Jamaica College is back in the finals of the Schools’ Challenge Quiz Final and looking to avenge last year’s loss. Riding on the high of their recent win in the 2026 ISSA GraceKennedy Boys & Girls Athletics Championship, the True Blues are looking to continue their winning tradition of excellence.

In the SCQ semi-final showdown versus Wolmer’s Boys, dubbed as a comeback match, both teams wanted a win but for different reasons. For Wolmer’s, they wanted to even the series. Having learned that the series in the other semi-final bracket between Westwood Girls and Dinthill Technical High was tied 1-1, the Maroon and Gold team was hoping to do the same. But the boys from 189 Old Hope Road had other ideas. They too wanted their own comeback, but for a bigger occasion: return to the national stage as quiz finalists, and ultimate winners.

Wolmer’s was the immediate obstacle, and having dispatched them last year, the confidence was up for this year, with three returning players from last year’s team. Wolmer’s came to fight and did not make it easy for the True Blue Team.

In the First Section, Wolmer’s had a fast start out of the blocks, taking and maintaining the lead at 1-0, 2-0, 3-1, 4-2. With 15 seconds remaining, the undaunted JC team clawed back, reducing Wolmer’s margin to 4-5, and eventually evened the score at 5-5 after a successful query to the meaning of the idiomatic expression ‘to hit below the belt’, which JC answered as ‘to act unfairly’. That answer was a harbinger of how strictly the judges were going to scrutinise JC’s answers.

With the scores even, the Minutes Section offered the opportunity for the “One College” to separate itself. After all, it had been our best section all season, as it allowed the boys to demonstrate their unmatched superior knowledge.   

Wolmer’s jumped out in that section, scoring a respectable 8 points, their highest output in the series. The boys from Old Hope Road remained calm and unbothered,  maintaining their humility and focus to answer any question. From the First Section, it was obvious that JC would receive the harder set of questions. Nonetheless, they found their Griffin spirit to outpace their Heroes Circle-based opponents by a whopping 10 points. With the scores on 15 -13, it was Wolmer’s turn to respond. Already trailing in the match, Wolmer’s struggled to surpass their first-minute score of 8 points. Scoring only 7 points, and with JC already leading, that did not help them in their comeback. To alleviate their unease, JC only scored 7 points in the 2nd minute, providing Wolmer’s with a bit of respite, as the lead was still only 2 points, at 22-20.

Needing to better their score in the third minute, Wolmer’s remembered that it was the said minute where they lost the first match against JC. Then, they only scored one point. This time they scored 6 points, fading from 8 to 7 to 6 points to round off the minutes section on 26 points. Seeing Wolmer’s final output in the minutes section, and with the score on 22-26, Team JC went to work, adding 8 points to make the score 30-26 entering the buzzer section. With two successful queries, JC extended their lead to 32-26.

With their faltering season on the line, Wolmer’s showed some degree of aggression, outpressing JC 6 to 5 times. But only four of their buzzer pushes were correct answers, putting them at only 30 points.  Team JC was a little more efficient from their 5 presses, with 3 correct and 2 incorrect. That was enough to give JC an additional 2 points to end the match on 32 points. With such a commanding cushion and the clock winding down, it was sufficient light at the end of the tunnel to put Jamaica College into the 2026 Schools’ Challenge Quiz Final. Jamaica College, following its sole win in 1987 (versus Calabar), is now looking to avenge last year’s loss versus Titchfield and lift the trophy when they take on Westwood High.