Loreto Convent girls hold the trophy. Picture by Suman Tamang

Darjeeling, July 13: The battle was on at Fraser Hall in North Point with top quizzing teams from across the hills vying for the top honours.

“Inquizitive 2003”, organised by The Telegraph in association with North Point School Alumni Association, saw host’s St Joseph’s School bagging the Chandulal Agarwal Memorial Trophy in the junior section and the Loreto Convent girls winning the Darjeeling North Point School Alumni Association trophy in the senior section.

In the junior category, six out of 20 schools made it to the finals. The finalists included West Point, St Paul’s School, Green Lawns and St Joseph’s School, popularly known as North Point — all from Darjeeling — and Rockvale Academy from Kalimpong and Kurseong’s St Anthony’s School.

Defending champions North Point held the lead but lost out to St Paul’s School, the champions of 1999, in the eighth round of the finals, causing some anxious moments for the home crowd at Fraser Hall.

Quizmaster Parnab Mukherjee managed the show with poise. He, however, admitted that he was “consciously making the questions tougher for the juniors” in an effort to improve their standard.

As the St Joseph’s boys cheered for their team and sang the school anthem, Tanmay Rastogi, a Class IX student of St Augustine’s School, Kalimpong, promised to come back.

“It was bad luck that we did not last till the finals but I’ll be here next year to give my best shot,” he said.

The senior’s final round had St Augustine’s and Rockvale Academy from Kalimpong, St Pauls, St Jospeh’s and Loreto Convent from Darjeeling and Himali Boarding School from Kurseong. The finals were closely contested and generated some nail-biting moments.

The girl’s kept their cool and Loreto Convent managed to pip North Point to the post by one and half points. “Himali and St Augustine are a talented lot and hold out many promises, lot more than the results show,” said the quizmaster.

Ranjam Danglo of St Augustine School was adjudged the best quizzer in the senior division while the laurels for the same went to Upasan Tamang of West Point in the junior level.