Archive for January, 2013

The Vale of York Area Speaking Competition took place at the Railway Institute in York and was hosted by the York RI Speakers’ Club. The contest was opened by the President of York RI Club, Mary Donohoe who introduced the Chief Judge, Sandra Barton and her fellow judges Bill Mitchell and Chris Birch, all from the Wharfedale Speakers’ Club.

 In front of a sizable audience and in spite of stiff competition the winners were as follows:

 Speech Competition                        Chris Clissitt             Wetherby

Evaluation Competition:                   Neil Wilson                Wetherby

Topics Competition                          Niki Boersma             Wetherby

 The winners were congratulated and the judges thanked for their deliberations, particularly Sandra Barton who presented the results and gave the judges appraisals of the candidates’ performances. Mary Donohoe then closed the proceedings.

 Chris, Neil and Niki will now represent the Vale of York Area at the Eastern District Contests and AGM held at 1.00 pm for 1.30 pm on Sunday 17th February 2013 at the Bridge Inn Hotel, Walshford, Near Wetherby, LS22 5HS, the winners of which will go forward to the National Competition held in April in Solihull.

The meeting was opened by the past President, Howard Herbert in place of the President, Niki Boersma who was unable to attend. The Chairman for the evening was Peter Wilson who ensured that the judge, the candidates and the members of the audience were all familiar with the rules of the Evaluation Competition.

 The winner of the previous Evaluation competition, Chris Clissitt was unable to enter as the rules disallowed national finalists from taking part in the competition in the following year. Chris spoke on the subject of Strivers which was unusual yet demonstrated his ability particularly in the use of alliteration, word pictures and gestures. The candidates had to evaluate the speaker on his use of voice.

 The rules were strictly adhered to both from the point of view of the timing and the presentation of the evaluations by the candidates. The judge, past National President of the Association of Speakers’ Clubs, Sandra Barton, gave a full and encouraging appraisal of each of the candidates before declaring that the two people chosen to go forward to the Area Competition in York on 13^th January 2013 were Neil Wilson and Howard Herbert.

 A Topics Session followed led by Howard Herbert and evaluated by Peter Ryans. Peter Wilson then thanked Sandra Barton for being the judge and Howard Herbert closed the meeting encouraging members of the Wetherby Club to attend the Area Contest to support all the entrants from Wetherby.