Mastermind 2025 Semi Final 5

 

Nancy Braithwaite	11	0	14	0	25	0	3
Gary Austin	12	0	10	3	22	3	11
Krish Hook	9	0	9	0	18	0	=22
James Barrow	9	0	9	0	18	0	=22

 Well, that shows last night’s contenders’ relative performances in the first round heats. So if this was a true reflection of their chances, then it looked like it would be a fairly easy night’s work for Nancy Braithwaite. Although Gary was also in the top half of the table, his GK performance was significantly down on Nancy’s, so it was hard to see where he was going to make up the ground. If it all went according to first round form, that is, and that is not always what happens.

Nancy came first, answering on Caravaggio. I saw a wonderful exhibition in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, dedicated to his work and Cellini’s, and he has been one of my favourite painters for decades. So I scored 2. Which is 2 more than I scored in any of the other specialist rounds last night. Based on previous GK performances, if Nancy could manage a barnstormer of a round then she would very much be in the driving seat for the rest of the contest. This is very much what she did with an excellent 12.

Krish Hook had absolutely nothing to lose in his specialist round on Premier League darts. Here’s a funny thing. Ask me a round about darts from forty years ago and I reckon I’d do pretty well. Anything from the last three decades and it’s sorry, no cigar. I didn’t get any of these. Krish didn’t fare so badly. He took six and looked close to a couple more. But Mastermind can be a cruel taskmaster. In another show, this would have looked decent. But after Nancy’s round he was out of the running.

James Barrow was answering on the TV series Inside Number 9. I’ve never watched it and know nothing about it – which I showed to great effect when I wasn’t even close to coming up with an answer to any of the questions. James never quite looked like he was going to challenge Nancy’s score but he kept his head and kept on building his own. He managed double figures and ten points meant that he was only two behind at the turnaround.

Based on the performances in the heat it looked as if Gary Austin was going to need a huge score on specialist to challenge. He was answering on US mathematician Grace Hopper. Answering well for the most part as well. But as we’ve seen in this series of semi finals, doing well is not the same as doing well enough. I scored 0 on this set and this shows that I don’t know anything like enough about the subject to suggest whether this was a hard, fair or easy set. I suspect the former rather than the latter. Gary scored 8.

We often say that when it’s not your night it really isn’t your night. Krish Hook’s round bore testament to this. He zigged when he should’ve zagged and struggled manfully with a set that never let him settle comfortably into a rhythm. At such times it probably helps to hold onto the fact that you’ve already shown your worth by reaching the semi final in the first place. He finished with a total of 10.

Gary did better. Having posted a decent 8 in his specialist round he now went on to score a very decent 9 on GK. This put the target at 17. Let’s be honest about it, you are unlikely ever to win a semi final with this score, but at least he was giving the leaders something to think about.

James Barrow did, to be fair, overtake Gary by the end of the round. It was only on pass countback though. He scored 17 and no passes, his 7 on GK being a couple of points down on his first round heat performance.

All of which meant that Nancy required 6 for an outright win. I’m not going to pretend that it was touch and go because it wasn’t. Her GK round was not as good as her fourteen in the heats, nor as good as we’ve seen from any of the other semi finals winners thus far. But it doesn’t matter. It was clearly the best of the night and that means she won by some considerable distance with 23.

I have resolved not to make predictions about the final and I don’t plan to. But it has not escaped my notice that we now have two teachers through to the final. Nancy, that was a very good performance, and I wish you well in the Grand Final. I’m looking forward to it tremendously.

The Details

Nancy Braithwaite	Caravaggio	12	0	11	0	23	0
Krish Hook	Premier League Darts	6	0	4	0	10	0
James Barrow	Inside Number 9	10	0	7	0	17	0
Gary Austin	Grace Hopper	8	0	9	2	17	2