Library Team Crowned Chatham’s Spelling Champs In Annual Bee

by Debra Lawless

            CHATHAM --- The Book Bags spelled their way to victory during the popular Sixth Annual Friends of the Eldredge Public Library Spelling Bee, held at the library Sunday afternoon.

            AUBADE, "a psalm or poem greeting the dawn," was the winning word for the champion team consisting of library director Irene Gillies, cataloguer Kate Ferreira and library technician Barbara Stevenson. The team bested the Z-Noughts --- Bob Ryder, Ed Moxon and Andrew Rigg of the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center -- in the seventh head-to-head round.  

The Eldredge Library Book Bags, Barbara Stevenson, Irene Gillies and Kate Ferreira, posed with master of ceremonies Richard Sullivan and pronouncer Bill Litchfield after winning the library’s sixth annual spelling bee Sunday. WILLIAM F. POMEROY/BRUSH11GRAPHICS.COM PHOTO

          Thirteen teams were scheduled to vie for this year's title of best spellers; at the last minute the Chatham police department's team, Chatham Buzz-Fuzz, pulled out as it was occupied elsewhere, investigating a robbery at the Main Street branch of TD Bank earlier in the afternoon. That left 12 teams of Chatham's finest spellers, most of whom were veterans of previous bees.

            "Pronouncer" Bill Litchfield listed the bee rules: he would read the word and define it. Teammates would then have 60 seconds to determine how a word was to be spelled. One teammate would rise and say the word, spell the word, and say it again. Judges were Sheila Marx, Linda Nixon and Ginger Plexico. Andy Marx served as timer. Sitting on the spelling bee committee were, as well as Plexico and Sheila Marx, Barbara Fouhy and Nancy Erskine.

            A clue that things would be different this year came in the practice round. Gone were the easy, give-away words from bees of yore. During the warm-up five of 12 teams were knocked out with the words ABECEDARIAN, CANDELABRUM, MOGIGRAPHIA, EFFLORESCENCE and MAQUILADORA. (Maquiladora? That's a "U.S. or other assembly plant located just below the Mexican border, or in Harwich," Litchfield quipped.) No words here for the faint of heart.

            An air of tension hung over the 36 spellers as the first official round opened with BACCHANAL. This kicked Zoners Peter Acton, Ed Fouhy and Sal Gionfriddo right out of the party. Master of Ceremonies Richard Sullivan led the audience in the packed room in a round of "Happy Trails." Immediately after that The Chronicle's team Black and White & Read All Over --- Jennifer Sexton and Jenny and Tim Wood --- followed the Zoners out with GILLIE, "a male attendant to a Scottish highland chief." The Trustables --- Mary Olmsted, George Dillon and Dick Evans --- left right after that with IDIOSYNCRASY.

            "We'll be out of here at 4:30, folks," Sullivan announced at 4:15. In fact, it would be another hour and a quarter before a victor emerged.

            The Weeping Willows --- newcomers Anne Foster, Babs Lidbeck and Anne O'Brien --- broke the losing streak with OBSEQUIOUS. Then the crowd gasped as another new team, the Ricotta Cheese Whizzes --- Peggy Fuller, Beverly Buckley and Pat Zeiss --- was given MULIEBRITY, meaning "womanhood or the state of being an adult woman."

            Huh?

            "Never heard of it," one of the deposed spellers murmured as the Cheese Whizzes conferred over a pad of paper. Seconds passed. Zeiss rose, said "muliebrity," paused, and then, yes, rattled it off letter perfect.

            "I think we are all as surprised as you are," Litchfield told the beaming Whizzes.

            The Suffer-Jettes, who tied last year with the Quidnuncs for first place, spelled EGREGIOUS. The Suffer-Jettes --- Emmy Schenke, Florence Seldin and Jo Ann Sprague --- represented the League of Women's Voters.

            But the Krazie Koozies --- Joel Deitz, Joe Gagliano and Holly Whiting --- slid out with TOBOGGAN, a seemingly simple word with a load of treacherous vowels.
            And so the rounds continued: CARPACCIO, BASILECT, APHRODISIAC. "No comment at all," Litchfield said. HEBDOMADAL, THRENODY, ALBESCENT. "After adding Clorox to the laundry the gray socks became albescent," Litchfield said. These were serious words for aficionados who work the Sunday crosswords in ink.

            CATERWAUL, DILETTANTE, DYSPEPSIA. The speculative whispering in the refreshment area, where deposed contestants were collecting, grew louder as tension mounted.

            The former champs the Quidnuncs --- Maureen Langille, Ann Stern and Charlie Rader --- were done in in round three with ADIAPHOROUS. The Cheese Whizzes were sent packing in round four with SACRILEGIOUS. The Godspellers --- Steph Bartlett, Ted Fritsch and Maureen Vokey --- were punched out in round five by GABERLUNZIE, "a strolling beggar in Scotland." When the Suffer-Jettes blew up with FOUDROYANT ("flashy, dazzling and explosive") the path opened for a new champ. The Watermarkers --- Marie Williams, Peter Saunders and Susan Kahn --- were given CALLIPYGIAN, "having or otherwise pertaining to well-proportioned buttocks," Litchfield defined it, adding, "I'm not going to use it in an sentence."
            "I don't blame you," Sullivan said.

            The Watermarkers trickled away leaving, at 5:09 p.m., only the Book Bags and the Z-Noughts. New rules came into effect. Both teams would spell the same word by writing it on a board. If both teams either spelled the word correctly or flubbed it, the contest would continue. And so the strange and obscure parade began: NIMIETY, ACAUDATE, ANKH, CATARRH, HAECCEITY and GOBEMOUCHE, "a highly credulous knave."

            And this brought us finally, in the seventh round, to AUBADE, and victory for the Book Bags, the new champs.

            The event raises funds for the library which receives only 55-to-60 percent of its funding through taxes. The library recently came out in the top 10 in a survey of 300 libraries in Massachusetts.

2/25/10