So You Think You Can Spell

23 February 2021Emily N, Allard ‘22

Saturday February 20th, at 8:00pm was the start of Ms Reynolds’ favourite event at Brentwood, the biennial Interhouse Spelling Bee. Sixteen brave souls volunteered to test their spelling skills in Crooks Hall, and by the end of the night only two, one junior and one senior, would be defined as the best spellers at Brentwood.

All throughout the week leading up to the Bee, Ms Reynolds built up excitement among the students by sending numerous emails to get people practicing their ability to spell difficult words. After I had volunteered to participate in the Bee, I quickly realized how much I truly rely on the help of autocorrect, and this was evident when I spelled sabotage as S-A-B-O-U-T-A-G-E. After the initial embarrassment of being eliminated from the first round, I was impressed with the rest of the competitors who continued on.

The ever-so-demanding word announcer for the night was Mr Collis Handford, and he did a spectacular job keeping the audience amused. During the first round, he stumped some of the spellers with words such as torque (erroneously spelled as T-O-R-K), raccoon (misspelled as R-A-C-O-O-N), and derelict (broken down as D-A-R-E-L-I-T).

The rules for the spelling bee were tight, and included not being able to restart spelling a word once you started spelling – due to complications from the spelling bee two years ago. You also had to repeat the word before and after spelling it, and if you failed to do so then you were eliminated. These rules helped the Bee progress quickly and smoothly.

The event would not have been a success without the volunteers who helped the night move along. A special thanks to Ms McLean and all her helpers who set up and tore down everything needed for the event. Ms Reynolds also had a crew of volunteers who helped with enforcement and fairness, watching to make sure nobody was cheating and guaranteeing that every word was spelled correctly, or incorrectly for that matter. Mrs Reynolds, a battle-hardened veteran of innumerable spelling bees, confessed that, “Never, in my battle-hardened years of innumerable spelling bees have I witnessed a fight to the rock-paper-scissors death such as the one that was brutally played out on Saturday night.”

The night ended with two official winners: Ariel C for the junior category, and Gemma S, for the senior category. There were also two runner-ups, Hazel L for junior and Will P for senior, who admitted that “The spelling bee was a nerve-wracking but really fun experience. I never knew that spelling words could create such an adrenaline rush.”

There you have it folks, the Interhouse Spelling Bee has officially been deemed one of the most exhilarating events at Brentwood by yours truly, so you better get practicing for the Bee of ‘23!

Emily N, Allard ‘22

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