And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what you get when you don’t have any repechage slots in your series. But I fear I’m getting ahead of myself.
First into the lists was Kieran James answering on my
banker subject, JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings. I scored 5 on this set, but I
reckon that Kieran has read the books far many more times than I have, for he
answered every question correctly and I reckon he could have gone on doing so
all night. In fact the only way you could criticise the round is that his
answers were just a little measured which prevented him getting in a 13th
question. Exceptional performance, still.
Teacher Lydia Dias had support from the Clark sofa to
overcome (yeah, alright, I’m well out of the classroom now and I ain’t never
goin’ back, but I still want to see my brethren and sistren doing well) And doing
well is something Lydia did. Answering at top speed she ot through 13 questions
in total and it was a surprise that she only managed 11 of them. Only! It was a
great performance and meant she would be well in contention.
Sadly Mark Hamid could not do the same with Foyle’s War. I
don’t really know what went wrong with the round for Mark, but sometimes when
it rains, it pours. I picked up 3 points with guesses on Jitterbug, Gone With
the Wind and Rembrandt – all of which went begging for Mark. But it’s a shame,
and he did look rather crestfallen on his return to contenders’ row.
Finally Joe Gellman, who was answering on the PDC world
darts championship. 1 point took my aggregate to 9, with which I was delighted
and happy to take the points and run. Joe had prepared thoroughly and gave us
our third double figure round of the night, finishing with 10.
So to the GK round. Mark Hamid returned to the chair and
delivered a thoroughly splendid round of 12. That’s class. You couldn’t help thinking
about what might have been had he only had a better specialist round. Certainly
worth your while thinking about having another try in the future Mark, for what
it’s worth.
Here’s a thought for you. In the whole show tonight only
two of the rounds did not score double figures. Mark’s specialist was one and
Joe Gellman’s GK was the other. Mind you, he came pretty close, scoring 9 to
give himself a total of 19. In terms of what we’ve already seen this series,
that’s a good score and wherever he finished Joe could be well satisfied with
his evening’s work.
As could Lydia Dias. From what I’ve already said you know
that she achieved a double points round. What I haven’t said yet though is that
this wasn’t just a double figure round, but a round in the teens. Yes, it
looked like Lydia had a few guesses, but that’s the thing you see. A good
quizzer will guess, but guess more accurately than others would. 24 is one of
the highest totals this series so far. If Kieran was going to beat it, he was
going to have to do it the hard way.
In fact, Kieran didn’t beat it. He scored 12 and 1 pass to
equal Lydia’s score and this gave us a tie break. Which was fine by me,, as
this was a contest to savour. In the end, given the same 5 questions Mark
scored 4 to Lydia’s 3. Congratulations, sir. You have marked yourself out as a
frontrunner in the current series and I really wish you the very best of luck
in the semis. As for Lydia, I can only commiserate. This was the best
performance from a teacher since John Robinson won 2 years ago. You were
brilliant.
As for the people who make the show. We have seen a total
of 15 win a heat in this series which beings an automatic place in the semi
final. We have now seen a total of 24 which does not bring an automatic semi
final place. I don’t know how much more clearly I can say this. There is not
enough talent in the contender pool that you can afford to weaken the semi
finals by not having one or two places for highest scoring runners up like
Lydia. It was glaringly obvious last year. It is glaringly obvious this year. Please.
The Details
|
Kieran James |
JRR Tolkien |
12 |
0 |
12 |
1 |
24 |
1 |
4 |
|
Lydia Dias |
Talking Heads |
11 |
0 |
13 |
1 |
24 |
1 |
3 |
|
Mark Hamid |
Foyle’s War |
5 |
0 |
12 |
0 |
17 |
0 |
|
|
Joe Gellman |
The PDC World Darts
CHampionship |
10 |
0 |
9 |
0 |
19 |
0 |
|
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