Mastermind 2020/2021 - Heats 8 and 9

 

 

Mastermind 2020/2021

Heat 8 and 9

 

Due to a busy few weeks, I feel a little bit behind on the Mastermind front so just a quick recap this week of the past two heats in the first round. Some excellent quizzers on display in each heat, and the competition is really hotting up now. The good news for fans of Mastermind is that the series is planned to air as normal during the Xmas period with episodes sticking to 7.30pm on Mondays! On with the heats.

 

 

Heat 8

 

Heat 8 aired last week and taking to the chair were…

 

-     Nick Roberts

-     Harry Shaw

-     Stephen Bell

-     Claire Murphy

 

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

 

Nick Roberts	Freshwater Fish of GB	10
Claire Murphy	Lin Manuel Miranda	9
Harry Shaw	Nick Cave	7
Stephen Bell	History of UK Scouting	5

A rare double figures on a SS in this series of the show placed Nick Roberts in a commanding position going into the GK. Stephen Bell took to the seat first and matched his 5 from the first round. The shake of the head as he went back to the seat suggested the set was a tricky one. Harry needed a large double figure score to put pressure on his rivals. He scored throughout the round on a range of subjects, netting 9 points. Perhaps not quite enough but a solid performance nonetheless.

Claire Murphy was next and took no time to settle into her stride and flew through the set firing off answers rapidly to rack up her total. Indeed, her score of 21 was impressive, and as I keep saying anything north of 20 is rare this series. In fact only 3 people had scored higher than her in the 8 heats so far at this point. Could Nick Roberts change that? A horrible Stoptober questions kicked off the set (I would certainly have said drinking too!) and modern popular music followed to give a stuttering start. The scoring came throughout the round but a few pauses and a set I am Nick would agree probably didn’t allow him to showcase his General Knowledge meant he couldn’t match Claire’s total.

Congratulations to Claire Murphy on what turned out to be a commanding win! Another contender to keep an eye on for the next round!

Contestant	Specialist Subject	SS	GK	Total
Claire Murphy	Lin Manuel Miranda	9	12	21
Nick Roberts	Freshwater Fish of GB	10	8	18
Harry Shaw	Nick Cave	7	9`	16
Stephen Bell	History of UK Scouting	5	5	10

 

Heat 9

Onto the heat aired last night (14^th December) and I have some vested  interest here….Lining up were….

-     Wanda Shaw

-     Kieran Edge

-     Sallie Phillips

-    Ashton Davies

 

I have quizzed many times both online and offline with Ashton Davies who is a terrific quizzer in any format you put him in! So naturally, I was rooting for him here and knew it would take one of the other contenders to produce something special to defeat him….

 

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

 

Ashton Davies	Nick Drake	11
Wanda Shaw	John Singer Sergent	11
Sallie Phillips	Jane Austen Novels	9
Kieran Edge	The Sopranos	7

Ashton Davies showed his class with a solid 11, which was matched by Wanda. Both of these were, at this stage the second highest SS scores of the series, only one behind Frankie Frankos 12 in the very first episode. 

Onto the GK then and Kieran Edge was first to take the chair moving his score up to 12 on what I thought was a tricky set.  Sallie Phillips hit double figures on her General Knowledge and took her score to 20, a score that would have won 3 heats so far this series. But was it enough? Wanda added 9 to her total bringing her total to 20. An even rarer feat to have two 20 plus score in a heat.

Ashton Davies next and barely a foot was put wrong in the opening half as he approached the figure of 20 quickly and then kept adding an adding. A true masterclass in how to play the GK round in Mastermind. A confident, impressive display…the joint highest GK score of the series so far and the second highest total. Another contender for the crown emerges!

A high quality heat all round and congratulations to Ashton! Best of Luck for the next round.

 

 

Contestant	Specialist Subject	SS	GK	Total
Ashton Davies	Nick Drake	11	15	26
Wanda Shaw	John Singer Sergent	11	9	20
Sallie Phillips	Jane Austen Novels	10	10	20
Kieran Edge	The Sopranos	7	5	12

 

 

 

 

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

Contestant	Total
Frankie Franko	27 (w)
Ashton Davies	26 (w)
Claire Barrow	23 (w)
Tom Lee	21 (w)
Claire Murphy	21 (w)
Emma Haley	21
Sally Wilson	21
Jackie Hunter	20 (w)
Steve Goddard	20 (w)
Jane McDonnell	20
Sallie Phillips	20
Wanda Shaw	20
Jacqueline Jones	19 (w)
Colin Wilson	19
Lawrence Cook	19
Poppy Mckenzie Smith	19
Andrew Fortyish	18
Ikenna Oguguo	18
Jamie Hall	18
Nick Roberts	18
Sarah Knapper	18
Edana Guest	17 (w)
Adrian Segens	17
Bryony Ashcroft	17
Alex Hardwick	16
Annabelle Dunwoody	16
Dani Cugini	16
Harry Score	16
Jeremy Sullivan	16
Kitty Grant	16
Jonathan Sargant	15
Thomad De Bock	15
Cecil Morgan	14
Peter Almond	14
Kieran Edge	12
Stephen Bell	10

 *the (w) indicates that score won the heat

  Other Mastermind season records this far –

·                  Highest GK Total – Frankie Franko – 15 and Ashton Davies - 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, Thomas De Bock, Sarah Knapper)