A Christchurch Boys’ High School team won the Year 9 Cantamath Teams competition for the first time since 1999 with a scintillating performance.  

In this competition, the teams have 30 minutes to answer 20 questions. The winner is the first to finish or the team with the highest score after 30 minutes has elapsed.

This competition is usually very closely fought with the lead changing multiple times. Several teams were in contention early in the competition, as normal, but as time when on the CBHS team took the lead then gradually extended it. The team got their 20th, and last, question correct after just over 19 minutes had elapsed and ended up winning comfortably with the 2nd placed team not finishing until six minutes later!

So, in the end, it was a dominating performance.

The second team in the Year 9 competition also performed creditably, finishing with 85 points when the 30 minutes elapsed, to finish in around 6th / 7th place.

In the Year 10 competition, the two teams also performed very well, finishing with 85 and 80 points after 30 minutes. The team on 80 points were actually joint leaders early on, and then in 2nd place for some time before getting stuck on a couple of questions towards the end.

B.D. Thomas
H.O.D. Mathematics