On the evening of Monday 10th March, Leventhorpe entered the annual Interschool Quiz, run by the Bishop’s Stortford Rotary Club.
It was held in Bishop’s Stortford College - as it is every year. Six schools gathered, making 8 teams in total. Leventhorpe’s team was selected through a rigorous testing process throughout the weeks leading up to the big event; it consisted of 4 rounds of quizzes - 3 multiple choice and one written test, all run by Dr Stanley. The final round was definitely the hardest for all of us!
After this process, the 2025 quiz team was assembled, consisting of two Year 13 students - Eleanor Smith (Team Captain) and Ben Barrett - and two Year 11 students - Emily Upton and James Green. After a brief practice at lunchtime, we were ready.
On the evening of the event, we made our way to the college and prepared ourselves, holding back nerves and excitement. The quiz was run like University Challenge, the BBC’s ultimate quiz show. The 8 teams were paired off for a 1 v 1 showdown. Each correct answer given granted them 10 points, and a bonus of 10 extra points if they got 4 in a row.
The first to face off were Hockerill AEC against Birchwood, and then a Bishop’s Stortford College (BSC) team going against a team from TBSHS. Birchwood and BSC both managed to take victory quite comfortably over their opponents. Then, it was our turn. We were facing off against a team from the reigning champions BSC. It's safe to say we were nervous.
We were off to an amazing start, thanks to a speedy buzz-in from Emily with her knowledge of the wives of Henry VIII. We proceeded to get the following 3 questions on 2020's pop albums correct, putting us 50 points in the lead. The rest of the match flip-flopped between the teams, keeping the score relatively even all the way to the wire. It required an awesome display of London Underground knowledge from Emily and some quick buzzing from James to keep us in the game.
Then the timer went off and we were tied on 170 points. The final question was read - “Which book of the bible is composed of songs?” - and our hearts were beating out of our chests. BSC beat us to the buzzer, but gave the wrong answer - we still had a chance. A last-second buzz-in from Ben with the answer of 'Psalms' ended the round, and we waited, hoping it was right. It was! We had done it!
But it wasn’t over, and we now had the semi-final to do. We watched the 4th match - St Mary’s vs. TBSHS, with a clear victory from TBSHS - and the first semi-final - BSC vs. Birchwood, with a narrow win from BSC. Then it was our turn again.
We retook our positions at the buzzer and the quiz began. With a strong starting performance from TBSHS, we had a fight ahead of us. However, due to an excellent knowledge of classic book character quartets from Eleanor, we were back to even. We were just about holding on, with a few lucky guesses about dinosaurs and classical music. James showed an impressive knowledge of geography and a strong all-round knowledge, keeping our score ticking throughout the game. After a long and stressful round, we unfortunately lost to TBSHS, coming joint 3rd with Birchwood overall.
BSC went on to defend their title, making them the 13th team to win from BSC. However, it was a momentous day for Leventhorpe quiz history too. This team was the first ever Leventhorpe team to progress past the first round in the 23 years that this quiz has been running.
Overall, it was an amazing evening and Leventhorpe showed a great deal of determination, reliance and teamwork. Hopefully, we can continue the upward trajectory over the coming years and who knows, we might even win one day!
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