Mastermind 2026 First Round Heat 11

We will catch up on UC, I promise. For now, though, let’s concentrate on last night’s Mastermind.

I had the first of Omair Azam’s round on Frederic Chopin, as, I’m sure did everyone else. Let’s be fair, the name of Chopin is as omnipresent in Warsaw as Mozart’s in Vienna and the Beatles’ in Liverpool. I could have had another. I went in the church where Chopin’s heart is in Warsaw, but couldn’t remember what it was called. Omair did very well, I thought. Despite what anyone may think a double figure round is not easily achieved in Mastermind. Even if you prepare extremely thoroughly something can trip you up. So Omair put himself in the position in which he would be in contention come half time.

Danielle Connolly was answering n a specialist subject that may well receive some criticism from some quarters – The Simpsons (Seasons 1-10). Me? I think that 10 seasons is a huge chunk to have to prepare in detail which makes it a perfectly valid subject. Let’s be honest, I should think that The Simpsons has brought at least as much pleasure to people as Chopin (and considerably more than Samuel Beckett, but we’ll come to that.) Danielle equalled Omair’s total, and then exceeded it. I had 5 myself in my round of the night, and my grandson Ollie who is 12 had one that I didn’t with the aurora borealis. The lad will go far.

I mentioned the plays of Samuel Beckett because this was the subject offered by our third contender, Andrew McKenzie. I never studied Beckett at university and I’ve never watched or read any of his plays, not even waiting for Godot. So I had just the one point from this round. Andrew clearly knows a lot about the subject but somehow the questions were not falling for him. He ended up with a score of 6, which frankly left him a huge task in the GK round. Ah, that’s the way it goes sometimes.

Katherine Rich offered us the Life of Gloria Steinem. I will put my hands up and say that I don’t know much about the subject. My hope was that the first question, which is often the easiest, would require the answer The Playboy Club, but it was not to be and I failed to add to my aggregate of 6. Katherine did well to reach a total of 9 but it looked already as if the banker would only be paying out for double figure rounds in this particular heat.

First back, then was Andrew McKenzie. Five points in arrears at the turn around a win did not look to be a very realistic target. However he had the same realistic target to aim for the all contenders have, taking yourself to a respectable total and justifying the time and effort you have put into preparing for the show. I’d say that he did just that with 1 good round of 10 which took him to 16. Well done, sir.

Katherine didn’t manage a double figure round, not quite, but she too earned a respectable total. She added 9 to her first round total to take herself into the lead with 17. No, it wouldn’t be a winning score, but that’s not easily achieved.

So far both of our contenders in the GK round had finished their round at the top of the leaderboard. Such a fate also awaited Omair Azam. He surpassed Katherine’s round with just a bit of daylight adding two more to give him 9 for the round and a total of 19. Was this going to win? Well, it might. It all depended on how well Danielle could take to her GK round.

To use the vernacular Danielle took to her GK round like a duck to water. In fact the first half of her round was so good I predicted that she would win at a canter and set a monster score. Well, she eased up just a little as we came towards the end of the round but she had already left the others in her wake. Danielle finished with a total of 13 for the round and 24 overall. This was a really good round, as impressive for the quality of her answers as well as the volume of them. Very well done! I look forward to seeing how you do in the semis and wish you the very best of luck.

The Details

Omair Azam	Frederic Chopin	10	2	9	4	19	6
Danielle Connolly	The Simpsons (Seasons 1-10)	11	0	13	0	24	0
Andrew McKenzie	The Plays of Samuel Beckett	6	0	10	1	16	1
Katherine Rich	The Life of Gloria Steinem	8	2	9	0	17	2