The continuity announcer on BBC2 said it was nice to see Mastermind back after a few weeks. Yes, but who’s fault is it that it was taken away in the first place? I suppose we should be grateful that it hasn’t been kept off to make room for the Chelsea Flower Show. Well, allow me a moment to get down from my high horse, and then we can get down to business.
First up tonight was David Finlay. I think I probably should
apologise for burdening David with the support from the Clark sofa, which has
been the kiss of death for so many. Well, be fair, he is a schoolteacher, and
not just a teacher, but an English teacher to boot. As I think I may have mentioned
several hundred times over the last few years, I am still the last
schoolteacher to win a series, and it’s a title I’ve held for longer than any
other – so it’s high time one of my brethren or sistren took it from me. David
was answering on the life and career of John Cleese – for which I was very
grateful since it allowed me 6 points towards my first round aggregate. David acquitted
himself well but let a little too much go by to give himself an easy ride in
the GK round. 8 is certainly not the relatively modest score that it once
appeared to be, but it’s not a score to give you a runaway lead.
Bearing in mind that Ro Duns was offering us the Alnwick
Garden, a subject on which I could write everything I know on the back of a
small postage stamp and still leave room for the address, I was pleased to take
my one point for Capability Brown and run on that one. Ro achieved the
psychological boost of a double figure score, and while she didn’t get
everything she was asked, I’d still say that this was a pretty good
performance.
So, I had an aggregate of 7 going into Shamina Chowdhury’s
round on the Marvel Avengers films. Again, I extend my thanks to her on her
choice of subject because this meant I was able to raise my aggregate to 14,
Which pales a little into insignificance when you consider that Shamina
herself, in the best specialist performance of the night, took 12. Not perfect,
but pretty damn good I’d say.
I didn’t fancy I’d get more than one on John Charnock- Wilson’s
round on Manatees, Dugongs and Sea Cows – I expected one because I had Stellers
Sea Cow up my sleeve, as it were (big sleeve – the thing was up to 25ft long,
supposedly). I got another for vibrissae. Now, certainly from the first part of
his round, John definitely appeared to know his subject. Yet somehow it just
fell away from what had looked like it would be a good 8, or 9, and he finished
with 6.
All of which meant that John was the first to return to the
chair for the General Knowledge round. His GK round in one way rather reminded
me of his specialist round, in as much as the first half seemed noticeably
better than the second. It’s an odd thing, a GK round in Mastermind. Once you
start to guess the wrong way on a couple it can really start to play on your
mind, and the last 30 seconds or so can be a struggle. Well, that’s how John’s
round appeared to me. He finished with 8 for 14.
David began his GK round at full speed, and after the first
30 seconds or so I was telling myself – this boy’s a quizzer – and – he should
set a score to put the others into the corridor of doubt. Well, the rest of the
round wasn’t quite as good. Don’ get me wrong, he got himself into double
figures, and finished with 18, but considering that the two contenders yet to
play had respectively a 2 points and a 4 points head start, it looked a little
short of a winning lead to my mind.
Ro Dunn had a very contrasting style to David’s in her GK
round. While David had rattled off the answers and guesses, Ro was more
considered, giving herself a moment on some of the questions, making sure that
she didn’t miss any of the low hanging fruit, and provided an intelligent guess
to any she didn’t know. Don’t knock it – this can be a very effective technique
and it worked well for Ro. She added a further 12 to her score, and that target
of 11 for an outright win for Shamina looked like a difficult one.
It looked even more difficult after the first 30 seconds of
Shamina’s round. It sometimes happens that the best performer on specialist
turns out to earn the lowest score on GK, and sadly for Shamina, this was the
case tonight. All I can say is that that’s quizzing. Sometimes it’s just not
your night and when that happens there’s very little that you can do about it.
Shamina scored 5 to end with 17.
Well done to Ro – best of luck in the semi final.
The Details
|
David Finlay |
John Cleese |
8 |
1 |
10 |
0 |
18 |
0 |
|
Ro Duns |
The Alnwick Garden |
10 |
0 |
12 |
1 |
22 |
2 |
|
Shamina Chowdhury |
Marvel Avengers Films |
12 |
0 |
5 |
2 |
17 |
2 |
|
John Charnock-Wilson |
Manatees, Dugongs and Sea Cows |
6 |
0 |
8 |
3 |
14 |
3 |
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