|
Patrick
Buckingham |
Francis I
of France |
13 |
0 |
14 |
0 |
27 |
0 |
|
Richard
Aubrey |
Yes
Minister/Yes Prime Minister |
13 |
0 |
12 |
0 |
25 |
0 |
|
Marianne
McKillop |
Buffy The
Vampire Slayer |
10 |
0 |
10 |
0 |
20 |
0 |
|
Gary
McKenzie |
Harold
Larwood |
10 |
0 |
12 |
0 |
22 |
0 |
Well, dearly beloved, as we
all know there is no seeding in Mastermind. However, if there were, and if it
were based on first round heat performance, then our first and second seeds have
already qualified for the Grand Final in earlier semi-finals. In tonight’s
final semi-final, it was going to be interesting to see whether our unofficial number
3 seed, Patrick Buckingham, could join them.
As it worked out, Patrick was first into the chair tonight.
Last time out he had 13 on Francis I of France. This time out he was answering
on Jean Harlow. My favourite Jean Harlow story, possibly apocryphal, is that
she once met Margot Asquith, and asked her “Isn’t your name pronounced Margott?”
To which the acid-witted wife of the former Prime Minister replied, “No, the T
is silent, as in Harlow”. It was on one of his early questions that Patrick had
a really pronounced stumble, and I did wonder if this would unsettle him. No,
in a word. He – and as a consequence Clive – got faster and faster as the round
went on, and in the end he scored 13 again. Bearing in mind his GK performance
in the heat, he was looking good value for the win.
That was premature, though, considering that we had 3 heat
winners yet to play. Next to the chair was Gary McKenzie. Gary was offering us
my favourite subject of the night. I’d scraped a couple of points on Jean
Harlow but expected to do a lot better on Gary’s subject, the sitcom Porridge. And
don’t get me wrong, I was perfectly happy with the 7 points I managed from this
set. I’ve made this point before during this series, but I’m going to say it
again, I do find that the sets of questions we get on films and TV shows do
tend to concentrate almost exclusively on on-screen details and happenings, and
don’t ask about interesting things to do with the production of the TV show or
film. For example, Porridge actually started as a one off pilot in the Ronnie
Barker showcase series Seven of One, and it might have been nice to have a
question about this. I don’t blame Gary for this, and he did well with 11.
This was not the pick of the specialist rounds this
evening, though. That distinction belonged to Marianne McKillop. Marianne
scored 10 on Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the first round heat. Tonight she
outdid herself delivering a nigh perfect round on Alexander the Great (the
Vampire Slayer) to score 14. This was quite an achievement considering the
number of tongue twisting names she had to produce in answer to a lot of the
questions. I may be wrong, but I believe that Marianne was the last teacher
standing, er, sitting, in this year’s competition, and not just that, but an
English teacher too, so I couldn’t help wondering if she could make it through
to the final.
Well, before we could find that out, Richard Aubrey would
have his specialist round. A previous semi-finalist, Richard had the benefit of
having been this way before. I can only speak for myself, but I did find that
it got easier to deal with being in the chair each time that I did it. Last
time out Richard won his heat scoring a quality 13 on Yes Minister/Yes Prime
Minister. Tonight he was offering the World Snooker Championships from 1977 to
the present day. There were a couple of more gentle ones – there had to be or I
wouldn’t have picked up any of them – but there were also a lot of tough
questions as well. In the end Richard added 10 to his score. It was good, but
at 4 points off the lead it looked unlikely to be good enough.
This meant that Richard returned to the chair to kick off
the GK round. He started it blooming well too, until about halfway through when
one answer just refused to take flight from his tongue, and this robbed him of
crucial momentum. He battled manfully through to the buzzer, but at the end he’d
added 10 points. Getting 20 in a Mastermind semi final is a very respectable
performance, but this is probably not that much consolation when you’re in your
second semi final and you know, in your heart of hearts, that your chance of
the win has probably gone.
Gary had managed 12 points on GK in his first-round heat.
Like a number of the contenders we’ve seen in his set of semis, he found
repeating this performance to be a tough ask. In his excellent “I’ve Started So
I’ll Finish” Magnus Magnusson describes how Harold Boswell Taylor, question
coordinator for many years on Mastermind, would ensure that the GK sets were harder
for the semi-finals than the heats, then easier again for the final. I honestly
don’t know whether that’s the case nowadays, or whether it’s just the luck of
the draw according to which set you get at which time. Still, Gary fell
somewhat short of Richard’s total, adding 7 to take his score up to 18.
As Patrick returned to the chair, the form book seemed very
much in his favour. In the heats, he had scored 14 on GK, while Marianne had
scored 10. Even starting 1 point behind, it looked likely that he could set a
total Marianne would be unable to match. If he could repeat his performance from
the heats, that is. Well, he didn’t quite manage that, but he only missed by
one point, ending with 13. In all honesty, I just couldn’t see Marianne
matching this, even at her best.
