Chris Clissitt failed to bring home any silverware from the National Contests in Cardiff at the end of April. At the Topics Contest on Friday evening it was all going so well as Chris spoke on “Raising The Bar.” Some kindly observers even said they had him ahead at one stage. But he ignored the extinguishing of the red light at 3 mins 15 secs and continued to speak for 5 more seconds; thus any hopes were in turn extinguished by the obligatory penalty points.
At the Evaluation Contest on Sunday morning he surprisingly completed his evaluation within the allotted 4 minutes, possibly for the first time ever. The evaluation included analysis of the assignment, previous assignments, advice, praise, recommendation – in fact the whole array of ingredients that Chris had previously found impossible to squeeze into 7 or 8 minutes! It was to no avail – once again he was unplaced.
Helen Tate completed a consistent performance by Eastern District by achieving a similar position in the Speech Contest on Saturday afternoon.
It was not all gloom – our District President, Lindsay Dutch of York RISC, was invested as the National Vice President for 2012/13. We wish him every success in this role, and even more success when he goes on to become National President in 2013/14.