Mastermind - First Round - Episode 8
With a rare Mastermind double header tonight it was onwards and upwards into the eight contest of the first round to find the Mastermind Champion 2012.
Contenders -
Eric Banks
Nick Reed
Mel Kinsey
Derek Walker
First into the chair was Eric Banks answering on Major Battles of World War Two, a wide and "loose" subject to take one (for instance, what is considered Major?). 13 was a good score from a tricky set!
Nick Reed went down the sports route answering on English Football Grounds and had a very very easy opening range of questions. I have heard many of these in standard pub quizzes before and being a football fan I really found this very very easy for a Mastermind specialist subject. That is no disrespect to Nick Reed who could only answer what was asked, but for as long as I have been watching Mastermind that is by far the easiest set I have seen. Reed scored a great 15 points without being seemingly stretched.
Mel Kinsey had a narrow range of Watergate and the fall of Nixon, a clever choice and a confident start to the round for Kinsey. 12 was scored with good answering throughout, maybe only missing one question he really should have got on the quoting of the President in Nixons final speech. Still Kinsey did more than enough to make himself a contender.
Derek Walker answering on the satirical works of Juvenal....something I have not much knowledge of so it was hard to judge the difficulty of the set. A few passes slowed the pace down slightly with Derek scoring 10. Maybe it was a tricky set and he did look disappointed with himself and it was going to take something special for Derek to win tonight.
Standings -
Nick Reed - 15
Mel Kinsey - 12
Derek Walker - 10
Thus Derek Walker was back in the seat for his GK round and had a mixed round altogether with some solid answering but he had left himself with a lot to do and a score of 11, taking him to 21, meant Derek Walker would not be winning Mastermind tonight but 21 is a solid score and a good specialist subject choice I thought.
Mel Kinsey needed to set the bar high to put pressure on the other contenders and seemed to be doing so but after he cursed himself over a Horse Racing question he seemed to slow down slightly and think more about his answering. He scored 10 points in the end giving him a 7 point lead which was unlikely to be enough. Another classic example of how an answer a contender knew just didn't come out and it effected the whole round.
Eric Banks was next and with only Nick Reed to come, a good score here could really apply the pressure. He got off to a flyer, answering quickly and passing anything he didn't know straight away, points on the board vital at this stage. Reed never really got going for the majority of the round though with hit and miss answers, guesses and 7 passes and scoring 9 points left him with a match of Kinseys 22 points,
Nick Reed knew his football and a lot of Mastermind fans have complained about Sports rounds dominating, so it would be interesting to see his General Knowledge. Nick only needed 8 to win which was a very achievable goal but he looked quite tense and made some errors early on. As soon as a string of answers took him to 21 with plenty of time left it was obvious we had tonight's winner. To his credit Nick had the highest Gk score of the show to match his specialist round win so there can be no complaints about the Sports themed subject. 14 for the final round and a clear winner overall. As long as Nick Reed has another good subject up his sleeve he could prove a contender in the Semi final!
Final Results -
Nick Reed - 29
Mel Kinsey - 22
Derek Walker - 21
Well after the treat of the Mastermind double header its a week's wait for the next edition! Plenty of TV treats between now and then though with an Only Connect v Mastermind special coming up on Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment