Mastermind 2019 Grand Final Preview

Right, let’s have a look at the finalists shall we? For each finalist the top row shows their heat performance, and the bottom one in bold is their semi performance.

Mark Grant	Keith Douglas	14	0	15	0	29	0
	1951 Festival of Britain	13	0	13	0	26	0
Dave Cowan	Glamorgan CCC	12	0	15	0	27	0
	The Life of Aneurin Bevan	10	0	11	2	21	2
Judith Lewis	The Life of C.S.Lewis	14	0	15	2	29	2
	The Lord Peter Wimsey Novels of Dorothy L. Sayers	12	0	9	2	21	2
Hamish Cameron	John Knox	13	0	14	3	27	3
	The Life and Times of Thomas Paine	8	1	13	1	21	2
Ian Orriss	Karl Gustav Mannerheim	13	0	15	1	28	1
	Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II	10	0	11	0	21	0
Helen O’Connell	The History of Prague	12	2	18	2	30	2
	The Plant Hunters	11	0	14	0	25	0

Now, the tempting thing is to look at the semi final scores, take them as our most reliable guide, and then say that it shows that the final may well be a two horse race between Mark and Helen. Tempting, yes, but not necessarily the most sensible thing to do. In Magnus Magnusson’s superb “I’ve Started So I’ll Finish” he revealed that the method they used was to make the questions harder in the semis, and then slightly easier again in the final. I have no idea whatsoever if this is still the case. If it is, though, then some of the contenders who only scored 21 in the semis start to come back into play.

Let’s cast our eye down the list, then.

Mark Grant will be many people’s favourite for the winner’s bowl this year, and with good reason. Mark is one third of the mighty Crossworders from Only Connect. He has also won Brain of Britain and been a Counterpoint finalist. He had the highest SS semi final score of any of the finalists, and if he’s in the lead when the half time oranges are passed around he’s going to be extremely difficult to beat on GK. Not only that, he’s been in the grand final twice before. In 2005 he was beaten by Pat Gibson, and in 2010 by Jesse Honey and Kathryn Johnson. The other contenders in this year’s final are good, very good in some cases, but I don’t think they’re quite of that standard. I don’t want to jinx Mark’s chances by saying that he’s going to win, so I’m not going to make a prediction here.

Dave Cowan’s GK looked very good in his heat where he put on 15. His 11 in the semi wasn’t quite so good, but still good enough to win. Successive scores of 12 and 10 on specialist do suggest that he could well find himself a few points behind the leader at the half way stage in the final, and in this company it’s not a gap which he looks likely to breach. Sorry Dave, but I have you as one of the less likely finalists to win.

Judith Lewis is one of those finalists I mentioned earlier who performed really well in the GK round in the heat, and less well in the GK round in the semi. She will need to improve on her GK. It may well be though, that she’ll be up with the leaders at half time, having performed very well on her specialist rounds in both heat and semi. I have her as one of the less likely finalists, but hey, what do I know?

Hamish Cameron has also been a finalist, and participated in Clive’s 2014 final. I have no doubts over Hamish’s GK. He’s always pretty strong, and on his day he can rip a GK round to shreds. However he was playing with fire on his specialist round in the semi. A huge and uncharacteristic pause nearly saw him come a cropper, a situation he only rescued with his GK. Hamish is overdue a bit of rub of the green, and following the wins of recidivists Brian Chesney and Isabelle Heward in recent years, it would be highly appropriate if either Hamish or Mark did the same this year. Hamish has a shot, make no doubt about that.

Ian Orriss is another recidivist, and another who looked very good in the heat, but less impressive wining his semi final. Let’s make no bones about it, the only people who can win are the 6 contenders who contest the final. Ian is in the final, and you’ve always got a chance if you’re still in the race. Put my arm behind my back and I’d say I don’t really see Ian winning this year, but hey, I’ve been wrong many, many times in the past.

Finally, Helen O’Connell. Now, if you’d given me a list of names of all of the contenders in this year’s series of Mastermind, I’d probably have picked out Mark and Hamish as potential finalists. Helen, for me, has been the real surprise package of this series. In all honesty she looked brilliant in her heat, and she looked brilliant in her semi final. Now, okay, the final is a whole different challenge, but going on all the evidence we have Helen can prepare a specialist subject, and can answer a GK round well enough to really give her a crack at the title.

So, best of retrospective luck to all the finalists. However well you did I hope that you all enjoyed the experience, especially those making their first appearance. A final thought too, if I may, for Brian Davis and Sue Tully from the first semi, whose scores were the joint second highest of all of the semis along with Helen O’Connell’s. That’s the nature of knockout competition, I’m afraid, but sometimes it’s very cruel.

