Habs Boys were thrilled to enter a team into the prestigious “Ritangle” maths competition, consisting of Jamie (SFJ3), Noaz (11S2), Joseph (10R1) and led by Oliver (SFM3).

Ritangle 2024 launched on 25 September and saw over 1700 teams register and tackle a series of challenges over ten weeks in a bid to be crowned Ritangle 2024 champions. On 22 November, the race was then on to be the first team to submit the answer to the final question – a series of 3 crossnumber puzzles.

Oliver shared an account of the competition:

“When Miss Harrison, Head of Maths, calls upon the great Habs mathematical contingent to take part in yet another new competition, we are hard-pressed to say no. And so it was that we embarked upon a new journey, with MEI’s annual and hotly contested Ritangle competition. Over the course of the Autumn Term, we solved question after question, until the final challenge released on Friday 22 November.

As the evening progressed, the team rallied, plunging ourselves deep into the glorious abyss that was the three Final Crossnumbers. With the power of programming, mathematics and sheer logic, we had everything complete by the early hours of Saturday morning and went to bed with the sort of invigoration that can only be roused by a true mathematical adventure.

While we did aspire to victory, we were nonetheless pleased to hear of a top 12 runners-up finish. Congratulations are owed in particular to Noaz (11S2) and Joseph (10R1) who, unintimidated by the imposing age recommendation of 16-18 on the Ritangle website, were utterly indispensable to the team. Aspirations are high for next year!”

Well done the fantastic team and supporting staff members on this fantastic achievement!