Friday 27th March at the Bridge Inn,Walshford, saw the return of the After Dinner Speech Contest, the first for seven years. Huge thanks to Neil Wilson for being the driving force and organiser of the event. Guests attended from clubs all over the region and for the first time the contest was open to non club members.
The scenario was inspired by occasional cabinet meetings being held in provincial towns and cities from 2008, the last being in Goole, Yorkshire in February 2024. Speakers adopted fictitious characters to make the case for their city or town to become a secondary seat of government.
Congratulations to the winner, Peter Wilson, who as Jack Duckworth convinced the judge of the allure of Manchester as the ideal location for government outside London.
The other speakers were Mrs Overall (Niki Boersma) for Birmingham, Basil Fawlty (Howard Herbert) for Torquay, Inspector Morse (Jan Seymour) for Oxford, Desperate Dan (Jim Murison) for Dundee and Alan Partridge (John Holian) for Norwich.
The MC was Rab C Nesbitt (Neil Wilson) and the judge was Denise Adlard.
