Forres area primary schools competition won by Dallas Primary

A rural primary won the local heats of a school quiz for the second year in-a-row.

The team of four P7s from Dallas - Arthur Schiller, Gregory Davis, Timmy Edwards and Aimee Binnie - will now compete for the area final with teams from Inverness, Elgin, Keith and Speyside.

Quizmaster and Forres Rotary member, Suzie De-Vry, confirmed the contest at Forres Town Hall was close, with just four points separating the top three teams Dallas, second placed Anderson’s and third Kinloss.

She said: “The town hall was buzzing with seven excited teams of pupils. They were all enthusiastic, competitive and took the quiz very seriously! They were well supported by the teaching staff.

“Members of family in the audience enhanced the atmosphere and helped make it a happy, friendly event.”

There were 10 rounds of six questions, covering topics including the alphabet, geography, general knowledge, mathematics, sport, music, science and pictures.

Quizzers were also required to do calculations at speed and name elements on the periodic table.

“Difficult questions included ‘What is Ed Sheeran's middle name?’,” added Suzie. “The answer is Christopher!

“The teams worked well together and the members had been well chosen as their individual knowledge complemented the teammates. The result was incredibly close.”

Dallas team member Arthur remembered that one of the questions was: “How many teeth does an adult have?”

“Aimee made an educated guess,” he said. “She got it right, it’s 32!”

Dallas Primary pipped Anderson’s at the post to win for a second year running. The team now goes through to the area final in Forres on May 8.

Head teacher, Mairi Grant, was delighted to hear her school’s name called out again.

She said: “Arthur and Gregory were on last year’s team last year too so are really fired up to do well in the next round as they just missed out on progressing to the national finals last year.

“The team have allocated each other areas to study at home - we’ll be quizzing regularly as a whole class until the event too. Hopefully, the questions will go their way in May!”

Gregory pointed out that his team had not practiced for the local heat as much as in previous years.

“We were surprised to win as we didn’t expect it this year,” added Timmy. “We were hopeful though!”

Aimee finished: “The heat was nerve-wracking but we enjoyed the opportunity to compete.

“We’re nervous about being from such a small school but we’re going to study hard for the next round.”