Mastermind 2019 Semi Final 2

Well, we’ve been made to wait a fortnight for this, dearly beloved, but last night saw the second semi final. Let’s have a look at the runners and riders and the form book:-

Amit De	Albert Einstein	13	0	13	2	26	2
Andrew Brewer	The Emperor Vespasian	11	2	17	1	28	3
Linda King	The Derby 1955 - 1990	12	2	16	1	28	3
Dave Cowan	Glamorgan CCC	12	0	15	0	27	0
Oliver Forrest	The Films of Wes Anderson	14	0	12	0	26	0

The first thing to note is that there were some pretty hefty GK scores there. On the other side of the coin, though, the trio with the fine GK scores, Andrew, Linda and Dave, all had good but not outstanding specialist scores, compared to those of Amit and Oliver. I do tend to feel that a semi is more likely to be won on GK than on specialist, and so I very much thought that the winner would be one of the middle three.

Amit De, then, kicked us off on Edinburgh. Now, I myself have never visited Edinburgh – rest assured, it’s on the list – but general knowledge brought me 5 of these. Amit did a lot better, scoring 9. That’s a good score. However it just failed to bring him to the double figure score which can be psychologically demoralising for the opposition in a semi final. Andrew Brewer, answering on the Emperor Vespasian in the first round, had the lowest specialist of all of our contenders in this semi. He really needed to get his challenge off to a good start now. Well, I have to say that although I thought his round’s questions were fair, they were generally quite tough. I’ve read biographies of Grant, and works on the American Civil War, and I didn’t pick up points in this round at all. Andrew’s score of 8 meant that at this stage he was only 1 point behind the leader, Amit. However you had to reckon that somebody would get into double figures.

It wouldn’t be Linda King, though. I don’t know if something had upset Linda’s composure, but she seemed a little unsettled even before the round began, hesitating before answering with the name of her subject. This uncertainty continued when she hesitated for a little while before giving the correct answer of the Shadows’ Apache for the first, which surely cost her the chance for an extra question at the end of the round. Linda was a little unconvincing, and a score of 7 meant that she was already two points off the lead, with 2 contenders still to go.

The next was Dave/David Cowan. I say Dave/David because he was David last time out, and called himself David this time out, while the TV captions said Dave. Now, as a Dave/David myself I don’t mind which you call me. My birth certificate and my mother always call me David. Pretty much everyone and everything else, me included, call me Dave, but I won’t take offence at either. David’s subject was the Life of Aneurin Bevan. Good choice, a fascinating subject, and one to which David did justice, posting an impressive 10 and no passes.

All of which left Oliver Forrest to complete the round. I suspect that Oliver might have been a little nervous himself, as he missed an absolute sitter on “Of Mice and Men”, answering Carlson for what was obviously Slim. Mind you, it’s easy for me to sit here and say that having taught the book for what I would estimate to be a good quarter of a century or more. He recovered well and powered on to 8 points.

So, as the half time oranges were passed around, nobody was completely out of the competition, although a three point gap, which separated Linda and David, is a hard one to bridge in a semi final. Linda gave it a goo old lash, mind you. She showed that her 16 from the heats was no fluke, and I would say that the 12 she produced last night was as good in real terms. Although she wasn’t rushing at the questions she missed very little, and kept her head throughout the round. 12 points for a total of 19 at least gave the others something to think abut, and gave herself a chance.

Next up was Andrew. His 17 on GK in the heats was one of the best rounds of the whole series so far. Sadly, he couldn’t manage anything comparable last night. It’s not that often that I think that one GK round in a show is notably harder or easier than the others, but I personally struggled more with Andrew’s questions than I did with anybody else’s last night. By the end of the round he’d added 8 to take his total to 16. A rueful smile, but the look on his face when he returned to his chair showed disappointment, and my heart went out to him.

Oliver, then, took his own shot at the GK. To be fair, I’d say that off the shorter round the 8 that he too scored was probably about equivalent to the 12 he scored in his heat. Pretty decent performance, but he never really looked like getting much closer to Linda’s total.

It’s really important to get a run of questions you can answer for your first few GK questions. Amit, sadly, was several questions into his round before he could add to his total, and from then on he was always playing catch up, and always behind the clock. Ladies and gentlemen, last night’s number was 8, and Amit was the 3^rd contender in a row to score this number in his GK round. This Kept him ahead of Andrew and Oliver, but Linda was still out in the lead with one contender remaining.

I don’t know if David was feeling very calm inside as he progressed through his round, but he certainly appeared to be so on the surface. He wasn’t exactly snapping out the answers, no, but calmly giving them and adding to his score, so much so that he achieved the total with a little to spare, and finished with a good 11, and a winning score of 21. Well done sir.

I wouldn’t blame Sue Duffy and Brian Davis if they watched this semi with a certain amount of chagrin, having both scored 25 in their own semi, and yet missed out on a place in the final, but that’s the nature of knockout competition.

The Details

Amit De	Edinburgh	9	0	8	0	17	0
Andrew Brewer	The Life and Career of Ulysses S. Grant	8	1	8	2	16	3
Linda King	Pop music of the 1960s	7	1	12	0	19	1
Dave Cowan	The Life of Aneurin Bevan	10	0	11	2	21	2
Oliver Forrest	The Fiction of John Steinbeck	8	0	8	1	16	1