VPHS
quiz at Victoria Park High School. We wish our
Matric members the very best in the coming years
and are confident that the remaining members will
continue a now proud tradition of quizzical excellence.
will be participating in the finals after the end of
year exams this year. The quiz team is looking forward to competing in this particular quiz because it
is the first television school curriculum quiz competition in South Africa and will be broadcast on
Mindset Learn on DSTV 319.
Without the incessant efforts of Miss Meyer, Quiz
would barely exist at the school, and for all her hard
work, guidance and friendship, the Quiz team is
eternally grateful.
Returning to the league: with the encouragement of
past successes, the team put on several fine displays,
winning fixtures against teams from most top PE
high schools. The team’s consistency was rewarded
at the final quiz of the season, with hosts Theodor
Herzl announcing VP as the winners of the Quiz
League for the third year running. Ever disciplined,
this victory was seen as a mere warm-up for the upcoming competitions.
It is with great expectation that we anticipate yet
another year of successful quiz at the school, as the
activity continues to evolve and rightfully flourish.
Pierre Durandt
Entering the third term with the slightest buoyancy,
the team faced the culmination of the years’ quizzes, as this particular team was set to participate in
its fourth annual Varsity College Quiz. In the buildup to the quiz, Dario Patsalos and Pierre Durandt
were interviewed on Algoa FM, and faltered slightly in a quiz against Charlton Tobias, drawing 2-2.
The stakes were high, with the VP first team having
equalled the competition record of two consecutive
wins, the second team having taken third place the
previous year, and with this competition being the
last competitive quiz of this group of Matric quiz
pupils.
On the night of the 21st of August, the two teams entered the competition, memories primed and nerves
jittering beneath the pressure of the occasion. After
three rounds of trying questions, it was announced
that the three top teams had been identified, but that
a tie-breaking round would be needed to decide
places for Theodor Herzl’s first team, and Victoria
Park’s seconds. After not one, but three tie-breaking
rounds, the competition was escalated to a sudden
death round, where the first to answer would win
the playoff. In an atmosphere of palpable tension, it
was with true VP panache that the second team answered correctly without a second’s hesitation, pulling ahead in the contest. It was then duly announced
that VP’s first team (consisting of the same members as the previous two years) had indeed placed
first in the contest for a third year in a row, making
history with a hat-trick and winning both the Albert
Einstein trophy, as well as a Varsity College bursary for a deserving VP pupil. Also winning a similar
bursary, the second team made history by making
VP not only the first school to win the contest three
times, but the first school to claim the top two spots
in the quiz.
It was with relief and exhaustion that the quiz teams
enjoyed a dream ending to a significant career of
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