A Warwick Academy student won a trip to Disney World for her family by winning the Bermuda Spelldown 2006 on Saturday.

Amber Wilson, 11, beat out ten other top-notch spelling champs in a tense showdown in front of family and friends at Mount Saint Agnes Academy (MSA).

?I honestly didn?t think I would win at first because everyone is so good,? Miss Wilson said. ?When I won I was blushing. I didn?t know all my friends were in the audience so when they came up and gave me all these flowers I was like ?yay?! So I thanked my friends and all that stuff. I?m just excited and can?t wait to go to Disney.?

In addition, Miss Wilson won a laptop computer and office equipment for her school, while first runner-up Kara Boyles, 10, of Harrington Sound also won a laptop and Jevon Swan, 10, of Paget Primary won an I-pod.

Listing her interests as dancing and acting, Miss Wilson has already achieved a comfort level with being on the stage.

She has performed in two pantomimes ? ?Robinson Crusoe? and ?The Three-Little Bears? ? while at school.

?I want to be an architect but if that does not work out, an actor,? she said.

She remembered seeing her winning word ? recommendation ? before in a movie.

?I wasn?t nervous at first but when I finally got up here I was like, ?oh my God what am I doing here,?? she said.

After 11 gruelling rounds ? in which contestants correctly spelled some tough words like bureaucracy, candelabrum, erysipelas, lugubrious, masseuse and prodigious ? Miss Wilson emerged on top of the spelling heap.

Only six contestants remained after the first five rounds, drawn from a list of 400 words they had studied since September.

Misspellings for artillery, descendant and correspondence led to a three-way play-off between Miss Wilson, Miss Boyles and Mr. Swan for top honours.

The words indices and scrimmage proved too tough for the runners-up to tackle, however.

Other unfamiliar words resulted in imaginative spellings including ? ?disarbernent? for disarmament, ?ountargue? for entourage, ?monaree? for monarchy and ?tobuloysis? for tuberculosis.

When head judge Gerald Begeman announced Miss Wilson was the Bermuda Spelldown 2006 champ, her supporters cheered her victory.

A Bermuda College sponsored event since 2004, College President Dr. Charles Green said the contest helps produce Bermuda?s future leaders.

?Bermuda College is happy to be a sponsor of this community event and we are so proud of the young people and looking forward to each and every participant and all of their classmates coming to Bermuda College,? Dr. Green said.

Education and Development Minister Terry Lister said he was particularly pleased with all of the finalists ? Jumoke Stovell, 10, of Elliott Primary, Staesha Pitcher, 10, of St. David?s Primary, Liam Nash, 10, of Somersfield Academy, Shant? Young of Purvis Primary, Rasheed Walkes, 10, of Somerset Primary, Aqueelah Simmons, 9, of Prospect Primary, Jessica Sinclair, 9, of MSA and Ben Green, 10, of Saltus.

?I don?t think I could have spelled any of those words,? Mr. Lister said.