Mastermind - 1st round heat - 8/1/16

I’d like to start by apologizing again to all of those first rounders whose shows I haven’t reviewed. As for this week’s show, well we had three newcomers to MM, and one recidivist in Sarah Greenan. We’ll say more about Sarah’s previous appearance shortly. Meanwhile, kicking us off was Robin Armstrong. Robin was answering questions on Pearl Jam. I can’t say that I am either a fan, or a person who knows much – or indeed, as it turned out, anything- about them. So I didn’t trouble the scorer. Now, we all know that for the last few series, anything double figures in specialist is a good score, and anything in the teens, a very good score. Well, Richard didn’t quite manage that, but his 12 meant that unless we saw something totally extraordinary, then he was going to be in contention for a place in the semi final.

I did know a little bit about the Watergate Scandal – certainly more than I knew about Pearl Jam – and this was Des Gallagher’s special subject. Now, Des used the sensible tactic of not passing on any of his specialist subjects. I’ve lost a show on passes myself before now, and so it can make a real difference. Mind you, even when you set out not to pass, a momentary lapse in concentration can do for you. Des didn’t quite manage to take his own tally into double figures, and while 8 is perfectly respectable, 4 points is a hell of a gap to have to bridge in the GK round, and the fact was that there were still 2 contenders to go.

The first of these was Matthew Smith. He actually gave us the other specialist round in which I managed a few point, on Middlesbrough FC. Like Des before him, Matthew managed to provide an answer to every question, incurring no passes. Like Robin before him, Matthew managed a fine total of 12. It was only last Wednesday evening in the Afan Nedd Artists’ group that the conversation turned to Celebrity Mastermind, and in particular some of the less than stellar performances in the specialist rounds, so I trotted out my old observation that you win the show in GK, but you try not to lose it in SS. That’s not actually always true, but it’s not totally inaccurate, and certainly Matthew had given himself the chance to win the show on general knowledge.

Sarah Greenan made her previous appearance in 2014, in a terrific heat in which the lowest score was 24. She lost out on the chance of a tie break by one point, after managing a fine 13 on the Ghost Stories of MR James. I think I should point out that MR James did not go on write Fifty Shades of Wotsername. Still, it certainly suggested that she should be able to at least match Robin and Matthew. In fact, answering questions on the life and poetry of AE Housman (who did not write Fly Fishing – for younger readers, ask your parents about that one) she went one better, once again scoring 13, giving her pole position for the GK round burn up.

Now, it seems to me that Sarah Greenan makes a point of appearing in close heats, although there was little or no indication of what we were about to see as Des came back to the chair. I don’t like to dwell on rounds where the contender achieves a modest score, partly because whatever I say could come across as criticism. And it is absolutely not meant to be. I respectfully suggest that only if you’ve ever sat in the Mastermind chair and taken part in a show can you understand the way that the pressure can effect you. And once you’ve done this, you know that it is wrong to draw conclusions about people based on 2 minutes of GK.

So, Des set the target total at 13. With all due respect to himself, there was no way that the other three contenders were not going to beat this total. The first to do so was Robin. Now, it’s fair to say that Des had found himself in a horrible pass spiral during his round. Unfortunately, for at least part of his round, so did Robin. I’m sure this is what happened to him, since he clearly knew some of the things he had passed when John was reading out the answers. The seven points which he did score did at least push the score to beat to 19. In the normal run of events you wouldn’t have expected this to be enough to put the final two contenders into the corridor of uncertainty. However there was a strange atmosphere building on this show. . .

Put yourself in Matthew’s position. You’ve just watched the two previous contenders wrestle with very uncomfortable GK rounds. How do you react? Do you say to yourself – well, I feel very sorry for the two of them, but hey, I’m just going to really go for it now? Or do you start worrying that exactly the same thing is going to happen to you? Of course, I don’t know what went through Matthew’s head. Sadly, though, the same thing did happen to him. For a long time it looked touch and go as to whether he could equal or beat Robin’s total, but by the last 30 seconds the odds were against it. Matthew finished with a total of 16.

Last time out, Sarah scored a good 12 on GK. She has also made a decent fist of a first round appearance in Brain of Britain in her time. Yesterday evening she needed 7 for an outright win, or 6 and less than 8 passes. Not a target which would put you into the corridor of uncertainty, I’m sure. But there seemed to be something in the air during this GK round. Last time out I noted that Sarah answered calmly and never looked nervous, and I would say the same about last night. The difference being that she was picking up passes, and not picking up so many correct answers. It felt close, it looked close, and by golly it was close. In the end she scored 6, and 5 passes. . . and this was enough to go through.

For what it’s worth, I don’t think that the GK rounds were any harder than they have been for this series. I don’t know for certain that successive contenders were made nervous by seeing what happened in the previous GK rounds, but it’s a possibility. What we do know is that a show in which no contender manages to score 20 or over is a rarity. And to be honest, that’s about all we can say.

Well played Sarah – congratulations on making the semis.

Robin Armstrong	Pearl Jam	12	1	7	8	19	9
Des Gallagher	The Watergate Scandal	8	0	5	4	13	4
Matthew Smith	Middlesbrough FC	12	0	4	6	16	6
Sarah Greenan	Life and Poetry of A E Housman	13	1	6	5	19	6