Mastermind 2019 Semi Final 6

The last semi final, then. Let’s have a look at the last 5 contenders hoping for a place in the final.

Alan Keys	Olympic Track and Field 1896 - 1948	13	0	13	0	26	0
Helen O’Connell	The History of Prague	12	2	18	2	30	2
Sean Climo	Life and work of Egon Schiele	14	0	13	1	27	1
Lena Gazey	Emma, Lady Hamilton	12	0	12	2	24	2
Derek Caudwell	John Hawkwood	12	0	16	2	28	2

 You can’t dismiss anyone’s chances based on just one round, but you’d be forgiven for looking at the list and picking out Derek Caudwell and especially Helen O’Connell. Now as I said, form in the heats is sometimes no indication of semi final performance – as we’ve seen some contenders in previous semis scored very well in their heats, but nothing like as well in their semis. Nonetheless, Helen’s 18 in GK was exceptional.  

Alan Keys kicked us off then, as the last of the repechage runners up. I’d love to know how it is that not all of the highest scoring runners up appeared in the semis – it may genuinely be that some who scored 28 were unable. Can’t help wondering though. Anyway, Alan was answering on Charles II which made this my specialist round of the night. I likes my kings and queens rounds, and took 7 on this. Alan didn’t have a perfect round, but anything in double figures in a semi final specialist round will always put you in contention, and Alan scored a good 10. 

So, my pre-race favourite, Helen O’Connell, came next. Helen was answering on the Plant Hunters. – Not very sporting – I quipped – I mean, they’re not exactly a moving target- boom boom. Helen whacked in an excellent 11 – incidentally only 1 point down on her specialist round in the heat, where she had an extra 30 seconds. If she could find a GK round which approached her round in the heats, she’d be very hard to beat now.  

Sean Climo was answering on Delta Blues, about which I proved that I know very little. In all honesty I though his round was a little better than the 8 which he scored – it didn’t look that much worse than either of the preceding rounds. However being 3 points behind he was always going to need the GK round of his life to have a hope of progressing.  

Lillie Langtry I did know a little bit more about – although I only achieved three points on Lena Gazey’s round on the Jersey Lily. Lena again put in a terrific round to score 11, which again was only 1 point down on her specialist score in the heat, on Lady Hamilton. In real terms, that’s an improvement.  

Finally my other tip for the top in this contest, Derek Caudwell. Last time out Derek answered on John Hawkwood. Last night his subject was Robert Fitzroy, captain of HMS Beagle when Charles Darwin made his voyage, and pioneer of the Met Office. Derek looked pretty calm and unflustered as he too powered his way to a score of 11. To get to a semi you’ve got to have already prepared one specialist subject well enough. I do like to see all 5 contenders in a semi having been able to prepare a second subject well too.  

Sean returned to the chair. Last time out he scored 13 on GK, this time out 11. Off a shorter round, that’s an improvement, and it took his s core to 19. It was a good round, but it wasn’t the spectacular round he was going to need to give himself a realistic chance. Following him to the chair, Alan Keys actually started his round rather well. However he became becalmed mid round, and struggled to add much to his s core in the last 45 seconds or so. He levelled out at 17. 

So we came to the three contenders who’d shared the lead with 11 at the half time interval. First of them to go was Helen. Now, in real terms, I would say that her 14 in a 2 minute round was comparable to her 18 in a 2 and a half minute round in the heat. It was a terrific display of GK quizzing, and well and truly laid down the gauntlet to the two contenders who followed.  

Lena Gazey had scored 12 on GK in her first round heat. Even if she accrued this score from 30 seconds less time it wouldn’t be enough. Under the circumstances the 10 that she added to her score was an improvement on the heat, but left her some way behind in second. Only Derek Caudwell remained. If he could repeat the same total he’d scored in the heat, 16, then that would be enough. In fact 15 would have done it. That was a tall order, mind you, and it wasn’t long into the second minute that it became clear Derek was going to fall short. In the end he too scored 10 to also finish with 21.  

Very well done Helen. A great performance, and the very best of luck to you in the semi finals.  

