Mastermind 2027 First Round Heat 3

Heat three, then. Now, if I may I will reveal my aggregate as we go along this week. So if you’re ready then –

Without much confidence I had decided to make Han Ket Li's subject, Madness my banker subject. This looked justified as I managed to pick three pieces of low hanging fruit from the round. I was very interested to hear that Labi Sifre had a cameo in the video of It Must Be Love. I liked Madness’ cover version, but Labi’s original is one of my absolute faves. Han Ket started well, but sadly she fell a little short of a competitive score, finishing the round with 6.

Of all the subjects the one I knew least about was Lorraine Behrens’ subject, James Hutton. I’m not quite sure just how I managed to scrape a point here, but I’m glad I did. Lorraine, on the other hand, produced a perfect round of 13, effectively putting Han Ket out of the game. It must have been daunting for the two contenders waiting for their own turns.

Piers Merchant looked to be one of the youngest contenders we’ve seen for a while and he did confirm that he is a student at Cambridge. He was offering us the films of Wes Anderson. I did manage another point on this round. Good general knowledge doesn’t just help you on the GK rounds, I guess. Piers was not going to give us a perfect round but he was able to deliver a double figure round which meant that he was still in the game at the turn around, albeit at something of a deficit.

Dom Mottram answered on The History of the Paris Metro. Had I not spent time on working through the Wikipedia entry and making up that set of questions yesterday, I would have had nowt. As it was though, I got 4, making it my best subject of the night and leaving me with an aggregate of 9. Dom was pretty snookered by the second minute of his round and levelled out with 5 by the end. Sometimes, as we’ve noted more than once, it just ain’t your night.

It was a quick return to the chair for Dom. As we’ve already seen in this series, watching Dom go through his GK round left us all to reflect on what might have been. He produced a double figure round of ten. It wouldn’t bring him the win, but would leave him to consider what might have happened with a different specialist subject.

Poor Han Ket Li. As much as the specialist round didn’t go the way she wanted, the GK went even worse. Frustrated early in the round she had a couple of answers that just wouldn’t spring off the tip of her tongue. As the round progressed and the incorrect answers and passes piled up she looked close to tears at one point. She finished with a total of ten. Sometimes it is REALLY not your night.

Piers Marchant was the outsider in what had become our two horse race. All he could do was to answer as many as he could, keep answering and let the devil take the hindmost. It brought him 9 for 19 which, honestly, did not really look like a winning score. Still, at least he had not passed which left Lorraine Behrens needing 7 to win outright.

You know, I did wonder whether Lorraine would prove to be the kind of contender who really wanted to shine on a subject on which she was extremely knowledgeable, but might be on a it of a wing and a prayer with the GK. So it proved. She only needed seven, but they were not proving easy to come by. At the end of the round she had only scored 6. She had also, though, incurred a pass, which meant that Piers, our outsider, had come through to win on the line. Hard lines Lorraine, it would be harsh to say that you have to be able to do a bit better in GK than 6 points to be able to win a heat. . . but it's probably true.

Well done Piers. You have to be able to have a good go at both rounds, as we’ve so often seen. Best of luck in the semis.

The Details

Han Ket Li	The band Madness	6	1	4	6	10	7
Lorraine Behrens	James Hutton	13	0	6	1	19	1
Piers Marchant	The Films of Wes Anderson	10	0	9	0	19	0
Dom Mottram	The History of the Paris Metro	5	0	10	1	15	1