It’s lovely to be able to welcome Mastermind back during the first half of July. Often we’ve seen the first heat of a new series turn out to be quite a high scoring one. Would it be the case this time around?
First up was Sarah Klein. Of all the subjects in this first
heat, Sarah was giving us the closest thing I had to a banker specialist
subject. I always think I have a chance with Kings and Queens of England. And I
did okay, with 4 which was probably about as good as I could hope for. Sarah produced
a very satisfactory round with 8, but while that total won’t put you out of
contention at half time it’s unlikely to leave you in the lead either.
As if to prove the truth of that, Ravi Meah went on to beat
the total with his round on Depeche Mode. Now, their glory days being before
1986, I probably should have fancied my chances a bit more with this round.
Well, I never really liked their music that much if truth be told, but
nonetheless I knew enough about them to get another four. Ravi didn’t quite
manage a perfect round, but he did really well to get 11. And yes, I fancied
that this might well be enough to see him still in the lead at the half time
interval.
Holly Simmons was answering on the films of Yorgos
Lanthimos. I will be honest, when the round started I thought I had probably
never seen any of this esteemed filmmaker’s work. Butit turned out that The
Favourite was one of his and Lucky for me that it was. On the very last
question , the ‘badger’ question about the Favourite I took my only point of
the round. Holly looked on course for a double point round, but a couple of
mistakes on the second half of the round just stopped her a wee bit short with a
still in contention 9.
So to David Rhodes. His subject – the footballer Roy Keane –
was the type of subject I would never make my banker, but which promised one or
two. As it was I got three, which gave me a double figure aggregate with 12 and
I was quite happy with that. David looked as calm and solid on the ball as the
man himself and took a double figure score of 10.So overall we’d seen a good
set of specialists, with all four contenders showing that they had prepared and
none of them having anything to be ashamed at.
Well. . . you do tend to have more control over your fate
in Mastermind on the Specialists than you do on the GK. What we do see is the
majority of contenders in the first round heats give much honest endeavour but
just lack the knowledge to really impress. Sarah returned to the chair and she
certainly gave us the effort. She never passed which really needs presence of
mind especially when the round is not going your way. In the end she scored 7
but there were too many questions she missed that I would have expected a
serious contender for the win to get right.I did think at first that she was
maybe a little fortunate to be allowed lumbar for lumbago, but looking again at
the wording of the question I now think it was a correct adjudication.
Holly’s round was actually quite different from Sarah’s,
which is maybe a little surprising considering that she too scored 7. I thought
that she started very well, but about a minute in the wheels seemed to fall off
the bandwagon a bit. 7 for 16 is respectable, but it’s not likely to bring you
a win.
22, on the other hand, really is likely to do that and 22
is the total achieved by David Rhodes. 12 on the GK round is a very good return.
It was the kind of score I would expect a regular quizzer, or at the very least
somebody with a very good general knowledge to achieve. Frankly I thought he’d
have to be very unlucky to see it beaten.
I experienced a certain sense of déjà vu watching Ravi’s GK
round. It was fairly clear from early doors that he was unlikely to get the
double figure score that he needed, and I couldn’t help wondering if we were
going to see another 7 point round. Well, it turned out that we were and in the
end there was a relatively large amount of daylight between him and David out
in front.
Well, it’s nice to have you back, Mastermind. As for David –
well done, sir. With good general knowledge you’ll always be in with a chance
in the semi-finals.
The Details
|
Sarah Klein |
King Edward IV |
8 |
0 |
7 |
0 |
15 |
0 |
|
Ravi Meah |
Depeche Mode |
11 |
1 |
7 |
5 |
18 |
5 |
|
Holly Simmons |
The films of Yorgos
Lanthimos |
9 |
0 |
7 |
1 |
16 |
1 |
|
David Rhodes |
Roy Keane |
10 |
0 |
12 |
1 |
22 |
1 |
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