Mastermind 2022 Grand Final Review

Well, dearly beloved, shall we begin the grand final review which inevitably begins with me apologising to all the contenders, and to all of you, for the fact that I had as much success predicting the outcome of this final as I had last weekend in picking a winner in the Grand National? Let’s do just that.

Kicking us off was Ian Wang. The highlight of Ian’s filmed insert was probably receiving a filmed message of encouragement from Sir Steve McQueen himself. He also received a visit in person from Jonathan Gibson, last year’s winner and the youngest ever Mastermind champion. His opinion is that records are there to be broken, and so wished the 23 year old Ian the very best of luck. Well, if you prepare properly, then luck doesn’t need to come into it. Ian has been pretty much perfect on specialist all series, and tonight was no different. 13 meant that he was going to be up among the leaders at the turnaround.

In her filmed insert Alice Walker said that she lives in the Peak District, so maybe being filmed walking amongst that magnificent setting was a little bit of a busman’s holiday. She didn’t seem to mind, though, and indeed, who could possibly complain about it? Alice scored a decent 11 on specialist in the heat, and an excellent 13 in the semi, and her round on the Peak District tonight topped that. A pretty much pitch perfect display saw her set the target at 14, one more than Ian’s score.

Eleanor Ayres’ film concentrated quite a bit on her own specialist subject, her namesake Eleanor of Aquitaine. She visited nearby Cambridge University to speak to ain impressive professor, who professed delight to see someone take Eleanor on Mastermind. There was also a message from Judtih Keppel, the Egghead and first winner of the million on Millionaire. Why? Oh, do pay attention 007! Eleanor of Aquitaine was the subject of Judith’s million-pound question. Eleanor scored 9 in the heat and 11 in the semi final on specialist, and I did highlight this as my main concern about her chances. She matched her semi final score, but this meant that she was now 3 points behind the leader.

Anthony Fish hadn’t really put a foot wrong in either first round heat or semi-final. His film concentrated on his family, and how they have supported his efforts to become a better quizzer, and to be successful in his chosen pursuit. The message of encouragement came from no less a personage than Sir David Jason – although this was in the form of a letter rather than a short film. In the first round Anthony scored 14 on specialist, and in the semi final 13. Sadly, the curse of the Clark tip struck him in his round tonight. He stumbled badly on an early question, and although he rallied himself well, he ended with 11. Being 3 points behind at half time isn’t necessarily a gap you can’t bridge, but it’s hard.

Patrick Buckingham explained in his film that his whole family used to watch the Magnus era of Mastermind together – I know the feeling, sir - but that he’d never found time in his life what with his intense career to do much quizzing until the last few years. He possibly has the best case for regretting that he wasn’t on the show 5 years ago, when his specialist subject of Carole Lombard would surely have bought him a trip to the US to make his film. Well, that was then, and this is now. If you read my preview you’ll know that Patrick was one of my pre-race favourites, and sadly I think the curse of the Clark tip did for him as well. Having scored a brace of 13s in his previous specialists, he languished on 10 after this one.

Finally Sarah Trevarthen got to sit in the chair, as we watched her own filmed insert. She showed us her winning appearance on Pointless with her husband, and again, seems to be another finalist whose interest in quizzing has really developed over the last few years. Her appearance in the recent final of Counterpoint is a pretty good demonstration of this. Like Patrick she came into the final with a brace of 13s in her previous specialist rounds. Unlike Patrick my tipping her for a podium position didn’t seem to do her any harm, as she completed a full set of 13 pointer specialist rounds on Dame Barbara Hepworth.

4 points off the lead, Patrick was looking like the outsider when he returned to the chair. If all the contenders matched their average GK scores from the heats and semis, then he couldn’t win. But nobody seemed to have told him that. Yeah, okay, so he was some way off the lead. It didn’t matter. He threw himself into his GK round, gripped it firmly in his teeth and never let it go until the 2 and a half minutes were over. 17 in a final is a terrific score, more than enough to place the rest of the field within the corridor of doubt. One thing that I was in no doubt about was that Patrick would not be finishing in 6^th place.

The only other contender to have scored 17 on GK this series was Eleanor Ayres, who was the next to take the chair. Eleanor had scored 17 in a brilliant round in her semi-final. This was 5 points better than she managed in the heat. So the big question was, could she reproduce this form? Well, for the first half dozen questions the answer was yes, certainly. However, a golf question stopped her momentum, and several wrong answers followed. By the time she got moving again, it was going to be a case of damage limitation. And indeed, a score of 11, for a total of 22 is absolutely nothing to be ashamed about at all.

So the question now had to be faced – could my pre-race favourite, Anthony, match Patrick’s general knowledge heroics? Well, he certainly gave it a lash. After a minute and a half I thought he was slightly slower than Patrick, but then he had started one point to the good. But he fell behind, and by the time the white line of doom began to snake around the score it looked as if 15 for 26 was going to be the best he could do. Which indeed it was. Another fine GK effort, even if it was not quite good enough on this occasion.

