Hans Woyda Final vs King's College School Wimbledon

 Yesterday, six months after kicking off the 2024-25 Hans Woyda season with our annual friendly against SPGS, we were at long last on our way to the final. There was a palpable tension around the school site and an unmistakable atmosphere of excitement and anticipation, making it abundantly clear that the entire school had their minds on that afternoon’s Mathematics fixture. As I set off for the match with Yidong (4^th), Shyamak (6^th), Adavya (L8^th), and Eason (U8^th), accompanied by Dr Stoyanov for moral support and intimidation, pupils and staff had even gathered by the towpath to wish them well; unfortunately, they all seemed to be facing the wrong direction, but it was touching nevertheless. We made our way to the City of London School (which offered its services as neutral territory for the final), discussing tactics on the tube and working through a set of warm-up questions. We met the King’s College School Wimbledon side in the lobby as we arrived, and based on previous results, it was already clear that we were in for an exciting match. As we entered the room, I was taken back to the last time I had escorted St Paul’s to the final three years ago. We were then pitted against St Olave’s Grammar School, who overtook us by a single point on the final question. As the teams took their seats, I couldn’t help but wonder if history was bound to repeat itself or if we could finally bring the Hans Woyda Cup back to sit proudly in the Montgomery Room.

 After a brief overview of the competition's history, the match began earnestly. Yidong gave us an immediate head start, deftly evaluating a fiddly fraction and avoiding the sign error that caused KCS to fall behind. Overall, the starter questions were quite gentle and designed, no doubt, to ease the teams’ nerves and settle them into the rest of the competition. Still, another small mistake on a number line question by the KCS Year 11 allowed Shyamak to further our lead, and a clean sweep from SPS meant that we ended the first section four points ahead. Up next was the geometry section, with most of the questions concerning various arrangements of overlapping circles. Yidong and Shyamak dealt swiftly with their first question, but an errant factor of ½ meant that Adavya and Eason conceded the next question, allowing KCS to narrow the gap to two points. Both sides were equally stumped by question 3 and equally successful on question 4, meaning we maintained our narrow lead into section 3.

 The next set of questions was on probability, and all concerned various iterations of a drunken walk (which, I must stress, is a purely mathematical term and involved hypothetical alcohol consumption only!). This turned out to be a clean sweep from both sides, but there was controversy around question 6, which caused a bit of a stir. Both Year 12s had given the same answer to each other (which matched the printed answer in the back of the question booklet), but the adjudicators claimed that this answer was, in fact, wrong and that they had changed the accepted answer the night before. KCS had priority for this question, meaning that if their answer was accepted, it would actually work against St Paul’s, but my respect for Mathematics outweighed my competitive streak. I had no choice but to join Zhivko, Adavya, and the KCS team in insisting that the original printed answer was correct and that KCS should be awarded the points. Eventually, we reached an agreement, and the points were awarded provisionally before being confirmed after a brief review later in the proceedings, meaning that we still only had a two-point lead going into the team question.

 This time, the team question concerned Gauss’ Eureka theorem, which states that every positive integer is the sum of at most three triangular numbers. Armed with a table of all of the triangular numbers up to 300 (which I’m sure they had internalised regardless!), the teams were tasked with finding all such sums for the numbers from 303 to 309. Both sides worked away feverishly on the problem, but it was slow going, and neither side had managed to find even half of the possible solutions by the end of the five minutes. However, KCS had churned out a few more correct answers than SPS, and the bonus point for winning gave them two extra points. As such, we were back to level pegging around an hour into the match, and it would all come down to the next three sections. During the short break that followed, while pupils helped themselves to the drinks and pastries on offer, Adavya asked me if I thought that we were historically better in the first or second half. I said the second, which was an honest answer given the incredible results the race section had produced for us in the past, but my mind couldn’t help flashing back to that fateful day in 2022, and I felt my heart rate climbing as we settled back down for the rest of the match.

 The calculator section was fairly straightforward and produced another perfect set of answers for SPS, but a slip by KCS gave us back our two-point lead. Up next was a set of algebra questions on various 3D arrangements of bricks, and while both sides started successfully, an error from Shyamak allowed KCS to steal a point. They fumbled it, which was a relief, but it still cost us our lead, sending my heart rate soaring again. Eason managed to steal a point back from his KCS counterpart, but both Year 13s slipped up on the next question (with Eason forgetting to multiply his answer by 100 to make it a percentage!), meaning we only had a one-point lead going into the race.

 Another parity check confirmed that a tie was now out of the question, but I could barely breathe as the race began; we had a one-point lead at the beginning of the final question against St Olave’s, and I knew that nothing was guaranteed against such strong opposition. My heart sank as the KCS Year 9 put his hand up first, but his answer was incorrect, allowing Yidong the rest of the minute to successfully minimise the given quadratic, increasing our lead to three points. Shyamak was up next and beat his opponent to the minimum of his quadratic (which Eason correctly pointed out was technically an infimum rather than a minimum). Still, Adavya lost out to the KCS Year 12, bringing us back to a three-point difference. Both Year 13s were tasked with minimising a cubic instead, relying on calculus rather than completing the square. Still, Eason got there first, extending our lead to five points as we entered the last four questions of the competition. A single correct answer was enough to guarantee victory, but it seemed like the KCS Year 9 had stolen the opportunity from Yidong. However, another error gave him the rest of the time to find the required composite number, and with his correct answer, there was no way for KCS to close the gap. Yidong had clearly been keeping track of this himself because he immediately stood up and threw his hands in the air in celebration; I felt much the same myself but had to convince him to wait until the questions had actually finished to begin cheering! KCS managed to claim one of the last three questions. Still, Eason finished with a final flourish and a superbly fast application of the Chicken McNugget theorem, sealing our victory with a final score of 54 – 47. I felt a rush of pride as he came up to claim the Hans Woyda Winners Cup, with each team member also getting individual trophies and Maths books (which, remarkably, none of them already owned). After a flurry of photographs and some commiserations for our worthy opponents, we headed out to bask in the sunshine.

 That’s it for the Hans Woyda this year, but anyone hoping to share in the glory should look out for the selection trials next September.