It’s early, early days in this year’s series of Mastermind, but as the last credits rolled away last night I couldn’t help thinking – there’ll be tears before bedtime over that. Why? I will explain later.
First out of the blocks last night was Dennis Wang. Dennis has serious
TV quiz form from Only Connect, University Challenge (2016 Worcester College)
and Jeopardy!, First cause of controversy – there’s always a certain vocal
minority who are opposed to people they see appearing across a range of quiz shows.
To which my reasoned and thoughtful response is stuff the begrudgers. Due to
his pedigree Dennis looked to me like the man to beat, an impression that was
only confirmed by his barnstorming round on the Euros 2000- 2024. I managed to
sneak one point on this round – the only point I gained on specialist all
night. Dennis delivered near perfection, his speed allowing him to take a 13th
point by the end of the round. Impressive.
Naomi Killen was answering on Truman Capote. Now, I may
well be proved wrong on this, but based on last week and last night I think it’s
possible that contenders may be having ever so slightly shorter questions on
average. If so, it’s not before time. Even allowing for that, though, 8 is a
respectable SS score, so even though there were gaps in Naomi Killen’s
knowledge she can be pleased with her round. However it left her five points
off the lead and to all intents and purposes out of contention for the win.
Natalie Abbott was answering on the TV series Gilmore
Girls. Perfunctory research tells me that the show ran for 7 seasons and 153
episodes and that, my friends, is a hell of a lot of stuff you could be asked
about even without going into production details. Long running popular TV
series – they really should come with a government health warning on the side.
To be fair to Natalie she did know a lot about the show and powered her way to
a good nine points. However, this meant that she in her turn was four points
off the lead.
So to final contender David Ford. David was answering on
painter L.S. Lowry. Lowry’s most characteristic work has the quality that makes
you look at it and think – I can do that. Until you try it then you realise –
no I can’t. I like Lowry’s work, but couldn’t copy it. As regards answering
questions on the man and his work, well, I couldn’t do that either. David Ford
could. He wasn’t going to equal or better Dennis’ score, but he brought himself
to within two points with 11. It’s a curious thing, but I’d say a four point
gap is more than twice as hard to bridge as a two point gap. I mean mathematically
speaking maybe not, but it’s not just about Maths.
So realistically speaking we were left with a two-horse
race. First though Naomi and Natalie duked it out for the minor placings. Naomi
scored 9, and Natalie 8 to leave both with a respectable 17. Look, the majority
of Mastermind contenders don’t end up getting close to a win either, and
sometimes it is not all about that. Both of them undertook the challenge and acquitted
themselves well. If you can achieve that, then good luck to you and thank you
for taking the time and trouble to enter.
But as I said, there were only two contenders left, one of
whom looked a strong favourite for the win. I mean no disrespect when I say that
it was David who looked like the outsider. At the start of the round that is.
By he end of a round which he knocked seven bells out of the situation was very
different. David blazed his way to an outstanding round of 16. Nothing seemed
to slow him down at all, even the few questions he didn’t know the answers to. 27
in this day and age is a hell of a good score.
Not that you would have bet against Dennis yet as he
returned to the chair. He needed 14 and no passes for a tie and 15 for the
outright win. Doable but by no means easy. And for the early part of the round
he was on course. But errors crept in, and crucially you could see that they
were playing on Dennis’ mind as he seemed annoyed with himself over a couple of
answers. With only a couple of questions to go the tape was just a little too
far away. Dennis added 12 to his total to finish with 25.
Which is the second reason for tears before bedtime. Like
many people I do think it’s a shame that two such capable contenders being in
the same heat means we inevitably lose one of them. People with lower scores
than Dennis’ will win heats and go through to the semis. I can’t help wishing
for some kind of repechage system. But I would never want to see a system
whereby semi-final places are determined solely by heat scores. That’s not Mastermind.
Purely my opinion and as always feel free to disagree.
So congratulations David! Superb performance. If that GK
was not a flash in the pan, then you, sir, could do well this year. Best of
luck in he semis.
The Details
|
Dennis Wang |
The Euros 2000 - 2024 |
13 |
0 |
12 |
0 |
25 |
0 |
|
Naomi Killen |
Truman Capote |
8 |
2 |
9 |
4 |
17 |
6 |
|
Natalie Abbott |
Gilmore Girls |
9 |
2 |
8 |
6 |
17 |
8 |
|
David Ford |
L.S. Lowry |
11 |
0 |
16 |
0 |
27 |
0 |
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