Mastermind: Semi Final 4

So then, let’s begin, as we usually do, by casting an eye over the racing form for tonight’s contenders.

Lynn Edwards	The Forsyte Novels by John Galsworthy	15	0	15	0	30	0
Tony Richardson	Don Revie	12	0	15	0	27	0
Colin Daffern	Benny Hill	14	0	13	0	27	0
Ian Fennell	David Bowie	14	0	13	1	27	1
Gerald Chong	Steve Jobs	11	0	14	3	25	3

There’s a couple of things we should note about this. Firstly, three of tonight’s contenders had terrific SS scores in their first round. Which begged the question – it’s hard enough to do that well in one specialist round – could they do it again with a second? Then two of our contenders had very good GK scores. Only one, though, had both great GK and great specialist. So if first round form is any kind of reliable guide – and sometimes it is - then Lynn Edwards looked to be favourite. Well, let’s see how it worked out.

You wouldn’t necessarily have ruled out the chances of any of tonight’s contenders prior to the show, and Colin Daffern had the distinct advantage of having been this way before. If you’re waiting for me to once again say that I firmly believe that dealing with the chair becomes easier each time that you do it, then I’m not going to disappoint you, for it does. Last time out Colin scored an excellent 14, tonight, on the life and work of the great Alan Bennett he didn’t quite manage such an outstanding score. Oh, don’t get me wrong, 8 off 90 seconds is not easy to get, but it’s not the kind of score which absolutely guarantees you’ll be at least on the shoulder of the leader at the halfway point.

Teacher Tony Richardson has been on TV before his Mastermind adventures – I think specifically of University Challenge. Being a teacher, of course, he had the burden of support from the Clark sofa to contend with, as he tackled his round on Cream – that’s the iconic 60s rock band and not the less iconic dairy product. And tackle it extremely well he did. 11 points off 90 seconds is the kind of performance which will usually put you right up with the leaders at the turn around. Tony, let’s remind ourselves, scored 15 on GK in the heats, which all seemed to bode well for his chances.

Gerald Chong had scored 11 in his first round heat, and 14 on GK, which marked him out as perhaps the underdog in this semi, if you can have an underdog in a Mastermind semi final, that is. His performance on tonight’s round on the Novels of Dan Brown, in which he scored 8, was of a similar ilk, fine, but not outstanding. It left him three behind Tony, however, and off two minutes a three point gap can look like a yawning chasm sometimes. A great performance on GK would be a necessity for him.

LAM reader Ian Fennell put in a tremendous performance in his own heat, and yet had to qualify for the semis via the repechage places. Well, that is what they’re there for, to prevent very good contenders from slipping through the net. I made the point when I watched his perfect round on David Bowie last time out that I reckoned that John could have spent the whole show asking Ian questions on Bowie and he wouldn’t have had any of them wrong. Well, it’s incredibly difficult to hit that level of SS performance twice in a row, and Ian too became one of our 8 pointers in his round on Herbert Von Karajan. With one contender to go, Tony was looking more and more secure.

Lynn Edwards was the top performer of tonight’s contenders in the first round heats, with a double 15. Her round on Mary of Teck tonight, to be honest, looked nothing like as good as her previous round on John Galsworthy. In fact she seemed to be shipping gettable points alarmingly at the start. When it comes to technique, though, Lynn is a lady after my own heart. She never brooded when she got an answer wrong, just kept snapping out the answers and not agonising over anything, and gradually – if anything in a 90 second round can be gradual – her score climbed until she too had scored 8. Advantage Tony.

So for four contenders at least, the mission was simple and clear. Score enough points to at least put Tony within the corridor of doubt. Colin gave it a lash. Now, this is all in the eye of the beholder, and one man’s meat is another man’s poisson, but I found Colin’s set of questions less to my liking than the following rounds. That’s just the way it goes – some sets suit and some sets don’t. I don’t know that they were totally to Colin’s liking either. He scored 9 – a perfectly respectable semi final GK score, but we’ve seen him go better than this in the past. 17 looked unlikely to win this show.

Gerald Chong had put on a highly useful 14 in GK in his own heat. I’d say that 10 off 90 seconds is roughly equivalent to 14 off 120, so he was at least showing a level of consistency. An overall total of 18 and no passes meant that Tony was going to need at least 9 for an outright win, and so the target was at least climbing to the kind of total that would require a serious chase.

Ian shook his head ruefully after he, like Colin, posted 9 to take his total to 17. I think he knew that there were a couple of answers that just got away from him, and sadly, on a night when you need every point you can get these things will count against you in the end. Never mind. You are a Mastermind semi-finalist, Sir, and have nothing to regret in any of your performances. With only one contender to go before Tony, though, the Clark 50p was still very much placed on a Tony win.

I mentioned Lynn Edwards’ technique in her SS round. It has probably never served her better than in her GK round tonight. I am perhaps doing her a disservice when I say that it seemed that several of her correct answers may well have been guesses, judging by her tone of voice and facial expression. That’s not a criticism by any means. One of the essential skills of any good quizzer is being able to apply what you do know to help you answer what you don’t. It takes concentration and presence of mind. After all, if you’ve got a couple of minutes to think about it, even if you’ve never heard of Jacob’s Ladder it’s not unreasonable, when you’re told it ascends a landmark in Somerset to come up with Cheddar Gorge. Try doing it in a second or two. You can, but you have to concentrate and think clearly to come up with percentage answers which have a decent chance of being right, and that’s exactly what Lynn did. She posted a terrific score of 13. With no passes it meant that Tony needed 11 for an outright win. Game on.

I feel nothing but sympathy towards Tony for what happened in his round. Believe me, everyone has nights when every choice you make, every guess you take, is a close but no cigar answer. He could probably play another dozen GK rounds in the chair, and this wouldn’t happen again. It is just such bad luck for it to happen when you are in a very good position in the semi-final, and have what appears to be an excellent chance of making it through to the final. In the end he took his score to 16. Many commiserations Tony – sometimes it just ain’t your night. If you want to, you’ll be back.

Congratulations Lynn, and best of luck in the final.

The Details

Colin Daffern	Life and Works of Alan Bennett	8	1	9	0	17	1
Tony Richardson	Cream	11	1	5	3	16	4
Gerald Chong	The Novels of Dan Brown	8	0	10	0	18	0
Ian Fennell	Herbert Von Karajan	8	0	9	1	17	1
Lynn Edwards	Mary of Teck	8	0	13	0	21	0