Newick House staged one of the great quiz comebacks to win the inaugural House General Knowledge Competition.

Organised by Madame Bates, and hosted by former Mastermind finalist, Mr Byrne, each House entered teams of six, one boy from each year group, plus one wildcard member, who could be selected from any year. Newick's team was captained by George Lee (U6), and contained Tom Ward (U6), James Baker (L6), Arthur Hopkinson (5), Oscar Thornley (4) and Archie Charlton (3).

The quiz worked along the lines of 'Jeopardy' - 5 rounds, each containing 5 questions, which grew in difficulty: the easiest worth 10 points moving through to the hardest worth 50 points.

After 4 rounds (History, Geography, Science, Art and Literature), Newick were lying in 5th place. The final round was entitled 'Random', and cleared played to Newick's strengths. With one question to go, the Cornflower team were suddenly up to tied 3rd, but still 40 points behind Leconfield. It all came down to the last 50 point question:

 What does the Scoville scale measure?

Amidst general looks of confusion and uncertainty, one man kept his cool. Archie Charlton knew the answer - it measured the relative 'heat' of chilli peppers.

From nowhere, Newick were now tied for the lead with Hazelwell after the end of the competition. Tie-break.

After a long, nervous wait, the deciding question was asked:

Name one of the two actresses to have won oscars for Best Actress and Best Actress in a Foreign Film.

In times of crisis, you need a man of stature and quality. And Newick had that man - Tom Ward. He casually leaned over and wrote was proved to be the winning answer:

Marion Cotillard.

Incredible scenes - from nowhere Newick had won the competition, and immediately captian George Lee pointed to our Most Valuable Player, the youngest member of the team, Archie Charlton.