OK, so, the Quizzy Mondays season
officially ended tonight, with the Mastermind final. The first of the Clive
Myrie era. As I’ve said before, he’s been an excellent choice as the new host
of the show, so hopefully his first final would be a good one. As usual for the
final, the specialist rounds were preceded by a film where the contender talked
a bit about their subject.
UC runner-up captain Ian Wang was
the first finalist contender, answering on the film and TV work of Steve
McQueen, and hoping to become the second successive Mastermind champ to be the
youngest ever; he proceeded to give a fine round and score an impressive 13
points. He was followed into the chair by Alice Walker, answering on the Peak
District National Park; her round was similarly strong, and she went one better
to finish it with 14 points.
Eleanor Ayres was third into the
chair, with Million Pound answer Eleanor of Aquitaine as her subject (as
referenced with an appearance of Judith Keppel in her film!); her round was
also good, but a bit off the pace with 11 points (and a pass). Anthony Fish followed,
answering on Open All Hours, and his round was almost identical, a few errors,
11 points and one pass.
Next up was Patrick Buckingham,
who was answering on Carole Lombard; he sadly fell further off the pace, starting
well, but then tailing off a bit and ending on 10 points and one pass, but his
excellent GK showings in previous shows meant he wasn’t totally out of it. Finally,
Sarah Trevarthen was answering on Dame Barbara Hepworth, and she would match Ian’s
score of 13 with no passes.
So, at the halfway stage, Patrick
trailed on 10, Eleanor and Anthony just ahead on 11, Ian and Sarah both had 13
and Alice just led on 14. Close scores and, depending on how the GK rounds
went, no-one was totally out of the running.
As Patrick demonstrated as he returned
for his round, and, despite a few mistakes, he gave a fantastic performance of
17 with no passes to take his score to 27, which firmly set a strong benchmark
for the others to match.
He was followed by Eleanor, who
started well, but then fell into a run of wrong answers which threw her a bit
and she never quite recovered from; nonetheless, she matched her GK score to finish
on a decent 22. Anthony returned next, and he fared better, but a few errors
meant he only (I say only) managed 15 to agonisingly fall one short on 26,
still a great score.
Next up was Ian; he started well,
before a run of wrong answers threw him off the pace and Patrick’s score was
soon beyond him, but 12 for a final score of 25 was still fine work. He was
followed by Sarah, who maintained a steady pace throughout her round, in spite
of a few errors, and, on the very final question, she scored 14 and matched
Patrick’s score of 27; however, her lack of passes meant she was now in the
lead.
Which left Alice needing 28 points
to win outright, and 27 with no passes to force a tie-breaker. She never looked
like being troubled however, and took the lead with time to spare. She topped
this by producing the best round of the show, 19, which took her final score to
a fantastic 33!
So, Eleanor finished sixth 22, Ian
fifth with 25, Anthony fourth with 26, Patrick and Sarah third and second on 27,
and Alice was the comfortable winner with the highest score of the whole
series. Many congratulations to her, a most deserving winner! And to all the
other finalists as well on a superb showing; any one of their scores could be a
winning score in a normal game.
So, Mastermind is over for another
series. As I said before, Clive Myrie has been an inspired appointment, and his
arrival hasn’t robbed the show of the newfound momentum it’s gathered since it
went back to basics following the move to Belfast a couple of series ago.
Thanks to him, and to all who took part on an enjoyable series, and to all
involved in making the series!
I myself have been considering
applying for Mastermind for some years now, but events in my personal life have
always gotten in the way. However, having been playing along with GK rounds
when I can this series, I think I will now give it a go, not in the next series,
but maybe the series after…
Anyway, that concludes my main blogging
for this season. Thanks again to all involved in the three shows, and to
everyone for reading and continuing to support this blog over the past few months.
However, unlike the last few
years, I won’t be putting the blog into hibernation yet. Instead, I have
something special planned to mark this blog’s tenth anniversary next month. All
will be revealed in due course…
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