Fourteen year old Joel Nomdarkham of 8 MacDonald(sic) emerged champion speller of Kingston College after a grueling two and a half hour battle against eight other 7th-9th graders in the final of the inaugural Winston Stewart Spelling Bee Championship held in the library of the Melbourne campus on Wednesday March 12, 2008.
Named in honour of KC headboy of 1973, the final of the Winston Stewart Spelling Bee Competition was the culmination of weeks of preparation by the nine finalists who emerged as the best of the 7th-9th graders after a spelling test was set for all at Melbourne earlier.
The nine finalists that came under the order of spelling Master Rashawn Thompson that Wednesday afternoon were:
Shamar Dacres and Jason Grant of 7 Gibson
Joel Nomdarkham and and Je-Vaughn Wynter of 8 MacDonald;
Romario Lewis of 8 Francis; Akeem Thorpe-8 Decarteret;
Andre Tomlinson of 8 Forrest;
Glen-Ross McDonald of 9 Forrest and
Kristorff Carless a wild card entry from 7 Gibson.
The final, which was slated to start at 1pm, got off at 3:00 pm due to difficulty in securing the trophies. Many of those who gathered in the library were therefore anxious as to whether the contest would be over in time for them to witness the anticipated victory of KC’s Tarik Batchelor in the long jump of the Boys and Girls Athletics Championship scheduled for later that evening at the National Stadium. It seemed that their worst fears would be realized as the nine boys weathered the early rounds of the contest. It was only when competition coordinator Twan Beckford signaled the spelling a master and two other judges to delve into the foreign language dictionary that the contestants started to wilt.
True to form, ninth seeded Kristoff Carless was the first eliminated as he fell to the word ‘rapacious’ the second of his two handicaps. Shamar Dacres next followed to the Greek word ‘narcissism’. Andre Tomlinson could not negotiate the Russian ‘borscat’. The fourth to go was one of the favourites, Glen Ross McDonald. He fell to three of four relatively soft words- the Greek ’hellebore’, the French ‘croissant’ and the Latin ‘sacrilegious’. Je-Vaughn Wynter finally fell to a dolly-- the Greek word ‘sycophant’.
Jason Grant, the youngest of the contestants came in 4th and the audience breathed a sigh of relief when he departed. He prolonged their agony with his experienced query of the `quiz master – ‘may I have the meaning sir?’; ‘is there another?’; ‘may I have the origin sir’; ‘ what part of speech is it sir?. He lost out on three difficult ones--the Latin ’paradigm’; the German’ dachshund’ and the Latin ‘abstemiousness.’
It was next the turn of the top three. The hitherto unblemished Akeem Thorpe was the first eliminated. He lost his nerve and first fell to the easy ‘bagatelle’; next to the Greek word ’porphyry’ and then the French ’couture’; and quite out of character to the Latin word ‘plebeian’ before he made his exit.
Romario Lewis came in second as he faltered with the misspelling of the easiest of words ‘aggrandize’. At this point, Joel Nomdarkham sensed victory and he confidently dispatched the two Greek bearing gift words –‘androgynous’ and hydrophobia’.
The nine finalists(l-r): Akeem Thorpe, Joel Nomdarkham, Glen-Ross McDonald; Jason Grant;
Je-Vaughn Wynter; Romario Lewis; Andre Tomlinson; Shamar Dacres; Kristoff Careless.
True to form, ninth seeded Kristoff Carless was the first eliminated as he fell to the word ‘rapacious’ the second of his two handicaps. Shamar Dacres next followed to the Greek word ‘narcissism’. Andre Tomlinson could not negotiate the Russian ‘borscat’. The fourth to go was one of the favourites, Glen Ross McDonald. He fell to three of four relatively soft words- the Greek ’hellebore’, the French ‘croissant’ and the Latin ‘sacrilegious’. Je-Vaughn Wynter finally fell to a dolly-- the Greek word ‘sycophant’. 
