What a great contest this was. The outcome was in doubt right up until the final round. Mr. Kirby and Mr. Armand , probably the two lesser known of today's semi finalists played the well known quizzer Dag Griffiths, and my predecessor as Mastermind champion, Geoff Thomas. To be honest this line up was good enough to be a final . Mr. Armand raced off to a lead by getting his five first round questions all correct, to thus earn a bonus. The quizzing thereafter was fast and furious, and the standard of the contestants' answers was superb. Geoff Thomas was last to go int he very last round. Dag Griffiths had a 4 point lead, and so in reality Geoff had to answer all five of his questions correctly. He's made of the right stuff is our Geoff, and he pulled it out of the bag to win a well-earned place in the final. commiserations to the other three. You all played really well, and it was an absolute pleasure to listen to.
Celebrity Mastermind Episode 2
Ok, last night's crop was as varied and interesting as always. We had:-
Rav Wilding,from 'Crimewatch',
Mark 'Chappers' Chapman , who apparently presents sports reports on Scott Mills' Radio 1 show, Phillippa Gregory who wrote, amongst other novels, "The Other Boleyn Girl",
and the biggest sleb on this show : -
Jon Culshaw, best known for TV's "Dead Ringers".
Former Metropolitan Police Officer Rav Wilding kicked off with 'The Human Body', and scored a creditable 11. I think that Mr. Wilding had decided to avoid passing by saying the first thing that came into his head for the questions he had no idea on. I'm sure that one of his answers was 'cheese sandwich' , and he definitely said that the sac around the heart was called the television.
The last time I deliberately listened to Radio 1 Simon Bates was still presenting Our Tune on it, so I wasn't familiar with Mr. Chapman. In fact when I heard that Mark Chapman was on the show I did a double take, since the only other Mark Chapman I knew of was John Lennon's assassin. Still, this Mr. Chapman certainly knows his football. Premiership football is a wide subject, and scoring 13 on it is no mean feat.
Philippa Gregory's score of 16 on "Elizabeth Woodville " was highly impressive. Any good historical novelist knows about the importance of research, and Ms Gregory had obviously done her homework very well. Full marks for picking a highly interesting subject too. Elizabeth Woodville was wife of one king, mother of the next, sister-in-law of the next, mother-in- law of the next, and grandmother of the next.
Jon Culshaw picked my favourite of the specialist rounds - British Pop Music of the 1980s. Full marks to him for knowing the fire eating German was the lead singer of the Goombay Dance Band - I answered all the others that he did, but didn't know that one.
In the General knowledge round Rav Wilding struggled. He fell into a bit of a pass spiral, but still seemed to have kept his sense of humour by the end. Mark Chapman's 12 was a good round, and his final total of 25 would have been enough to have won the previous show. Not this one though. Philippa Gregory found some imperious form to score 14, which gave her a grand total of 30. Jon Culshaw indulged in a little light hearted banter with John Humphrys, doing a very good impression of Tom Baker, and a not so good impression of John Humphrys. "Do I sound like that ? " the great man asked. Well, actually, no you don't John. Jon Culshaw made less of an impression with his answers, but at least made it into the 20s with a final score of 23.
Just a small thing I'd like to saybefore we go onto the details. Rav Wilding was given a question to which the answer was Mauritius. His father is from Mauritius I believe. Also I think that Philippa Gregory was asked about Kenya's largest sea port. She was actually born in Kenya. I'm not trying to make any particular point here, just think its interesting.
The Details
| Rav Wilding | The Human Body | 11 - 1 | 4 - 5 | 15 - 6 |
| Mark Chapman | Premiership Football | 13 - 0 | 12 - 2 | 25 - 2 |
| Phillippa Gregory | Elizabeth Woodville | 16 - 0 | 14 - 2 | 30 - 2 |
| Jon Culshaw | British Pop Music of the 1980s | 16 - 3 | 7 - 6 | 23 - 9 |
No comments:
Post a Comment