Mastermind 2024 Semi Final 3

 The Tale of the Tape

Name	Specialist  Score	Specialist  Passes	GK Score	GK Passes	Total Score	Total Passes	Position
Julie Ashcroft	12	1	14	0	26	1	4
Tom Adlam	11	0	11	4	22	6	13
Lisa Cowan	10	0	11	0	21	0	14
Oli Hanson	9	0	12	0	21	0	16

 

So, last night saw us reach the halfway point in the semi finals. First into the chair was Lisa Cowan. Lisa was 14^th in my unofficial table of top scoring winners from the heats. Back then she answered 10 questions correctly in her specialist round. Last night she was having a pop at James Ist of Scotland. I knew the first question but drew a blank on the rest of the round. We’ve already seen in the first couple of matches that getting the highest score in specialist won’t automatically bring you the win, but being more than a couple of points behind can make things really difficult for you. So Lisa won’t have been too unhappy with 9.

Tom Adlam was answering on the TV series “Breaking Bad”. Last time out he scored 11 on specialist. Now, I never took a TV series as a specialist subject but it’s the kind of subject that ought probably come with a government health warning. There is just so much that you could be asked. So I reckon that Tom’s 7 was a pretty decent lash, but it did mean that he was already two points behind with two more contenders yet to come.

Oli Hanson, like Lisa Cowan, scored 21 in his first round heat. Back then he scored 9 on specialist, but won on the strength of his general knowledge. Last night he was answering on the world athletics championships from 2011 onwards. I added 4 to my total to take the aggregate to 5, not having scored on Breaking Bad. Oli knew his stuff, as you really must if you are to give yourself the best chance of progressing, and his 11 points put himself into the lead, and Tom into position of outsider, 4 points behind.

Finally Julie Ashcroft. In the heats Julie put on one of the best performances, scoring 12 on specialist and 14 on GK. Last night her topic was Mary Shelley, and sadly there were a few answers that seemed to make it to the tip of her tongue but no further. She finished with a respectable 7 but looked out of it at 4 points off the lead.

Tom was first back to the chair. He scored 11 in the heats but I have to say that his round in this semi seemed much better. He scored 13 to set the bar at 20, and really ‘coulda been a contender’ with a different specialist. As it was, with this being a semi final I didn’t think that his score was going to quite be enough.

Maybe not, but it was certainly good enough to stay in the lead after Julie’s GK round had finished. Julie scored an excellent 14 in the heats. Last night though she could only manage 9. I say only. 9 is a good score, but not enough to come close to the lead. My guess is that the heat GK round was a round where most things went right, and last night’s a round when too many things didn’t. We’ve all had them.

Lisa Cowan looked the most likely candidate to take the win away from Oli. Maybe she might have but oh, she had one of those rounds. You get one wrong answer, and then they start piling up. It’s a horrible feeling and there’s nowt you can do about it. Lisa ended with 13.

Which left Oli. The path through the gateway to the final beckoned, and although it looked relatively short and hurdle free he still needed 9 and no more than 3 passes to do it. And I fancy he might look back on a couple of sticky moments in the middle of the round with relief, since he managed to pull himself out of it, keep finding the answers, and win with a little bit of daylight between himself and Tom. Oli scored 12 for 23. Well played, and as always, best of luck in the grand final.

The Details

Lisa Cowan	King James I of Scotland	9	0	4	1	13	1
Tom Adlam	The TV Series Breaking Bad	7	2	13	2	20	4
Oli Hanson	World Athletics Championships 2011 to the Present Day	11	0	12	2	23	2
Julie Ashcroft	Mary Shelley	7	3	9	0	16	3