Mastermind 2012/2013 - Heat 2

This week has flown by and already it was time for the new series of Mastermind to continue. With some interesting special subjects tonight, I was very much looking forward to the episode as usual.

The contenders on tonight's Mastermind were...

Sian West
Mathhew Clarke
Nathan Scott
Andrew Granath

Sian was first in the chair with Billie Holiday as her specialist subject. I already knew a little about her but doing some reading this afternoon I was intrigued at the sort of life Holiday had! Sian sat with a smile on her face throughout the round, clearly happy to be in the Mastermind chair, and she gave a string of confident answers to set the bar at 12.

Matthew Clarke had one of the oddest rounds I have seen in a while. He managed 9 points on the subject of Eddie Mercx but could and should have had more. He failed on the "gimmie" questions they always throw into the round but managed the tough ones that are intended to separate the contestants. Matthew did well though to post a score that kept him in contention but those missed gimmies were always going to prove costly.

Next up, Nathan Scott on Wittingenstien and a tough sounding set here with Nathan managing 7 points. It is always going to be hard to win a heat with a score in this region and to be fair Nathan certainly had "longer questions" than the others meaning he had less chance to score.

Andrew Granath was last and took the subject of Gladstone well scoring 13 to give him the lead after round 1. A good set of questions here too and with Gladstone being a strong are of my own I felt Andrew did well with a set that did not include many "easy" points!

So after round one of Mastermind Heat 2 -

Andrew Granath - 13
Sian West - 12
Mathhew Clarke - 9
Nathan Scott - 7

Into the heart of the show, General Knowledge. Nathan kicked us off with an uphill struggle to make it into the next round. Throughout the round I had the feeling that Nathan knew the answers but just could not bring them to the fore of his mind. Recall is often hampered by pressure and Mastermind is a lot of pressure and Nathan seemed at a loss. There were no wild guesses which backs up the fact that with a pen and paper in a relaxed room he would have probably done far better. Scoring 11 and bringing his total to 18 was surely not enough. This was actually the second best GK round of the night only bettered by the winner.

And indeed 18 was the same score achieved by Matthew Clarke who matched his 9 from the first round. A tougher set here I thought and again he followed the same pattern as the first round, missing some gimmies and getting tougher questions. Maybe it was the pressure of the Mastermind chair but a score of 18 is something to be proud of on Mastermind.

It was now down to a two way battle and Sian West was up again. A smile on her face throughout which you rarely see on Mastermind and a storming 14 got her total to 26. This would be tough to match! Sian was one or two letters off getting other answers as well so she really could go much further now she has the experience of the chair. A fantastic spurt of answers towards the end could prove.

Andrew needed 14 to in and made a good start but again, as so many Mastermind contestants do, he fell into a pass cycle and ended up leaving himself with a tough last minute. Showing impressive knowledge throughout but scoring 11 on the round was not enough as his total of 24 meant Sian had won it

Mastermind Heat 2 Final Standings

Sian West - 26
Andrew Granath - 24
Mathhew Clarke - 18
Nathan Scott - 18

So congratulations to Sian who will provide anyone with a stiff test in the next round and as for runner up Andrew, without meaning any disrespect this was a rather low scoring game so getting into the next round with 24 looks like a tall order.

Another enjoyable week on the road to finding the next Mastermind!



Rankings for the series based on the two episodes

Qualified
Gregory Spiller - 32
Sian West - 26


Runners up
Chris Cann - 29
Nathan Joss - 26
Rosalind Winter - 24
Andrew Granath - 24
Mathhew Clarke - 18
Nathan Scott - 18


The table already shows signs of the the importance of being in the right heat. Both Chris Cann and Nathan Joss would have made the next round had they been on display tonight!