Participants at the12th Spellinc Word Cracking Competition with quizmaster Mir at Kala Mandir. Picture by Anindya Shankar Ray

“How do you spell onomatopoeia?” quizmaster Mir, dressed as a village master, asked the teachers in the audience. Three wrong answers and some fumbling later, the right spelling was audible.

The event was the grand finale of the 12th Spellinc Word Cracking Competition, organised by Linc Pen and Plastics Ltd at Kala Mandir on January 22.

Around 200 schools in the state participated in the preliminary rounds of the contest that put to test a participant’s English vocabulary.

The finals saw eight schools locking horns. In the end, five-time champion Modern High School for Girls clinched it yet again. Birla High School for Girls and Our Lady Queen of the Missions, Park Circus, were the first and the second runners- up, respectively.

The other finalists included North Point English School (Malda), Maheshwari Girls’ School, Calcutta Girls’ High School, Mahadevi Birla Girls’ School and Army School, Barrackpore.

The participants were tested on their crossword and word-coining skills and general spelling abilities.

But the most interesting was the rapid-fire round, in which Reeti Sarkar of Our Lady Queen of the Missions and Madhurima Kumar of Calcutta Girls’ High School scored full marks, spelling all the 15 words right.

At the end of the event, the champions — Ipshita Bhuwania, Shivani Agarwal and Spriha Dhanuka — claimed that great teamwork was the mantra of their success.

“Nothing is as important as proper planning and coordination,” said the ace quizzers.

Compere Mir managed to lighten the mood with his wisecracks.

Actress Rituparna Sengupta was the guest of honour at the event. “Whenever my son misspells a word, I ask him to write down the correct spelling 50 times,” said the actress with a laugh.