Chips down for 'ODT' Extra! quiz contestants

Participants in the Otago Daily Times Extra! current events quiz for years 9 and 10 answer...
Participants in the Otago Daily Times Extra! current events quiz for years 9 and 10 answer questions and take their responses to the judges. Photos by Leith Huffadine.
Cromwell College pupils (from left) Courtney Anderson (15), Tessa Jackson and Kate Pendreigh ...
Cromwell College pupils (from left) Courtney Anderson (15), Tessa Jackson and Kate Pendreigh (both 14) wait to find out their answers.
Dunstan High School pupils (from left) Royden Thomas (15), Mitchell Wheeler and Hazel Olsen (both...
Dunstan High School pupils (from left) Royden Thomas (15), Mitchell Wheeler and Hazel Olsen (both 14) ponder a question.
Cromwell College team five (from left) Mason Robinson, Bailey Scott and Keegan McCusker  finished...
Cromwell College team five (from left) Mason Robinson, Bailey Scott and Keegan McCusker finished runner-up.
Dunstan High School team three (from left) James Sutherland, Magnus Smith and Kia Wales  finished...
Dunstan High School team three (from left) James Sutherland, Magnus Smith and Kia Wales finished third.
Dunstan High School team seven (from left) Amy Fang, Hannah Heyward  and Ben Mullally  emerged No 1.
Dunstan High School team seven (from left) Amy Fang, Hannah Heyward and Ben Mullally emerged No 1.

Potato chips and lollies were the brain food of choice at the Otago Daily Times Extra! current events quiz in Cromwell last night.

Packets of the starch and sugar-laden snacks littered desks in the Cromwell College auditorium as teams of pupils from every secondary school in Central Otago participated in the quiz.

Extra! editor Ivan Behrnes said 34 teams of three had entered the event for year 9 and 10 pupils yesterday.

Mr Behrnes said the winning team, from Dunstan High School, had one of the highest scores for the competition in the region, finishing on 97 points out of a possible 100.

Competing teams were required to identify flags, interpret comic strips, guess objects and people from recent news, and answer general current affairs questions from memory and by searching through copies of the Otago Daily Times.

Dunstan High School team seven, comprised of year 9 pupils Amy Fang (13), Hannah Heyward (14) and Ben Mullally (13) placed first, with Hannah being in a winning team for the second time, following a victory as a part of a year 7 to 8 team in 2012.

In second place was Cromwell College team five with 92 points, made up of Mason Robinson, Bailey Scott, and Keegan McCusker (all 14).

James Sutherland (14), Magnus Smith (15) and Kia Wales (15) comprised Dunstan High School team three, which placed third with a score of 89.

Ben Mullally, from the winning team, said the team did not do any specific preparation for the quiz.

''Every week in social studies we had a quiz that we did - that's how they picked the teams.''

Team-mate Hannah Heyward said the comic questions were the hardest faced by the team, as the answers depended on what each person thought.

More than 3000 pupils take part in the annual Otago Daily Times Extra! spelling and current event quizzes.

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