Mastermind First Round Heat 9

Well, this was an episode of Mastermind that really showed us both ends of the spectrum, certainly during the specialist rounds anyway. We’ll come to that.

Kicking off the proceedings was Anthony Smith. As soon as he announced that his specialist subject was the Emperor Claudius, I thought to myself – fill yer boots ‘ere, son -. Basically ever since my mate Alfie Dilieto played Patrick Stewart’s son in “I Claudius” I loved firstly the TV series and secondly the two Claudius books by Robert Graves. Anthony’s round proved to be pretty testing and I thought that he did well to score 8. As for me, I scored 6, which is more than my whole specialist aggregate for quite a few of the previous shows in this series.

Kal Dixit followed, answering on The Watergate Scandal. The plain fact of the matter is that Kal scored 3. We’ve talked before, you and I, about the factors which can contribute to a contender having a low score in a specialist round – there are actually quite a few. Only Kal could tell us which applied in this case. To me sitting at home it looked as if one early question where she just couldn’t get the name needed for the answer past the tip of her tongue ruined the rest of the round for her. Well, it happens. Look, it’s only Mastermind, it’s not the end of the world. I got the plumbers question to add a point to the aggregate.

Following Kal we had Caroline Grogan answering on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera. I’ve never watched it, but I remember Steve Harley having a hit with the title song and that took my aggregate to 9. Coincidentally 9 was the total that Caroline finished the round with. Good stuff, and let’s be fair, that’s the kind of score which can be the springboard to a heat win in this series.

How, I wondered, would John Robinson, our final contender, cope with the curse of the Clark sofa? For yes, John is a teacher. The answer to that question being incredibly well. John was answering on Futurism. On the one hand this scuppered my chances of getting at least one question in every round of last night’s show right. On the other hand it brought him a magnificent 12 from 12. And let’s be honest, he went so quickly I’m not sure he could possibly have squeezed in another question, which is all grist to the mill of my contention that the specialist rounds have been somehow contrived to be lower scoring this series.

I felt for Kal Dixit, having to return to the chair immediately after watching that bravura and frankly almost effortless performance from John. But I needn’t have worried. Whatever Kal was feeling about her specialist round she managed to put it behind her and scored a very competitive double figure round of 10. A show of some determination, that, I felt.

In another show Anthony’s 8 in the SS would have meant he was close to the lead, but in this one he began four points behind. So it was imperative for him to keep his head and stack up the highest score that he could manage. And he managed pretty well, too. Anthony also achieved a double figure round of 10, which put him up to 18. Probably not close to a winning score for this heat, but enough to make the last two contenders think.

Caroline Grogan produced our third double figure GK round in a row and it seemed to me that Clive had one of those rounds where he gets into the swing of things too and fires in the questions with a little more steam. Caroline finished the round with 11. This meant that John would at least have to cross the corridor of doubt for part of his round.

There are worse places to be than the Mastermind chair when you need 8 points and less than five passes for a win. However, you do still have to answer the questions. It’s all in the eye of the beholder and ear of the behearer but I thought that John was given the hardest of the 3 GK rounds and he still managed a good 12. As I was listening to his answers I thought to myself – yes, you are a quizzer, my boy, and very much a contender.” He is too. He scored 12 for twenty four, the highest for a few weeks.

John, I’m not going to curse you any further by tipping you for success, but I wish you good luck in the semis and I shall be watching your progress with interest.

The Details

Anthony Smith	The Emperor Claudius	8	0	10	0	18	0
Kal Dixit	The Watergate Scandal	3	1	10	0	13	1
Caroline Grogan	Anrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera”	9	2	11	3	20	5
John Robinson	Futurism	12	0	12	0	24	0