Mastermind 2025 Heat 1

Now, come on, be fair, I did tell you that I was going to be in New York City when our first Quizzy Monday of the season hit the screens on Monday 12^th, didn’t I. But I’m back now and yes, I had a fantastic time, thanks.

Did all four of our contenders on Monday night’s Mastermind also have a fantastic time? I hope so but you’d have to ask them. I think that Claire Reynolds did. Claire had the honour of being the first contender of this new series, and she was answering on Dad’s Army. In terms of my aggregate specialist total I felt that this was my banker subject. However I didn’t feel that it was going to be a case of fill yer boots, son, and I was right. I took the first four in a row, but from then onwards the questions required the in-depth knowledge of specific details from individual episodes that I just didn’t possess. Claire, on the other hand was well prepared. She scored ten and no passes and was worth every single one of those points. She seemed to be enjoying herself tremendously and that’s something I can run up the flagpole and salute.

To be fair Aaron Casanova also seemed to enjoy his round on Liverpool FC under Jurgen Klopp. Now, sporting subjects with what appears to be a narrow focus will always be controversial. Jurgen Klopp’s reign only began in 2015. I look on it like this – a narrow focus is fine as long as the questions require the same breadth of knowledge as other rounds. I don’t have anything like the in-depth knowledge of this subject to be a good judge, but to my layman’s eye it certainly did look as if Aaron was being asked testing questions. In which case his score of 11 looked pretty good, and it certainly put him into the lead.

Right then, don’t pretend you didn’t know this was coming. I begin every series asking myself whether this will be the one where it is finally won by another schoolteacher. The first teacher of the series is Nancy Braithwaite, although I don’t believe that she is a schoolteacher, but rather in the field of Higher Education in Oxford University. Nancy was answering on the life and works of Jane Austen. I enjoyed this round and felt that there was a good balance between the life and the work. If you’d only known the life, then you wouldn’t have had a great round, and vice versa with the works. Nancy, who I have to say looked very nervous throughout the round, joined Aaron in the lead with 11 and no passes.

Finally we had Danny Lardner who was answering on Shania Twain. I have to be honest, I don’t tend to pay much attention to the Glastonbury Festival at the best of times, but last year I happened to catch Cat Stevens/ Yusuf who I enjoyed, and this year Shania Twain’s set did impress me much. Not that I knew enough about her or her music to add much to my total. The five from Dad’s Army was supplemented by braces on Jurgen Klopp and Jane Austen – and what a midfield pairing that would have made in fantasy football. This meant I finished with 9 – decent season opener but better to come, I hoped. Well, Danny himself did well, scoring 10 and no passes to sit on the shoulder of the leaders as the bell rang for the final lap.

I have to say, that first round was what I like to see – four contenders who had all prepared properly for their subjects and who all kept the presence of mind not to pass. Quality.

Claire came first and she continued from where she’d left off in her specialist round. You can only go so far with an average general knowledge and Claire’s was some way better than this. I’d go so far to say that I wouldn’t be surprised if Claire has some kind of quiz experience. Even just playing in your local pub quiz once a week every week can make a difference. Claire scored an excellent 13. Game on.

By about halfway through his round Danny Lardner began to show just a little frustration. Whether this was with himself or the questions I couldn’t begin to tell you. I certainly felt some sympathy. There was a little run of three or four questions in the middle of his round that I found more difficult than any such run in Claire’s round and they proved to be a momentum killer for Danny. It’s all in the eye of the beholder – they’re all easy if you know the answers and they’re all hard if you don’t. Still, by the time he was asked his last question, about cuneiform, he knew he wasn’t going to do it. He finished with 19.

Aaron never seemed to be flustered or frustrated during his round, even though things did not go as well as I am sure that he would have hoped. We mentioned momentum in Danny’s round and sadly Aaron never really managed to work up a full head of steam. One thing to note was that he picked up the only pass of the whole contest, on his way to a total of 17.

Which left only Nancy. If she’d looked nervous during her specialist round, to me she looked positively petrified as she walked back to the chair. Yet she clearly had no need to be. What we’ve learned is that in recent years in the first round any GK score in the teens is a really good performance. Nancy needed 13 to win outright and she actually went on to score fourteen. What’s more, this didn’t look like a lucky performance at all. There was a wide range of general knowledge shown. By the end of the heats I reckon she’ll be pretty high on my unofficial table.

Well done to all four contenders. A thoroughly enjoyable season opener. As for Nancy, well there were a couple of things of particular interest in her closing piece to camera. She explained that she loved quizzes, but not whether this was just watching quizzes or extended into playing them. She also said that she’d applied when a work colleague told her they had just done so. Did they also get onto the show, I wonder? It would be interesting to know.

The Details

Claire Reynolds	Dad’s Army	10	0	13	0	23	0
Aaron Casanova	Liverpool FC Under Jurgen Klopp	11	0	6	1	17	1
Nancy Braithwaite	The Life and Works of Jane Austen	11	0	14	0	25	0
Danny Lardner	Shania Twain	10	0	9	0	19	0