Mastermind: Heat 8

It was last week’s show which saw a particularly favourable set of specialists let me hit an aggregate of 30 in the first round. A quick glance at tonight’s clutch of categories promised no such largesse. Of the 4 I could only really say that I knew anything about ocean liners – and not much about them for that matter.

Michael Ward kicked us off with the films of the Cohen Brothers. Thankfully there were 4 of what I would call easy ones – they must have been since I was able to answer them correctly. You know John H. seemed positively downcast when Michael just missed out on a full house to the tune of having an answer about a stamp miss out by 1 cent. Well, let’s not concentrate on that, but on the 14 correct answers which lay down a particularly hefty gauntlet before the other 3 contenders.

The next of these was Alison Rawlinson. Alison answered on Flanders and Swann. I bet myself that the first question would be about the Hippopotamus, and I was right, and one point to the good. I managed another 3 to double my aggregate so far. Alison produced a good secure round of 11, but 3 points behind at the halfway stage is a difficult position, even when there is a 2 and a half minute GK round to come.

It's not impossible that I’m reading more into this than I should, but to my eyes Lyndon Easterbrook lost everything on his first question. I’ll try to explain that. He was answering on Tom Wait. He got his first question, about a club in which Tom Wait performed, wrong. I dare say he might even have misunderstood the question since the answer he gave was actually the answer to a later question in the same round. I think he couldn’t believe it was wrong, and was so shaken by it that he just couldn’t regain his composure, and this dragged him into a terrible spiral. John H. put it down to the effect of the black chair, and while I’m not sure that it was the piece of furniture itself that was responsible I’m pretty sure that the pressure of the situation was. Lyndon finished his round with 4.

I was on 8, and thankfully Lynne Francis’ round on Transatlantic ocean liners 1899 – 1950 I pushed on to a respectable aggregate of 14. Nowhere near last week’s, but beggars can’t be choosers. Lynne knew her stuff on a subject that I know enough about to be able to say that these were quite a testing set, and a score of 12 was a good return. Even so, this did mean that there was daylight between Michael and the peloton at the halfway mark.

I was glad to see that John restrained himself from making any unfair ‘redeem yourself’ comments this time round. If a contender has an unfortunate score in their first round, I personally feel that it’s better not to draw attention to it when they sit down for their GK. If you must mention it, sympathising over the effect of the black chair, as did John this time, is probably the best thing to say. Michael added 11 to his score to achieve what John hailed as respectability. Fair comment, I think – although at one stage he was looking as if he might score high teens – the first 2 minutes of his round were actually pretty good, although he did run out of steam somewhat.

Alison Rawlinson did exactly what you should do with this kind of GK round. She didn’t hesitate when she knew the answer, and she didn’t second guess and start doubting herself along the lines of – surely they’re not asking me something as easy as this? Her round of 16 was very good all round – there wasn’t much at all which caught her out. When you’re 3 points behind that’s exactly the kind of round you want to throw in to give the opposition pause for thought, and more importantly, it would give her a realistic chance of a repechage slot whatever happened.

Lynne Francis had a rueful look on her face as she sat down for her own GK round. She was only a point ahead of Alison at half time, and within about half a minute it was looking unlikely that she could approach her score. In all honesty she looked as if the round was a bit of a trial to her, but she did manage to get up to 20, and there’s absolutely nothing to be ashamed about a score in the 20s.

All of which only left Michael Ward. He looked a little daunted when John reminded him of the size of the task ahead of him. Basically, he needed 13 points just to equal Alison’s round. Yeah, that may sound reasonable, especially in a 2 and a half minute round, but think on. If you think that doesn’t sound too hard, all I can say is, just you try it yourself. Maintaining your concentration, especially if you have a couple wrong, is hard, especially in the last part of the round. So full credit to Michael for being able to keep ploughing on. With one question left he was level on correct answers. If he got it right, then the job was done. He didn’t. I’ll be honest, I hadn’t kept track of the passes to this point, but it transpired that Michael, with 3 passes to Alison’s 5, had done enough. Very well played both.

The Details

Michael Ward	The films of the Cohen Brothers	14	0	13	3	27	3
Alison Rawlinson	Flanders and Swann	11	4	16	1	27	5
Lyndon Easterbrook	The Life and Work of Tom Wait	4	1	11	0	15	1
Lynne Francis	Trans Atlantic Liners 1899 - 1950	12	0	8	4	20	4