Sixth Form students have won the regional heat of the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust (UKMT) Senior Team Maths Challenge, to qualify for the national final in London next year. Team member Peter Massey has written the following report:
‘Come mid-November and the attention of the maths department turned once again to the UKMT team maths challenge. Since dominating the competition last year, Pocklington School’s 1st IV had seen two titans of the maths world, Louisa Cullen and Peter Wu, depart from the team and the emotional retirement of team manager and Head of Maths, Mr Cullen. This had meant a hectic start to the new season’s training with house drama and injuries plaguing the team.
On the 14th of November, just past midday, the chosen four, Upper Sixth students Peter Massey and Tom Bean and Lower Sixth students, Alfie Hall and Nick Wang, departed home turf to travel to the arena that was Beverley Grammar School, along with team coach Mrs Shand, teacher of mathematics at Pocklington School.
The familiar face of ‘Neil the maths guy’ greeted the team, and after settling down and free pens had been distributed, the competition was finally about to begin. Years of practice had led up to this moment and the team didn’t disappoint. Straight out the gates Tom bulldozed his way through the group questions while Peter and Nick weren’t far behind leaving Alfie mulling over a difficult piece of trigonometry. Very soon the pile of questions had vanished leaving just one that the team couldn’t solve within the given time.
The dropped points had fired the team up and they smelt blood in the cross-number round. Aiming for a perfect score the team were immaculate right up until Peter misread a question, losing the only point of the round. There were nervy moments when Tom and Alfie required an unusually lengthy 13 minutes to multiply 81 and 27 but digging deep, they pulled the answer out of the bag meaning an impressive 62 out of 63 on the cross-number.
The final shuttle round had been the team’s weakest in practice and this meant nerves were jangling as the questions were handed out. The first two shuttles however, to everyone’s delight, were immaculately done. But celebrations were premature, as a minor slip by Tom and Alfie meant the subsequent questions were unable to be completed, which may have cost the team dearly.
This meant the ensuing wait for results was a nail-biting affair. Knees were weak, palms were sweaty and Peter’s leg in its cast was feeling rather heavy. However, there were sighs of relief when the announcement came that Pocklington had won, proving that competitive maths is still going strong at Pocklington School!'
A massive thank you goes out to Mrs Shand for travelling with and coaching the team. Well done to the team and good luck at the national finals in London next year!