DUMP MORRIS VOLTA CANARY
?

[MBH]

No idea on those four.

I've had one of these Connecting Walls floating around in my brain since the Shakespearian one a couple of issues ago - I never did write it down. If I create it, you can have it (although it's just as specialized as the one that prompted it).

New Year round your area sounds fun

[Bunnylump]

Every year I get together with my girlie school friends and their other halves. We have a meal and then play a game of some sort (which often I get to make for some unknown reason!). Last year we had spot the advert tune / intro, the year before that it was "sing the lyrics in they style of...", before that I made a Weakest Link game and pretended to be Ann Robinson (complete with all the severe looks and put-downs). We've also had my husband being "Robert Robinson" for a call my bluff game I made. It SOUNDS sedate, but trust me, it isn't. It gets positively riotous sometimes!!

[giraffe]

OK this is the kind of thing you might have in the find the connection round. No cheating and googling!!

What connects
DUMP MORRIS VOLTA CANARY
?

Morris MINOR / MINER's Canary ?

[Scurra]

Blimey, and I thought I wrote obscure clues. Normally, the last entry in a connection set is relatively reasonable, not even more outrageous! I can link two of them, just, but I can't believe the other two are also in that set...

Connecting Walls are surprisingly hard to write. You need to find words that can go into multiple reasonable sets without the remaining words being too easy to identify as well. I think the ideal is to have sets of sixes where two of each set can work in another set.

[Bunnylump]

Yes, you're right. Of course that set are too hard. But they were words I found when forraging around in a dictionary which all connected... and I'd only heard of one of them in this context, I must admit. That word was MORRIS.

I did have an attempt at a version of a connecting wall (but now realise it was far too big) in the More Than Words set (can't remember what that was called now!).

So, anyone got any suggestions for other sets of connected words?

And here's an easier connection to spot:
PYJAMAS TROUSERS CLOTHES OUTSKIRTS

[Bunnylump]

...and here's another one

FECKLESS INCOGNITO MISNOMER DISRUPT

[dramaticat]

Ah yes - did this a couple of years ago and completely bamboozled everyone!

[Bunnylump]

And here's an easier connection to spot:
PYJAMAS TROUSERS CLOTHES OUTSKIRTS

Just in case anyone cares the connection here was that none of these words have a singular form.

FECKLESS INCOGNITO MISNOMER DISRUPT

Are all negatives without positives.

Oh, and

DUMP MORRIS VOLTA CANARY

Are all dances. Yes, really.

[Scurra]

And I still don't agree with the last set. You wouldn't say "I'm going to dance a Morris" because it's not called that. You might possibly say that about the others (although I can't believe anyone has danced a Dump for several hundred years!)

I don't think they would make a good "connecting wall" though - because they are all clearly discrete groups. What you need are sets that overlap with one another.

[Bunnylump]

Oh no, these are just connection round ones. Haven't even thought about this properly yet!

You can do a morris DANCE though. Well, Kathlyn's husband can, anyway, I believe!!

[Scurra]

I didn't say you couldn't. But it would be a very misleading thing to put as part of a set when it isn't called a MORRIS, it's called a MORRIS DANCE. My point was that the others can (just about!) stand on their own, but MORRIS can't.
Anyway, it's not really worth arguing about - I only knew what the answer was because of that one, even if I also know it was technically wrong!

[Bunnylump]

OK fairynuff.

[kathlyn]

You can do a morris DANCE though. Well, Kathlyn's husband can, anyway, I believe!!

He's having great difficulty dancing morris or anything at the moment as his arthritc knee has just about given out. He's on the waiting list for a knee replacement sometime in spring next year.

[MBH]

(although I can't believe anyone has danced a Dump for several hundred years!)

I've danced IN a few dumps - if that counts. You see the lights and the sparkle on TV, but you'd be amazed at what is just 'out of shot'

[Cenwulf]

Is this any good? There are four connections and some can go in more than one group.

MURRAY REVOLUTION GOLF WEDDING POLO BOWLS ROYAL WAX
NAVEL SQUASH PEPPER IMPERIAL CRICKET JASON TUESDAY BLOOD