There were nerves, cheers and triumph at The Capital theatre yesterday as 350 primary school students and their supporters participated in the Bendigo Advertiser Spell It 2011 competition.Hosted by the effervescent BeeBee Bumblebee and set to a loud score of claps and shouts, the spelling bee gathered 13 schools, each competing for team victory and school prizes.The competition culminated in a tense spell-off for third place between team captains from Quarry Hill and Eaglehawk primary schools.Quarry Hill student Erin Mannox, 5, said the spell-off looked hard but team captain Rory had done a “really, really good job,” finally winning on “parallel”.After a round of individual and group spelling tests, Kennington Primary School was announced as the winner and presented with the silver shield by Spell It major sponsor IGA managers Trevor Morison, Ross Mitchell and David Major.The IGA managers congratulated all students on their effort in both spelling and providing support during the day.Winning Kennington student Poppie Conn, 12, said it was “really hard when you’re up on stage”, but team-mate Carina Swift, 10, said she’d “totally overcome her stage fright” with a good dose of adrenaline and her team’s correct spelling of the word ‘‘kaleidoscope’’.Newspapers in Education program manager Liz Zelencich said the day had run smoothly.“It was a brilliant day. And we’ll see everybody back next year for a maths competition,” she said.Bendigo Advertiser promotions manager Damian Keogh said the Advertiser valued Newspapers in Education and saw Spell It as a great way to promote education in a fun way.Mr Keogh thanked IGA for its major sponsorship and other Spell It supporters McDonald’s, which provided lunch, Collins Booksellers, which donated dictionaries for schools, Austar for hats and the City of Greater Bendigo for the venue and judge mayor Rod Fyffe.