Senior Premier A Grand Final 2009

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The Senior Premier A Grade Grand Final will be held on Tuesday 22 September at 7pm at the Wellington City Council Chambers.

The motion for the debate is: That New Zealand should become a republic.

Affirming will be Scots College and negating will be Chilton Saint James School.

The winning school will receive the John F Henning Cup, donated in 1961 by the then United States Ambassador to New Zealand, who took a great interest in debating. Past winners can be found here.

The best speaker in the Grand Final will be presented with the Suffrage Cup, donated by the Hutt Valley branch of the National Council of Women, long-time supporters of schools debating. Past winners can be found here.

All involved with Wellington schools debating are invited to attend the Grand Final. You can find a copy of the invitation here.

Premier A Semi-final results; Grand Final Draw

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Last night the Premier A semi-finals were held at Samuel Marsden Collegiate. Both debates were on the topic “That governments should protect endangered languages”.

Chilton defeated Marsden by a 3-0 margin
Scots defeated Wellington College by 2-1

The Grand Final will be on Tuesday 22 September at 7pm at the Wellington City Council Chambers between Chilton St James School and Scots College. More information, including the topic, to come.

Parliamentary Shield 2009

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The Parliamentary Shield, presented in 1909 by the Wellington Members of Parliament to be the trophy for interclub debating, is a prestigious debating competition for adult debaters in Wellington. Past winners can be found here.
 
This year’s Parliamentary Shield will be held entirely over one weekend, rather than on weeknights throughout the year.
 
Here are the key details:
 
Dates: Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October.
 
Venues: Student Union Building, Victoria University on Saturday, Turnbull House/Parliament on Sunday.
 
Timetable: Three rounds of debating on Satursday, one more preliminary round (if necessary) on Sunday morning, semis in afternoon, and Grand Final on late Sunday afternoon at Parliament.
 
Debating style: 3 on 3, with limited preparation of 30 minutes for each debate.
 
Speaking times: 8 minute speeches, with points of information.
 
Team sizes: Teams must be a minimum of three people, with a maximum of five. For a speaker to be eligible to debate in the final they must do at least two debates up to and including the semi-finals.
 
Adjudicators: It is my hope that people not debating in a particular round will volunteer to be used as judges.
 
Other information:
There will be a BYO dinner organised for Saturday night (on an opt-in basis).

Teams need not represent a particular club or society; though obviously can if they wish.

No team cap.

Chief Adjudicator/organiser: Christopher Bishop

Entry fees: $50 per team. This will cover lunch on Saturday and some drinks/nibbles after the Final.

How to enter:
 
Email Christopher Bishop by Friday 25 September with:
Your team name
Name of team captain, their email address, and contact cellphone number
Names of team members
Which team members are qualified/willing to act as adjudicators for rounds they do not debate in.

If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch on [email protected] or 027 683 8993.

Premier B Semi-final Results

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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.

Victoria Shield 2009

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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 [email protected] 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 [email protected]

Marsden retain the Impromptu Cup; Scots win the Junior section

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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.

Premier A Grade – Quarter-final results; Semi-finals Draw

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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.

Congrats to Wellington Regional Teams

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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

Senior Certificate Quarter-final results; Semi-finals Draw

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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

Premier B Grade – Quarter-final Results, Semis Draw

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Here are the results from the Premier B Grade quarter-finals held on Tuesday 28 July. Winners in bold below. In brackets is where each team broke after the preliminary rounds.

Kapiti College (8) v Samuel Marsden Collegiate School (1)
Wellington Girls’ College (7) v Wellington College (2)
Scots College (3) v Nga Tawa Diocesan School 1 (6)
Tawa College (4) v Hutt International Boys’ School (5)

The semis draw is below. Affirming teams on the left.

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

The debates will be held on Tuesday 25 August at the respective affirmative schools.

The prepared topic is: This House would grant amnesty to dictators in exchange for a relinquishment of their power

Good luck to all teams.