OTTAWA

Sylvester the Cat said it best: "Sufferin' succotash."

It's what the lovable Loony Tunes character uttered when he was stymied and it's the word that tripped up Thunder Bay's Logan Turner in the sixth round of the CanWest CanSpell National Spelling Bee here Friday.

The native American word for a dish made of lima beans and corn ends with "sh" but Logan spelled it "succatache" and with that, Thunder Bay's first run at Canadian spelling supremacy was over.

"At least I don't have to wear these again tomorrow," joked a surprisingly serene and visibly relieved Logan as he gazed down at his shiny new black shoes. "And I won't have to worry about studying tonight or going to bed early!"

The Grade 6 student from Agnew H. Johnston public school was proud of the fact that he made it this far. And why not? He's one of 22 finalists from an initial field of 225,000 in cities across the country.

The final group this year is strong. Bee organizers figured they'd whittle the 22 semi-finalists down to 10 and be out of the auditorium by noon for lunch. It was 1 p.m. and there were still 11 finalists and a press conference scheduled on Parliament Hill for 1:30. It took lunch on the bus and a police escort to be on time for words from CanWest executive vice-president David Asper and Moya Greene, president and CEO of lead sponsor Canada Post and media questions for the final 11.

Logan's first word, in a major production telecast live on the Web Friday, was "prattle." He asked only for the definition before spelling it confidently. (Spellers can ask a series of questions including a word's origin, use in a sentence, and alternate pronunciations.)

The first contestant out of the competition was Winnipeg's Chris Sigurdson who misspelled "samaritan."

Logan breezed through Round 2 with "autobahn" while Emilie Lafleur of Montreal bowed out by misspelling "igneous."

"Kremlin" was next for Logan while "cringle" (an eye at the corner of a sail) tripped up Regina's Spencer Warriner.

Logan was successful at spelling "bolivar" (Venezuelan currency) but Maggie Millican of St. John, N.B., fell to the spelling of "tarragon."

Round 5 saw Logan spell "raconteur" but Mikayla Walsh of St. John's, Nfld., was out after misspelling "philipic" (a fiery, damning speech).

Then came that empty succotash bowl that saw Logan listen to the correct spelling from the judges, then walk off stage with a smile on his face, satisfied he'd done his best.

After that, the words just got harder. Try these on someone who you think can spell: "umlaut," "sarsaparilla," "gesundheit," and the word that had Edmonton's Austin Davis delighting the audience with a fist-pumping display of relief: "kibei."

If there was a surprise this day it was the failure of Saskatoon's Anqi Dong to finalize his fourth trip to Canada's spelling bee. Dong's difficulty with "deceptious" had judges searching dictionaries for alternate meanings ("tending deceive; delusive") before he spelled it "disceptious" and stood stunned as the elimination bell was sounded.

The bee was exciting, frustrating but ultimately thrilling as the finalists realized they will be back today to spell for the title.

As for Logan Turner, he was perfectly content to get back to his hotel room Friday to continue his blog, which has drawn scores of encouraging replies from home. Today, he'll sit in the audience with his family, cheering for Canada's next best young speller. Then it's off to Florida for a two-week family vacation.