So to Ian Wang, just one point off the lead on 13. In my preview I said that I didn’t think Ian’s general knowledge was quite strong enough to win the big one at this early stage of his quiz career. Well, his first half dozen answers seemed to make a mockery of this observation. Sadly, though, the wrong answers began to creep in. He was never very far away from what he needed, but never quite got the run of five or 6 correct answers in a row when he really needed them. In the end, he levelled out at 12 for 25. So Patrick could not be worse than 3^rd, and with only 2 contenders to go could still end up as champion.

Sarah Trevarthen had scored 15 in her first-round heat GK, and if she could repeat that then she would go into the lead. And for much of the round it looked as if this was going to happen. And yet, when the white line made its first appearance she still wasn’t there yet. In the end it was only her last question which brought her a 14th point. Were we potentially in for a tie break? In a word no, because Sarah led by pass countback.

Finally, Alice Walker came back to the chair. She scored 15 in her GK round in the heat, and a repeat of that would do it with a little bit to spare. In the semi she scored 11, and that wouldn’t do it. Still, with two and a half minutes now, the title was hers to win or lose. What followed, over the next two and half minutes, must have been the round of her life. She faced 22 questions. She passed on none. She gave 3 wrong answers. The mathematically gifted among you will have worked out that this meant she gave 19 correct answers. Nothing slowed her at all. She won’t have realised which answer meant that she was the champion, nor the fact that she went on to give another 6 correct answers after that. It was a perfect example of a contender finding that wonderful head space where you are just totally in the moment, concentrating on each question and for the most part, finding the answers. It was a magnificent performance, and yes, I was standing up and applauding the telly. 33, as Clive pointed out, is the highest score of the series.

Thanks to all of the contenders, not just in this high-quality final, but in the whole series. Without you and your willingness to learn your subjects and brave the chair, then there is no show. Thank you to the production team as well for bringing us another fine series. Especially, thanks to Clive Myrie, for proving that my conviction that he was a good choice to replace John Humphrys was correct. But let’s end with congratulations to Alice Walker, Mastermind of the United Kingdom 2022!

The Details

Ian Wang	The film and TV works of Sir Steve McQueen	13	0	12	0	25	0
Alice Walker	The Peak District National Park	14	0	19	0	33	0
Eleanor Ayres	Eleanor of Aquitaine	11	1	11	0	22	1
Anthony Fish	Open All Hours	11	1	15	0	26	1
Patrick Buckingham	Carole Lombard	10	1	17	0	27	1
Sarah Trevarthen	Dame Barbara Hepworth	13	0	14	0	27	0

Where now for the blog?

Apologies if this sounds a little self-congratulatory. I mean, it is a little self-congratulatory, but I’m sorry if this sounds that way. I revived the blog (again) on the 26^th August 2021 to review Clive Myrie’s first regular Mastermind. I didn’t know if I was going to continue the blog, or whether it would all just peter out again, just as it had done in previous revivals.

Since then I have made over 100 posts in just under 8 months. To put that into perspective, the last time that I made over 100 posts within a calendar year was as long ago as 2015.

Of course, the vast majority of these recent posts have been reviews of University Challenge and Mastermind. And there’s the thing. University Challenge 2022 ended with the Grand Final last Monday. Mastermind 2022 will end with the Grand Final next Monday. So I find myself wondering – what am I going to post about until the Autumn when they come back?

And it is a fair question to ask. Looking back to 2015, at the start of the year I was reviewing University Challenge, Mastermind, Only Connect and Brain of Britain. I was posting In the News questions based on my ‘doing the papers’ and their answers every week. I was also still just about doing my podcast. During the year I did post about some new quiz shows, and also about regular quizzes I took part in, and the quiz league in Bridgend. In 2011, 12 and 13 I managed over 300 posts a year, which, with the benefit of hindsight, is probably overkill.

Now, though, I find myself wondering – how am I going to keep it going now for the next few months until UC starts again? After all:-

In 2017 I stopped playing in the Bridgend Quiz League. I had been diagnosed with depression (don’t worry, I shan’t be banging on about this again much) and it was a bad time all round. I don’t have any bad feelings towards the league, but I haven’t any strong wish to play in it again now. Which is not to say that if I was asked to help out a team in a hypothetical local league I would automatically say no. I am far too susceptible to flattery for that. But it certainly isn’t in my plans.

I have only a couple of times gone to more than one quiz in a week since the pandemic began. I certainly don’t plan to expend my quiz activity at least until I finish teaching, hopefully in a couple of years’ time.

So I guess why I’m writing this post is to say that I want to keep the blog going, or at least ticking over until the return of my two fave shows, but as to the content, well, I’m just going to have to play that one by ear.

Mastermind 2022 Grand Final Preview

Right, I suppose you want me to tell you who is going to win the Grand Final. Well, there’s a couple of ways that we can try to do this. We could start by looking at the statistics.

