Tuesday, 3 March 2026

Mastermind 2026 Semi Final Preview

Shall we start with my unofficial table?  Here’s the table with all contenders. Heat winners are in bold, everyone else is in italics.

David Ford

11

0

16

0

27

0

Pete Simmonds

13

0

14

1

27

1

Diane Howe

12

0

14

1

26

1

Carolyn Rowe

12

0

13

0

25

0

Dennis Wang

13

0

12

0

25

0

Paul Robinson

12

0

13

 

3

25

3

Danielle Connolly

11

0

13

0

24

0

Eric Davies

12

0

12

0

24

0

Lorna Frankel

12

0

12

0

24

0

Maurizio Giacometto

9

0

14

0

23

0

Paul Smith

10

2

13

0

23

0

Milena Melcharek

12

0

10

0

22

0

Miles Searle

9

0

13

0

22

0

Roger Easy

10

0

12

2

22

2

Lucy Fleming

12

0

9

0

21

0

Nigel Haynes

10

0

11

0

21

0

Stuart Beard

10

0

11

0

21

0

Mark Pagan

10

0

11

2

21

2

Elis Matthews

11

0

9

0

20

0

Ian Walmsley

9

0

11

0

20

0

Jonnie Walker

10

0

10

0

20

0

Devon Krohn

11

0

9

0

20

0

Ben Abbott

9

0

11

1

20

1

Keith Hickling

11

0

9

1

20

1

Peter Glanvill

10

0

10

1

20

1

Robert Cohen

8

1

12

1

20

2

Beth Leonard

11

0

9

3

20

3

Jason Roberts

11

0

9

0

20

3

Richard Carr

11

0

9

6

20

6

Alan Hotchkiss

9

0

10

0

19

0

Alan McDermaid

11

0

8

0

19

0

Catherine Firth

8

0

11

0

19

0

Hannah Mimiec

10

0

9

0

19

0

Kim Mackenzie

12

0

7

0

19

0

Kumaran Sivathillainathan

11

0

8

0

19

0

Matthew Patenall

11

0

8

0

19

0

Max Bougeard

9

0

10

0

19

0

Ross Taylor

10

0

9

0

19

0

Teddy Fogel

10

1

9

0

19

0

Randall Alleyne

8

1

11

0

19

1

Meg Tapp

8

2

11

0

19

2

Angus Burns

7

0

12

3

19

3

Omair Azam

10

2

9

4

19

6

Gurpal Cheema

11

0

7

0

18

0

Jane Kendrick

8

0

10

0

18

0

Matthew McStea

7

0

11

0

18

0

Annette Fenner

9

0

9

1

18

1

Brian Williams

10

0

8

1

18

1

Emma Reeves

11

0

7

1

18

1

Julie Aris

9

0

9

1

18

1

Ruaidhri O’Donnell

8

0

10

2

18

2

Eulalie Burrows

11

0

7

3

18

3

Paddy Moore

6

2

12

1

18

3

Natalie Abbott

9

2

8

6

17

8

Naomi Killen

8

2

9

4

17

6

Susannah Croft

9

1

8

5

17

6

Jonathan Wilkins

8

0

9

5

17

5

Finn Maxwell

7

2

10

2

17

4

Jonathan Wright

5

3

12

0

17

3

Tomas Stevenson

8

0

9

3

17

3

Anjaneya Bapat

9

0

8

2

17

2

Jonathan Bartley

10

1

7

1

17

2

Katherine Rich

8

2

9

0

17

2

Ryan Lewendon

7

1

10

1

17

2

Sam Schoen

10

0

7

2

17

2

Sarah Skelton

5

1

12

1

17

2

Sophie Williamson

7

1

10

2

17

2

Davina Kesby-Beck

10

0

7

0

17

0

Kate Dapré

9

0

8

0

17

0

Meg Stapleton

10

0

7

0

17

0

Andrew McKenzie

6

0

10

1

16

1

Courtney Campbell

8

1

8

0

16

1

William Tams

5

0

11

0

16

0

Katie Stoyle

8

0

7

0

15

0

Basab Majumdar

10

0

5

1

15

1

David Slater

6

1

9

1

15

2

Elizabeth Rounding

9

0

6

2

15

2

Meena Heath

9

0

6

2

15

2

Atyab Rashid

6

0

9

3

15

3

Elizabeth Howard

6

2

9

1

15

3

Terry Edwards

8

1

7

4

15

5

Helen Woolston

7

0

6

0

13

0

Rachel Sambrooks

5

0

8

0

13

0

Beth Younge

5

1

8

1

13

2

Carter Latif

8

1

5

2

13

3

Ellen Salkeld

5

4

8

0

13

4

Marcus Welsh

9

1

4

