Wellington Speaking Union | Debating in Wellington

Here are the results from the Premier B Grade semi-finals held last week. Winners in bold below. In brackets is where each team broke after the preliminary rounds.

Samuel Marsden Collegiate School (1) v Tawa College (4)
Nga Tawa Diocesan School 1 (6) v Wellington College (2)

The Grand Final for the Fred McComish Trophy will be held on Thursday 24 September at Turnbull House at 7pm.

Samuel Marsden will affirm, and Nga Tawa will negate.

The prepared topic is:  This House believes that parents should have the right to smack their children

Good luck to both teams.

The Victoria Shield is an impromptu debating competition open to anyone in Wellington. It is organised by the Wellington Speaking Union and has been run since 1969. For a list of past winners, see http://www.wsu.co.nz/v-shield/past-winners
 
The tournament is run in Easters style (teams of two, a coin toss to determine topic and sides and then 3 minutes to prepare). Speaking times are 4-6 minutes with 2-3 minute summaries.
 
This year the tournament will be held on Thursday 17 September in the Student Union Building at Victoria University of Wellington (Kelburn campus) from 6.30pm. It is a knock-out tournament, so once you lose, you are out. All the debates take place on the same evening. The winners receive, appropriately, the Victoria Shield.
 
To enter, please email cjsbishop@gmail.com by Tuesday 15 September at 5pm. There is a team cap of 16. Teams will be accepted on a first come, first serve basis. There is no cost to enter.
 
If you are interested in judging, please also email cjsbishop@gmail.com

The Wellington Speaking Union Impromptu Cup for senior and junior students was held yesterday at Wellington Girls’ College.

Twelve teams entered the senior section. After four rounds, the semi-finalists were Chilton St James School, Samuel Marsden Collegiate School, Wellington East Girls’ College, and Scots College. In the semi-finals, Scots defeated Chilton and Marsden defeated Wellington East.

Ultimately in the Grand Final, Samuel Marsden were the winners in a 2-1 split decision, after successfully affirming the motion “This House would ban private gun ownership”. Congrats to Maria English and Dipti Manchanda, who defended the title they won last year, and retained the IMPS Trophy for another year. Commiserations to the Scots team of Nick Cross and James Gavey.

There were thirteen entries in the junior section. The semi-finalists were Scots College, St Mary’s College, Wellington East Girls’ College, and Tawa College. In the semis, Scots defeated Tawa and Wellington East defeated St Mary’s.

In the Grand Final, Scots were deserving winners in a unanimous decision, after affirming the motion “That we should embrace genetic engineering”. Congrats to Ben Guerin and Josh Ramsay who won the Evening Post Cup, and commiserations to Yvette Coyle and Ziming Liu.

Thanks to Clodagh O”Connor-McKenna who convened the senior competition, Udayan Mukherjee who handled the juniors, all the Victoria University of Wellington Debating Society adjudicators, and Wellington Girls’ for hosting.

Here are the results of the Senior Premier A quarter-finals, held tonight at Wellington College. Winning teams in bold.

Samuel Marsden Collegiate School v St Patrick’s College, Silverstream
Scots College v Onslow College
Queen Margaret College v Wellington College
Hutt International Boys’ School v Chilton St James School

The semi-final debates will therefore be between Marsden and Chilton, and Scots and Wellington College.

A hearty congratulations to the two Wellington teams which competed in the Russell McVeagh New Zealand Schools’ Debating Champs over the weekend.

For the first time since 1996, it was a Wellington v Wellington final, after both teams defeated Auckland in the semi-finals.

Eventually, Wellington Black prevailed. Congrats to Carlos Bowkett (Wellington College), Maria English (Samuel Marsden Collegiate) and Jodie O’Neil (Chilton St James School).

Commiserations to Wellington Gold - Nick Cross (Scots College), Julia Wells (Wellington East Girls’) and Jasmin Moran (Chilton St James).

The Wellington teams were coached by regular adjudicators in the WSU competitions – Polly Higbee and Clodagh O’Connor-McKenna coached Wellington Black and Kathy Scott-Dowell and Seb Templeton coached Wellington Gold.

Three Wellington debaters were named as members of the Russell McVeagh New Zealand Schools’ Debating Team – Maria English, Nick Cross, and Jasmin Moran. Jodie O’Neil received a highly commended award.

Maria was also named as the captain of the team and won the prize for the best speaker of the tournament - incredibly, for the third year in a row. She is the only person in the history of NZ schools’ debating to achieve this feat. Congratulations!

For more information, see www.debating.org.nz

Here are the quarter-final results in Senior Certificate. Winners in bold.

Hutt International Boys’ School 1 v Wellington East Girls’ College 1
Wellington College 1 v Wellington College 3
Wellington College 2 v Tawa College [replacing Bishop Viard, who could not debate]
Hutt International Boys’ School 2 v Sacred Heart College

Teams on the left will affirm. Teams on the right will negate

The semi-finals draw is below. Affirmative teams on the left, negative on the right.

Wellington East Girls’ College 1 v Sacred Heart College
Tawa College 3 v Wellington College 1

The topic for the semi-finals is: This house supports child labour in the developing world