Viv Hardwick talks to two champion spellers from the North-East and their families as the region attempts to clinch the title of BBC1 Hard Spell winner next week.

YOUNG Emma Davies from Billingham hasn't spelt a word wrong in 113 attempts in a new TV contest to find the UK's best speller. Next week, BBC1's Hard Spell will discover which of 50 youngsters is a whizz with words by challenging them with conundrums like aardvark, labyrinthine, abracadabra, penitentiary, sacrilegious and sarcophagus.

There are five hopefuls aged between 11 and 14 from the North-East and Cumbria and on offer to a super speller is the prize of £10,000 of holiday vouchers.

Emma, 11, faced host Eamonn Holmes last weekend in hush-hush filming at the BBC Television Centre as she attempted to win through to the semi-final and final stages. She and her father, Tony, talked last week about her TV adventure to come, as did Matthew Franklin and his mum, Emily, from Hunmanby.

The other regional qualifiers from a heat in Newcastle last month were: Jonathon Leech of Knaresborough; Joshua Tognarelli of Sunderland and Cumbria's Emma Gait.

The winning word which amazed dad Tony was Emma's ability to spell aperitif. He says: "I think one of the worst ones she got was aperitif and she asked what the definition was and then spelled it correctly and I thought 'where did that one come from?'

"I wasn't aware of her being a top 50 speller and I don't think Emma was either. When she got 100 out of 100 for the Northfield School test we were amazed.

"She was the only pupil to gain that mark and had only been at the school for three weeks having just moved up from primary school, so we were quite shocked."

So how is the family coping with this push into the spotlight? "Emma is probably coping with it better than any of us because we've been running around arranging her trip to London."

"We think she's done well because she's probably one of the youngest and was only 11 in June."

Emma is keen on a holiday in Florida if she wins because she and her brother, Adam, 13, both love theme parks.

Her ability to apparently down to mum Bev's career of being a personal assistant to managing directors while dad is a mortgage advisor.

Tony adds: "When they got down to the last five out of 30, children were being eliminated when they spelt a word incorrectly, so you talk about pressure, but I think the audience of parents were probably under more pressure than the children."

Emma says: "I don't mind taking on the boys to see who is best at spelling and I usually beat the ones at school and they go off in a huff. When I got the word aperitif I just pictured it in my head and hoped I would get it right."

Local competition has come from Matthew Franklin from Hunmanby who is also one of the youngest in the competition at 11 years and ten months.

Mum Emily says: "I'm really proud of him and absolutely made up. It's a fantastic thing for him and to have this weekend in London for the filming is a brilliant experience. "I think everybody would like to think their child is in the top 50 spellers in the country.

"They invited anyone who was interested at school to take part in the spelling test and the five best spellers went up to Newcastle to the regional heat and there were about 130 taking part. I was amazed when he rang me up to say he'd got through."

Bringing a BBC camera crew home to film some background on Matthew's family did make his mum feel like she was auditioning for TV's How Clean Is Your House? "I don't think we've decorated for about five years," she admits.

Emily and husband, Robert, who works in school IT for North Yorkshire County Council, have two other sons, Edward, five and Stephen, two.

Emily is an auxiliary nurse and also works with Humanby Playgroup.

"When we are driving along in the car I might say spell 'paraphernalia' and he's been practising with his school friends at lunchtime," says mum.

Emily is desperately hoping that Matthew chooses to visit her sister, his aunt, in Australia for the first time in four years.

"Matthew is talking about going to Russia and was watching Himalaya with Michael Palin, but we're not getting our hopes up because he's done so well to get this far."

Matthew says: "I was a bit nervous sitting there and watching all the others first, but once I was up there is was all right."

Asked if he'd always known he was good at spelling he comments: "Yes, actually. When it comes to spelling my friends always ask me."

He also confirmed mum's suspicions by revealing he's planning trips to Russia, Tibet and a world-wide trip and, finally, Australia.

On the thorny question of whether children should be asked to compete in a contest to find a winner and, of course, 49 losers, he says: "I think that to find out who is best you have to compete. If I lose I've got something to look forward to because when I get home my parents have bought me a computer game I wanted as a reward already.

"It's quite a scary thought being thought of as one of the best 50 spellers in the country and only one of us can be the best."

* Hard Spell starts on Monday on BBC1 at 7pm and runs all week at 7pm with Tuesday or next Thursday featuring the North-East five. The semi-final and final are due to be shown on the weekend of Dec 4-5.

Published: 25/11/2004