Déjà vu was a feature of the
last Hans Woyda match report, and fittingly enough it reared its head again in
Tuesday’s Semi Final against Haberdashers’ Boys’ School. This time, we have to
go back to the 2023-24 Semi Final, when we welcomed Habs into St Paul’s for an
exceedingly close game. In that match, St Paul’s were either tied or in the
lead throughout, until Habs edged in front for the first time in the
penultimate question and held off our U8th on the last question to extend their
lead even further, knocking us out of the competition with a final score of 53
– 49. Two significant changes gave me hope that history wasn’t about to repeat
itself. First, we were the ones making the long journey to the outskirts of
Watford this time, as hosting duties had fallen to Habs for this match. Second,
none of the current SPS team of Haoming (4th), Rafael (6th),
Lucas (L8th) and Adavya (U8th) had been
involved in that tragic loss. As the voyage northwards came to an end and we
made our way into the match venue, I couldn’t help but wonder; would it be
enough to change the outcome?
As usual we stopped for
snacks and refreshments, but the number of biscuits and chocolate bars left
untouched as the teams settled back into their seats for the calculator section
suggested an inversely proportional relationship between the stage of the competition
and the competitors’ half-time appetites. The questions themselves concerned
ancient Indian and Babylonian approximations for 
,
and 
,
and unfortunately the complexity of the formulae involved confused the majority
of our team, with Lucas’ calculator flat out refusing to evaluate the
expression he had typed into it. Only Adavya managed to answer his question
correctly, cutting our lead from 4 points to 2. The algebra questions had
actually been designed by my opposite number from Habs and involved an
ingenious function of functions, spitting out the difference between the
maximum and minimum of a given function over a specified interval. There were a
few slips from both sides here, but again the priority system worked against
us, and by the start of the race Habs had drawn level for the first time in the
match so far.
I could feel a prickly
sensation running down the back of my neck as we prepared to kick off the final
section of the evening. We had been in the lead for the entire match, but Habs
had persevered and finally managed to close the gap. Were we about to see a
repeat of the climax to our last encounter? I reassured myself that the race is
historica
lly our strongest section, but I couldn’t help but remember that it
was the race that proved our downfall back in 2024. I could at least take
comfort in the knowledge that, while we may not have been on home turf, the SPS
team were sure to be buoyed by the warm familiarity of my hideously grating
buzzers. Without any further ado, we kicked off the race, with both Year 9s
searching for a selection of three-digit numbers with a digit sum of 6.
Unfortunately, Habs beat us to it, but there was further upset when it became
apparent that the diagram for the next question had accidentally been displayed
on the board alongside the text of the first question. It was eventually agreed
that we would award full points to both teams and revisit the issue if the
margin was a single question or less at the end of the match, but it did
nothing to ease the mounting tension in the room. The Year 12s were up next,
and some rapid binomial expansion allowed Habs to extend their newfound lead to
two questions. Fortunately, Adavya answered the next question within a split
second, coming to the sensible conclusion that any convoluted expression
involving multiple trigonometric functions probably simplifies to 1, and as
such we were back within striking distance as we approached the final four
questions of the match. I watched with bated breath as both Year 9s raced to
evaluate a product of prime powers, and we were almost robbed when Haoming found
himself without the buzzer by his side, but the Habs coach accepted a shout of
“Where’s the buzzer?!” as an acceptable method of submitting an answer,
bringing us level again with three questions to go. Rafael raced to an answer
next, but before it had even been checked he realised that he had misread the
question, leaving his opposite number with the remainder of the time to
methodically work towards the correct solution. The Year 12s then had to search
through their knowledge of three-digit squares, but Habs managed to get there
first, putting them 4 points ahead with one question to go. It was impossible
to draw level, but if we could bring the gap down to 2 points we could argue
for a tie break question to make up for the lost question at the beginning of
the section, and so once again our hopes rested on Adavya’s inimitable
shoulders. He buzzed first, and time seemed to slow to a crawl as the Habs
coach approached to verify the answer. Unfortunately, the pressure to answer
first had led to a mistakenly evaluated fourth power, and while the Habs Year
13 failed to answer the question as well it was sadly too late to salvage our
chances. I felt the ironic sting of a cruel twist of fate as I realised that
Habs had once again knocked us out of the competition with an identical final
score of 53 – 49.
Please do congratulate the boys when you see them; they put in an incredible performance against equally incredible opponents, and it really could have gone either way. That sadly brings our 2025-26 Hans Woyda season to a close, but I have high hopes that we will be able to bring the trophy back to its rightful place in the Maths resource room next year. In the meantime, I have attached the questions as usual, and below is the definite integral that the two U8ths couldn’t quite manage to do in their heads; could you evaluate it in under 60 seconds without any working?
- Mr Cullen-Hewitt
