Gary, and the shirt, were drawn to go third. This meant that Catherine Goodwin took to the chair first, offering us a very traditional ‘life and work ‘ subject. In this case it was The Life and Work of Mary Wollstonecraft. “Ullo,” I thought, “slim pickings here, Dave.” I was right. My meager store of facts about Mary Wollstonecraft – married to William Godwin – mother of Mary Shelley – A Vindication of the Rights of Women – er , that’s it – didn’t bring me any answers at all. Catherine’s 11, then, looked a pretty good total.
Ebb Saxton, though, didn’t take a traditional subject. He offered us “Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads ? “ I remember this sitcom with a lot of affection, and when you look at it, it’s a thoroughbred. Great writers – Clement and La Frenais – and acted to perfection by James Bolam and Rodney Bewes, ably supported by Bridget Forsyth. All of which is just to distract you from the fact that I only had three of them right. Ebb did better with 10, but , I don’t know, if he’d prepared, and watched all 26 episodes and one Christmas special, then he should have done quite a bit better.
Now the main event. Gary, skipper of our Radio Addicts team who were runners up in Series 4 of Only Connect , semi finalist in Are You An Egghead ?, semi-finalist in Nancy’s series of Mastermind 2009, returned to the chair with a fantastic choice of subject – “The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World”. Now this is a subject I have a passing interest in myself – I answered the straightforward questions – Antipater of Sidon – Chares – Constantinople, but for all that I only managed 6 on the round , which seems about right for something I hadn’t prepared. Gary, though – well, Gary scored 17. Out of 17. A perfect round. John said that it’s rarely done, and he’s right. A fantastic performance, and you sensed that unless Eliot Wilson could throw in a great round of his own, then Gary was already home and dry.
Offering The Life and Career of Enoch Powell, Eliot Wilson managed a good round, certainly. Enoch Powell was certainly one of the most academically gifted as well as one of the most controversial figures in British Politics in the 1960s and 1970s. As I said, 13 was a good score. However it meant that even though he was in second place at the halfway stage, he was still 4 points behind Gary. Gary is a serious quizzer, and a very good quizzer, and I just couldn’t see anyway that Eliot was going to bridge that gap in the GK round.
Ebb and Catherine both struggled with their GK rounds., and neither of them managed to get into double figures. Still, at least they avoided the indignity of having their combined total outscored by Gary’s SS round – both pushed their totals up to 18.
Eliot Wilson started like an express train on his GK round. He took something like 8 points out of the first 10 questions. I don’t think there was a huge amount of difference between his and Gary’s questions, but of the two I preferred Eliot’s. I scored 19 on this round. Eliot himself managed 15. Now, 15 is a great score on a 2 minute GK round , and it’s still a pretty good one on a 2 and a half minute round. As an audience we could at least thank Eliot for setting a target and making it interesting.
Gary too started at full speed. He’s an old hand at this game now, and knows that the thing to do is just to keep answering as quickly as you possibly can. Hard lines on the pensée / pansy question - . As I mentioned earlier, I did think that Gary’s questions were a shade harder than Eliot’s - I scored 17 at home - and in such a case it’s easy to become discouraged and brood on dropped questions, and that way lies disaster. Gary kept on picking off the answers, and had passed the finishing line comfortably before the end of the round. His 14 pushed him through the 30 point barrier to a very fine 31. The only reason why I’m not making any pronouncements about Gary’s chances in the semis is that I don’t want to bring down the curse of the sofa upon him. But very well done. An impressive performance !
| Catherine Goodwin | The Life and Work of Mary Wollstonecraft | 11 – 4 | 7 – 5 | 18 - 9 |
| Ebb Saxton | Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads ? | 10 – 2 | 8 – 4 | 18 - 6 |
| Gary Grant | The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World | 17 – 0 | 14 -3 | 31 - 3 |
| Eliot Wilson | Life and Career of Enoch Powell | 13 – 1 | 15 – 4 | 28 – 5 |
4 comments:
Great performance by Gary on Seven Wonders. And very impressive on GK. I thought that was a tough set and it was impressive the way in which he held his nerve and focus when he got four in a row wrong quite early on.
Lucky that they don't dock points for worst shirt.
Catherine definitely had the best hair.
Hi bj
As I said in the review, I have no wish to scupper Gary's chances by tipping him, and so I won't tempt fate by making any kind of predictions. It was, as you say, a very impressive performance. I honestly have no idea what happened in the semis - all I will do is to wish him the best of retrospective luck.
Thanks for a very kind review Dave - even the T-shirt comments pale compared to some of the texts I received. ;-)
I'm not going to lie - I don't think 14 in 150 seconds of GK is a particularly impressive haul, but one of the benefits of having appeared on the show before is that you learn that the second rule of Mastermind Club is "DON'T. PANIC.", and memories of my pass spiral in 2008/9 saw me through the sticky phase when 4 questions in a row went begging.