	Name	Subject	SS	pass	GK	pass	Total	pass
R1	Patrick Buckingham	Francis I of France	13	0	14	0	27	0
SF	Patrick Buckingham	Jean Harlow	13	0	13	0	26	0
Average			13	0	13.5	0	26.5	0
R1	Sarah Trevarthen	Rocky Horror	13	0	15	0	28	0
SF	Sarah Trevarthen	Pulp	13	0	10	0	23	0 (tie break)
Average			13	0	12.5	0	25.5	0
R1	Anthony Fish	Alfred Hitchcock films of the 1950s	14	0	16	0	30	0
SF	Anthony Fish	20th century world heavyweight boxing championship fights	13	0	14	1	27	1
Average			13.5	0	15	0.5	28.5	0.5
R1	Eleanor Ayres	Catherine de Medici	9	0	12	0	21	0
SF	Eleanor Ayres	The History of York Minster	11	1	17	0	28	1
Average			10	0.5	14.5	0	24.5	0.5
R1	Alice Walker	Rodgers and Hammerstein Musicals	11	0	15	0	26	0
SF	Alice Walker	Julia Margaret Cameron	13	0	11	0	24	0 (tie break)
Average			12	0	13	0	25	0
R1	Ian Wang	The Music of Beyonce	12	0	12	0	24	0
SF	Ian Wang	The Films of Studio Ghibli	15	0	11	0	26	0
Average			13.5	0	11.5	0	25	0

Taking a purely statistical approach, if we go by the average scores for both the 1^st round and semi final of each contender, then that predicts the podium places are most likely to go to Anthony Fish, Patrick Buckingham and Sarah Trevarthen. But that’s based on a very limited range of numbers, though. So I think that it would be appropriate to also take a qualitative approach, and examine each of our finalists in a little more detail. Working from Semi final 1 to Semi final 6. . .

Ian Wang

Ian’s semi final win was built on a superb specialist round. 15 is just about as good as it was possible to get in the semis. His 12 in the heats was good – certainly good enough – but in order to give himself any realistic chance he has to produce as close to a perfect specialist round as possible in the final. I say this because I don’t feel that his GK is quite good enough at this stage in his quiz career. He has the lowest average score on GK and I think he’ll need by far his best performance on GK to have a chance of winning. He may well do that, but I have to go on the evidence we’ve seen so far, and on my gut feeling. Prediction – potential podium but more likely not quite.

Alice Walker

Alice posted the 5^th highest score in the first-round heats. Looking at her stats, there’s an interesting inversion of her scores between the 1^st round and the semi-final. She scored 11 on specialist in the heat, then 13 in the semi, whereas she scored 15 on GK in the heat, but only 11 in the semi. This meant that she only won through after a tense tie break. I was very impressed with her GK in the heat, and much less impressed with it in the semi, which suggests that it could be all down to the question set that she receives on the day. Well, Mastermind isn’t always won by the most consistent performer. Having said that though I think she has less of a chance than some of the other finalists. Prediction – most likely outside the medals.

Eleanor Ayres

Eleanor has the lowest average score from the heats and semis. However, this is entirely due to her modest first round performance. Only 4 heat winners came through with a lower combined total. However, come the semi-final, she was a revelation. Her 28, built on the back of a monster total of 17 on GK, was the highest score of all of the semis. I’ll come to that. She worries me a little on specialist, having scored 9 in the heat and 11 in the semi. I’m pretty certain that she’ll need to improve on this to give herself a reasonable chance. As for GK, well 12 in the heats was pretty good, but nowhere near as good as that semi final performance. That showed that, if the questions fall the right way, Sarah is capable of setting an extremely high total. Likewise, if she gets an unhelpful set, then the opposite is possible. Prediction – you tell me. Anything could happen.

Anthony Fish

In terms of pure numbers, Anthony must be highly rated in any preview of the final. He top scored in the heats, being the only contender in the whole series so far to reach 30 points. Scores of 14 and 13 on very different specialist subjects suggests that his preparation will again be excellent. Scores of 16 and 14 on GK also show that he is one of the best of these contenders in General Knowledge. To be honest, he has shown so little in the way of weakness in this series that it’s very difficult to argue with the tale of the numbers here. Prediction – Potential champion.

Sarah Trevarthen

Sarah has had a Mastermind journey almost like an inverted image of Eleanor’s. She performed brilliantly in the heats, with the second highest score, 28. Yet she had the lowest winning score of any of the semis and had to endure a tie break to win her place in the final. We can be certain that she will prepare her specialist subject very well, in all likelihood well enough to be at least close to the leader at the turnaround. If she produces a GK round like the one she had in her heat, then she’s a potential champ. If she only produces a modest GK round of the sort she had in the semi-final, then she might not even find herself on the podium. Such are the variables we have to take into account when considering this grand final. Prediction potentially podium.

Patrick Buckingham

I feel far less uncertainty about Patrick, on paper at least. Like Anthony, Patrick appears to be a very consistent performer. With two scores of 13 on specialist we can be as sure as we can that he should be up near the head of the field when the half time oranges are brought out. A 14 and a 13 show a consistently good level of General Knowledge as well. I don’t see him scoring much less than this on the night in GK and potentially he could well have his highest GK score, which would put him right up there. Prediction: Potential champion, more likely silver medal.

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There it is then. I have no prior knowledge of the outcome and will be as interested as every other viewer to see how it will all turn out. Apologies to those I’ve tipped for success, so often the kiss of death to contenders.