Hello peeps, how are we all doing? Me ?– well, thereby hangs a tale, but it’s a tale for another time, I think. A tale for this time is the tale of last night’s Mastermind, and an exciting tale it was.
First up was Sarah Thornton. Sarah was answering on the
Chocolat novels of Joane Harris. As I said in my preview, I’ve never read any.
So under the circumstances I was happy that one of the questions allowed or a
guess, to give me a point. You know, I never had to prepare for a series of
novels as a specialist, but I would imagine it’s a bit of an ask, considering
how much you might be asked, even allowing for the fact that there are
currently four Chocolat books. You can tell when someone has prepared extremely well,
and Sarah had clearly done this. 12 and no passes was a great return.
Sean Haughey was answering on my banker subject for the
evening, the great George Best. This is a subject that I know enough about,
having read all of his autobiographies and quite a few biographies, to be able
to say that this was not an easy set. I felt lucky to get the four that I did.
On another night I might have had one other point but that would have been it. Bearing
that I mind I have to say that Sean’s round of 10 was very good indeed.
Katy Marchant has some quiz show previous. She was a member
of Oriel’s 2023 University Challenge team, beaten in the repechage round by
eventual finalists Bristol. She was answering on Alcibiades. Gesundheit.
Picking up on the references in the fist couple of questions I just kept
answering Pericles to every question which did eventually bear fruit and bring
me a point. You know, sometimes there’s something in the air in a show and
people seem afflicted by nerves, then other times one contender after another
puts on a great show. Katy’s 12 was first class.
Iain Cummings was answering on The Rolling Stones. Think
about that for a moment. That’s 60 years of recording, touring and at times
scandal making all of which is fair game to the question setters. Then add to
that the fact that you’re last to go and you’ve watched all three previous
contenders smash it in their specialists. It didn’t work out for Iain. I don’t
want to go on about this because there’s little anyone can say to sweeten the
pill. Iain scored 3. I knew that their first UK number 1 was ironically, "It's all over now." That point took me to an aggregate of 8.
I admired Iain’s sang froid in coming more or less straight
back to the chair, composing himself, and then delivering a very good GK round.
Iain did not answer especially quickly, but this looked like good sense to me
since it gave him the time to find the correct answer to 12 questions. Fifteen
in total is unlikely to be a winning score, but more importantly it’s a perfectly
respectable one. Well done, sir.
Sean had seen Iain produce his own fine round on GK. 6
would give him the lead, however that was not going to be enough in this show. So
what followed was a round that equalled Iain’s score of 12. He did pick up a
couple of passes along the way, and I couldn’t help wondering if this was going
to affect the result of the show.
So Sean’s round meant that both Sarah and Katy were going to
need double figure rounds – anything less would not be enough. So Sarah was the
first to try. She tried pretty well, too. She didn’t manage to equal Sean’s 12,
but then she didn’t need to. She scored her own 11 points and that gave her a
lead of 1 point, with 23.
Finally Katy. In Katy’s round it became clear that she had
made up her mind not to pass. That was the right tactic for her, I think. Sarah
had 1 pass, which meant that all Katy had to do to win was avoid passes and
equal Sarah’s score. Goodness me, she tried! Agonisingly she finished 1 point
short, with 10 for another 22.
Well played, everyone. This was an exciting show that I
thoroughly enjoyed. Especially though well done to Sarah. Best of luck in the
semi finals.
The Details
|
Sarah Thornton |
The Chocolat Novels
of Joanne Harris |
12 |
0 |
11 |
1 |
23 |
1 |
|
Sean Haughey |
George Best |
10 |
1 |
12 |
2 |
22 |
3 |
|
Katy Marchant |
Alcibiades |
12 |
0 |
10 |
0 |
22 |
0 |
|
Iain Cumming |
The Rolling Stones |
3 |
2 |
12 |
4 |
15 |
6 |
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