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STETHS power past Brown's Town

carlington wilmot - STETHS Schools' Challenge Quiz team (from left): Troy Nephew, Elcando Citeron, Craig Beckford and Dwayne Pennicooke (captain).

ST. ELIZABETH TECHNICAL HIGH School (STETHS) proved quicker than their opponents, St. Ann's Brown's Town Comprehensive High even in the warm-up session before the actual recording of TVJ's School Challenge Quiz competition which continued last night.

However, while STETHS led in the initial segment, both teams made a mad dash toward the final moments of play from the last two segments of the game, STETHS copping a six-point victory (42-36).

From the onset, it was evident that Brown's Town had the upper hand with most of the Spanish, French , English and Bible questions. STETHS were on a roll with the general knowledge, current affairs and science questions.

Knowledge base

Both teams had a good knowledge base, especially of Jamaican proverbs, but what mattered in the buzzer segment was which team would make their signal first.

From the first six-minute segment, STETHS were in the lead with five points 10-5. On many occasions it was the case of having the answer on the tip of their tongues then giving a slightly different answer. For instance, when asked to identify a segment of an animated movie, STETHS answered, "Little Stuart" instead of "Stuart Little." Brown's Town recognised the musical sound of R&B singer Heather Headley, but gave her a new last name, "Heather Watson."

In the three-minute segment, Brown's Town settled down and earned three points in their first minutes, and a whopping nine in the second and later five. But it was not enough to beat STETHS as their scores read 28-22.

In the buzzer segment, the language and religious education questions helped boost Brown's Town's score but STETHS recognised public figures, from actress/talk show host Oprah Winphrey to sport's star, Shaquille O'neil.

Sixth-former, Trudy-Ann Edwards of the Brown's Town team said she had an edge over her opponents as she was presently studying 'A' level Spanish and French.

Their coach, David Peterkin told THE STAR that he always thought that his team could have conquered STETHS in the end. "We were close enough to catch them in the buzzer segment but STETHS outbuzzed us for simple questions that they (Brown's Town) knew," he said.

Work needed

Coach of the winning team, Shirley Myles told THE STAR that she had been quite comfortable during the match. "I never thought for one minute that they were going to lose," she said confidently. "They need to work on their language questions though."

She said it had been difficult to train as Hurricane Ivan devastated their school in September and they had nowhere for the students to have study camp for a few weeks.

She said in the last few months before the competition started they finally got to do serious intensive training.