National Science & Maths Quiz 2005

The Closing Assembly, which started at 9am, just ended.

Prempeh guys are around today to make sure the trophy doesn't go to the mountains of the Eastern Region.

But Owareans are shouting Kinbu, Kinbu, Kinbu to either tease or fraternise Amanfoo.

10:30am: The contestants take a photo together.

The boys mount the stage. So many Owareans here. they sing their anthem. They clap afterwards and sit.

The trophy has been brought to the stage and there is so much noise over here.

The atmosphere here is very charged as the Persco boys are bragging that the trophy will climb the mountains this year. Other folks in the audience are seen betting on this contest. Exciting!

The eliminated schools are the ones betting over their favourite team.

Presec beat GSTS 83-53 to win 3rd place yesterday. It was held yesterday, not today like we announced earlier.

The contest is under way with introduction contestants, starting from Persco.

The sitting position of OWASS is the same as it has been througout all their victories. If that is a good luck spot then the Santasi boys will win the trophy.

There has been a technical hitch here so the quiz is on hold for now.

The Owareans are represented by OPPONG (QUIZ CAPTAIN), JOSEPH and ANTHONY.

The OWASS supporters are really here today. they occupy more than half of the seats in the hall because there is no exam at Legon today. Persco guys occupy the back seat.

Quiz is back, and both schools get their first question right.

Persco explains their second question and gets it; OWASS gets theirs.

Oppong is the man for OWASS; he has answered all their questions for them. So far no school has a question wrong.

OWASS gets a question wrong. Persco gets the bonus -- a biology question.

Exciting matchup so far

End of round 1: St. Peters 25, OWASS 21

OWASS gets 2 out of 3 points; Persco also get 2 out of 3 for an explanation.

Persco gets 1 out of 3 points for their question; OWASS gets theirs wrong. Persco boys are making noise

Schools and their percentages: Prempeh, 5th (46.9%), Xavier 6th (44.8%), Holy Child, 7th (44.2%), Bolga 8th (44.7%), Achimota 9th, Augustine's 10th.

11:15am: End of round 2: St. Peters 45, OWASS 37

Problem of the day is a Maths question.

Quiz mistress Adomako is marking the scripts for the Problem of the Day. We will soon know how many points each team earned.

The Problem of the day for today carries 20 marks, wow!

OWASS use the Problem of the day to catch up. They earned 14 points while Persco earns 10.

OWASS has bridged the gap to only 4 points.

Schools eliminated in Round 1 are NOT eleigible to return next year: K'dua Sec Tech, Bishop Herman, Ghana National, St. Mary's, Keta, Techiman, Sekondi College, Okuapemman, Akwamuman, Kumasi High, Wenchi, St. Francis, Ghanass, Navrongo and Kinbu.

There is confusion here. The OWASS maths tutors are protesting against the score of Persco, while Persco teachers protest against OWASS score. They are pointing fingers at each other. The Mathematics consultant, a lady, has walked onto the stage to settle the dispute.

St. Peters has been awarded an additional 2 points for the Problem of the Day; so they earn 12 instead of 10, bringing the lead back to 6.

11:48am. Start of Round 4. Persco gets question right; OWASS does likewise.

This round was interesting. It ended with OWASS 63, Persco 69

Round 5: OWASS gets their first true or false question wrong. St. Peter's get it right.

This is the last round. The Owareans must use the true or false and the riddles to bridge the gap if they are to win this.

An incident that took place yesterday during the OWASS-PRESEC contest. The OWASS old boys were making so much noise that the quiz mistress was distracted, so she kept asking them repeatedly to stop it but they were still being disruptive. She kept warning them, "I want all Opoku ware to be quiet; stop it now, Opoku ware boys stop it!". And she lost her temper. So people were afraid that she will be vindictive today by favouring St. Peters.

But so far she hasn't shown any sign of favouritism. the woman has been very fair.

Interestingly, Prempeh contestants are sitting right here with us and they answer every question to themselves correctly. That means if they had made it to the final, they would have won. But unfortunately, they got scared midway through the quarter final and lost focus. Kofi Tawiah, the captain of the Prempeh team, said, "I was confused and did not know what to do at the beginning of the round 4. I was surprised that I wasn't getting even simple calculation questions right. I think I may need courage next round because all the schools were supporting our opponents and that confused me."

Which is why Owareans, Presecans and Persco boys were celebrating all day on Thursday when Prempeh lost because that is the team they all feared.

Now to the riddles; tension in the air.

OWASS gets first riddle. 5 points

Peter's get 2nd question. OWASS have to get remaining questions right -- 5 out of 5 and they'll win it.

Persco gets 3rd riddle correct and now leads by 14 points.

The OWASS contestants are crying and their old boys have started leaving.

12:18pm: The OWASS boys are leaving with the Legon boys even before the final riddle. They are insulting the Persco guys. There is a hold up here.

So much jubilation by the Perscobas.

Quiz on hold. Its not over though.

OWASS gets final riddle right, but loses 87-76 (final score).

The noise cannot be controlled here.

The trophy has been presented to the boys from St. Peter's. They proved their superiority over OWASS by leading from round 1 through round 5 and they got only 2 questions wrong. The number of Perscobans here has increased all of a sudden; it appears many more have just joined them.

This means that Peter's is also a repeat winner, having won it in 2005 and 2000. OWASS won it in 1997 and 2002. Prempeh won it in 1994 and 1996 and PRESEC won it in 1993 and 1995. These are the only 4 schools to win it twice on merit. Achimota's first victory was believed by many to have been influenced by some politicians in high places who wanted to see their alma mater's name appear on the winner's list. Last year, they were shamefully handed the trophy again by the Quizmistress, who is a product of that school.

The rule of the competition is that, should a school win it 3 times, all the wins of the other schools are nullified and we start the NMSQ afresh.

This concludes our broadcast. Congrats to St. Peter's, the school with the motto Dignitati Hominum!!!!!

Next year one of these schools get to win the trophy for keeps.

David Avenyo of Peters has been adjudged the best student today. His brother led Peters to defeat Prempeh in 2002 semi-finals and went on to win it that year for the first time.

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