Only Connect viewers fume over ‘ridiculous’ Connecting Wall tactic

Only Connect viewers were left frustrated during the latest episode after one team appeared to rely on repeatedly pressing clues at random rather than working through the possible connections.

The BBC quiz show returned with host Victoria Coren Mitchell overseeing another demanding contest between two teams, the Benchwarmers and the Worker Bees. As usual, the teams of three were challenged to uncover links between seemingly unrelated words and clues.

But it was the third round, the Connecting Wall, that sparked the strongest reaction from viewers watching at home.

Viewers react to the Benchwarmers’ strategy

When the Benchwarmers reached the wall of 16 clues, they had two minutes and 30 seconds to divide the words into four groups of four.

Rather than spending time identifying possible connections, Kai Laddiman began repeatedly selecting clues in what appeared to be a random order, hoping that the correct group would emerge.

The approach did not go down well with some viewers, who quickly took to social media to vent their frustration.

One viewer described it as: “Those were the most ridiculous tactics I think I have ever seen on the wall.”

Another wrote: “Stop just randomly pressing buttons, you idiot!!”

The reaction continued as the team worked through the wall.

“Not sure he’s got much of a strategy there,” one viewer commented, while another admitted: “Jesus Christ, the button pressing gave me a headache.”

Another frustrated viewer wrote: “How can you sort the wall with that ct constantly f***g the board up?”

Others took a more humorous approach to what they were seeing.

“They’re certainly hitting the button on this wall #onlyconnect,” one viewer joked.

Another remarked: “Think we’ve just witnessed a world record for the number of buttons pressed in two and a half minutes.”

Benchwarmers manage just one group

When the two-and-a-half-minute timer expired, the Benchwarmers had managed to identify just one of the four possible groups.

They linked Jam, Island, Flow and Cone, believing that all four could be connected with the word “tarts.”

Victoria Coren Mitchell quickly corrected them.

“They are not tarts,” she explained, before revealing the actual connection: “You can put traffic before all of them.”

The host also reminded the team that they could still earn points for connections in groups they had not successfully identified during the timed section.

The Benchwarmers had also been unable to spot a group consisting of Collins, Bingley, de Bourgh and Gardiner, which were all characters from Pride and Prejudice.

Instead, the team suggested: “Are they dictionaries of reference books?”

There were, however, some correct answers.

The team successfully identified Sutherland, Jett, Bakewell and Rivers as the “Joans.”

They also predicted that Treacle, pop, Manchester and Gypsy were connected by “tarts.”

Despite the difficult Connecting Wall round, the competition continued with the missing vowels section.

Worker Bees secure a quarter-final place

At the end of the episode, Victoria Coren Mitchell revealed that the Worker Bees had won by a single point.

That narrow victory was enough to send the Worker Bees through to the quarter-finals, while the Benchwarmers’ run came to an end.

The result brought an intense episode to a close, but for many viewers, the most memorable moment was the Benchwarmers’ unusual approach to the Connecting Wall and the stream of button presses that followed.