Mastermind 2025 First Round Heat 22

Last week I made the point that Mastermind has struggled to pick up momentum since the long Christmas break. Well, in my opinion anyway. Did last night’s 22^nd heat manage to do anything to ameliorate this? Well, let’s see.

I didn’t have much resembling a banker subject last night. I suppose that Addie Curley’s round on Seamus Heaney represented my best chance, but that all depended on the few of his poem’s I’ve actually read coming up. Under the circumstances I think that I was lucky to even get the two points that I managed. Addie looked to be in a bit of trouble mid-round when she was becalmed for quite some time. However she seemed to find a fresh wind in her sails towards the end and managed a decent enough six.

What do I know about Steve Earle? Well, I now know that he was a musician of some repute, which is more than I knew this time yesterday before the show. Funnily enough I did get a point for guessing Tennessee for one of the first two questions. Neil Pritchard didn’t quite get us a double figure round – we’ve seen precious few specialist rounds of that calibre since Christmas. However he scored 9 which is not easily done in the current period of the show. He was going to be well in contention come the half time turn around.

I was at least aware of the show Mad Men’s existence prior to Amy Dwyer’s round on the same. Never watched it, mind you, which is probably why I got what I deserved, namely nul points. Oh, long running TV shows. I’ve said before they are the kind of subject that ought to come with a government health warning. There’s just so much could be asked. I have no doubt that Amy is a massive fan and knows a lot about the show. Sadly though there were a lot of these questions that passed her by. She scored five. Not bad by any means, but it left her some way adrift of the lead.

To be honest, the Battle of Arnhem, as offered by Stuart Davidson, means little more to me than the epic war film ‘A Bridge Too Far’, the experience of watching which in the Northfields Odeon seemed to last for a fortnight. So no, I didn’t score any. Stuart started really well and for a moment or two I felt he was on the way to double figures. He faltered a bit in the second half though and ended with 7. Perfectly respectable, and being only a couple behind Neil he certainly had a chance.

First back to the chair was Amy. She kept on answering even though the round didn’t really seem to be going her way most of the time. In the end she scored 6, which did at least mean that she was in the lead for the time being.

Addie did better, and up until the last few questions I really did think she would get into double figures. She had scored 8 and there were still a few questions to go. Sadly though they all failed to yield up any more points, and she finished with 14 points.

So then to Stuart. I talked last week about the fact that I found that it didn’t really matter if I was chasing a total or trying to set one. I just went like billy-o and hoped for the best. So Stuart needed to score 8 to take the lead and then to add as many more points as he could to give Neil something think about. I don’t think he did a bad job with it either. He got into double figures, with his ten setting the bar at 17.

This left Neil needing 9 for an outright win. That’s the kind of target which could just put you into the corridor of doubt. As it was, Neil’s GK round was similar to Stuart’s. I wouldn’t say it was an absolutely barnstorming performance but it was certainly good enough for 10 points which was enough to see him climbing the steps to the Royal Box, metaphorically speaking.

No, if I’m honest, this was another heat that didn’t really blow my socks off, but there we are. I’m not trying to criticise the contenders here – they’re all giving it a lash and without people being willing to put themselves in the firing line we don’t have a show. But it would be nice to see the questions being shortened in order to at least give them a chance to let off some fireworks.

For now, though, it’s Neil we’ll be seeing again in the semis. Well done, sir, and I wish you the best of luck.

The Details

Addie Curley	The Poetry of Seamus Heaney	6	0	8	2	14	2
Neil Pritchard	Steve Earle	9	1	10	1	20	2
Amy Dwyer	Mad Men	5	0	6	4	11	4
Stuart Davidson	1944 Battle of Arnhem	7	0	10	2	17	2