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Hans Woyda Round 2 vs CVMS

On Tuesday 12th November, I set off across the river with the next iteration of the Hans Woyda team for our Round 2 match against Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School. A dry forecast gave way to some light drizzle, but Siddharth (4th), Richard (6th), Adavya (L8th) and James (U8th) were insistent that they wanted the 40 minute walk up to Holland Park. Naturally this time could not be wasted, so I peppered them with a barrage of past paper questions on our journey. Fresh off the back of the first round of the House Maths competition the team were already warmed up for some competitive mathematics, but after the stimulating journey they were firing on all cylinders, and while I didn’t want to get ahead of myself I felt in my bones that we were in for an impressive performance.

It was fairly even between the two sides, but Adavya’s familiarity with dodecahedra gave us a slight lead going into the geometry section. Unfortunately it was another dodecahedron that bested both Adavya and James this time, but Richard and Siddharth’s mastery of equilateral triangle tilings meant that the lead widened a little further still. Up next was a set of mental arithmetic questions concerning divisibility tests, and here the SPS team really started to shine, not only nailing all of our own questions but picking up a stolen point from CVMS along the way. Our lead was by no means insurmountable at this stage, but we had already made a significant buffer as we reached the halfway point of the competition and I could feel myself relaxing as we went into the team question.

The team question itself concerned symmetric numbers on old calculator displays, and while CVMS were the only side to spot that an entire digit had been missed as a possibility by the question setters it was SPS that managed to find all of the solutions and leap even further ahead of their rivals. After a quick sandwich break the boys followed this up with a clean sweep of the calculator section, helping us edge even closer to a sure-fire victory. The algebra and calculus questions concerned a function which produces prime numbers, meaning that an encyclopaedic knowledge of the primes was a significant advantage; luckily, our boys seem to know these numbers like the backs of their hands, and another stolen point put us just out of reach of CVMS going into the race. I was therefore spared the life-shortening stress I often associate with this final section, and while it was entirely unnecessary for victory the SPS team managed to increase our points difference even further with an almost flawless performance, only conceding the final question to CVMS which their Year 13 proudly claimed for himself. So it was that, by the end of the match, SPS had sailed to a truly remarkable win with a final score of 59 – 34.

We look forward to Round 3 against Highgate School next Monday! This match will determine who goes through to the main knockout competition and who is relegated to one of the plate competitions, so the stakes are high; please wish the final group stage team of Issam (4th), Shyamak (6th), Aman (L8th) and Eason (U8th).

- Mr Cullen Hewitt

Here is one of the starter questions which evaded both U8th pupils on the day; could you solve it in 30 seconds or less?


 

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