Inter-school National Crossword finals on Dec 5- 6

PATNA: The two-day grand finale of the annual inter-school national CCCC Cryptic Crossword Contest (CCCC) 2020 will be held on December 5-6 this year. Because of the prevailing pandemic situation, the contest will be held online.
As many as 40 top teams from across schools in India will vie for the National Crossword Champion trophy in the grand finale.These teams have been shortlisted after two preliminary stages held during the past three months. The preliminary stages saw more than 1,500 school teams from 110 cities in India going through a grueling fight to secure a place in the grand finale; Amitabh Ranjan, the chief operating officer (COO) of the Extra-C, which organises the event, told TOI on Saturday.
The defending champions, The Mother's International School, New Delhi, emerged as the topper of the preliminary rounds. Don Bosco, Patna, DPS Pune, Royal Global School, Guwahati and DPS Ruby Park, Kolkata were the other schools which excelled in the earlier rounds.
The grand finale will comprise quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final.
A school team consists of two students. The contest is open to students of Std VII to XII of schools affiliated to any of the recognized boards in India. Some of the best performing teams have come from schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS).
Acknowledged by the Limca Book of Records as the biggest contest of its type in the country, CCCC 2020 is the eighth in a series. Organised by Patna-based civil society initiative Extra-C, the contest’s inaugural edition was held in 2013. The contest which has a two-stage offline format is one of the most sought after events in a large number of schools spread across the length and breadth of the country. Because of the pandemic, the current edition is being held in an online format.
The winner of last year’s National Crossword Champion trophy was the team of Vijval Ekbote and Harshul Sagar from The Mother’s International School, New Delhi. The team of Omkar Joshi and Atharva Gangal from DAV Public School, Pune, was the runner-up. The team of Adnan Jamal and Anoushka Singh from DPS, Patna, had secured the third position.