Mastermind 2020/2021 - Heat 7

 

Mastermind 2020/2021

Heat 7

 

After a weeks delay due to the last weeks lockdown/tier announcements , Mastermind returned last night for Heat 7 of the current series. With some experienced and well-known quizzers in the line up, this looked like a tasty heat indeed. Lining up in the black chair were -

 

-        Lawrence Cook

-     Thomas De Bock

-     Sarah Knapper

-     Claire Barrow

 

 

At the end of the specialist round the standings were as follows

 

Claire Barrow	The Gospel of St John	9
Sarah Knapper	Joseph Stalin	9
Lawrence Cook	Joe Calzaghe	8
Thomas De Bock	The Beach Boys	7

 

Nothing in it after the Specialist Subject round as Thomas De Bock strode to the chair. An unlucky start on a question on “HR” sadly set a bit of a tone of the round and an early pass spiral on a string of middling questions left Thomas with a lot to do in the second half. The questions didn’t fall well for Thomas and a score of 8 took Thomas to 15. Humphreys mentioned “the effect of the chair” on the round, and that may indeed have been the case.

On to Lawrence Cook now and a superb, calm and confident General Knowledge round with answers across a wide range of subjects. The scoring started thick and fast and continued throughout the round and  I believe 18 points had been reached before there was even so much as a stutter. A couple of stoppers at that point slowed the scoring down and 5 straight incorrect answers prevented 20 being reached (a rare feat to reach 20 in this series!) but the 11 in the GK round took the score to 19…an imposing target.

 

Sarah Knapper needed double figures on her General Knowledge to stake her claim to a Semi final place. It began to get close with Sarah on target as the round hit the half way stage. Again, answers coming from across the board of subjects and stood on 18 points, Sarah just came in with an incorrect answer just after the buzzer meaning no more questions. Lawrence still held onto the lead….

It was down to Claire Barrow who needed to score at least 10 to make it into the Semi Final. The round followed a similar pattern to Sarah’s with points racking up as the target total approached. With very little wrong, Claire had reached 20, and continuing her impressive spectrum of answers, added a further 3 points taking her total to 23.

This was also the highest scoring GK Heat of the series so far with 42 points being scored.

Putting that into context of the series that is the second highest GK total of the 7 episodes so far and the 2^nd highest overall total (both 2^nd only to Frankie Franko). A solid performance by an obviously very strong quizzer. Certainly must be considered a contender for the overall crown this year!

Contestant	Specialist Subject	SS	GK	Total
Claire Barrow	The Gospel of St John	9	14	23
Lawrence Cook	Joe Calzaghe	8	11	19
Sarah Knapper	Joseph Stalin	9	9	18
Thomas De Bock	The Beach Boys	7	8	15

 

And the current Mastermind season leader board now looks like this…

Contestant	Total
Frankie Franko	27 (w)
Claire Barrow	23 (w)
Tom Lee	21 (w)
Emma Haley	21
Sally Wilson	21
Jackie Hunter	20 (w)
Steve Goddard	20 (w)
Jane McDonnell	20
Jacqueline Jones	19 (w)
Colin Wilson	19
Lawrence Cook	19
Poppy Mckenzie Smith	19
Andrew Fortyish	18
Ikenna Oguguo	18
Jamie Hall	18
Sarah Knapper	18
Edana Guest	17 (w)
Adrian Segens	17
Bryony Ashcroft	17
Alex Hardwick	16
Annabelle Dunwoody	16
Dani Cugini	16
Jeremy Sullivan	16
Kitty Grant	16
Jonathan Sargant	15
Thomad De Bock	15
Cecil Morgan	14
Peter Almond	14

 *the (w) indicates that score won the heat

  Other Mastermind season records this far –

·                  Highest GK Total – Frankie Franko – 15

·                  Highest SS Total – Frankie Franko – 12

·                  Highest Scoring Heat – Heat 1 – (Tom Lee, Sally Wilson, Emma Haley, Adrian Segens) – 80

·                  Highest scoring combined GK heat – Heat 7 - 42 points - (Claire Barrow, Lawrence Cook, Sarah Knapper, Thomas De Bock)