You know, I’m a simple soul at heart,
dearly beloved, and it really doesn’t take that much to make me happy. One of
the things which will do it every time is an edition of Mastermind in which
every one of the contenders has clearly taken their preparation seriously, and
given a good account of themselves. Such a one we were served up last night.
M*A*S*H* was something of a phenomenon
in American TV shows of the 70s – American sitcoms of the 70s in particular. It
ran for 9 years, 11 seasons and 251 episodes. All of which made Emma Busk’s specialist
round task more difficult, I’d wager – there were an awful lot of them. Bearing
in mind what we’ve been saying for several years now, that anything in the
teens on specialist with the length of these questions is a very good score,
then Emma’s 12 was a good return, and it was probably fair to say that barring
something exceptional she would be in with a shout in the GK rounds. As for me,
well I loved M*A*S*H*, and I managed 8 of these, which looked as if it might be
the springboard to a new season highest aggregate.
David Sutherland looked rather
familiar, and a quick check on my archive revealed that he had indeed been a
contender before. Twice in fact, in Jesse’s 2010 series in which he reached the
semi-finals, and in Clive’s 2014 series, when he lost by a point in his first
round. Bearing in mind my theory that it becomes easier to handle the
experience of being in the chair the more times that you do it, then this gave him
every chance of doing well again this year. He did too, getting into the teens
with his round on the First Earl of Durham. I didn’t know much about the Earl,
but I did know enough about the history of the time around the first great
Reform Bill to add another 3 to my aggregate, which now stood at 11.
Now, if you’ve been with me for any
great length of time, you know me and you know how proud I am of being the last
schoolteacher to win the series. I However, the fact is that I would actually
like to see another schoolteacher win. I think that the longest gap between
schoolteacher wins would be that between David Edwards in 1990, and Michael
Penrice in Discovery Mastermind in 2001. Well, all of this is, I suppose, a
longwinded way of saying that as much as I take a keen interest in the performances
of all contenders, I am especially interested in schoolteachers, and so I was
willing David Noble to do well. Answering on English League Football Stadiums I
thought he did well to get 12, but ironically his two passes were ones I got. The
Hawthorns being the highest ground in England is an old quiz chestnut. In fact
I got the 9 I needed to set a new aggregate high score of 20 for this series.
There was still a round to come as well.
I’m not a huge fan of the band U2.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’ve nothing against them or their music, but they’re
unlikely to make an appearance in the Clark CD player in the Clarkmobile any
time soon, if you know what I mean. They were being offered by Michael Taylor.
Now, I may well be wrong, but I have a feeling that this is none other than
2015 University Challenge winner Michael Taylor of Gonville and Caius. He certainly
shaped up like a UC winner in this heat, taking 14 consecutive correct answers,
and only missing out on a perfect round on the last question. Me? 4 more points
to take the new aggregate target for the season to 24.
Based on what I knew about the
contenders it looked to me like a straight shootout between the experienced
recidivist, David S., and the proven champion, Michael. First back to the
chair, though, was Emma. Now, when you start a GK round and you’re a couple of
points adrift, it can look like a huge gap, whereas in reality it’s a gap which
can be wiped out with just a couple of moments of hesitation by the opposition.
So if Emma could manage a decent score there was always the chance of putting
those yet to come within the corridor of doubt. Ideally, you want to set a
target that is 10 or more points ahead of all of those yet to come. She didn’t
quite manage that, and I dare say that her round of 10 points didn’t mark her
out as a quizzer. It did mark her out, though, as someone who had a good enough
GK to compete, and someone who had achieved a highly respectable score.
Much the same could be said for David
Noble. His round was not exactly a carbon copy of Emma’s, but the end result
was pretty much the same. Nice to see that. I take no pleasure in anybody only
achieving a modest total on Mastermind, but I’m especially glad when a
schoolteacher acquits him or herself well.
So to David Sutherland, who has had,
if truth be told, mixed fortunes in the General Knowledge rounds in his
previous appearances. He wasn’t the quickest to answer that we’ve seen, but on
the other hand if it means that you’re making sure that you answer every
question you possibly can, then it can be a successful tactic. For the first
minute the score built rather slowly, with David only managing correct answers
on just over half of the questions. In the last minute, though, he really
clicked into overdrive, and took his score up to 26. That’s a score which would
win a significant number of first round heats, and it meant that while Michael
could still do it, it wasn’t necessarily going to be easy.
It never looked difficult, though.
Michael didn’t miss any low hanging fruit, and took a lot of the high hanging
stuff as well on his way to a score of 14, and a total of 28, which meant that he
won with a little bit of daylight between himself and David S. It looked like a
pretty nerveless performance too, and I dare say that he is a contender we need
to keep an eye on this season. Recently we saw UC winner Adam Barr get as far
as the semis, and just miss out on the final. Stephen, it looks like you have
another serious challenger again. As for David, well on 26 you never know. As
regards a highest scoring runner up slot, I’d say that the coin is in the air.
Well played all – good show.
The Details
Emma Busk
|
M*A*S*H*
|
12
|
3
|
10
|
2
|
22
|
5
|
David Sutherland
|
John George Lambton, 1st
Earl of Durham
|
13
|
1
|
13
|
5
|
26
|
6
|
David Noble
|
English League Football Stadiums
|
12
|
2
|
10
|
3
|
22
|
5
|
Michael Taylor
|
U2
|
14
|
1
|
14
|
4
|
28
|
5
|
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