Mastermind 2022: First Round Heat 21

Yes, apologies, I’m a day late again. What can I tell you? Well, I can tell you that it was Parents Evening again last night, and that I was cream crackered when I got in. Does that make it any better? Oh well, please yourselves.

There was a typically varied and dare I say it, eclectic mix of subjects last night. Matthew Cochrane kicked us off with British and Irish Women Astronomers. My tactic here was to answer Caroline Herschel to anything pre 20^th century, and not to answer anything post 20^th century. Don’t knock it, this tactic brought me a point. Ironically that question was one of the ones missed by Matthew. He did just fine anyway, although with 8 he was just a couple of points short of being really competitive and even this early in the competition it looked as if he was going to have quite a bit of work to do in the GK round.

I doubt that anyone has taken British and Irish Women Astronomers as a specialist before, and I’d be exceptionally surprised if anyone had taken Sally Moore’s subject, White House Pets before. But why not, it’s an interesting subject, judging by the questions that were asked. I managed a couple, but Sally posted a very fine 12 points. Not good news at all for Matthew, I’m afraid, but 12 is usually enough to guarantee you’ll either be in the lead, or right on the shoulder of the leader as the half time oranges are being passed round.

Susan Llewellyn answered questions on what was the most traditional Mastermind subject of the four in this contest. This was Nurse Edith Cavell, with whom I do have a very tenuous family connection. Edith Cavell had an Aunt who married a distant cousin of mine. Well, I did tell you it was tenuous. I have no idea if Susan Llewellyn knew about Edith Cavell’s Auntie, but she knew a lot about everything else to do with her and scored an impressive 11 points.

My favourite subject of the contest, dubious family connections notwithstanding, was Martin McCann’s La Vuelta a España. It’s a funny thing that I’m not really interested in the classics – you can keep your Milan – San Remo, your Paris – Roubaix and your Liege – Baston – Liege, but I do love the 3 grand tours, and I took 4 points on this round. Not a patch on Martin’s score of 10, mind you. I liked the way Martin self-deprecatingly spoke later about his Spanish pronunciation, but it didn’t seem to get in the way, as he took a good 10 points.

Before we get into individual scores, I must just say how much I enjoy it when all 4 contenders can put on a decent show in the GK round, so I enjoyed last night’s show. Matthew Cochrane was first, and of all 4 contenders he was most in need of a barnstorming performance in the GK round. Wel, maybe his 11 points wasn’t quite that, but it’s certainly a ‘hold your head high’ score for GK, and this set the target total at 19.

Realistically, this looked likely to be beaten by at least one of the 3 remaining contenders. First to have a tilt at it was Martin McCann. It was a good tilt at it too. You often see people starting really well on their GK rounds, and then running out of steam – and answers – about halfway through the round. It seems counter intuitive to call something that lasts less than 3 minutes a marathon, but when you’re in the chair it can feel like a very long time, and it’s easy to lose concentration and focus. Martin did very well to add 12 to his score, to set the bar at 22. Winning score? It could be.

It was too high for Susan Llewellyn to beat. She took the 9 points she needed to push past Matthew’s total of 19, but that was as far as she went. The perfectly respectable 9 points for GK put her onto 20 overall, and that is pretty good going, whether other contenders score more highly or not.

Only Sally Moore could possibly push Martin off the top step of the podium and out of the semi-final. And to be fair, she gave it a last. After a minute she seemed to be up on the clock and having supplied some very good answers, it looked as it she would do it with a couple of points to spare. However, it didn’t work out that way. As she closed in on the target, the correct answers seemed to dry up. She equalled Martin’s total with just one question left. She couldn’t dredge up the right answer, and that was that.

And it was that, too, since Martin had not accrued any passes in either round, while Sally had picked up just the one in her GK. It can come down to such small margins as this. Very hard lines Sally – a good all-round performance that, on another day, would have seen you home. But congratulations to Martin. A good all round display, where the self-discipline to answer everything without passing brought a just reward. Best of luck in the semi-final.

The Details

Matthew Cochrane	British and Irish Women Astronomers	8	0	11	2	19	2
Sally Moore	White House Pets	12	0	10	1	22	1
Susan Llewellyn	Edith Cavell	11	0	9	0	20	0
Martin McCann	La Vuelta a España	10	0	12	0	22	0