OK, let’s have a run down of the contenders, then. 3 virgins, and a
contender making her third appearance We’ll come to her momentarily. Meanwhile,
let’s start with the first of last night’s contenders, Keith Hutchings. Keith
was making what I believe is his first appearance on the show, and he was
answering on Chart music of the 1960s. This was something of a nervous start,
as three or four questions were allowed to pass by before he really got into
his stride. Which was a shame for him, since when he did start to get into the
round he was really motoring, and went from being in danger of a low score to
getting into double figures with 11. That gave him a shout, no doubt, but a
score of 11 in specialist usually means that you have to win the show, because
you’re unlikely to get enough on GK to help you make the repechage.
Journalist Sally Jones has been this way before. Her best previous
performance was back in 2009, when she won her heat on the short stories of
Saki, and then went on to be runner up to Nancy in her semi final. In 2011 she
had a bit of a ‘mare on the specialist round in her heat, and despite a very
solid GK performance she wasn’t close to getting through. So last night she was
answering on the poetry of John Betjeman. Fair play to Sally, she seemed to be
really enjoying her round, and that’s more the point than pretty much anything
else. She managed 10, a decent enough performance by this season’s standards. But
one which would require her best GK round to give her a chance of making a
second semi.
Barrister Ewan Paton was taking on a sports subject, answering on
the US Masters 1970 – date. I had a couple of these, but as far as sports questions
go golf really isn’t my speciality. It is Ewan’s though. He powered his way
through to a distinctly above par 13 and no passes, and there was no question
that he was going to be in the mix when the score cards were handed into the
clubhouse.
Now, I can’t say that I know a great deal about the Life and Films
of Luis Bunuel. So it’s very difficult for me to judge how comparatively
difficult Rod Armitage’s round on this subject actually was. Rod certainly made
a very confident and competent start, but it was one of those rounds that tends
to get a bit bogged down as it progresses. 8 points in a specialist round in
this series is very respectable and certainly nothing to be ashamed of – but it’s
not going to give you a realistic shout at taking the win.
Onto the GK rounds. Now that we’re coming towards the end of this
series of first round matches I think we can safely say that if you can get
into double figures on GK you’ve done fine. So that was Rod’s target. I was
delighted when he produced a pretty good and steady round, picking off what he
knew, to score 11. I fancied that if he could have got one more point, then a
target of 20 would have looked significantly more daunting than a target of 19,
and might just have opened the door to the corridor of doubt for some of the
contenders yet to come.
Sally has always managed to get into double figures in her previous
GK rounds, but sad to say she didn’t this time. It was one of those rounds when
either answers wouldn’t come, or guesses were wrong, and in the end she
levelled out at a final total of 15. Keith Hutchings, then, was going to pass that
score, and after a minute or so it looked clear that he would overtake Rod as
well. The big question was whether he could add enough points to make the job
difficult for Ewan. He certainly gave it a lash and was only an answer away
from getting into the teens – a real mark of quality in this series. In the
end, though, a total of 23 looked a couple short of a potential winning total.
This brought Ewan Paton back to the stage. Now, every now and then
when I’m watching the show, I’ll see someone who I don’t actually know, but be
convinced by the performance that he or she is a regular quizzer. I had that
with Ewan. This was a good performance – yes, alright, maybe he dropped one or
two that he might have had, but he also had some terrific answers to some
tricky questions. He made sure to answer everything and not pass. His score of
13 looked good – his total of 26 looked better, and he was the deserved winner
of this show. Well done, sir. Good luck in the semis.
The
Details
| Keith Hutchings | Chart Music of the 1960s | 11 - 3 | 12 - 3 | 23 - 6 |
| Sally Jones | The Poetry of John Betjeman | 10 - 0 | 5 - 5 | 15 - 5 |
| Ewan Paton | US Masters 1970 - Date | 13 - 0 | 13 - 0 | 26 - 0 |
| Rod Armitage | The Life and Films of Luis Bunuel | 8 - 1 | 11 - 1 | 19 – 2 |
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