How's your spelling? Would you feel confident with words like perennial, regurgitate and reminisce?Pupils from schools across the region were in Norwich yesterday to put their word power to the test in the semi-final of the country's first national spelling competition.

How's your spelling? Would you feel confident with words like perennial, regurgitate and reminisce?

Pupils from schools across the region were in Norwich yesterday to put their word power to the test in the semi-final of the country's first national spelling competition.

Flegg High School, Martham, near Yarmouth, was the only local representative in The Times Spelling Bee event, held at the Odeon Riverside cinema. More than 750 schools from across the UK initially entered the competition.

The Flegg team - The Fleggheads - comprised Joe Isaacs, Nathan Jones, Ashlea Brooks and reserve Jack Salter, all 12. They came eighth out of the nine teams, with 40 points after two rounds. They were accompanied by English teacher Claire Galeski, who said: “I'm pleased with how they have done. They're the only local school represented here. The stan-dard has been very high, especially considering all the children are 11 and 12. There is an over-reliance on computer spell-checkers these days but being able to spell is important.”

The winning team from St Martin's School, Northwood, Middlesex, scored 86 points and will now go through to the national final at Odeon Leicester Square, London, on June 23.