3

13

4

Maxim Sinclair

7

2

6

2

13

4

Farrah Sheikh

6

2

7

5

13

7

Phyllis Ramage

4

0

8

1

12

1

Savannah Phillips

5

1

7

2

12

3

Tom McAndrew

4

0

7

1

11

1

Bella Burgess

6

1

5

1

11

2

Melissa Hewitt

5

1

6

1

11

2

Liz Bain

4

3

5

3

9

6

Ffion Rowlands

3

2

4

3

7

5

 

Okay – a few observations. Firstly, I do hope that Dennis Wang gets his chance. In the last couple of series we’ve seen Grand Final podium places going to contenders who didn’t actually win their heats. I’ll be honest, where you have a series where a heat winner who scores 15 goes through to the semis, but a runner up who scores 25 doesn’t, is not great. Here’s a suggestion. Cut two shows from the first round and have two wild cards for the two highest scoring runners up. The talent is too thinly spread as it is – we won’t miss two heats.

Let’s look at the semi finalists:-

1

David Ford

11

0

16

0

27

0

2

Pete Simmonds

13

0

14

1

27

1

3

Diane Howe

12

0

14

1

26

1

4

Carolyn Rowe

12

0

13

0

25

0

5

Paul Robinson

12

0

13

 

3

25

3

=6

Danielle Connolly

11

0

13

0

24

0

=6

Lorna Frankel

12

0

12

0

24

0

7

Paul Smith

10

2

13

0

23

0

=8

Milena Melcharek

12

0

10

0

22

0

=8

Miles Searle

9

0

13

0

22

0

9

Roger Easy

10

0

12

2

22

2

10

Nigel Haynes

10

0

11

0

21

0

11

Elis Matthews

11

0

9

0

20

0

=12

Ben Abbott

9

0

11

1

20

1

=12

Peter Glanvill

10

0

10

1

20

1

13

Robert Cohen

8

1

12

1

20

2

14

Richard Carr

11

0

9

6

20

6

=15

Alan Hotchkiss

9

0

10

0

19

0

=15

Matthew Patenall

11

0

8

0

19

0

=15

Max Bougeard

9

0

10

0

19

0

=15

Ross Taylor

10

0

9

0

19

0

=15

Teddy Fogel

10

1

9

0

19

0

16

Tomas Stevenson

8

0

9

3

17

3

17

David Slater

6

1

9

1

15

2

 

The temptation is always to look at the top 6 and say – there’s our finalists. And it never actually works out like that. For one thing it’s likely that there will be at least one top heavy semi with more than one of our top 6 in it. For another thing, there’s always the possibility that our highest scoring runner up will be drafted in. As likely as a top heavy semi, is the chance of a bottom heavy semi too, whereby someone from the bottom half of the table has a famous win to reach the final.

One observation we might make is that whoever wins the Grand Final is going to have to have a very good general knowledge. I personally would not be looking for a winner from anyone who scored less than 12 in the GK round in the heat.

Whatever the case, I wish all of our semi finalists the best of luck.

1 comment:

Martin said...

Excellent summary!

I'd suggest one possible tweak to your idea for wildcards: Do a UC and have 23 or 22 heats then invite back the top 4 or 8 losers to repechage for the final 1 or 2 places. That way the episode count stays the same.

I guess the only disadvantage would be that these contenders would have another specialist round. Maybe allow them to repeat their subject from the first round? Or just accept that a repechage place in the semi final comes at a cost of an extra specialist round

Every option is a compromise but the current situation is so unfair.