O-R-D-E-A-L in Washington

Having come within one word (afflatus) of winning last year's Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee, dark-haired Sandra Owen, 14, of Navarre, Ohio, had thought of practically nothing else but boning up for another crack at the title. Her second chance came last week when the 67 finalists assembled in the Commerce Department's auditorium for this year's bee in Washington, D.C.

At first, the words that rolled so precisely off the pronouncer's tongue ("All-right-y. Yours is an old spelling-bee favorite, the study of fishes: ik-thee-olo-gee") seemed a cinch. By lunchtime. Mrs. Wilford White, the chief judge, had rung her bell only 16 times to signal the fall of contestants. But after lunch, the pronouncer began to give out words that even he admitted he could not define.

An Extra "R." In Round 18, popular Fred Souk, 13, who had flown all the way from the Azores, where his father works, threw an extra "r" into fanfaronade, and only five spellers were left. Then the only remaining male, Ken Finkel of Atlanta, left one "l" out of favillous. Sandra Owen was unshakable on sequela. Mary Gilliland of Fort Worth hesitated on butyraceous but managed to get by, and redheaded Dana Bennett, 13, of Denver, tossed off ovoviviparous as if it were cat. Poor Jolitta Schlehuber of Topeka, however, substituted an "s" for a "c" in racemiform. And so there were three.

By that time, Mary Gilliland, whose thick drawl had made trouble for the judges, was clearly over her head: in Round 23, she spelled eudaemonic with a "y" That left Sandra facing only Dana.

An Extra "O." The girls ticked off aquarellist, staphylococcic, gracilescent, adscititious, eupraxia, argillaceous, autochthan and umbelliferous. Then, when the pronouncer had only six of his 630 words left, Sandra spelled Xylophagus with a g-o-u-s, and Dana got it right. It seemed as if Sandra had wound up exactly as she had a year ago--until the judges found that her xylophagous was acceptable.

When she learned that she still had a chance, Sandra burst into tears. Handlers bustled her out into the hall and finally, red-eyed and minus her glasses, she was able to resume. Dana got grisaille, Sandra videlicet. Sandra also got logomachy, while Dana got triskelion and cuproiodar-gyrite. With that, all 630 words were gone, but someone happened to have a supplementary list.

An Extra "P." Sandra got trirhomboidal, and when Dana spelled lapicide with an "s," her first chance of victory. But Sandra was even further off with lappiside. Dana spelled nasillate nasalate, but Sandra muffed again with nasilate. The same thing happened when Dana turned scelotyrbe into scelloturby, and Sandra made it skelloturby. The girls recovered on cerumen, chaffinch and ichneumon. Then the pronouncer said: "Schappe."

Said Dana: "S-c-h-a-p-p."

Said Sandra: "S-c-h-a-u-p."

It was all too much for the audience--and the Scripps-Howard representative. Said he wearily, as Sandra realized that a tie can be as sweet as a victory: "We're so tickled to have such top spellers that we've decided to award first prizes of $1,000 to both girls."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.