Mastermind Round One: Heat 11

Hello again. Another week, another 4 contenders. Last night’s first was Janet Jackson, who offered us Formula One Grand Prix Circuits. Janet scored 6 on her round. Now, at the risk of being seen as unkind I must make the observation that, when a contender has a modest total like 6 in specialist there can be a number of reasons why this has happened. It could be nerves. It could be that they have a different understanding of the parameters of the subject from the question setters. Sometimes, it could be as a result of the contender just failing to prepare in the kind of depth in which you need to prepare in order to negotiate a Mastermind specialist round. This is just my impression, but I thought the latter was true in this case. I’m afraid Janet dropped points not only on things like the first circuit to host a night time GP which any serious F1 fan might know, but also on things specifically about designers of circuits. I’m sorry if this is harsh, but to me it looked as if she just didn't know here subject well enough. Sorry to be blunt.

I’m tempted to make a similar observation about Philip Dubois. Unless it’s a subject that I know extremely well – for example, one of my own former specialist subjects - I never expect to outscore a contender on theirs, and yet last night I outscored Janet on hers, and I outscored Philip on his. There were quite a few more general questions on Cromwell’s times as well as his life, and I picked up 7 altogether. Philip languished on 6. He did seem rather more nervous than Janet did, and this may have had a part in his rather modest score.

So it was something of a relief when Pamela Culley came in to answer on the Charles Paris Mysteries by Simon Brett. For one thing I have never read any of them, so there was no way I was going to outscore her. For another thing it was a relief to see a round where the contender had prepared thoroughly, and was not laid low by nerves. 11 is a good but not a great SS score. In the context of last night’s show it looked extremely good.

David Pickering followed on the renaissance artist and architect Brunelleschi. I picked up 4 on this to take my aggregate ( 8 – 7 – 0 – 4 ) to 19. Not my highest of the series so far, but a pretty decent effort. Not as decent as David’s on this round. He too picked up double figures, scoring 10 to leave him just behind Pamela and in with a great chance at the halfway stage.

John at least forbore from making the ‘redeem yourself’ comment that he made as Janet returned to the chair for her GK round. And I have to say that what she served up showed what a shame it was that she hadn’t managed to do better in her specialist. She scored a good 13, in some style I might add. She answered quickly too, which meant that I think she was asked 20 questions. As a measure of the relative gentleness of the GK rounds in this season, this was another round in which I managed to answer all of the GK questions correctly , a feat I had never done, I don’t think, in the regular series before this season, although it’s relatively easy to do in Sleb Mastermind.

Philip sadly did not quite make it into double figures in his own GK round, and finished with 15. With 10 on specialist, David needed to get into double figures in order to overtake Janet, and it certainly looked as if this relatively modest ask had been enough to place him within the corridor of doubt. He got here, and put daylight between himself and Janet, but he had to work for it, and in the end added 12 to his total to set the bar at 22.

It goes without saying that at the very least you need a decent general knowledge to get a decent score on GK in Mastermind. There are two other abilities though that are pretty useful too. One is to recall the correct answer quickly when you know it. Another is to take an educated guess when you don’t. This last ability is especially useful in this series when the questions are that bit more straightforward. In a significant number, even if you don’t know, the obvious answer will be the right one. Just by keeping her cool, answering what she knew and guessing what she didn’t, Pamela produced a round which was head and shoulders above the other GK rounds in the same show. A win by 5 is a significant victory, and in both rounds Pamela was clearly the best of the contenders in this heat. Well played.

The Details

Janet Jackson	Formula One Grand Prix Circuits	6	1	13	4	19	5
Philip Dubois	Oliver Cromwell	6	1	9	3	15	4
Pamela Culley	Charles Paris mysteries by Simon Brett	11	2	16	3	27	5
David Pickering	Filipo Brunelleschi	10	0	12	0	22	0