Well, I have
to say it – credit where it’s due, that was a cracking good show tonight. Two
virgins, two recidivists.
First of the
recidivists then was Geoff Snape. Geoff was a first round contender in both the
2012 series, and the 2007 SOBM. I have to say that looking at his previous GK
scores, if Geoff was going to make it to his first semifinal he was going to
have to have an absolute blinder on specialist. He picked the Sherlock Holmes
stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and that’s a tall enough order since there’s
getting on for 60 of them. It reminds me of my first ever Mastermind
competition. This was Elthorne High School Mastermind ’81 – actually the
inaugural running of the competition as it happened. One of my fellow contenders
– I believe it may have been Emma Rushton, but my memory may be deceiving me
here – had opted to take the Sherlock Holmes stories – but she believed that she was only
going to be asked about the 4 novels – not the 50+ short stories. Uh oh. IIRC the show
did go on, and she still achieved a creditable score. As did Geoff in reaching double
figures with 10 points. A useful score, but not a blowing the opposition away
score. I reckoned that he’d be behind at halfway, and would find it too
difficult to make up ground on GK.
Margaret
Brown was making her first Mastermind appearance, and answering on the excellent
Radio 4 comedy series Old Harry’s Game. I know the series well enough to know
that you have to have a very, very deep knowledge of it to achieve a high score
on the questions that Margaret was asked – and she did as well as could
possibly be done with them. Margaret scored a perfect 14 from 14. Very good
performance, and it meant that the pressure was well and truly on the two
contenders yet to go.
It didn’t
seem to bother fellow Mastermind virgin David Shah too much. He was answering
on the Roman Army 200BC – AD200. Now, that’s a long time. David can only answer
what he’s actually asked, and he, as had Margaret before him, answered all 14
of them correctly. Now, my feeling is that I must know a lot more about Roman
history than I thought I did since I managed 10 of these, and only really
missed the ones which were specifically about the organization of the roman
army. That’s immaterial anyway. An excellent performance from David, and poor
old Geoff must have been sitting in his chair with a sinking feeling along the
lines of – here we go again.
Speaking of déjà
vu, I wonder if that’s what Ewan Paton experienced, since it’s only a year
since he began his previous Mastermind campaign. Last year he reached the semi
finals and was runner up in his semi behind LAM reader and all round good egg
Diane Hallagan. Now, before anyone accuses me of hypocrisy, I am not saying
there’s anything wrong with this quick return. How can I? To date I am still
the only contender to be knocked out in the first round in one series, and to
win the next series. In two outings last year Ewan impressed me as someone who
knew his GK better than the average contender, and so the real question was
whether he could get close enough to the two leaders in his specialist round on
Harold Wilson. Yes. He certainly could. Another perfect round of 14 from 14.
Has it ever happened that we’ve had three perfect rounds in a row? Well, possibly,
but I can’t remember any instance of it happening before. And believe you me –
it is incredibly hard to get a perfect specialist round. I tried five times and
the closest I ever got was one wrong and no passes.
So after a
fantastic first round, poor old Geoff was down among the wines and spirits, and
had to return first. He will surely have known in his heart of hearts that it
was highly unlikely that he could overhaul all three of his fellow contenders,
and so made something of an uncertain start. The round actually got better,
although he never seemed quite to build up a full head of steam. I was
interested to see him give a double thumbs up to John as he stood up to go back
to his seat. This seemed to me not to be saying that he thought it would be
good enough, but a little satisfaction that he had performed as well as he
thought he could, and that’s an attitude I can applaud.
There are
two ways of looking at the position that Margaret was in. On the one hand you
could say that it was hardest for her, having to set the target for the others
to chase, and then wait to see if she could hang on. True. On the other hand
you could also say that she didn’t have the problem of having a hugely daunting
total to chase, and could then just concentrate on building the best total that
she could. For the first minute and three quarters I thought that she was going
to put the target beyond the other two. She answered so well that had it been a
two minute round I think she might even have won the heat. However the last 45
seconds or something robbed her of momentum, as the answers dried up somewhat.
Nonetheless her score of 13 to leave the target at 27 and no passes to force a
tie break certainly looked to be enough to put the last two contenders into the
corridor of uncertainty.
What was
uncertain, mind you, was the outcome of the match. David wasn’t giving in and
conceding defeat at all – however he did end up passing. This may have just
been unavoidable for him – it may have been deliberate tactics. Whatever the
case, it actually made the job harder for him since, having passed once he
needed to score 14 – 27 wouldn’t do for a draw now. He wasn’t a million miles
away from it either, but looking at his answers, I think a score of 12 was just
about as well as he was going to do. Heartbreakingly close, but no King Edward
this time.
So would
Ewan prove the point I’ve often made about the value of experience in the
chair? To me it looked pretty much neck and neck with Margaret’s round for most
of the way through. However, we had seen that Margaret’s round slowed up
towards the end. Ewan arrived at a target equaling 27 and no passes with time
for a couple of questions left. He got the first of the two wrong, but the second,
about the famous Jim Callaghan ‘quote’ – crisis, what crisis – would rob us of
a tie break.
AS I said,
that was a great show. Many congratulations Ewan on keeping your nerve,
reaching the target and becoming a double semifinalist. As for Margaret,
congratulations on a fine performance yourself, and sticking my neck out I’d
say your chances of reaching the semis are pretty good. As for David, well
played too – although, and I’m sorry to say this – I fear 26 and 4 passes may
just be outside the repechage slots when the dust has settled.
The Details
Geoff Snape
|
The Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
|
10
|
1
|
11
|
3
|
21
|
4
|
Margaret Brown
|
Old Harry’s Game
|
14
|
0
|
13
|
0
|
27
|
0
|
David Shah
|
The Roman Army 200BC – 200 AD
|
14
|
0
|
12
|
4
|
26
|
4
|
Ewan Paton
|
Harold Wilson
|
14
|
0
|
14
|
0
|
28
|
0
|
