A few thoughts provoked by the Mastermind Grand Final

This may sound silly, and if you wish to think that I’m being arrogant or up myself by saying it, then fair enough, you may be right. Still, the fact is that watching the Mastermind Grand Final is always a little bit of an emotional experience for me. I can’t help putting myself in the place of the winner and recalling my own emotions on a day which, while it was 16 years ago stands out as clearly in my memory as if it was yesterday. But I also spare a thought for those who didn’t win, and I’m often amazed at their great sportsmanship in their warm and genuine congratulations to the winner. I hope that I would have found it within myself to react in the same way had things worked out differently in 2007. But I don’t know if I could have.

Stuart Field, Mastermind Champion 2003, said a couple of things I found really interesting. The first was that he’s been preparing for 20 years for this. Yes, it made me turn in upon my own experiences. If you stretched it widely, I could say that I was preparing for over 30 years, from the moment when I was about 10, watching the show, picking off an answer here and there and my Nan said that one day I would go on the show and win. Of course, I wasn’t actually preparing specifically for Mastermind as such for all that time, but the seed had been planted. And what were all those years of shouting answers at Mastermind, University Challenge and other lesser televisual offerings if there wasn’t at least some element of preparation? I played in my first ever pub quiz and my first ever quiz league in 1988, 19 years before Mastermind. That’s another level of preparation. Then I compiled my first quiz for the rugby club in 1995, 12 years before Mastermind. That’s another level of preparation. And so on. Always in the back of my mind was that eventual Mastermind appearance.

Another thing that I couldn’t help thinking about was this – at what point do you decide that you’re going to stop, and not apply again? I was lucky. I appeared in two consecutive series. After losing in the first round in 2006 I basically told myself – well, that’s it then. You’re not as good as you think you are. At least you got to take part in the show, be satisfied with that. Then I got the phone call inviting me to be a stand in for the semis, and while I was there I reappraised what had happened, and decided that all that had prevented me reaching the semis was a little bit of luck – well, that and the fact that another of the contenders was better than I was on the day. So I reapplied, and there you go. Walking to the chair in the final for the GK round, with another two contenders to go after me, and a two point deficit after the first round I distinctly remember telling myself – if I lost then I would not be reapplying for a long, long time. Even if I did, there was no guarantee I would ever get to the final again. So I was to enjoy the GK round, because I wasn’t planning on coming back this way. Now, thankfully, we’ll never know if I would have stuck to this resolution or not. I kind of have the feeling that four or five years down the line the urge to have another go would have become to strong to resist.

This was something that I also reflected on as Stuart paid tribute to his partner, Elaine. I can run that up the flagpole and salute it. Preparing for an appearance on Mastermind, be it in the heat, semi or final is, I believe, an experience tailor made for obsessives. In fact if I’m honest I think one of the reasons why I applied so quickly to have another go at Mastermind was because I’d enjoyed the preparation so much. It appealed to the obsessive side of my nature. I loved learning each of my subjects. But it was very time consuming. From time to time Mary still talks of long evenings mumbling away to myself in the dining room. Testing myself on my flash cards actually, but yes, I can see how it must have looked. So here’s to all the husbands, wives, families and friends who put up with loved ones preparing for Mastermind. Thanks to you all.