Mastermind 2022: First Round: Heat 11

I’m sorry that I didn’t post last night, dearly beloved. I have just tested positive for covid, and it’s, as the kids in my school would possibly say, messing with me ‘ead, and I had an early night last night. Soldier on, though.

So first up last night was Emma Birch. Emma was answering on a subject after my own heart – British Butterflies. I got very interested in butterflies when my twin daughters – my youngest  - were only about 5. We saw a peacock butterfly and they asked me what it was. I didn’t know, so the next day we went to the library and found out all about it. I’ve been a member of Butterfly Conservation for years now, and this was a subject I briefly considered doing for Champ of Champs. So at least I know enough about the subject to be able to confirm that Emma received a testing set of questions here – I had 4 myself. Emma’s 8 was a perfectly respectable score, although I couldn’t help feeling that she was going to struggle to mount a challenge for the win on top of it, bearing in mind who was yet to come.

I have actually seen all 3 of the Cornetto Trilogy of films. I like Simon Pegg. I think he’s very talented and enjoyed his autobiography ‘Nerd do Well’. But unlike most of my kids, I don’t think of the films as works of near genius. So under the circumstances, I was glad to take my one point and run. Justin Wong, on the other hand was almost – but not quite – perfect, and set the bar at 11 and no passes. Whatever happened, he was still going to be in contention when the half time oranges were handed out.

As was Anna Melville-James. Now, when scanning down the list of last night’s specialist rounds, I couldn’t help feeling that butterflies was most likely to be my banker. Anna was answering on Tutankhamun, and this yielded me a bumper crop of 8 points, easily surpassing my butterflies score. I’m not suggesting that this in any way denigrates Anna’s score of 11 and no passes. n my case I guess it helped being an impressionable kid when the 1972 Tutankhamun Roadshow came to town – which my parents did not take us to see, much to my chagrin. I did catch up with Tut when the treasures exhibition came to the Dome/O2 a few years ago. A good score again from Anna – but then it needed to be, because I knew who was coming next.

On what has been a pretty gloomy morning for me thus far, it brightened my day considerably to see Rachael ‘Cherryade’ Neiman-Wiseman back in the first round of Mastermind. Rach has been a good friend of LAM over the years. She’s been a semi regular on Mastermind over the last decade. That’s quite a good pun actually, since she regularly makes the semis. Judging by Rachael’s surname she’s been married since last we communicated – Rach, I wish you and your wife every happiness. So, with a fine quiz pedigree in general, and a fine Mastermind pedigree in particular, how would she do in her specialist round on Kate Bush? Bloomin’ well, as it happened. Like the previous two contenders, Rachael whacked in a hefty 11 and no passes. I once took the Wikipedia challenge on a Kate Bush round a few years ago, and retained enough of this to pick up 4 points myself.

Clive felt moved to explain that if we were unable to separate the leaders at the end of the GK round, then we’d have a tie break. – Well – I mused – it’s possible, but Justin and Anna will need to go some to keep up with Rachael. First, though, Emma came forward, and if she was daunted by being three points behind the others, then she certainly didn’t show it. It wasn’t the quickest GK round we’ve ever seen, but I do often think that for a maybe non-serious quizzer, which I guess Emma is, to go steadily and make sure that you don’t miss any of the low hanging fruit is a sensible way of approaching the round. Okay, she didn’t quite make it into double figures, but 9 is a very decent score on GK in this day and age.

Justin never really got any of the vital momentum going in his own GK round. I never really felt that his all round knowledge was wide or strong enough to allow him to post anything better than a respectable score as the round developed, and a respectable 7 was what he achieved. Justin, if by any chance you’re reading, if the whole aim of your appearance was to appear, and test your knowledge of the films, then you’ve acquitted yourself well. If, on the other hand, you are thinking of coming back this way some time, then your specialist performance shows you certainly have potential, and with a couple of years at the quiz face to work on GK, it could well be a very different story next time round.

You know, there really isn’t much you can say about tactics in Mastermind (but I’m going to say it anyway.) It basically comes down to – what do you do when you don’t know the answer? Anna had clearly decided in her GK round that if she didn’t know it, then she would pass. It is a valid tactic, and it’s one I used myself – unsuccessfully – in Champ of Champs. That was only because I’d incurred a careless pass in the specialist round, and the great Pat Gibson had had 2 clear rounds, though. It didn’t matter if I had not passed in GK, I’d still lose if it came to pass countback. Normally, though, it is not a tactic I’d advise. You see, passes are contagious, and they breed like rabbits. While Anna was always going to exceed Justin’s score, a mid round pass spiral robbed her of the chance of setting a more challenging total for Rachael. Anna scored 9, to put the bar at 19 points.

Right, it’s just possible that you might have noticed just the slightest bias in this review, towards Rachael. Sorry – but I can’t help it. There’s no point here going on about Rachael’s GK scores in previous Mastermind appearances, since I would argue it’s harder to accrue a high total now than it was back in the day. Even so, though, I felt that Rachael would get the double figure score that she needed to take the win. I don’t know if Rach would agree with me on this, but I always felt that it got easier to be in the chair the more that you did it – easier in as much as it became easier to keep a cool head, and to keep your round chugging along on an even keel. And Rachael’s round was the round of a good, experienced Mastermind hand. In the end 12 points sealed what in the end was a pretty comfortable win.

I believe that in one of her semi final appearances, Rachael was 1 point away from making the final. Without wanting to inflict upon you the curse of the Clark sofa, I sincerely hope you can get to the final this time round, Rach.

The Details

Emma Birch	British Butterflies	8	1	9	1	17	1
Justin Wong	The Cornetto Trilogy	11	0	7	2	18	2
Anna Melville-James	Tutankhamun	11	0	9	6	20	6
Rachael Neiman-Wiseman	Kate Bush	11	0	12	0	23	0