Mastermind 2023 Grand Final

Another Mastermind Grand Final. Another healthy portion of egg all over my face. I’ll come to that in the fullness of time.

So, kicking off our final was Ben Spicer. In my preview I had Ben as an outside chance of a podium place but more likely amongst the minor placings. In tonight’s final Ben was answering on British and Irish Lions Tours of the 21^st century. After the drought of the last few semi finals I rather fancied myself to do quite well on several of the specialists tonight and this was one of them. Well, I did okay with 3. Ben did much better, putting on 10 points. A competitive score, but not I fancied the highest that we were going to see in this round.

I predicted that James Beeby would just miss out on the podium, and cited the fact that his heat and semi final specialist rounds had been good, but not outstanding. Well, that goes to show how much I know, for the round that James put in tonight really was outstanding. I managed  correct answers on his round on Princess Margaret – well, I have watched every episode of the Crown after all – but James managed an excellent 14. That was a round that was going to take some beating.

I predicted that Michael McPartland would become the champion. This prediction was built on the solid foundation hat he had top scored in all of the first round heats by four points, and then he had done the same in all of the semi finals. Michael was answering on the Rocky Films. He didn’t do badly. . . but crucially he didn’t do as well as he could. It must have been crushing to him to have just his one under par round in the whole series during the final. Michael scored 9, putting him five points behind with 3 contenders yet to play. I scored four on this round.

Stephen Finn I suggested might well be one of those contenders who gets better and better as the series goes on. He certainly improved between first round and semi. Tonight he was answering on Bletchey Park during World War II, and he did well, scoring 12. At only two points behind he was still in with a chance, especially if nobody beat James’ score of fourteen. This looked as if it might be my dodgiest subject for the final and that’s exactly what it proved to be as I scored just the one.

I suggested that James Davidson had already won his final by getting this far, and that he would probably not have the firepower to make a successful challenge at this point in his quiz career. Tonight he was answering on the Emperor Augustus – this was my banker subject and indeed it yielded me 6. James did well, but not well enough, ending with 9 like Michael before him.

Bringing the round to a close was Stuart Field. Now, despite the fact that he needed a tie break to win his heat, and a pass countback to win his semi final I fancied Stuart’s chances enough in my review to predict he would be runner up. Well, he certainly didn’t go through his specialist round as if he was settling for second place. He faced fifteen questions, and answered every one of them correctly. It was a brilliant performance on the BBC sitcom Extras, and it was one of those rounds where you felt that Clive could have carried on asking him questions for another two minutes and he would still have had all of them right. 1 point on Extras gave me an aggregate of 19 – not bad but then that was based on 6 rather than four rounds.

First back to the chair then was Michael. I never expected him to be first to go in the GK round tonight – and I can only apologise to him for cursing him with the Clark tip. To my mind he was the best and most consistent GK performer in this final line up. Could he score enough to win? Well, all he could do was give it his absolute best and hope to hang on. He did very well too. Once again he got into the mid-teens, scoring 15. I had the sinking feeling that although this might well push him up onto the podium, I couldn’t see it being quite enough.

So, I said in my preview that I didn’t think that James Davidson would have the firepower to really challenge. Well, he might have only scored 9 in the Specialist but he made up for that with what I thought was his best GK round. No, he didn’t quite match Michael’s round, but he kept plugging on to accrue a highly praiseworthy 13 points for a total of 22, 2 points behind Michael.

Ben had put in a good specialist round, and yet still found himself five points behind at half time. Not only that, but he was faced with the daunting fact that the only way he could go into the lead was by scoring 16, since he had accrued a pass already. Well, he gave it a lash, and acquitted himself well, scoring 12. On countback he was just behind James D because of that 1 pass. So Michael was up to no worse than fourth.

Stephen Finn, well, how should I put it? He had one of ‘those’ rounds in his GK. Not a bad round, not a bad round at all, but that’s just not enough when you need a great round. Stephen just couldn’t build up any momentum and put together a string of correct answers. In the end he battled to add 9 and take his total to 20. So at least Michael was once again on the podium.

James Beeby had a massive five point lead over Michael at half time. So he needed 10 points to go into the joint lead and 11 to go into outright lead. What followed from him was a great example of calm under fire. He did get a few wrong, but importantly he never let it bother him – or he certainly seemed calm – and kept going. Having equalled Michael’s score he had just one question left .  . . and he got it right! He was in the lead, with just one other contender to go. Well, I know how that feels.

As had all the contenders in the final, Stuart had taken his preparation extremely seriously and now here he was, on the brink of achieving his goal. He was on fifteen. The target was 26 for an outright win. 12 points. Definitely within his capabilities, if the questions didn’t conspire against him and if he kept his head. Well, he certainly did that. A picture of concentration, Stuart passed the target with questions to spare and forged onward putting daylight between himself and James B. In the end he won clearly having added 13 to his total to win with 28.

Thank you all, gentlemen, for your efforts all series, and for an exciting final. Thank you Clive Myrie. It’s only his second series, and yet it’s difficult to envisage anyone else in the question master’s chair now. But above all else, thank you, Stuart Field and congratulations on becoming the Mastermind of the United Kingdom, 2023!

The Details

Ben Spicer	British and Irish Lions Tours of the 21st Century	10	1	12	0	22	1
James Beeby	Princess Margaret	14	0	11	0	25	0
Michael McPartland	The Rocky Films	9	0	15	0	24	0
Stephen Finn	Bletchley Park during the Second World War	12	0	8	3	20	3
James Davidson	Augustus Caesar	9	0	13	0	22	0
Stuart Field	The BBC Sitcom Extras	15	0	13	0	28	0