On the 19th of June, Year 8 students Ruiqi Zhang and Leo Luo plus Linus Luu and Ishan Kalia of year 9 travelled to the Royal Horticultural Halls in London to take part in the National Final of the UKMT Team Maths Challenge 2017. 1753 schools entered this year’s competition and the final had the top 88 schools from the earlier regional finals.

There were five rounds. The first, a poster competition illustrating mathematical concepts involving polyominos, was judged separately.

This was followed by four tough rounds that challenged the boys’ mathematical skills.

The St. Olave’s team lost only 2 points out of 48 in the first ‘Group Circus’ round that comprised of 8 different mathematical problem-solving tasks. The second, a particularly difficult ‘Shuttle’ round, caused some concern that too many marks may have been dropped but despite this, St Olave’s were in the top five schools at half way. A crossword style number puzzle was finished with ease and 15 minutes to spare. This was followed by a frantic relay race to answer 30 tough questions in, by this time, a very humid hall. The team were calm and worked very well in their pairs and completed an excellent 26 questions in the time allowed with very few errors. Had they done enough to at least match last year’s excellent third place? The results were read out and the team’s smiles and excitement told that the St. Olave’s team had won and were the National Champions for 2017, receiving their trophy from the popular science and mathematics author Simon Singh.

This represents a fantastic achievement and was very well deserved. A special mention should also be made, with thanks, of Hieronim Lecybyl and Rashid Bossong for their support as team reserves and also Mr Maltman for mentoring the team.

Submitted by C Slyfield