KC racks up 9th win in TVJ School's challenge Quiz

KC won the TVJ 40th Anniversary of the TVJ School's Challenge Quiz Competition on March 31, 2009.  KC beat Ardenne 42 to 14.  The score at the start of the buzzer section was 28 to 20 in favour of the College.  KC then moved up a bit, while Ardenne became entirely flustered. 

In the end, KC may have benefitted from having two hard matches, against Calabar and Wolmer's, in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, winning each one 32 to 24.  Ardenne had a relatively smooth run to the finals, beating Titchfield 50+ to 30+ in their semi-final match.  The draw for the competition had placed defending champions St. Jago in Ardenne's half, but St. Jago withdrew after their first match because they were discovered to have used a team member who was too old for the competition. 

KC also benefitted from careful management by the two main coaches, Valmore Stewart and Christopher Hare, who have given full-time attention to the task at hand, and to strong support from the young Old Boys, many of whom have the old time spirit.  The team was very serious this year, the same four boys -- Kenneth Peart Jr. (the captain), Oral Lawson, Roland Douglas and Alain N'Dalla -- having been beaten in the semi-finals by Glenmuir the year before.  The team members have had a long season, and in the second round of the competition they scored what I believe is the second highest score in the history of the competition, with 72 points.  The team also prevailed in the vast majority of its practice matches, and indeed only the young Old Boys team at its best consistently gave them a run for their money. 

The captain, Peart, is mature beyond his years, and has been very impressive.  I remember one day in particular: the day of Mr. Bruce's funeral.  Apparently, the captain had called Valmore Stewart and asked him to go through some quiz questions with him.  I saw them at the start of the funeral.  Some time later, perhaps about three hours, they were still upstairs in the Physics Lab hard at work, coach and captain alone.  I left them there, but not before saying in a headmasterly kind of way, that I thought that this was how Schools' Challenge Quiz was won.  They just smiled.

Captain Peart is in the Upper Sixth.  Oral Lawson is in the Lower Sixth, while Alain N'Dalla and Roland Douglas are in the Fifth Form.  They have all been diligent and perceptive in their work on the quiz, and with some luck, could be laying the foundation for a golden streak by KC. 

The final match was played at TVJ, with some people in the studio, and masses of people in a large courtyard with a "drive-in cinema" screen outside the studio.  KC supporters in the courtyard were cheering "A we a win Quamps!  A we a win Quamps!", with Quamps being the nonce word for Quiz and Champs.  

KC also won a trophy for the team with the most points in the competition (they used to call it the Dennis Hall trophy, but I am not sure whether they did so this year), and a new trophy for the team which has won the competition the most times.  The latter, I presume, is a trophy linked to the 40th anniversary of the competition; for otherwise, KC would win this for at least the next three years without doing anything. 

KC has now won the competition 9 times, and has been in the finals 16 times in all.  The success this year, as in previous years, is the result of the KC enterprise working as a coherent whole, with the Principal and staff, the coaches, the students, the Old Boys in Jamaica and overseas, parents, members of the PTA, and well-wishers moving the team on to victory: some have made generous financial contributions towards retreats and day-to-day training, some have prepared questions, and others have guided the team members in ways too numerous to mention.  Our hearts should be filled with joy.  This is the empire that Frances Coke has built: si monumentum requiris circumspice.