It’s heat 7 and up to now although we have seen much honest endeavour it seems to me that the series has been in need of a little bit of quality. Did we get it at the 7th time of asking? Well, see what you think.
Lewis Demmon was first into the chair, answering on the
Essays of George Orwell. It’s not a subject about which I know a great deal as
demonstrated by my 2 points, so I don’t know just how much he wrote and I don’t
know whether the questions Lewis was asked were a particularly tough lot.
Whatever the case Lewis struggled with his round, and by the end of it he had
only accrued 4 points. Hard lines.
By way of contrast Jane Gibbons achieved a perfect 12 from
12 on her round on the films of Madonna. I had 3 of these – which surprised me,
since the only one of these films I’ve watched all the way through is A League
of Their Own. Whatever your subject may be getting a perfect score is hard to
do. I never managed it – my best performance was dropping just 1 point in the semi-final.
If she could nail the landing on the GK she could end up with a really good
score. Quality.
If Ali Morgan was daunted by Jane’s round, she certainly
didn’t let it show. Answering on Pauline Gower she too whacked in a perfect 12
from 12. Me? Well, shame though it is to admit it, I don’t recall ever hearing
abut Pauline Gower before, and I earned the precise total of nowt. Like Jane’s
round before, this was a fine display of a contender knowing her subject inside
and out, and I reckon she could have gone on for another two minutes and would
still have had them all right. Quality.
So to Chris Matterface, answering on the 2000AD comics of
the 80s and 90s. Well, whichever way you look at it, that’s a hell of a lot of
comics. Me? Well, I thought I was a little too old for comics by the time the
80s came round (which was wrong. You’re never too old for comics) and I’d never
read the comic before. So my aggregate stayed at the 5 points I’d scored in the
first two rounds. It would have been remarkable had Chris also scored a perfect
round. Well, he didn’t quite do that and with a veery good double figure round
of 10 he was still in contention with the two leaders at the turnaround.
So then Lewis returned to the chair for the GK round. Put
yourself in his position. For whatever reason your specialist round really hasn’t
worked out. Then you watch all three contenders make a seemingly effortless
show of posting excellent scores. You’re way behind and seem to have no chance
of winning. So what do you do? Well, in Lewis’ place he kept his head, and
scored a good 8, at least putting his night’s efforts into the honest endeavour
category.
Chris Matterface then returned to the chair. Now, it’s
dangerous to read too much into a contender’s face while they’re answering
questions. But during Chris’ round he never looked uncomfortable, and even
though it seemed as if there might be a few guesses in his answers, one of the
marks of a good quizzer is that when they have to guess, they make guesses that
have a good chance of being right. Chris delivered what has become a very rara
avis indeed in this series, a score in the teens and posted 13 to take his
total to 23. The two remaining contenders were going to need extremely good GK
rounds of their own to beat him. Quality
Jane Gibbons gave it a lash. In several of the shows we’ve
seen this series her 9 points, a good score in its own right, would have seen
her into the winner’s enclosure. Not this time, though. But I think she can be
very pleased with her evening’s work, and sometimes, that’s enough to be going
home with.
Ali Morgan did not, sadly, do quite as well in her own GK.
She zigged when she should have zagged with a couple of the answers, was caught
out by a few others and ended the round with a decent 7 to take her score to
19. Putting Ali’s evening into perspective, what she can take away is that she
has joined the pretty exclusive ‘perfect club’ for people who achieved a
perfect round on specialist and believe me that’s something special.
But the laurels go to Chris, and rightfully so. That was
actually a really good all-round performance. When I’m looking at heat winners
with the potential to go further I particularly look for those who can really
learn a specialist and can hack it at GK. On admittedly just one show’s
evidence, Chris seems to have that. Very well done sir. Best of luck in the semi-finals.
Good show.
The Details
|
Lewis Demmon |
The Essays of George
Orwell |
4 |
2 |
8 |
2 |
12 |
4 |
|
Jane Gibbons |
The Films of Madonna |
12 |
0 |
9 |
2 |
21 |
2 |
|
Ali Morgan |
Pauline Gower |
12 |
0 |
7 |
2 |
19 |
2 |
|
Chris Matterface |
The 2000 AD comics of
the 80s and 90s |
10 |
1 |
13 |
1 |
23 |
2 |
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