Mastermind 2022 - Belated First Round Review

Better late than never. After last weekend’s hectic returning from Poland and then getting ready to go back to school after half term, I’ve finally had time to compile the list of Mastermind 2022 Heat Winners. Here it is:-

Name	Subject	SS	P	GK	P	Total	P	Winning Margin	Rank
Anthony Fish	Alfred Hitchcock films of the 1950s	14	0	16	0	30	0	8	1
Sarah Trevarthen	Rocky Horror	13	0	15	0	28	0	7	2
Patrick Buckingham	Francis I of France	13	0	14	0	27	0	1	3
Helen Garner	The Films of Tom Cruise	13	1	14	1	27	1	7	4
Alice Walker	Rodgers and Hammerstein Musicals	11	0	15	0	26	0	1	5
Lucy Westall	The Films of Pedro Almodovar	13	0	12	0	25	0	6	=6
Richard Aubrey	Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister	13	0	12	0	25	0	1	=6
Dom Walker	The Life and Works of John Clare	12	0	12	0	24	0	3	=8
Patrick Wilson	JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth	11	0	13	0	24	0	5	=8
Ian Wang	The Music of Beyonce	12	0	12	0	24	0	2	=8
Rachael Neiman-Wiseman	Kate Bush	11	0	12	0	23	0	3	=11
Will Vince	Joseph Rowntree	12	0	11	0	23	0	0	=11
Martin McCann	La Vuelta a España	10	0	12	0	22	0	0	=13
Gary McKenzie	Harold Larwood	10	0	12	0	22	0	4	=13
Tom Lea	Line of Duty	12	0	10	1	22	1	4	14
Allister Mallon	James Craig, Viscount Craigavon	13	0	9	2	22	2	1	=15
Ro Duns	The Alnwick Garden	10	0	12	1	22	2	4	=15
Kit Lane	Nell Gwyn	12	0	9	0	21	0	3	=17
Eleanor Ayres	Catherine de Medici	9	0	12	0	21	0	1	=17
Graeme Jackson	Grace Kelly	12	0	9	2	21	2	1	18
Marianne McKillop	Buffy The Vampire Slayer	10	0	10	0	20	0	1	=19
Ranvir Singh Kalare	Bruce Springsteen	9	0	11	0	20	0	2	=19
Paul Risebury-Crisp	Björk	10	1	9	0	19	0	2	21
Ashleigh Evans	The Music of Madonna	11	0	7	2	18	2	2	22

If there are any mistakes in the table – and I’m very capable of making mistakes – then they are unintentional and I do apologise. My ranking is just based on two measures – firstly the total score, and when these have been the same then the number of passes has been taken into account, just as it is on the show itself. Just out of interest I’ve also recorded the winning margin of each contender as well.

So predicting the final line up should be easy, shouldn’t it? Take the top six from my list. Well, no, I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that. Firstly, it all depends on the line up for each of the semi-finals. What criteria the current production team use to work out the line ups of each semi-final I can’t say for certain. In the past though, their chief concern was to get what they believed to be would be the best, most interesting combinations of specialist subjects – any kind of ranking or seeding based on first round performance didn’t come into it.

Secondly, the margins between a lot of the contenders are pretty narrow. If we take the semi final that we saw last Monday, on my ranking Lucy Westall was joint 6^th, while Ian Wang was joint 8^th. Yet there was only one point to choose between them in their first round performances, and only one point to choose between them in the semi – but this time it was Ian who was the point to the good.

We know for a fact that one of these people will be the overall winner. It’s difficult to predict just which one will be the winner, though. It’s a fact that the highest scorer in the first round isn’t always the person who goes on to win the whole series. Whoever wins will have to be able to get a very good score in general knowledge. Bearing this in mind, you’d be  looking at Anthony, Sarah, Patrick, Helen and Alice. But then, who’s to say that one of the contenders who scored 12 didn’t have a bit of an off day? Maybe one of them will have a monster score in their semi and go into the final as favourite. Which all points to the old adage – if you knew who was going to win, there’s be no point in playing.