 The Details

Alan Keys	The Life of Charles II	10	0	7	0	17	0
Helen O’Connell	The Plant Hunters	11	0	14	0	25	0
Sean Climo	Delta Blues	8	0	11	4	19	4
Lena Gazey	Lillie Langtry	11	1	10	3	21	4
Derek Caudwell	Robert Fitzroy	11	0	10	3	21	3

Mastermind 2019 - Semi Final 5

Another Friday, another semi. Here’s the form guide:-

Janet Farley	REM	11	1	16	0	27	1
Ian Orriss	Karl Gustav Mannerheim	13	0	15	1	28	1
Allan Wright	Links golf courses of the UK and Ireland	13	0	17	2	30	2
Bekah Oliver	The films of Heath Ledger	13	2	11	5	24	7
Jo Skinner	The West Wing	11	3	16	3	27	3

One thing that definitely catches the eye is the scores on GK. 15 or over is a very good GK score for the first round, and so if we took these scores on face value we had every right to expect some quality in this semi final. Bekah Oliver, both on GK total and overall score looked to be very much the underdog. All of the other contenders had looked good in their heats – even Jo Skinner who had been narrowly beaten in her own heat, but reading back my own comments Allan Wright had particularly caught my eye.

Janet Farley kicked off the show, with a round on The Human Body. I reckon that this was a pretty good choice. I scored 8 of these purely based on the bits and pieces I’ve picked up over the years from General Knowledge quizzes, and it was by far my best round of the night. Putting it into perspective, Janet scored 11 in her specialist in the heat, while she scored 10 last night from a round which was 30 seconds shorter. Good performance.

Another contender whose chances I rated was Ian Orriss. Ian reached the semis in Jesse’s series, and was unlucky to be placed in the same semi as the great man himself, to whom he placed second. Ian was answering on the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and for much of the round I thought he would get a perfect score. He got one question wrong late on, but this still allowed him to get a double figure score, which would leave his fate very much in his own hand.

So to the pre-race favourite, Allan Wright. Allan was answering on Leicester City FC, which provided me with a further 4 points. Allan was our third contender in a row who’d obviously prepared his subject well, but just fell a little short of a great round. Allan scored 9, but being just one point behind going into the GK round is a pretty decent position to be in, if you can’t actually be in the lead, that is.

Could Bekah Oliver, our fourth contender, maintain the high standard which the other three contenders had set so far? Well, yes, she could. Answering on Helen Keller she too managed a double figure score, of 10 points. As compared with the previous three contenders, Bekah’s chosen tactic was to pass immediately on those questions to which she didn’t immediately know the answers, and this brought her 3 passes, the first we’d seen in this semi.

Jo Skinner’s specialist subject, the life and works of Frida Kahlo brought back happy memories for me. In my first round heat in the 2007/8 SOBM, one of my fellow contenders, Malcolm, also took the same subject. He did very well too – we both had 14 points, but he had no passes. Well, there was never going to be enough time in a current semi for anyone to get that many points in a semi, but Jo still did very well, 9 put her either joint second or joint last, depending on whether you’re a glass half full or a glass half empty sort of person, but she too was only one point off the lead.

So, well done to all 5 contenders, for learning their second subjects so well, and giving themselves every chance of the win.

First to return to the chair was Allan Wright. Allan had produced an absolutely barnstorming round of 17 on GK in his heat. This time he didn’t produce quite the same level of pyrotechnics. Oh, don’t misunderstand me, hs 10 points was good, and certainly enough to force the following contenders to pass through the corridor of doubt. Yet it didn’t quite look like enough to give him the chance of a win.

Jo Skinner had scored 16 on GK in her own heat, and so was by no means out of thing at this stage as she returned to the chair. As with Allan’s round, she scored 10, a perfectly respectable score which put her into the lead on pass countback. But again, it just didn’t quite look like a winning total. To put it into perspective, every semi so far this year has been won with a score higher than 20.

By the end of her own GK round, poor Janet Farley looked completely shell shocked. Her 16 on GK in the heats had been a fine demonstration of cool, calm quizzing and guessing. It’s easy to lose your head in a GK round if you’re not careful. Well, I’m not saying that this is what happened to Janet last night, but I think that she found the level of difficulty in a semi final GK round put her on the back foot pretty much from the start. By the end of the round she had raised her total to 15.

I thought that Ian Orriss would do it, but a stutter or two in the middle of his round were cause for a little doubt. He steadied himself, though, and powered through to a total of 11. This combined with the extra point he had scored in the SS round gave him a two point lead over Jo and Allan. In retrospect it was a show in which small margins were going to make a difference.

Finally Bekah Oliver. Bekah had scored 11 on GK in her heat. To put her task into perspective, she was going to have to repeat this score, having 30 seconds less in which to do it. Once again she adopted the tactic of passing quickly, but it didn’t really come off. By the end of the round she too had scored 15.

So, well played Ian – best of luck in the final.

The Details

Janet Farley	The Human Body	10	0	5	0	15	0
Ian Orriss	Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II	10	0	11	0	21	0
Allan Wright	Leicester City FC	9	0	10	4	19	4
Bekah Oliver	Helen Keller	10	3	5	7	15	10
Jo Skinner	The Life and Works of Frida Kahlo	9	2	10	1	19	1