Mastermind 2018 - Semi Final 6

The last semi final, then. Here’s the tale of the tape –

Sarah Jane Bodell	The History of Kentucky	13	0	12	0	25	0
Don Crerar	The American Civil War	12	1	15	1	27	2
Kyle Nagendra	The Films of James Cameron	14	0	12	4	26	4
Shahab Mossavat	The Life and Career of Muhammad Ali	14	0	12	0	26	0
Ailsa Watson	Coronation Street since 2000	10	1	18	1	28	2

Now, I have a distinct memory of standing up and applauding after watching LAM reader Ailsa’s GK round in the heats – and if I didn’t, I should have. The fact that Ailsa is a Fifteen to One series winner suggested that this was by no means a flash in the pan. Don Crerar’s 15 on GK meant that he certainly couldn’t be discounted. Shahab has been this way before, reaching the semis a few years ago.

First out of the starting blocks, though, was Sarah Jane Bodell. Sarah was actually third in her heat, but still with a score good enough to get her into the semis. She certainly meant business in her specialist round on the TV show Peep Show. This round treated me to a genuinely new experience. I don’t recall the last time I was outscored on any Mastermind round by a member of my family, but my daughter Zara loves Peep Show, and she absolutely wiped the floor with me, scoring 8. A good score. Not as good as Sarah Jane’s though. Her 11 was a quality round, which laid down the gauntlet to the others.

Now, what is the best that you can do in a specialist round? Answer every question correctly, of course. That’s exactly what Don Crerar did in his round on Albert Speer. In an edition notable for the ridiculous length of some of the questions, I think Don particularly suffered, but nonetheless this was a superb performance. He was going to be in the shakeup at the end of the show.

Kyle Nagendra put in one of those perfectly good performances in his heat which gets a contender safely into the semis, but doesn’t arouse undue comment. IN his heat, Kyle’s was a nerveless and sensible performance, when he didn’t go at 100 miles an hour, but didn’t miss much at all, and this is pretty much what happened in his GK round on the X Men films. He dropped one or two, and ended with 9. In the semi finals 2 points is a significant gap, but it’s not unbridgeable.

Last time Shahab Mossavat reached the semi finals he answered on King Edward III. This time he opted for that king’s great grandad, Henry III. Back in 2013 he scored 9 which left him 3 points off the lead. A similar thing happened tonight, as his score of 8 also left him 3 points off the lead. Perfectly respectable performance, but there’s a lot of difference between being 2 and 3 points behind in a semi, and I had a feeling that Shahab might well be out of the running by half time.

So to Ailsa. In the first round heats she scored 10 on her specialist round on Corrie. Tonight, answering on the Jack Parlabane novels of Christopher Brookmyre – not a series I’ve ever read – she also scored 10. Coming off a 90 second round, this was a considerable improvement on the heat. One point behind Sarah Jane and Don, she looked to be comfortably placed as we went into the GK rounds.

So to said GK. Last time he reached this stage, Shahab Mossavat had a bit of a ‘mare in the GK rounds. Ach, sadly lightning seemed determined to strike in the same place. I can’t fault his determination to answer every question and avoid any passes, but sadly there were just too many wrong’uns in there, and he scored 6 to end with 14. Shahab, you’re a double semi finalist, and I know a lot of people who’d love to be able to make that boast.

Now, what do we say about GK round in the semis? Anything in double figures, and you’ve done well. I thought that Kyle Nagendra’s round was quality. Again, he wasn’t rushing, but he was getting the vast majority of his questions right, and most of these weren’t exactly gimmes either. With a total of 20, and three contenders to come I did still feel that he was likely to be the bridesmaid rather than the bride, but nonetheless he had done enough to put the other three into the corridor of doubt, and we know the effect that this can have sometimes.

Ailsa modestly commented in this very blog that she was lucky in the set of GK questions she received in the first round heat. Well, if that’s the case, then she must forgive me for saying that she was unlucky with the set of questions she received in this semi final. It looked desperately close for most of the round, and she was on 19 in total as the blue line of death snaked around the score. She needed to answer the last question correctly, but sadly she didn’t. Hard lines, Ailsa.

Now, I did just have a feeling that Sarah Jane wasn’t going to take the lead. That’s not said in a disrespectful way – well it’s not meant to be. What happens sometimes in the semis, is that the GK is just ramped up a little in terms of difficulty, and this can sort out the merely good from the great. Actually, despite a slow start, Sarah Jane did pick up speed, and in the end she too was just one point away from taking the lead. What I liked about the round is that Sarah Jane never stopped looking like she was enjoying herself, and that’s good. It’s easy to forget it when you’re in the thick of it, but this is supposed to be fun.

Don Crerar, I thought, was going to do it, especially after he knocked off the first 3 points he needed pretty quickly. Yet, somehow, the round became becalmed. I don’t know if he was nervous, but Don started dropping two out of every three questions, which left him limping rather than sprinting towards the finishing line. There was an interesting piece of camerawork as the round came to an end, since we could clearly see a smiling Kyle, who must have been counting Don’s answers. Again, it was desperately close, but not close enough.

Many congratulations, Kyle. Best of luck in the grand final.

The Details

Sarah Jane Bodell	Peep Show	11	0	8	0	19	0
Don Crerar	Albert Speer	11	0	8	2	19	2
Kyle Nagendra	The X-Men Films	9	2	11	2	20	4
Shahab Mossavat	Henry III	8	0	6	0	14	0
Ailsa Watson	The Jack Parlabane novels of Christopher Brookmyre	10	1	9	2	19	3