Mastermind 2023: First Round Heat 21

There’s a lot to talk about from tonight’s show, dearly beloved, so let’s get cracking, otherwise I might find myself giving away too many spoilers in the opening paragraph.

So Matt Carter kicked off with U2. 80s survivors, not unlike my good self, when you get right down to it. I’ll be honest, while I like U2, I can’t in all honesty describe myself as any kind of fan, so I was resigned to slim pickings, or more likely no pickings at all from this round. In the end I was lucky to get 1. Matt, at one point, looked as if he was knowledgeable enough to go clear through the round. Well, it didn’t quite work out like that, but he still managed a double figure score. Well done!

Wendy Knipe was answering on toy dog breeds. Well, I used to watch Crufts on the telly every year, but that’s about the length of my knowledge on this topic. Which makes it all the more remarkable that I still managed to pick up a couple. Paled into insignificance when compared with Wendy’s own performance. She went one better than Matt had done, scoring 11. Again, very well done.

Now, as little as I know about toy dogs, I know even less about toy Mitfords. Or so I thought. As it turned out though, I do know at least a bit about the times, and the literature of the times of the Mitfords, and this brought me a surprising four points. Suddenly I was on 7 overall, and with my ‘banker’ round yet to come I reckoned that a second consecutive double figure aggregate might be on the cards. A double figure score was exactly what James Beeby, whose round it was, scored. He too gained 11 points to share the lead with one contender left to go.

Hannah Loxton was answering on “Guest Stars in “Friends”. That’s the kind of round that is always a lot harder than it looks on paper. So having said that, I did managed five of my own points, for another good specialist aggregate of 12. As it worked out, most of those points I took were also taken by Hannah, and she did a little better with 6 points. Still, it does illustrate the difficulty of the round.

Moving on then to the GK round, I wasn’t counting any result out after what we saw last week. Just as well too, for Hannah, undaunted by the stress of her Specialist round, returned to the chair and pretty much smashed her GK. Anything, and I repeat anything in the teens in the current era is good going, and Hannah kept her composure, played the percentage answers where she was guessing and took 13 points to set the target at 19. Even though all three of her fellow contenders had posted double figures in GK, I murmured to myself – well, she won’t finish in fourth with that total.

Nor would she. Matt returned next, and he started brightly enough, taking the first two. After the first half dozen though he seemed to lose all momentum. There were more correct answers, but these were sporadic, and time was against him. Even so he was inching closer to the total until the last few questions stopped him completely in his tracks. Look, it happens, and there’s nothing you can do about it when it does. Matt scored 7 to end with 17.

It’s funny how lightning can strike twice in quick succession. Wendy’s round bore a strange resemblance to Matt’s. Neither of them answered particularly quickly, and both of them started off comfortably and looked as if they would get there with some time to spare. In Wendy’s case the answers began to refuse to jump off the tip of her tongue, and I dare say that even some of her correct answers ended up costing her the chance of an extra couple of questions. She too scored 7, and ended one short of the total.

Surely, I mused, surely we weren’t going to have the winner of the show come from being well behind at half time for the second show in a row? Well, not quite, no. However it was remarkable to see how James Beeby had a bit of a wobble after scoring 7 to take him to 18 - it seemed like ages before he had another correct answer. However, once he’d surmounted that obstacle he went on to put daylight between himself and the chasing pack, finishing with 11 to take him to 21.

Another exciting show. Well done to all, and James, best of luck to you in the semi final.

The Details

Matt Carter	U2	10	1	7	3	16	4
Wendy Knipe	Toy Dog Breeds	11	0	7	4	18	4
James Beeby	The Mitford Sisters	11	0	10	2	21	2
Hannah Loxton	Guest Stars in Friends	6	3	13	1	19	4