Mastermind 2025 First Round Heat 18

Well, shall we call a spade a spade? Yes, we shall. Frankly it’s been too long since we saw the previous heat of his year’s series of Mastermind. There’s a place for Sleb Mastermind in the schedules, I guess, but this latest lot was strung out for far too long in my opinion.

So, back to real Mastermind then. First up was Fergus Navaratnam-Blair. He was answering on Harold Pinter. I was delighted that the question about his stage name David Baron came up. There is a rumour that Harold Pinter, as David Baron, donned a yeti costume for the mid 60s Doctor Who serial The Web of Fear. Sadly this appears to be grounded in myth. What wasn’t a myth was how well Fergus knew his subject. By way of a reminder a double figure round in Mastermind these days is a good score, and Fergus managed 10.

Look, all I really know about Rufus Wainwright is that his dad, Loudon Wainwright III had a regular slot singing strange songs on a Jasper Carrott TV series many years ago. How strange? Well, one of them involved waxing up a dead girlfriend and using her as a surfboard, if memory serves me right. Rosie Fletcher, thankfully, knew a lot more about the son than I knew about the father. She passed on one, but powered onwards and ended with 8, handily placed just a couple of points behind Fergus.

Solicitor Ivan Milatovic looked very much as if he meant business on his round on painter Diego Velasquez. This impression proved to be entirely accurate as he reeled off 12 perfect points. As I do often say when witnessing a perfect round, I think he could have sat there answering on Velasquez all night, or at least for the 30 minutes of the show. I have to thank Ivan, for it was his subject that brought me the only two points I would get in the whole of the specialist round. A pitiful performance that I can only put down to ring rust. That and not knowing any of the other answers.

We finished the specialists with Mickie Wynne-Davies and a very old-school Mastermind specialist, the Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. Mickie just seemed to get on the wrong side of a number of these questions and by the time the white line had gone she had scored five. That’s nothing to be ashamed of, but 7 points adrift and out of the race.

This would prove to be something of a shame. For Mickie went on to serve up the best general knowledge round of the show. With barely a hesitation she added 12 points to her total, taking her to a very respectable 17, and leaving the audience (well, me ) to ponder on what might have been.

Rosie followed, and she had more of a struggle with her set of questions. In the end she came close to Mickie’s overall total, but she finished with 16. Judging by the smile on her face she was here to do as well as she could, but also to enjoy the experience and that’s probably the best way of approaching Mastermind. Well done.

In the current era of Mastermind it’s not uncommon to see contenders underperform a bit in one or other of the rounds. However it is a rarity to see a contender really undone by a set of questions. Sadly it happened to Fergus. He was determined not to pass which is in itself a laudable ambition, but question after question refused to yield easily. It was one of ‘those’ rounds, where every time there’s a fifty-fifty you zig when you should’ve zagged. Fergus scored 3. Very bad luck, sir, try not to let it get you down. It happens.

This left Ivan needing 7 correct answers to win the show. To be honest he answered so well at the start of his round that he was through the line in next to no time. The round seemed to stall after that – not that the 10 points that he scored is ever a bad total in this day and age. In the end he finished with 22, comfortably ahead of the pack. Well done, sir. This was an admirable first round performance, especially in terms of the specialist subject. Best of luck in the semi finals.

 

Fergus Navaratnam-Blair	The Life of Harold Pinter	10	0	3	0	13	0
Rosie Flecher	The Music of Rufus Wainwright	8	1	8	0	16	1
Ivan Milatovic	Diego Velasquez	12	0	10	0	22	0
Mickie Wynne-Davies	The Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan	5	0	12	0	17	0