Spelling bee almost runs out of words

Twenty-one of New Zealand’s top spellers battled it out in the longest ever New Zealand Spelling Bee grand final in Wellington on Saturday.

In the end Lucy Jessep from St Margaret’s College in Christchurch held her nerve to clinch victory from Marlborough Boys’ College pupil George Turner, by spelling the word ‘‘pusillanimous’’ correctly.

As well as picking up the spelling bee trophy, Jessep receives $5000 towards pursuits.

‘‘When I heard pusillanimous, I realised I did know that word but was not sure I would get it,’’ Jessep said afterwards.

She was a big fan of words and thanked her teacher for entering her into the competition and thanked her friends for helping her revise the list of 200 words.

‘‘It hasn’t really sunk in, it’s quite a shock. I was not expecting to win this. It’s pretty exciting,’’ she said.

Judge Rachel Kitteridge said the three-hour battle of words was

her academic the longest the competition had ever gone.

‘‘We almost ran out of words.’’ The tiebreaker ‘‘pusillanimous’’ means showing a lack of courage or determination.

Founder Janet Lucas said the judges all agreed it was the toughest and longest competition with an incredible group of pupils.

It was nailbiting when it got down to the final two, she said.

‘‘The standards increase every year, and we find the spellers are now coming with a real focus and a competitive drive - they want to do well and they want to win.’’

There was complete silence in Te Papa conference room as the year 9 and 10 students took to the Wellington stage to compete in the grand final.

Only the laughter after anecdotes used to define words broke the the tense atmosphere.

The finalists had already beaten

200 other hopefuls from more than

100 secondary schools and colleges throughout the country.

The competition, which is in its

13th year, started with a written classroom test, followed by six regional semifinals held around New Zealand.