Top 20 spellers now found

Stressed yet elated spellers from schools as far off as Jaffna, Hambantota, Balangoda, Anuradhapura and Kalmunai have worked their way through to the top 20, the final round, of the Spellmaster, the all island schools spelling competition now telecast on Sirasa TV.

Many viewers, over the past few weeks, have been glued to their TV's more flabbergasted at the nerve and talent of the competitors who successfully spell off words, many of which are hardly spoken or even heard of.

This edutainment programme that is becoming increasingly popular, has been claimed by many competitors as fun and educative. In the semi final stage of the competition, spellers were given 3 words in the first round, 2 words under categories of their choice and thereafter 1 word from a pool of 350 words.

With only 4 spellers required to make the top 20, the competition was stiff, however at the end of the round of 3 words J.Archana Perera from St.Peter's College Colombo 4, Rukshala Vidumini from Gateway College Colombo and Murtaza Z from Burhani Serendib School scored a hat-trick on the words handed out to them automatically making them eligible to the top 20. Six contestants, who got 2 words correct were remaining and had to go up against one another to decide who would take the final slot in the top 20.

Two rounds of words gave rise to 4 contestants bowing out of the competition. Then the 2 contestants left standing, P.C.B.Rambukwella from Trinity College Kandy and Suchinthani Arandara from Lyceum International School had to battle it out for the last spot left to be a part of the Top 20.

Speaking before the competition Rambukwella said the Spellmaster had changed his attitude towards spelling. Rambukwella spelled the first word given to him "googol" with ease, putting the pressure on Suchinthani, who took her time to spell the word "garrulous" but missed out as she added an 'o' when spelling out the first part of the word. Both contestants misspelt the next words given to them, "schlock" and "impugn", leaving it down to the final word which would determine who moves into the final 20. A cool, calm and collected Rambukwella was the first to spell and was given the word "allegory" which he sailed through making him the final contestant to qualify to the finals as he spelt 2 out of the 3 words given to him correct, whereas Suchinthani misspelt both words given to her.

When conversing with some of the contestants about the competition, many agreed that the introduction of the 5 categories namely, Culture, Science, Nature, Business and General, made it more thrilling in what has been dubbed as a competition where luck plays a major role.

At the end of this gripping contest, the final four competitors who got through to the Spellmaster top 20 were:

Be sure to watch Sirasa TV at six pm on Saturdays to see what happens as the top 20 battle it out to be the ultimate speller.