Well, tonight’s show brought us to the halfway stage of the first
round, and yes, there was another recidivist in this week’s heat. I’ll come to
him all in good time. Meanwhile, let’s begin with the first of tonight’s three
Mastermind virgins. Patricia Gardener was answering questions on the Crown
Jewels. Now, that is one of those unusual, slightly out of left field subjects
where you sometimes see that there is a bit of a gap between the setter’s idea
of the parameters of the subject, and the contender’s. Patricia was extremely
strong on the constituent parts and jewels of the individual pieces, but not so
good on the odd historical facts connected with the pieces. That having been
said she still managed to get into double figures, and that has been something
of the mark of quality again in SS in this series.
Our second virgin was John Boyle. Now, there was something about the
way he answered his name rank and serial number at the start of the round which
made me fear for him. He looked nervous, and as if he had the weight of the
world on his shoulders. I think I was right, for he really struggled with the
first minute of his round. He answered the first two questions, but then the
old quiz chestnut about the original name of the Supremes – the Primettes –
pulled him up in his tracks, and seemed to play on his mind as the round
progressed. Stuff that I’m sure he knew, like the first hit for the Jackson
Five, went begging, and by the end of the round he had only accrued 6 points on
what I, a lover of Motown music from the 60s particularly, can vouch for as a
very fair set of questions. It’s just one of those things, and shows what nerves
can do to you.
The draw on the show meant that the recidivist was kept until last
in the first round. This meant that Nigel Tomlinson preceded him. Nigel was
answering on the Battle of Gettysburg, probably the most important and decisive
battle of the American Civil War. I knew enough to pick up a couple of points
from Little Round Top and Jeb Stuart, but Nigel did considerably better. In
fact it looked a better round than the score suggested. Nigel took that little
bit more time to answer than some other contenders, and as a result he topped
out at 11.
This week’s lone recidivist, then, was my Facebook friend, Kevin
Quinn. Kevin’s most high profile TV outing was probably in 2011’s Quiz
Trippers. However a year before that Kevin also appeared in Jesse’s 2010 Mastermind
series, where he won his heat and put in a decent performance in the semi where
he was beaten by my mate Les Morrell. Tonight, then, Kevin was answering on The
Life and Music of Dusty Springfield. Kevin managed double figures – which as we
have already seen is a good score in SS in this series, but did miss a couple
of gettables, such as the fact that many of Dusty Springfield’s hits being
written by Bacharach and David. Still, he was only a point behind at the
halfway stage and there was everything to play for.
Back to the chair for his GK round came John Boyle. It did look as
if his first round experience was playing on his mind. He answered slowly, and
by the end of the round he had managed to raise his score to 14. I’m glad that
he at least was in the lead by a couple of points at this stage, even though he
must have known in his heart of hearts that he wasn’t going to still be in the
lead for much longer. Patricia Gardener was next, and she did a little better
than John had. Again, though, it was deceptive. It seemed that Patricia was
answering more quickly, and scoring at a faster rate than John had done, but in
the end she just added 9 to her score, while John had managed to add 8. OK, so
it’s not a massive total, but this has been such an unpredictable series you
wouldn’t necessarily have bet that much against it being enough.
Kevin returned to the chair for his own GK round. Ideally he wanted
to set a score into the teens, and really place Nigel who was still to come
into the corridor of uncertainty. Well, that was the idea, but you can only do
that when you find the majority of the questions suit you, and if that doesn’t
happen, then you’re going to struggle to impose yourself. This wasn’t the best
GK round we’ve seen Kevin deliver, but that’s the way it goes. He needed a
minimum score of 9 correct answers and 3 passes to take the lead, which was
exactly what he produced. This left Nigel needing a minimum of 8 correct
answers and 3 passes. After the first minute of the round you wouldn’t have
found many takers willing to bet against him doing it. Again, he wasn’t
answering particularly quickly, but the majority of his answers were correct,
and that was the key. In the end he managed our only double figure general
knowledge round of the competition, and ended with some daylight between
himself and runner up Kevin.
Well done Nigel – good luck in the semis.
The Details
| Patricia Gardener | The Crown Jewels | 10 - 2 | 9 - 3 | 19 - 5 |
| John Boyle | Tamla Motown | 6 - 2 | 8 - 4 | 14 -6 |
| Nigel Tomlinson | The Battle of Gettysburg | 11 - 0 | 11 - 1 | 22 - 1 |
| Kevin Quinn | The Life and Music of Dusty Springfield | 10 - 1 | 9 - 3 | 19 - 4 |
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