Mastermind First Round - Heat Fourteen

After last week’s pyrotechnics it was only to be expected that we might return to earth a little with last night’s show. Nonetheless there was plenty of interest as the drama of the show unfolded.

First up was medical student Arnav Umranikar, answering on Winston Churchill’s wartime premiership. I helped myself to four points on this round. Arnav did a bit better with 6. He knew his subject, but somehow the questions exposed a few gaps and at 6 points he looked to have blown his chance.

I think it’s fair to say that I know more about Churchill’s wartime premiership than I do about Mariah Carey, yet I came close to equalling my score on the previous round with three. Tim Kew did considerably better. It wasn’t quite a perfect round, but it was pretty close. A splendid 11 put him very comfortably out in front with two contenders still to go.

Next came student Alice Perkins. Alice was answering on what I considered to be last night’s government health warning subject, seals. I guessed the grey seal at the start and that was my lot. Alice coped well with what certainly sounded like a difficult round – my lack of knowledge on seals prevents me from speaking authoritatively here. Ironically I do remember seeing an item on John Craven’s Newsround many years ago on the seal that said ‘Hello there!’ but couldn’t remember the name. Alice scored a battling 7.

Finally Elina Kharmats on Kandinsky. He’s another one of those 20^th century artists whose work I can appreciate but could never say that I particularly like. I took one to leave me with a very acceptable aggregate of 9 for the specialists. As with Arnav, during Elina’s round I definitely felt that it was a subject she knew, but the questions did not fall kindly enough to enable her to build what would appear to be a competitive score. She finished with 6.

I think that one of the more appealing things about Mastermind is its simplicity. This is the amount of time you have. Here’s the questions. Try to go like billy-o and give it some stick. There was a real never-say-die quality to Arnav’s GK round. It didn’t seem like the round of someone who had only scored 6 on specialist. If the five point deficit played on his mind at all during the round it certainly didn’t show. 12 was a good return. Did I think it was enough to win? Nah, but at least it would give the leader something to think about.

Neither Alice nor Elina came close to Arnav during their rounds. Both picked off what they could, but were unable to answer enough questions correctly to get close to double figures. Elia scored 8 and Emily 7 so that they both finished with fourteen.

Ad so to the Key round, should you pardon the pun. Tim needed 8 to win outright. 7 and no passes would bring a tie break. After the first four questions of the round you could have named your own price on Arnav winning. Tim answered his first four correctly. Then he had a couple wrong. Then he had another correct answer, and then some wrong answers. And this, it seemed, played on his mind, and the wrong answers just kept coming. It was compelling to watch for all the wrong reasons – every time he had to zig or zag he took the wrong option. I sometimes talk of rounds where the questions just don’t fall for you, and this was a prime example. In the end, Tim scored 7, but he incurred 1 pass, and that brought Arav the win.

Well done, sir! A fine example of what you can achieve when you put setbacks behind you and give it your best shot. Best of luck in the semi final.

The Details

Arnav Umranikar	Winston Churchill’s wartime premiership	6	0	12	0	18	0
Tim Kew	Mariah Carey	11	0	7	1	18	1
Alice Perkins	Seals	7	1	7	2	14	3
Elina Kharmats	Wassily Kandinsky	6	3	8	2	14	5