Goldfields School was just a sandwich short of a perfect score when it won the year 5 and 6 Central Otago Extra! Spelling quiz in Cromwell last night.
The Cromwell school team, made up of Luke Hurdle, Marikit Stroud and Courtney Vowles scored 98 points out of a possible 100 to be the top out of 30 teams in the 10-round competition.
The event, which is run by the Otago Daily Times through its Newspapers in Education publication Extra!, attracted entries from all over Central Otago and Queenstown.
"I don't think we've had a team get so close to a perfect score before," quiz co-ordinator and Extra! editor Ivan Behrnes said.
The Goldfields team knew exactly where they had slipped up.
"It was the word sandwich," Luke said.
He was also in the winning Goldfields team last year and was sure the correct spelling of sandwich would stick in his mind from now on.
Cromwell 3 was second on 93 points and Queenstown 1 third (91 points).
Roxburgh Area School won the year 7 and 8 section for the first time.
The winning team was made up of Romy Wales and Briana Forbes and Sophie Duncan, who had extra cause for celebration as it was her birthday.
Briana said although Roxburgh had finished in second place several times, it was the first time they had won.
They competed against 32 other teams and finished with 90 points, two ahead of The Terrace 7 team, which was second.
Cromwell College 1 was third on 87 points.
Pupils were tested on their spelling, vocabulary, proof-reading, word endings and alphabetical order.
In one round, they were also tested on the country of origin of words - Roxburgh proving they knew their samosas from their smorgasbord.
A teacher at The Terrace School in Alexandra, Ann Conder, said the quiz was a popular event and her pupils were always enthusiastic about taking part.
The Central Otago quiz is the first of four Extra! spelling quizzes, with contests in Timaru, Canterbury and Dunedin over the next month.
The Extra! current events quiz will be run in the same four centres during September.