Mastermind 2016 - Round One: Heat Four

Here we are again, friends – another four contenders, two of whom are Mastermind virgins, and two of whom aren’t. More examples of the enduring truths about Mastermind? Well, yes, maybe. We’ll see about that as we go through.

Now, The Academy Awards since 1970 is one of those specialist subject that is actually a lot wider and a lot harder than it sounds. For most of us, I would imagine that we immediately think we could do quite well on best actor- actress – picture Oscars, and maybe supporting actor and actress as well. How about the unsuccessful nominees though? Not to mention all the technical categories. So when you consider all of that, Dave Lodwig’s first round 10 points was a pretty decent score, I thought. Having said that, though, in the context of this year’s contest so far it looked as if it could well land him 4 or 5 points behind at the turn, and that’s a very substantial deficit to have to make up.

Janet Parfitt offered us Weimar Germany, and my 1980 O Level History, and 1982 A Level History courses saw me through to 5 points. Now, I don't wish to be harsh but the fact is that Janet appeared 2 years ago, and also scored 6 on her specialist round then. Bearing this in mind, it does make me want to use her round as an example of what can happen if your preparation does not actually prepare you for the show. What I mean by that is that I’m not necessarily saying that Janet didn’t learn her stuff, and didn’t know her stuff. But I am surprised that, after what happened last time she was on the show, her preparation didn’t prepare her for being in the chair. So when she had one or two wrong she fell into a pass spiral which she found it very difficult to extricate herself from. Of course, it’s very difficult to recreate the studio conditions, but I think it’s very useful to train yourself to answer questions on your subject in quickfire – it helps make that vital skill of ignoring a wrong answer and getting on with answering the next to become second nature, and that’s very useful if you have a couple wrong in a round.

I’ve often said that experience in the chair is very useful, and Andrew Burrows has that, albeit from over a decade ago. In Shaun’s 2004 series Andrew reached the semifinal, so he knows what it takes to win a show. This explains how he gave a terrific demonstration of how to construct a very good specialist score on the band King Crimson. I was a bit young for King Crimson first time round, but I was always partial to a bit of prog rock through my teens, and so I still managed to pick up a handful on the round. Andrew, though, did considerably better, and arguably took both Janet and Dave out of the equation by scoring an impressive 14.

David Horan, though, had no intention of making things easy for Andrew to reach a second semi final. Now, while Janet’s round relied heavily for me on my O and A Level History courses, I gave thanks to Mr. John Browning, who was one of my A Level English teachers, and Mr. Stan Tottman, who was Head of the English Faculty at Goldies (London University Goldsmiths’ College for the uninitiated) for developing my love of Hopkins’ poetry, which enabled me to pluck off enough of these to take my overall aggregate for the show’s specialist rounds to 21. Not as high as last week, but still a decent effort. Not as decent as David’s, though. He seemed to surprise himself with a terrific perfect round of 14. Game on.

First, though, Janet returned to the chair. I have to pay tribute to her ready smile as she returned to the chair after a specialist round which she must have found rather disappointing. And to be fair she had good reason for optimism having scored 16 on GK last time out. Sadly lightning didn't strike twice this time. Her passes this time looked more tactical, a decision to move quickly on if the answer didn’t pop immediately into her head, and that is a valid tactic, but in the end she could only take her overall score to 14.

Right, remember how I made the point earlier of preparing for quickfire questions so that the answer reflex becomes ingrained, and you don’t dwell on wrong answers? Well if anything this is even more important in the GK round. Yes, it’s only 30 seconds longer than the specialist, but if you let a question pull you up in your tracks the last 45 seconds to a minute of the round can be extremely difficult. In Dave’s round he really started off as you would expect a very good GK quizzer to, and I’m sure that Dave is a good GK quizzer, judging by some of his answers. However just over a minute and half into the round, and a couple of wrong answers robbed him of momentum, and in the end he finished with 12. Ideally you want those coming after you on GK to need something in double figures to put them into the corridor of doubt.

Andrew never really looked in any doubt as he returned to the chair. He passed the target with enough time to answer quite a few more questions. You felt that it was going to be a case of the banker pays 13s and over, but that was a little beyond Andrew on the night, and in the end he posted 11 to take his total to 25. Would that put David into the corridor of doubt? Well, only David himself could probably answer that one, but I would imagine so. Cards on the table, no disrespect intended towards Andrew, but I have to root for the teacher, albeit a retired teacher, and that was David tonight. He started well, though, and although points were dropped here and there, he was never behind the clock. In fact his round progressed in a remarkably similar fashion to Andrew’s, although he was on 25 with time enough for another answer. It didn’t matter, since he too scored 11, and also finished with 25. I’ll come clean, I hadn’t been counting the passes, but I knew it was close. It was too, but Andrew had incurred 5 in total, and Dave 4, and that one less pass was the price of victory. As John said, 25 rules Andrew in with a shout of a repechage spot, but I fear those 5 passes may rule him out. Time will tell. Congratulations David, best of luck in the semis.

Dave Lodwig	The Academy Awards since 1970	10	1	12	1	22	2
Janet Parfitt	Weimar Germany	6	5	8	7	14	12
Andrew Burrows	King Crimson	14	0	11	5	25	5
David Horan	Gerard Manley Hopkins	14	0	11	4	25	4