SCQ: Defending champs Titchfield into final four

Defending champions Titchfield High School is into the semi-finals of TVJ's Schools' Challenge Quiz, after defeating Wolmer's Boys School 23-14 yesterday.

It was an intense battle between the number two seed Titchfield and the number seven seed Wolmer's Boys.

Going into the match, Titchfield's captain Zadane Martin said he was confident of victory, after sleepless nights in preparation.

EXPERIENCE AND CLASS

"I feel very confident because I know my team is prepared. We have some great players right here, and we have experience and class," Martin said.

Five-time champions Wolmer's Boys admitted that they were up against formidable opponents, but the team captain Xavier Harris said the team was hopeful nonetheless.

"We know that they are the champions, but we can't allow the status that they have to affect us in any way, so we have to hit the ground running and put in maximum effort from the first question in the first section and just try and come out the winners," Harris said in a prematch interview.

The match turned out to be an intense one, living up to the prematch rhetoric. Round one ended with Titchfield leading by six points to five. By the end of the speed challenge, Wolmer's took the lead, ending on 20 points, just a point ahead of Titchfield.

In the exciting buzzer section, Wolmer's and Titchfield battled neck and neck for the win, until the Heroes Circle boys started lagging behind after several incorrect answers.

The final bell went before they could redeem themselves.

Though grateful for the win, Titchfield's coach Chase Roberts said they have a lot of work to do in preparation for their semi- final match.

"We're always a slow starter, we always build up, so that was not new to us. We expected to be in that position. We have to work on it definitely because doing it the same way may not work next time. We recognise that we have a lot of work to do," he said.