saw us progress to the last 16 in the country, where we were unfortunately drawn against defending champions, Westminster School. The team put up an impressive fight but were well beaten, and Westminster went on to be crowned senior national champions for a record-breaking ninth time. The strength in depth of our junior squad was even more impressive than the senior, and four Year 8s established themselves as the matchday team: Captain, Felicity Bemand-Qureshi, Conor Quelch, Thomas Phillips and Riley Glover. The team started the competition in April with a convincing win over Bancroft’s, followed by wins over King’s Rochester and Hilden Grange to equal our seniors in becoming regional champions. They then received a bye into the last eight in the country; the finals day in June was postponed because of train strikes, and will have been played, on 17th September, by the time this is published. The future of Schools Challenge is in doubt, as the national organiser is retiring after running the competition every year since 1985, and (unsurprisingly) there has not been a rush of teachers volunteering to take on such a timeconsuming role! But if it doesn’t happen next year then that just gives us more time for more and bigger interhouse quizzes; in 2021-22 we could only hold two: the Year 8 competition was won by North house, and the Lower Sixth competition by West House. Either way, we look forward to seeing general knowledge quizzes continue to provide a unique kind of fun and competition for pupils at Brentwood. By Mr Sam Hitchings 207
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