Well, that’s Mastermind done and dusted for another year. You know how invested I was in this final through the fact that I refused to predict the winner this year for fear of scuppering anyone’s chances. Would it be a case of the prolonged build up to the final just heightening the anticipation, or would it all prove to be a huge anticlimax? Well, you see what you think about it.
Nancy Braithwaite was the first contender to go. She was
answering on the playwright Sir Tom Stoppard. Before she did we got to see her
filmed insert, where she got to talk to critic Mark Lawson, although not Sir
Tom himself. That was a little disappointing considering some of the luminaries
who got to leave messages for some of the others. Nancy’s round was not
disappointing. She missed a couple, but to even get close to a maximum in the
Grand Final is immensely difficult. Nancy posted 10 to show that all of the
others were going to need to be at the top of their game to be in with a shout.
John Harden, answering on the 1953 expedition that
conquered the summit of Everest was certainly one of the winners of the filmed
inserts, getting to share a Zoom call with the son of Sir Edmund Hilary. John
also reminded us about the circumstances of his involvement this year,
following the very sad passing of his wife. He played down his chances, which I
always feel is a sensible thing to do. If you win you can always say you were
being modest afterwards, and if you don’t then there’s no embarrassment. There
was no embarrassment about John’s round either. He too scored 10.
Ivan Milatovic also scored heavily in the filmed insert stakes.
Having answered on Diego Velasquez and then Novak Djokovic it seemed a natural
choice to go for Led Zeppelin in the final. Who did he receive a filmed message
from? Why, none other than Robert Plant, who made the quite funny observation
that Ivan undoubtedly knew a lot more about the band than he remembered! He was
right too. Ivan has been pretty much perfect throughout the season on
specialist and he came very close again. I think that he only dropped the one
point, finishing with 12 points.
I can say this now and you can decide whether to believe me
or not but before the final I did not think that any of the first three
contenders were most likely to win. I really felt that the winner would be one
of our last three, and going on the statistics Dom Tait looked most likely. He
was the finalist with the highest average going into the Final. He has won Only
Connect. Dom was answering on Penguins, and he did so brilliantly. However,
this is the Grand Final and so he was caught out on just one question. He too
finished with 12 and no passes.
Claire Reynolds was answering on the only subject in the
final about which I knew absolutely nothing, the mathematician Emmy Noether.
Claire’s insert reminded us that Claire was in the unusual position of having
been beaten in her first round heat by fellow finalist Nancy Braithwaite. But
then Claire’s semi final performance had been better than that first round
showing, and I did feel sure that Claire would be on the podium in this final.
Claire’s enthusiasm and love of quizzing really shone through her filmed insert
and it was nice to see her filming in the University of Birmingham, home of the
Birmingham mega quiz. Claire too really knew her subject, but she too was still
caught out by one question to finish with 12 and no passes.
Finally then John Robinson. John took part in the first
semi final and he’d had to knock out the top scorer from the heats, Ian Grieve,
to win. I really enjoyed John’s filmed insert. I knew John was a teacher, but
not that he was a secondary school English teacher. It’s a great subject and I
loved teaching it for about two thirds of my career. The less said about the
last third the better. I didn’t know that John had won half a million pounds on
Millionaire. The fact that he’s still teaching shows his commitment to his
career and his love of teaching. Answering on The Empire State Building John’s
Zoom call was with the director of New York’s skyscraper museum. I didn’t visit
that last year, but if you ever get a chance to visit the City Museum of New
York you’ll love it. Lightning struck for the third time in John’s round, as he
too scored 12 with one wrong and no passes.
So this meant that the GK round maintained the same order
as the specialist round. First back was Nancy Braithwaite. Without wishing to sound
harsh, I did think that Nancy dropped some points in the first minute of her
round that she possibly should have known. To be fair she did rally, and finished
her round at a cracking pace, scoring 13 for a total of 23. With the amount of
General Knowledge firepower that I knew some of our contenders were packing I
couldn’t see that being a winning score, but it was certainly a good one.
John Harden returned to the chair. He started well with his
trademark style of considering each question carefully then giving the right
answer. However his round was holed below the waterline with a long pause on one
question. He rallied – that’s what finalists do, and kept going into double
figures, finishing with 11 for 21 points. Not a winning score, no, but I don’t know
that it was all about that for John. I think it meant the world just getting to
the final in the first place, and so it should. I salute you, sir.
Ivan came back to the chair and really gave his round some
welly. In his semi he scored more on GK than he did in his first round, but to
take the lead he was going to need to do better again. He gave it a lash, he
certainly did that. Come the end of the round he had fallen just a point short
of Nancy’s score, adding 10 to take his score to 22.
Dom Tait came into the final with the highest GK aggregate
and the highest GK average of any of the finalists. To be honest, I had thought
his GK rounds in both heat and semi were fantastic. I’m not suggesting that Dom’s
final round of 13 points wasn’t good, because it was. But crucially, although
it gave him the lead, it did not blow the others out of the water, and he
missed things that I thought he might get. You see , when a really top player
has a bit of an off night – which is what I think happened to Dom – they still
get a good score and a good performance. But a winning one?
Claire Reynolds had 13 on GK in her heat, and looked even
more of a class act in her semi with a brilliant 15. That would certainly be enough
to give her the lead. Now, in my preview I wrote about how the players who
become champions each year manage somehow to drag their best performance out of
themselves in the final. Claire certainly did that. In a fantastic round she
answered nearly everything and scored 17 to leave the whole field in her wake
with 29.
Or nearly the whole field, for John Robinson had yet to go.
I shall not lie to you. After his magnificent semi final win, I had John as a
genuine contender to be the next teacher to win the show. It was mostly for his
benefit that I decided I was going to make no predictions this year. My hope
for John to win was even more heightened when he said the subject he taught.
Now, though, he was going to need a monster score to do it. Well, he stumbled
on one or two, but he was racking up the score, and the vanishing white line
hadn’t yet heralded the end of the round. Closer and closer. Yes, I’ll admit
it, I was shouting at the telly, willing him on, probably more excited by this
than any final since Isabelle Heward’s. John equalled Claire’s score with one
question to spare. And I knew that he knew the last one. Alright, I didn’t know
for sure, but I was certain. I was right.
Congratulations to all 6 finalists. In particular I offer
commiserations to Claire, who performed superbly and would have been a most
worthy champion in her own right. But the night belonged to John Robinson – LAM
reader, dedicated English teacher, and Mastermind Champion. I could not be
happier for you.
Thanks to the production team for a great series. I don’t
blame you for the way that the schedulers have mucked us around this year. And
a thank you to all 96 contenders. Without you, there is no show.
The Details
|
Nancy Braithwaite |
The Plays of Tom
Stoppard |
10 |
0 |
13 |
1 |
23 |
1 |
|
John Harden |
The 1953 Everest
Expedition |
10 |
0 |
11 |
0 |
21 |
0 |
|
Ivan Milatovic |
Led Zeppelin |
12 |
0 |
10 |
1 |
22 |
1 |
|
Dom Tait |
Penguins |
12 |
0 |
13 |
0 |
25 |
0 |
|
Claire Reynolds |
Emmy Noether |
12 |
0 |
17 |
0 |
29 |
0 |
|
John Robinson |
The Empire State
Building |
12 |
0 |
18 |
0 |
30 |
0 |
