Mastermind First Round Heat 8

Well, I have to be honest, The latest heat of Mastermind did little to allay my suspicions about the specialist rounds in this year’s series. This is just my impression and I haven’t done any statistical analysis yet, but the scores do seem to be a couple of points down on what you would expect. No, we haven’t seen a contender absolutely devour a specialist subject in the last few weeks, but even so, you’d still expect contenders who show the kind of knowledge that the average contender has shown this series to get a couple more points. Just my opinion and feel free to disagree.

First into the chair was Richard Saunders. Richard was answering on the Culture novels of Iain M. Banks. (M when it’s sci fi, no M. when it isn’t. Helmet off Korky, helmet on Constable Turnbull. Ask your grandparents.) I have never read any of Mr. Banks’ work in either guise, so got what I deserved, 0. I don’t know if Richard Saunders deserved only 6, but that is what he got. Well, in this series that is not necessarily an uncompetitive score.

Primary school teacher Constance Cooper was taking on my ‘banker’ subject of the evening, Alan Partridge. She was also taking on the curse of support from the Clark sofa, being a teacher. Partridge is a wider subject than you might think, considering the number of different shows on different media featuring the character. I took four. Constance did better with 7, although I did wonder if her two passes might count against her in a tight game.

Third to go was Rakesh Sharma. Rakesh was answering on Bollywood screen star Madhuri Dixit. My knowledge of Bollywood is woeful – I was a schoolmate of Mohammed Rafi’s nephew many decades ago, but that’s as far as it goes. I didn’t expect to get any points on Rakesh’s round, and indeed I didn’t. Rakesh though produced the round of the night, achieving the coveted double figures on a round that seemed to my untutored eye to cover a lot of ground.

Finally Fiona Denby. Right, I know as little about Fiona’s subject, English Wine in the 21^st century, as I do about Bollywood, what with my little kid’s palate and being teetotal. So I was a little surprised to get a guess right to take my aggregate to five for all four specialist rounds. Fiona did better, stretching her total out to 7. So at the halfway mark all four contenders were just about still in it, but you’d have to say that Rakesh had a decent lead approaching the Canal turn.

Richard returned first for the GK round. Not a lot I can say. He had one of those rounds where the answers don’t come to you and your guesses don’t work out. He finished with 12. Hard lines.

Constance had looked to be enjoying the Mastermind experience very much, judging by her expression and she continued to smile during her GK round. The points steadily racked up and just for a moment I thought that she might just get into double figures. She certainly came close but fell just one short, getting nine to take her total to 16.

Fiona Denby certainly gave it a lash, but every time she looked as if she might just be building up momentum a wrong answer would pull her back a little. In the end she repeated her score of seven from the specialist round and this gave her a score of fourteen.

So to Rakesh. 6 and 1 pass would be enough to bring him the win. On paper that doesn’t sound like a great deal to ask. Mastermind isn’t played on paper though. At first Rakesh looked like he would do it easily, reaching the brink of the target in pretty quick time. For a while though it looked as if the wheels had come off, as Rakesh’s aim wobbled and the wrong answers began cropping up. Like Constance, though, Rakesh seemed to be really enjoying his Mastermind experience. He kept his composure and a couple of correct answers saw him crossing the line ahead of the clock. He scored 7 for 17.

I ca salute competitors for whom the experience is the thing, while winning would just be a bonus, and Rakesh certainly gave this impression in his piece to camera. Well done sir, and I hope you enjoy the semi final just as much.

The Details

Richard Saunders	The Culture Novels of Iain M. Banks	6	0	6	3	12	3
Constance Cooper	Alan Partridge	7	2	9	2	16	4
Rakesh Sharma	Madhuri Dixit	10	0	7	0	17	0
Fiona Denby	English Wine In the 21st century	7	0	7	0	14	0