New Zealand Champions

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 652, 4 January 1952, Page 9

New Zealand Champions

F you have ever wondered at the popularity of juvenile quiz sessions among grown-up listeners, most parents could supply an explanation. After any normal day, in which one has been harried from crack of dawn to dewy eve by an unending barrage of unrelated questions, it is peculiarly relaxing to the mind (and refreshing to the spirit) to sit at ease and listen while the young are themselves exposed to the same treatment. So far as Quiz Kids contests are concerned, there is, of course, the additional element of wonder that young heads should hold such quantities of miscellaneous information, and that children who are usually assumed to have a dislike for the formal pursuit of knowledge should answer with enthusiasm questions which in school would bore them into silence. There was certainly no boredom when the Dunedin Quiz Kids team met Auckland in the final of the National Quiz Kids’ Championship. Eight teams started in the contest, four in the North

Island and four in the South, and the final was held on December 14. Victory went to Dunedin, and the members of the winning team were (above, left to right): Paul Aubin (15), Charles Croot (15), Ken Price (12), Brian Merrilees (13), and Dierdre Boyes 12). They and their Auckland opponents were quizzed in their home city studios, and marks were awarded by the quiz-master, Selwyn Toogood, who conducted ‘the session from Wellington. The quiz called for much preparation, not only, in. the way of transmission arrangements within the ZB network, but also in the choice and grading of questions. Only one slight hitch occurred -when one of the contestants offered an. unexpected answer-but expert confirmation was provided by the Wellington Zoo authorities within a few minutes. | Because of the popularity of the contest with both listeners and contestants it is possible that another National Championship will be held in 1952. (See also page 17).