The last of the Area contests took place on Wednesday this past week. It was the Area 34 contest. Over 40 people came to support with, as ever, seemingly the entire membership of Tube Talk along to support their entries.
The first half was overseen by Femi Asaolu of Holborn Speakers, his first time as a contest chair. With his unique style, he kept things on an even keel while overseeing the International Speech Contest. By my reckoning, it must have been a close run thing - the quality was so good. However, there can only be one winner and the results were as follows:
1st Ola Arepelo of Tube Talk
2nd Jason Peck of Grosvenor Square
3rd Rick Lowe of Early Birds
I oversaw the second half of the evening - the Evaluation contest. As per usual for when I am hosting an evening, the evening descended into barely controlled chaos! However, we were lucky to be joined by Rachel Ormrod of London Corinthians who gave a fabulous test speech on why we all need to find a place that brings us peace. Her wonderful descriptions of Loch Beanie in Scotland (her place) took me back to my early years being brought up near there. All of the evaluators commended her on her brilliant use of descriptive language to paint pictures in our minds.
Anyhow, the winners of the Evaluation Contest were:
1st Hilary Briggs of Grosvenor Square
2nd David Jones of Holborn Speakers
3rd David Bennett of Tube Talk.
I know I had a great fun evening and hope that everyone else did also.
PS In the picture from right to left are: Dick Dixon, Division B Governor (he who must be obeyed!), Ola Arepelo of Tube Talk, Hilary Briggs of Grosvenor Square and me, Area 34 Governor
