What a show! Last night, certainly on BBC2 Wales, we were made to wait for Mastermind until 10pm, but it was worth waiting for. Before that, though, many congratulations to the Thrifters, who won last night’s Only Connect final on the very last of the Missing Vowels round. Brilliant play from both them and also the gallant Also-Rans.
So to Mastermind. You know I enjoy all editions of regular Mastermind,
but there’s something special about a show in which a contender gives a real
virtuoso performance. Even more so when two do.
First into the chair was Stephen Dodding. I’m sure we’ve
met, at a quiz grand prix quite a few years ago. Stephen is a very experienced –
and very good – quizzer. He was answering on the medieval cathedrals of England.
I suggested that this might be my banker round when I wrote the preview, and
that’s exactly what it proved to be. Questions like the Lanfranc one contrived
to bring me four points. Pretty decent. Stephen, on the other hand proceeded to
answer every single one of his questions correctly. 12 from 12. I’m enough of a
veteran viewer of the show to know that anything can happen so I knew we
shouldn’t say that it was game over at this point. Still, it certainly put
Stephen into pole position.
If Laura Cooney was daunted by Stephen’s performance she
certainly didn’t show it. Laura was answering on Dolly Parton. As I asked in my
preview, who doesn’t like Dolly Parton? I certainly like her enough to have managed
two points on this round. I got the gimme on the quote about looking cheap and
more impressively I also remembered from a Graham Norton documentary that Dollywood
is in the intriguingly named town of Pigeon Forge. Laura, just like Stephen
before her, slammed in a superb perfect round of 12 from 12.
Dan Hudson was part of a winning team on Eggheads some time
ago, so he has TV previous. Dan was answering on the Life and Works of Alfred
Wainwright. In my preview I could not see any way I was likely to score any
points on this round and that prediction at least was accurate. In another
first round show, Dan’s double figure round of 10 would have been the star turn
of the specialist round. As it was this put him 2 points behind in third place.
Omer Hamid was the last contender to brave the specialist
round last night, on the political career of RFK – Bobby Kennedy in old money. General
knowledge and good guessing brought me an unexpected three points on this
round. Not quite enough to get me into double figures but I was more than happy
to take the money and run with 9 points for my specialist aggregate. You have to
feel for Omer. It can’t have been easy, sitting, waiting, watching while the
three other contenders all threw in very high scoring rounds. Put simply, it
just wasn’t Omer’s night and he scored 4.
Only Omer could say whether this was playing on his mind in
the GK round. In the middle he fell into a little bit of a pass spiral but at
least he had the determination to pull himself out and keep on to push himself
into double figures. He ended with a total score of 11.
And so to Dan. Right, up until this show the highest
combined score of this series was 27, and the highest general knowledge score
was 16. I think that maybe three contenders had reached a total of 26. Dan
threw in a wonderful GK round and ended with his own 16 for his own 26. Putting
that into perspective, that would have been good enough to win at least 17 of
the 21 shows so far in this series. It was that good a round. He got into a
rhythm and when you do that Clive tends to speed up his delivery, and the score
just keeps climbing. How would this affect the two contenders yet to come?
Well, Stephen was starting two points to the good. 14 and no
passes would be enough. I would imagine that this is the sort of total Stephen
can always get watching at home but doing it at home and doing it in the chair
can be very different experiences. Can be, but not in this case. Stephen gave no
hint of having the least bit of difficulty in giving us the best GK round of
the series so far, as he passed Dan’s total and ended with 17 for a grand total
of 29. In the current era scores this high are very rara aves indeed. A brilliant
performance.
If I felt sorry for Omer earlier, I certainly felt sorry
for Laura Cooney as she approached the chair for her round. She needed to score
17 and no passes just to force a tie break. Fair play, she gave it a good go,
but judging by the round her general knowledge is good, but not superb enough
to challenge Stephen or Dan. Laura scored a good 11 to finish with 23. A score
that would have won a dozen of the previous heats but was only good enough for
third last night.
This, dearly beloved, is the way it can happen with tournament
play. As far as I know there is no seeding in Mastermind. The production team
look to combine subjects that will make a good show with something of interest to
as many viewers as possible. The repechage places were a good way of ensuring that
potential finalists did not slip through the net, and there are series winners
who took this route. I myself was a highest scoring runner up when there were no
repechage places, although I am arguing against myself a little considering
that I came back and won the very next series.
Stephen then. His love of the show and pure delight at winning
a heat shone through his piece to camera at the end. Well, I’ve learned not to
make predictions that can come back and bite you on the bum, so I shall content
myself with saying that, Stephen, should you read this, that was a masterful
performance. I have taken my metaphorical hat off to you, my metaphorical socks
having already been blown off.
The Details
|
Stephen Dodding |
Medieval Cathedrals
of England |
12 |
0 |
17 |
0 |
29 |
0 |
|
Laura Cooney |
Dolly Parton |
12 |
0 |
11 |
2 |
23 |
2 |
|
Dan Hudson |
The Life and Works of
Alfred Wainwright |
10 |
0 |
16 |
1 |
26 |
1 |
|
Omer Hamid |
The Political Career
of Robert F. Kennedy |
4 |
2 |
7 |
3 |
11 |
5 |
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