UK NATIONAL FINAL

What a brilliant National Final today in the Oxford Town Hall. The sport of reading was amply demonstrated by the best fifteen teams in Britain. Harry Enfield addressed all the teams and shared a secret page from Charlie Higson's next novel. The Town Hall was beautifully decorated in purple and green and the stage was set for a great literary showdown. At the end of the afternoon the top six teams were separated by only two points (that's only one question). A flurry of sudden death questions was needed to separate the top four teams, however local school Wheatley Park was the clear National winner, but the tenseness came in separating 2nd, 3rd and 4th spots.

Second place went to the City of London School for Girls', third was the Lancaster Royal Grammar School and fourth was Mary Erskine School from Edinburgh.

Our sponsors did us proud and in particular I would like to thank Serco, Scholastic UK, the DCSF, OUP r and the Oxfordshire County Council for their generous support. I would also like to thank Bayard (Discovery Box Magazines) who kindly donated subscriptions to all the winners and packs to all the youngsters who entered the competition. And not to forget the Librarian Coaches with the winning teams, Softlink for presenting them with plaques and the SLA for awarding Training Day vouchers. Over and above all this 30 authors gave their time to be present and generously signed their books throughout the day for all our avid readers.

A huge thank you to all the coaches, librarians, teachers, local dignitaries and family supporters

who attended today, thus ensuring such a memorable final.

And a special thanks should go to the KLQ Oxford Team for Organising the whole event.

The stage is now set for the World Final in Edinburgh on 14th August 2010. Five teams qualified today for this event during the Edinburgh Book Festival. Good luck everybody and thanks for a superb afternoon.

Wayne

Quizmaster