Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Feb 27/02) - Next month's Arctic Winter Games will not be the only test of NWT pride this year.

Three students from St. Patrick high recently took a trip to Toronto to represent their territory at the inaugural season of CBC's Smart Ask.

Describing themselves as "sort of trivia buffs," the two Grade 11 students, Andrew Matthews, Samuel Bourget, and Grade 10 student Kostya Gavrikov, spent half of last year waiting to test their knowledge against Canada's brainiest teens.

They first heard about the new TV show when the school's guidance counsellor, Tony Campbell, suggested they give it a try last June.

After passing a written skill-testing question, the team went on to face Nunavut and the Yukon on CBC radio last October. The trio out-quizzed the Yukon team from Porter Creek High School in Whitehorse, but lost to Iqaluit's Inukshuk high school. Regardless, as the NWT's only representatives, their date in Toronto was assured.

"We originally went down in December, but the CBC technicians went on strike the day we got there," says Matthews. "We watched a Raptors game. It was a great game too."

Fortunately, the team was given a second crack at it earlier this month with a re-match against Porter Creek. This time, however, they would be facing off on camera.

"It's the last round that counts, and they beat us," Bourget laments.

The final score -- 560 points for St. Pat's, 1,400 for Porter Creek.

Despite knowing most of the answers to such questions as, "these are the Daves I know," and "Which two years the Blue Jays won the World Series," it's the quickest to the draw who wins.

"It wasn't like we didn't know the questions," says Matthews. "They just beat us to the buzzer."

Nonetheless, the team says they remain undaunted, and may try again next year. Or maybe they will move on to even bigger things.

"Maybe on Jeopardy," Bourget laughs.

St. Pat's game against Whitehorse appears March 12 on CBC, at 5:30 p.m.