Talk about a nail-biting finish.
After the final round of questions in the Otago Daily Times Extra! Otago regional spelling quiz at Tahuna Intermediate in Dunedin yesterday, two years 5 and 6 teams were tied for first place.
Both Fairfield School 4 and George Street Normal School 2 finished on 99 points out of a possible 100, and during the ensuing spell-off to find an overall winner, anxiety levels in the room soared.
In the end, the word ''occurred'' broke the tie and Fairfield pupils Lachie Couper, Charlie Baldi and Josh Gray were named the winners.
''It was a really exciting finish,'' Charlie said.
''We were worried the other team was going to beat us.
''I put one 'r' and then Lachie quickly corrected me.
''It was lucky he checked, or we would have got it wrong.''
He said the team had been training hard together for the competition, and part of their success was due to triple-checking the words to make sure they were spelt correctly before handing them in.
The George Street Normal School team had to settle for second place, and Macandrew Bay School 1 and George Street Normal School 3 were third equal.
There were 61 teams in the competition.
A couple of hours later, 66 teams battled each other in the years 7 and 8 competition. They were tested on spelling, word origins, abbreviations and dictionary research ability.
Balmacewen Intermediate 1 team members Ella Richardson, Charli Osborne and Elizabeth Olusina won the competition with a perfect score of 100.
The team was overwhelmed because it was the first time a team from the school had won the competition.
John McGlashan College 3 was second, and Taieri College 2 and Kaikorai Valley College 1 were third equal.
Extra! editor and quiz organiser Ivan Behrnes said there had been some excellent scores over the years, but a perfect score was very rare.
He said it signalled how competent the pupils were becoming.
''Any team that scores in the 90s is excellent. Generally, we're getting more and more teams finishing in the 90s.
''The top teams are consistently getting up around 96 to 100.''
-The Otago Daily Times Extra! spelling quizzes are part of the newspaper's Class Act project, which celebrates the excellence of young people. Extra! is a monthly educational publication produced by the newspaper for senior primary, intermediate and junior secondary school pupils.
