Ashburton College pupils have proven it pays to do your homework.
The school’s spelling elite beat others from throughout the central South Island to win the year 9 and 10 Otago Daily Times Extra! Spelling Quiz, held at the Timaru Boys’ High School hall yesterday afternoon.
The winning team, made up of Brendan Fleming, Penny Stilgoe and Harry McMillan earned 94 points out of a possible 100 in the quiz.
They were followed by Timaru Boys’ High School 1 on 91 points and Opihi College 2 on 88.
The Ashburton College team is not unfamiliar with spelling quiz wins — it was the second time both Brendan and Harry had won an Extra! Spelling Quiz.
The trio said they were "very happy" with the win.
"I was quietly confident," Harry said.
"We had hoped to do well," Penny said.
"We thought when we were doing quite well about halfway through that we had to keep that up," she said.
The three had enjoyed the challenging words presented in the quiz, although "vigilante" had tripped them up.
They were looking forward to returning to Ashburton to share the good news.
Quiz co-ordinator and Extra! editor Ivan Behrnes said the afternoon’s competition had been a good one.
"It’s great to see kids who have done well in the past do well again."
Quiz competitors took part in 10 rounds including matching words to their country of origin, spelling words, abbreviations and matching words with their meanings.
Words to spell included judicial, traverse, delicacy and guarantee.
Eight schools were represented in the quiz, with 21 teams taking part.
Place-getters and their schools received plaques, pens and book vouchers. There was also a special round for supporters. The year 5-6 and year 7-8 sections of the quiz were held on Wednesday evening.
The event is run by the ODT through its Newspapers in Education publication Extra!.
- Rachel Comer
