LOCAL schools have taken up the challenge to appear in a new television show.

North Bolton Sixth Form College was the audition centre for the second selection round of the new sixth-form version of University Challenge.

The college also had a team auditioning for a part in the show.

The show is being produced by Granada and involves colleges and schools from all over the North-west.

North Bolton was one of the colleges selected from 150 applicants who had taken an initial written test. A total of 75 schools got through and from those 75, 16 will be selected to go into the televised finals in July.

The college's team comprises captain Paula Clarke studying English, history and politics, Scott Ashby studying politics, performing arts and English literature, Tim Parris studying computing, electronics, maths and physics, Ben Burch studying computing, Spanish and physics and reserve Paul Bunker studying English, politics, geography and geology.

Some of the team members are applying to Oxford or Cambridge and all plan to go into higher education.

Other local schools attending the auditions included Rivington and Blackrod High School, Bury Grammar School for Boys and Bury Grammar School for Girls.

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