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Manchester High sends Wolmer's Girls packing

The members of the Manchester High team - Ricardo Makyn

THIRD SEEDED SCHOOLS' Challenge Quiz team, Manchester High dashed the hopes of Wolmer's High School for Girls' when they sent them home in their quarter-final encounter, which was broadcast last night on TVJ.

It was the first time in almost 15 years that Wolmer's Girls' team had advanced so far in the competition.

For their efforts, Manchester High earned the second semi-finalist spot and will go on to play top seeded Glenmuir High.

At the beginning of the game, both teams seemed equally matched. In the first section where questions are posed alternately to each team, they both performed evenly.

However, as is often the case in these matches, both teams missed questions to which they should have known the answers.

For Wolmer's Girls' their question was an audiovisual one, which required them to identify former People's National Party (PNP) Region Three Chairman, Paul Burke. They identified him as Minister of Water and Housing, Donald Buchanan.

Meanwhile, Manchester High's question was "Ida James is the name of the mother of which Jamaican Prime Minister?" Manchester High responded, "Donald Sangster", the correct response is the Right Honourable P.J. Patterson.

The section ended with Manchester High on eight points, and Wolmer's Girls' on six points.

In the second section, where teams are given alternate one-minute time periods within which to answer as many questions as possible, Manchester High extended their lead.

At the end of their first minute, Manchester High had 15 points to Wolmer's Girls' nine. When the second minute closed, Manchester High had 20 points; Wolmer's Girls' ­ 12. At the end of the segment the scores were Manchester High ­ 25, Wolmer's Girls' ­ 13.

Fight back

However, Wolmer's Girls' were not willing to give up and from the start of the final section, they started a fight back. In that section, questions are posed and teams get the opportunity to respond by pressing a buzzer. Two points are awarded for each correct answer and two points subtracted for each incorrect answer.

Wolmer's Girls earned the first four points of the round by answering the first two questions correctly. However, they set themselves back by answering the next two questions wrong.

For their part, Manchester High was not about to allow them to get by, and soon started their own run at answering questions. But they too fell into some problems as they started getting the answers to the questions wrong.

By the end of the match, Wolmer's Girls' answered 10 questions, six of them correctly. For their part, Manchester High answered six questions, three of them correctly.

Manchester High did just enough to lock out Wolmer's Girls' and won the match with 25 points to Wolmer's Girls' 17.

After the match, captain of the Manchester High team, Leighton Morrison, said that he was saddened that his team had to beat Wolmer's Girls'. "They were a team we liked and had a good relationship with, but that's the way it goes I guess."

The other members of the Manchester team were Raphael Adjodia, Danielle Chai and Marvin Cole.

For their part, Wolmer's Girls' thought they performed well. Speaking on behalf of the team, Wolmer's Girls' captain Cadian Drummond said: "We thank God for carrying us this far, but it was a good match and I was really impressed with the way we played, especially in the buzzer section; we did not give up."

Deidre McLeod, Kedesha Wray and Gail Lewis completed the Wolmer's Girls' team.