Mastermind 2024 First Round Heat 14

Hello. How are we doing, dearly beloved? Me? Well, not so great if I’m totally honest, but just trying to soldier on.

Just keeping going is not bad advice for those braving the black chair, come to think of it. The first one to do it last night was Scott Torrance. I was worried about his specialist subject, the New York Subway System. Not because it’s inherently a bad or boring subject – it isn’t. But my goodness, it’s massive – not unlike the subway system itself. Scott started brightly enough, but the wrong answers kept on cropping up. Scott had managed to get 6 by the end of the round. Nothing to be ashamed of, but a score which would give him too much to do in the GK. I thought.

I managed 2 on the subway. The next subject, the Ocean’s films, did nothing to add to the aggregate. Or I did nothing with the round. The same could most definitely not be said about Pamela Fell. She produced a fine double figure round. I had assumed that the subject would just include the 21^st century films, but no, there were a few questions on the original 1960’s Rat Pack film. Didn’t help me because I’ve never watched it, but there you go. With a four point cushion at the moment, Pamela was looking like a contender.

Nicola Grant’s subject, the 1916 Easter Rising, did at least bring me another point to take the aggregate to 3. I should have had another one too, but the name Patrick Pearse failed to leap off the tip of my tongue in time. Nicola clearly knew her stuff, but the round didn’t progress quite as smoothly as I’m sure she would have liked. She, like Scott before her, took a respectable 6.

Which left Damian Pugh, answering on the novels of Donna Tartt. I did say in my preview that I had only read The Secret History. Well, that was wrong. I’ve also read about 2/3 of The Goldfinch. Couldn’t finish it I’m afraid. Well, I’m very sorry but all of the details of both books seem to have seeped out of my memory completely, as I didn’t get any of the questions – and there were a fair proportion on both books. Damian seemed a little hesitant at first but he still did well enough to score a total of 9.

So, it looked as if we were in for a two horse race. Well, it might have looked like it, but Scott Torrance had other ideas. Namely by putting the pressure on the leaders through throwing in an excellent GK round of 13. A couple of weeks ago we saw Anne McElhinney stage a marvellous fightback in GK, to jump from 4^th to 2^nd. I had a feeling that Scott’s 19 and no passes might, just might, be enough. Whatever else, it meant that the rest of the round was going to be interesting.

Sadly, Nicola Grant could not match Scott’s heroic round. She achieved another respectable total of 7, but in truth it never looked like she was going to approach Scott’s score. No shame in that either.

Well, it was time for the first of the two horses in this two horse race to have a gallop. Damian, remember was starting on 9, which meant that 11 would give him the outright lead. 10 would not be enough because he needed a clear round to tie with Scott, but already incurred faults through passes in the specialist round. So that was exactly what he scored – 10. A fine effort, but not quite enough.

So it all came down to Pamela. If she scored 10, then she’d do it. If she scored 9 and no passes, then for the second week in a row there would be a tie break. Heartbreakingly, Pamela had reached 9 with no passes as the last question was being asked. She didn’t know the answer. So. She passed. Oh, the humanity! I don’t blame Pamela for this. A Mastermind round can be an ordeal, a brain scrambling ordeal, especially when the QM is waiting for your last answer. It was desperately bad luck.

I was a little surprised when in the winner’s piece to camera Scott said that he isn’t a quizzer. Maybe the round was just a flash in the pan. If not,  then General Knowledge like that will always give you a chance in the semi-final. Best of luck to you.

The Details

Scott Torrance	The New York Subway System	6	0	13	0	19	0
Pamela Fell	The Ocean’s Films	10	0	9	1	19	1
Nicola Grant	The Easter Rising	6	0	7	0	13	0
Damian Pugh	The Novels of Donna Tartt	9	2	10	2	19	4