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Manchester defeat Glenmuir to reach final

Members of Manchester High's winning team. - Ricardo Makyn

MANCHESTER HIGH SCHOOL became the first finalist of the 35th season of TVJ's Schools' Challenge Quiz Competition when they beat top seeds Glenmuir High 35-26 in a match aired last night.

Manchester High was also in last year's final losing to Munro College. Munro lost to Wolmer's Boys in the first round of this year's competition.

Manchester's campaign began with a 57-11 drubbing of Knockalva High. They next beat St. Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) 36-18 and then dispatched Manning's School 31-14, and Wolmer's High School for Girls' 25-17.

Glenmuir also had stellar performances throughout the season. They beat Belair School 52-28; Morant Bay 35-15; Old Harbour High 23-17, and Hampton High 47-21. But despite Glenmuir's strength they just did not seem to be able to muster much fight against Manchester.

The first sign of an upset came in the first round where questions are posed alternately to each team. Manchester had the better performance of the two closing the round on 11 points to Glenmuir's eight.

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

Points deducted

At the end of the first minute, Manchester had 15 points to Glemuir's 12. When the second minute ended, the scores read 21-18 in favour of Manchester. Going in to the third round the scores were Manchester 27, Glenmuir 21.

In that third round, questions are posed with teams getting the chance to answer by pressing a buzzer. Two points are awarded for each correct answer and two points deducted for incorrect answers.

Glenmuir tried their best to get back into the game, by answering more questions than Manchester. However, it still was not enough as Manchester did only what was neccesary to keep them at bay.

When the final bell rang, the Manchester team and their supporters celebrated their victory, while a shell-shocked Glenmuir looked on.

At the end of the match, Manchester's captain, Leighton Morrison, told THE STAR that he was very pleased with the outcome.

Asked which team he would rather face in the finals ­Kingston College or Calabar­Morrison smiled and said, "Either one will be just fine."

Glenmuir's captain, Oral Young, was reluctant to comment on his team's defeat. When THE STAR asked what he believed was his team's downfall, the only answer he managed was "Let me think about that."

Morrison, however, was quite willing to help him find that answer to the question. "Glenmuir's downfall was overconfidence," he said.

Teams

Glenmuir: Oral Young, Christopher McKay, Errol Thomas and Romain Mario Simpson.

Manchester: Leighton Morrison, Danielle Chai, Raphael Adjodia and MarvinCole.