NSW’s brightest wordsmiths battle it out at Premier’s Spelling Bee finals

ABC NEWS (Australia)

They were words that would bamboozle even the most bookish of grownups. But even medical jargon was no match for young minds at the NSW spelling bee in Sydney.

Transcript

00:00The English language threw curve balls some adults would be lucky to spell.

00:15At the Premier's spelling bee, not even a medical term could get under the skin of Finn McGee.

00:20Subcutaneous. S-U-B-C-U-T-A-N-E-U-S. Subcutaneous.

00:29That is correct.

00:32In a Relinvale Public School student was the last speller standing.

00:36How much time did he spend preparing?

00:38Like one to two hours a day.

00:41The son of a journalist and a playwright, words are in his blood.

00:45I can tell you I did not know a lot of those words.

00:47Some of the more exotic descriptors had ABC Radio newsreader Tony Matthews practicing her diction.

00:53Subcutaneous. Can you spell subcutaneous?

00:56That's the beauty of radio isn't it?

00:58That is the beauty of radio. We can do it in phonetics.

01:01As if winning a spelling bee wasn't enough, Finn's already eyeing his next trophy.

01:05Tomorrow he's off to a Rubik's cube competition to put his quick mind to the test again.

01:10So how about the man whose job title's on the prize?

01:13Can you spell filibuster?

01:16Okay. F-I-L-I-B-U-S-T-E-R.

01:20Show off.

01:21That's it. We're done.

01:23The Princeton educated Premier perfecting the name of the political tactic.

01:28One he hopes to avoid when Parliament resumes next week.

01:31One he hopes to avoid when Parliament resumes next week.

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