Mastermind 2025 - First round Heat 17

Heat 17 now folks, so not too long to go before we’ll have seen all of his year’s contenders. But what of last night’s?

I may have retired from education, but I still root for teachers giving it a lash in the black chair, so I feared for first contender Phil Nowek last night. My support over the years has proven to be the kiss of death for many a likely contender’s chances. Phil was answering on George R R Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” . Answering really well for over a minute, too. However a few wrong’uns in the later part of the round limited him to 7 points where a double figure round had looked possible at one point.

Next came Chris Murphy. Chris was answering on Whales, which I believe was the subject my friend and former skipper Gary Grant took in his own winning performance in the final in about 2012. Back then Gary set a Hall of Fame score of 19, I think. Well, in the current era nobody is give the chance of getting close to that score. Sadly for Chris, the questions seemed to find him out a little bit, exposing what seemed to be a few gaps in his knowledge of the subject. He ended with four points.

Marianne Harman came third to the chair. She was answering on Reinhard Messner. What did I know about Reihard Messner? That he was the first person to climb to the summit of Everest without using oxygen. (All of you who think, ‘silly sod’ may be heartened to know that I thought the same the first time that I heard it.) So I was gratified to find that I knew the Eiger Sanction and guessed K2 to bag a couple of unexpected points on this round. Marianne did better than that, but I think a stumble on one question just robbed her of the chance to go joint top with Phil.

Finally Emma Carter Brown. Emma was answering on what should have been the closest thing to a banker subject for me in this show, Emily Bronte. I have an often dented theory that the world is largely divided between Jane Eyre people and Wuthering Heights people. I’m a Wuthering Heights man. I wasn’t unhappy to take three on this round which took me to 7 overall. Emma joined Phil at the top with 7 and no passes.

Chris returned to the chair first for the General Knolwedge. It looked a bit of a struggle at times, but Chris battled his way to a respectable score of 8 to set the bar at 12.

Marianne, with all due respect to Chris, was the first of the three potential winners of the heat to return to the chair. She did well, too achieving a double figure score. 10 gave her 16 – not a guaranteed winning score certainly but enough to give the two leaders something to think about.

Well, it didn’t seem to take much thought on Phil’s part. He produced a very fine 14. Sometimes you can look at a contender as a question is being asked and think – he/she doesn’t know this. It happened to me a number of times during Phil’s round, but each time I thought so he gave the right answer. Fair play. Phil’s total of 21 looked very much like a winning score to me. Unless Emma knew differently.

Well, Emma needed 15 for an outright win, and 14 and no passes for a tie break. She had a decent go at it as well, but by about a minute into the round she was behind on the clock and didn’t look like she was going to make it. She too though scored double figures, her ten bringing her second place on 17.

I’ll be honest, I don’t really like what has happened with the specialist subjects this year. In general they’re a couple of points down across the board, and I don’t think it’s down to the contenders. I don’t think it adds to the show, in fact for me, it detracts. Just my opinion and feel free to disagree.

Well done Phil. Your GK in particular gives you chances. I hope that you can find time – not easy for a teacher – to learn your second specialist as well as possible so that you have a real chance in your semi. Best of luck.

The Details

Phil Nowek	A Song of Ice and Fire	7	0	14	0	21	0
Chris Murphy	Whales	4	2	8	3	12	5
Marianne Harman	Reinhold Messner	6	0	10	0	16	0
Emma Carter Brown	Emily Bronte	7	0	10	0	17	0