The meeting was opened by the President, Niki Boersma who, following a short business meeting, handed the gavel to the Chairman for the evening, Peter Wilson. This was the Wetherby Speakers’ Club Annual Speaking Competition and there were five entries.
The first speaker was Niki Boersma with a speech entitled “Pub Cricket” and she was followed by Chris Clissitt who spoke on the subject “Just Chill”. The third speaker was Tim Hunter who brought along a sample to illustrate his speech on “Home Brew” and everyone managed to sober up to hear speaker number four Neil Wilson talk about being “On Her Majesty’s Public Service. The competition concluded with Howard Herbert telling us about “My Car”.
The judges Jan Millar and Mavis Cryer had a difficult job which they performed with their usual thoroughness and after giving some useful speaking tips announced that the winner was Chris Clissitt and the runner-up, Neil Wilson both of whom will go forward to the Area Speech Competition at York in January. The members congratulated the two winners and wished them luck at the next stage.
Jocelyn Brooks chaired the Topics session which involved participants speaking for two minutes on chosen English idioms and other familiar sayings. After each speaker, Jocelyn explained the origin of the individual topic.
Tim Hunter gave a thorough evaluation of the Topics Session and the meeting was closed by Niki Boersma in her role as Club President.