Yes, my first day in my new job went very well, thank you for asking. Don’t worry, I’ll still be supporting teachers in Mastermind, but I’ll also be supporting NHS workers too now.
So, off we go. First up was Mike Noyes and he was answering
on the only specialist subject which looked likely to bring me any points during
the specialists yesterday. This was Admiral Horatio Nelson. I took three of
those, one I knew and two I made educated guesses at. My uneducated guesses in
two of the other subjects meant that I was not looking that good as we went
into the final specialist. However, I digress. Mike Noyes managed 8. In
previous series this would have looked a more modest score, but for this series
that looked like a decent effort which would leave him in contention.
Meg Koo offered us Battlestar Galactica. I remember the
original series back in the 70s, which I used to watch but which hardly really
lit my candle that much. I haven’t ever watched the newer version. Meg Koo has.
She was just one correct answer from a double figure score and knew her stuff
very well. As I’ve mentioned, scores have been just a tiny bit lower in this series
than in the previous – or so it seems to me – and 9 put her certainly in with a
chance.
I will put my hand up and say that I am not the least bit
familiar with the work of Michael Kiwanuka. Fair play, I doubt he’s familiar with
any of mine either. That’s not his fault, though, just my bad luck. Thankfully,
Stanley Thomas is definitely familiar with his work. Stanley managed 7. I would
have said that this looked a little low, but no, in fact it put him just two
points off the lead and we’ve often seen how this can easily be overcome in a
GK round.
One specialist subject remained though and this was offered
by Emma Gallen, on the films of Sofia Coppola. I wonder whether being her
father’s daughter proved to be a help or a hindrance to her career? This is not
the kind of question you can ask in a specialist round however, but the ones
that were asked brought my specialist aggregate to five in total. Emma again
knew her subject, but film rounds can be tricky beasts and she too scored 7
points.
Stanley gave it a lash in his GK round, and he certainly
didn’t do badly. However the whole thing was a little bit staccato. He never
quite got the run of three or four consecutive correct answers you need to
build up momentum. In the end a late rally saw him score a respectable 8 to set
the bar at fifteen.
You could make a similar observation about Emma’s GK round.
Once again she gave it a good old go, never seeming to lose her composure, but
again she couldn’t really get the momentum going to set a really competitive
score. She finished with 14.
I made the point about momentum, because that’s what Mike
managed to do by way of contrast with his own GK round. With the first four or
five answered correctly on the bounce at the start of the round he was moving well.
This meant that on the few occasions when he gave wrong answers he was able to
keep going and driving on towards a score in the teens. He finished with 13
points. This set the target at 21 and meant that Meg had to get at least 12 and
no passes for an outright win.
She certainly tried. Actually, I still refuse to believe
that anybody does ever sit in the chair and not at least try to do as well as
they can. But the clock can be a harsh mistress and the second minute it looked
as if Meg was off the pace a little. She was just a smidgeon away from a 20
point total, scoring 10 for 19 and second place.
Well done Mike! Best of luck in the semis.
The Details
|
Mike Noyes |
Horatio Nelson |
8 |
1 |
13 |
0 |
21 |
1 |
|
Meg Koo |
Battlestar Galactica |
9 |
0 |
10 |
0 |
19 |
0 |
|
Stanley Thomas |
Michael Kiwanuka |
7 |
0 |
8 |
1 |
15 |
1 |
|
Emma Gallen |
The Films of Sofia
Coppola |
7 |
0 |
7 |
1 |
14 |
2 |
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