By Claude Mills, Staff ReporterIN A nail-biting finish, St. Catherine parish champion Cornel Grey yesterday won the 2004 Gleaner's Children's Own Spelling Bee competition with a display of incredible competence and poise during the finals of the annual competition held at the Hilton Kingston Hotel, New Kingston.
The competition was fraught with high drama and tension as the champion boy and champion girl, Danielle Thomas from St. Andrew, duelled with each other for almost 20 minutes, before Cornel seized the advantage when his rival faltered on the word A-G-N-O-S-I-A. Agnosia means the loss of the ability to recognise familiar objects by one of the five senses.
CLINCHED THE TOP SPOT
Cornel then reeled off the word G-E-Y-S-E-R, and clinched the top spot by spelling G-H-O-U-L, triggering loud applause from the audience, especially the contingent of students from the Portmore Missionary Preparatory School in the 'Sunshine City'.
At the start of the final round, Danielle appeared to be stumped by the word C-A-C-I-Q-U-E, and paused several times before delivering the correct spelling. The silence spun out for at least four minutes with the whirr of a camera, and the low mumbling of the audience, the only sounds. The tightness of the moment was so intense that even the composed Reverend Glen Archer, coach of the top three contestants, seemed agitated as his young charge puzzled over the word.
When Danielle finally spelled the word correctly, loud applause washed over her in a warm wave. She smiled broadly, and buried her face in her hands. In the audience, there was a lot of good-natured talk about the 'battle of the sexes' between the boy and girl.
Earlier, the finalists, their shoes shining with a military gloss, and their championship medals hanging from their necks, faced Spell Master Dr. Clive Lai, 1968 all-island spelling champion, and Spell Mistress Pat Lazarus, until one by one, they were eliminated, leaving Cornel and Danielle to battle to the end.
Of the top seven finalists, four Norando Brown (Hanover), Mikhail McLeod (St. James), Evan Brown (St. Elizabeth) and Alicia Lindsay (Westmoreland) - hailed from schools in western Jamaica.
Evan Brown placed fourth, winning the CVM trophy for being the highest-placed speller from the county of Cornwall while Alicia Lindsay won the first ever Children's Own Editor's Cup for dictation for her performance in the earlier rounds of the competition.
Third place went to Kevaughn Newland of Kingston, who fell prey to A-S-C-E-T-I-C. He was a fierce competitor, and he stood ramrod straight throughout the entire competition, spelled his words in a booming voice, and was almost fastidious in sticking to what some teachers have dubbed, sotto voce, 'The Archer Method' of making several inquiries before spelling a word.
IN RESPONSE
Cornel was almost stoic in response to his victory, hardly even cracking a smile even as his coach, and parents, Cecil Grey and Eulette Ferguson, embraced him after his hard-fought victory.
Later, he commented on his win by saying, "I believed I could win by the grace of God."
Today, the spellers will take a well-deserved breather. They will make courtesy calls on the Prime Minister and the Governor-General. They will also have a tour of The Gleaner Company's North Street, downtown Kingston offices, lunch at Popeye's on Constant Spring Road, St. Andrew and complete the day with a fun afternoon at Serenity Park in St. Catherine.