But I did say I would briefly elaborate after I'd been on, as to why I think the current SS rounds are too narrow, so I'd better explain. What is Mastermind looking for, ever since it was devised? Someone with wide KNOWLEDGE (both generally and in more than one specialism) and an ability to cope under pressure. And I believe the person who best demonstrated that last night was Eliot. First, he beat me 15-14 on GK, so I cannot claim superiority there. Second, we both handled the pressure well, I thought. But most importantly, his SS was something he *knew about and was interested in* beforehand. I, on the other hand, picked the 7W cos I thought they'd make a good MM topic (I knew the square root of balls all about them - in fact before starting study I could only name 6!), started intense study 8 weeks before filming and it all went into short-term memory. Playing along on MY OWN SS last night I scored 5! It has all gone! So essentially, short-term memory triumphed over long-term knowledge (doubtless augmented by short-term revision) and I'm not sure that is what MM should be about. It also makes me feel a bit guilty!
Still, for the semis - as my minimum hope was to go one better than 2009 - I picked an F1-related topic, and the lucky T-shirt (thankfully, not pink) will at last be wheeled out. At least then I know that I did all I could! Thanks too for keeping me from the Clark Curse (even though you know it was all filmed ages ago!). Look forward now to the rest of the 1st round shows, and thanks again!
Hi Gary
Once again, many congratulations. I am really envious of your perfect round. I once scored 17 in a specialist round, in Champ of Champs, but it wasn’t perfect. Right then : -
“I'm not going to lie - I don't think 14 in 150 seconds of GK is a particularly impressive haul, “
I tend to find that my mind still tends to work in terms of 2 rather than 2 and a half minute rounds. If we take a purely arithmetical approach, then averaging out your score, it would have been worth between 11 and 12 in a two minute round. That’s good, as you say, but if we’re being absolutely frank it’s not great. But put it in the context of the series so far. There’s been a few 14s and 15s, but the only really good GK scores so far this series have been Andy Tucker’s 18, and John Beynon’s 17. You yourself acknowledge that you handled a tricky round far better in last night’s show than you did in the semis of 2009, and I agree with this.
“What is Mastermind looking for, ever since it was devised? Someone with wide KNOWLEDGE (both generally and in more than one specialism) and an ability to cope under pressure. And I believe the person who best demonstrated that last night was Eliot. First, he beat me 15-14 on GK, so I cannot claim superiority there. Second, we both handled the pressure well, I thought. But most importantly, his SS was something he *knew about and was interested in* beforehand. I, on the other hand, picked the 7W cos I thought they'd make a good MM topic (I knew the square root of balls all about them - in fact before starting study I could only name 6!), started intense study 8 weeks before filming and it all went into short-term memory. Playing along on MY OWN SS last night I scored 5! It has all gone! So essentially, short-term memory triumphed over long-term knowledge (doubtless augmented by short-term revision) and I'm not sure that is what MM should be about. It also makes me feel a bit guilty!”
We already know that we have a difference of opinion on this one, Gary. I’m not in a position to say that any of the earlier champs picked subjects solely based on what they were interested in already, any more than I can say that they all picked subjects just because they thought they would be easier to learn. One suspects that it’s a mixture of the two. By it’s very nature, though, Mastermind always has, and always will reward the contender who is willing, ready and above all else able to prepare thoroughly to answer questions on their chosen subject. I do think, though, that picking a subject about which you know very little, and have no prior knowledge of is a dangerous tactic. It worked out for you this time – and very well done for that indeed. But remember what you’ve said about your previous semi-final subject – the Solar System unless I’m much mistaken. Yes, you had a good score of 13 on it. But be honest, did you enjoy preparing it half as much as you enjoyed preparing Jackie Stewart ? As regards Eliot, I agree that he played extremely well last night, and if he earns a semi final spot through that performance he certainly deserves it. But no, he was not a more worthy winner , and he did not to my mind demonstrate much wider knowledge. You can’t really base that on the one point difference between your GK rounds. His was easier – alright, it’s only my opinion, but it’s a considered one. The fact is that he prepared well for his specialist – but he left some gaps. If you take the specialist rounds out, or downgrade their importance even further, then you’ve got an interesting show but it ain’t Mastermind.
" Still, for the semis - as my minimum hope was to go one better than 2009 - I picked an F1-related topic, and the lucky T-shirt (thankfully, not pink) will at last be wheeled out. At least then I know that I did all I could! "
So you are going for something you already have knowledge and interest in. Proves my point ! Whatever my point was in the first place. Once again, the very best of retrospective luck.
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