Mastermind 2025 Heat 2

Already week 2, dearly beloved. Last week we saw a fine contest between four well prepared contenders. Would this continue?

Well, Robin Dunford was certainly well prepared for his round on orchids of the British Isles. In my preview of this week’s show I explained it was highly possible that I wouldn’t score any points on any of the four specialist rounds. I certainly didn’t score any on Robin’s. The annoying thing is that I might have had the first – I have heard of the ghost orchid and the derivation of its name but just couldn’t dredge it up before Robin answered. Robin matched last week’s top specialist scores with 11 to lay down the gauntlet and make the others aware of the challenge in front of them.

A challenge which Ramona McKnight, second into the chair, was equal to. I’m aware of the TV show Schitt’s Creek but I’ve never actually watched it at all. Whereas I might have fluked that single orchid question, the chances of any points on this round were even lower, and I did not trouble the scorer. TV and film rounds are often a lot trickier than the viewer gives them credit for, especially when it’s a long running show. This one ran for no fewer than 80 episodes. Ramona didn’t quite match Robin’s round, but still earned double figures for ten. Game on.

Student Joseph Gregg did not seem in the least daunted by the task ahead of him. He seemed to be enjoying himself tremendously and that’s something I can run up the flagpole and salute. Only one contender is going to win the whole series, so you might just as well try your best to enjoy the experience, I say. I had not scored on either of the first two rounds. Thankfully Joseph came to the rescue with his specialist subject of Tom Lehrer. Thankfully I knew enough about the songs to gain a couple of points and I fluked another two to give me a respectable four. Joseph’s score was better than respectable as he scored 9.

Bringing the first round to a close was Maura Kenny. Maura was answering on Operation Mincemeat. This was the secret Allied operation to feed the Nazis misinformation about D Day plans – I believe this was the basis for the film “The Man Who Never Was”. I fluked another point to take my aggregate to five. That’s four down on last week’s nine, but if you’d have offered it to me before the start of the show I’d have bitten your hand off. Maura managed an excellent 11 to give her the joint lead and also ensure that she’d be last to go in the second round.

First back into the chair was Joseph, and he attacked his round with gusto. Like many young quizzers, at this stage of his quiz career there are gaps in his general knowledge and some of these came through. There was nothing wrong with his technique, snapping out the answers when he could and then passing quickly when he couldn’t. 16 is nothing to be ashamed of and if he decides to come back this way in a few years time he’ll be all the stronger.

Ramona seemed just a wee bit hesitant in a couple of places during her round. Nonetheless she kept patiently to her task and racked up a good performance and a good score in the process. Unlike Joseph before her she did not incur any passes and managed to put in a double figure round of 10, taking her to 20. We’ve seen lower scores win heats before in Clive’s tenure. Would Ramona’s be enough to do it?

Well, no. Robin began one point to the good and the opening to his round was excellent. He was not the quickest we’ve seen, but the first half a dozen or so answers were all correct. Had he been able to continue in this vein he’d have posted a cricket score. He lost a little momentum as the round progressed, but crucially even when he had a run whereby he only scored one right answer in five questions he kept going, picking off what he could, passing the target and extending it as far as he could. In the end he posted a good 12 to set the target at 23.

Unbeatable? No, certainly not, but Maura Kenny was going to need a very good round of 12 and 2 passes or better. And, sadly, it became clear before a minute had passed that she was behind on the clock and not going to get there. I applaud Maura for not passing. It requires presence of mind and application to the task to find plausible answers which might be right, and she did this. On another night she’d have scored more than the 6 that she managed, finishing with 17.

To the victor the spoils, then and the victor was Robin. Well done sir. I usually find the piece to camera at the end of the show quite informative and I was interested to hear Robin explain how he’d prepared for GK by having his partner read him hundreds of questions on a long drive. I salute anyone who does not believe the old saw that you cannot prepare for general knowledge. You can. I do think though that if possible you shouldn’t wait to start GK prep until you make your application to the show. If you spend at least a year beforehand then you can really make a difference. What Robin didn’t tell us was whether any of the questions he was asked by his partner came up on the show. Whatever the case, best of luck in the semi finals to you.

The Details

Robin Dunford	Orchids of the British Isles	11	0	12	3	23	3
Ramona McKnight	Schitt’s Creek	10	0	10	0	20	0
Joseph Gregg	Tom Lehrer	9	0	7	2	16	2
Maura Kenny	Operation Mincemeat	11	0	6	0	17	0