Scripps Spelling Bee cancelled for first time since WWII

THERE WILL be no fidgeting at the National Spelling Bee microphone, no banter with pronouncer Jacques Bailly, no pointed questions about definitions or languages of origin, no dreaded bell that signals a misspelled word.

This year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee was cancelled yesterday, the latest beloved public event to be scrapped because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The bee will return next year, Scripps said, but that’s little comfort to the spellers who were down to compete this year, some of them missing out on their last shot. Scripps will not change eligibility requirements for the next bee, which is scheduled for June 1-3, 2021. The bee, which began in 1925 and was last cancelled from 1943-45 because of World War II, has always been restricted to elementary and middle-schoolers.

Scripps had announced last month that the bee would not be held as scheduled the week of May 24 at its long-time venue, a convention centre outside Washington. Hundreds of kids compete every year in the national finals, which are televised by ESPN, and Scripps was aiming this year for a field of around 400.

Jamaica’s Tori-Ann Beckford was also down to compete after the nine-yearold won The Gleaner’s Children’s Own Spelling Bee Competition in February.

Some spellers are not gearing up to compete in an online bee conducted by SpellPundit on the same dates as the vacated Scripps bee. It offers a US$2,500 cash prize to the winner – a pittance compared to the Scripps prize of $50,000 – but it may be the closest this year’s eighth-graders get to a national title.