Sadly to say, Marianne wasn’t at her best. It’s probably
fair to say that Marianne’s round didn’t go her way, and she ended up with a
total of 18. What was noticeable though was just how much Marianne seemed to
enjoy the whole experience. And rightly so. I hope that your pupils are proud
of you, Marianne. You’re a Mastermind semi-finalist and they should be.
So it’s Patrick, number three on our unofficial seeding
list, based on the first round performances, who goes forward to the Grand
Final. Very well done, sir, and best of luck in the final. Speaking of which, a
little later this week I will try to post a preview of the Final, and try to
give you an idea of which of the runners and riders are most likely to give you
a good run for your money. Hope to see you then.
The Details
|
Patrick Buckingham |
Jean Harlow |
13 |
0 |
13 |
0 |
26 |
0 |
|
Gary McKenzie |
Porridge |
11 |
0 |
7 |
0 |
18 |
0 |
|
Marianne McKillop |
Alexander the Great |
14 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
18 |
0 |
|
Richard Aubrey |
World Snooker Championship
1977 - present |
10 |
0 |
10 |
0 |
20 |
0 |
6 comments:
Every question is easy if you know the answer, but I thought that Marianne was given a rough ride on GK with diabolical questions, whereas Patrick was given a run of easy questions.
Mycool, I don't think Marianne's round was that difficult. I don't see myself at anywhere near her, or our esteemed host's, level but I got 4 or 5 she didn't and some of the 'difficult' questions she zagged instead of zigged with her educated guesses.
What does stick in my mind, funnily, was I remember in particular a question about "The Peanut Butter Falcon", a movie that scored 2 in Pointless the other week in a "fill in a missing foodstuff" round despite having the year and Dakota Fanning also mentioned. Richard Osman even said, "Very well done if you got that at home". I still didn't get it this time!
Patrick was the deserved winner.
I agree that Patrick was the deserved winner. A six point margin says this in spades.
Marianne's questions didn't seem particularly tough to me. That said, difficulty in general knowledge terms is pretty subjective. What Marianne did do was fold in spectacular style in the general knowledge round, presumably because of the pressure exerted by Patrick's high score. He was the model of consistency across the two rounds (27 and 26 points), in noted contrast to a general under-performance (relative to the heats) that has characterised many of the semi finalists.
Patrick's Jean Harlow set seemed hard and the fact that he got a question wrong (hardly a pronounced stumble) reflected the fact that the question related to one of the many short films she made in the early days of her career. It was a tricky question in a set that was much too film orientated. Important moments in her life were missed out in favour of a pronounced focus on her films (with 2 questions being devoted to the shorts alone). I think a similar thing happened with Grace Kelly back in the heats.
Anyway give Patrick due credit. He came through the toughest heat to beat one Only Connect champ (Andrew Fanko) and overhauled another Only Connect champ (Richard Aubrey) in the semi final. All of which merits respect.
Thanks everyone for taking the time and trouble to leave a comment. I've seen quite a lot of discussion of these two GK rounds in other places. When I watched the show I didn't think that there was a marked difference in difficulty, but then that's the thing about GK, it is pretty subjective. Anything you know is easy. I agree with Mycool's observation that Marianne zigged when she could have zagged with a few questions - she could easily have got 7 or 8, and then I suspect it wouldn't have aroused so much comment.
I'd like to take the opportunity to necessarily thank you for the tireless, and inscrutable fair review of yet another episode, as an excuse to point out that I was asked to highlight my "Chaplaincy" over my primary role as a secondary school teacher in both heat and semi, as there was already a teacher in both matches.
So there were two if your brethren in this match!
I have a vivid, stomach-churning memory of waiting in the Green Room at Media City for my first appearance in 2016. I was idly browsing social media quizzing groups when I chanced on a discussion about "best/worst professional for quizzers". The overwhelming consensus seemed to be that teachers are the worst trivia practitioners: as you may imagine, this wasn't the filip I needed half an hour before making my mastermind debut
Hello Richard, and thank you so much for taking the time and trouble to comment. Oh, if only I'd known! Mind you, my support from the Clark sofa is proven to add a drag factor to most contenders' performances!
I would suggest that it may well be the excessive workload which prevents teachers from becoming super professional quizzers. I always loved the preparation for a specialist round, but heaven knows where I would find the time to do it from nowadays.
I'll be honest, it was only the green room for my first appearance, my ill fated first round appearance in 2006 which I found at all intimidating, and being in the green room in 2010 with the others in the Champ of Champs series is actually one of my favourite Mastermind memories of them all.
Post a Comment