(the contestants from the contest, Sandra Lawes in the light blue, Joe Gibbs third from the right)
This Saturday, I zoomed up in the Mini to Alconbury Memorial Hall in Alconbury, just outside Peterborough. The occasion was the Division G Humorous Speech and Table Topics contest finals. I was Chief Judge and was joined by Dick Dixon, our Immediate Past Division Governor.
Hosted by Anglia Communicators, it was a great fun occasion.
I arrived at just after 12.00, in time to hear the guest speaker, Chris Howe of ChangeMaker International.
Accompanied by some amazing photographic slides, Chris wound his whole speech (45 minutes) around a single story of his trip to meet with the Maasai Warriors in Kenya. He peppered the speech with amusing humour and anecdotes, particularly about his eccentric travel companion. However, the real meat of the speech was in his observation of the leadership skills that the Maasai Warriors display. He contrasted these masterfully to business life here in the UK. If you get a chance to see Chris in person, I can highly recommend it.
A fabulous buffet lunch was laid on by Anglia Communicators. They had obviously been slaving away creating lovely salad dishes etc. Both Dick and I were most appreciative!!
The afternoon was the contest proper, marshalled by Sandra Lawes as Contest Chair. First up was the Humorous Speech contest. There were plenty of laughs all round but the winners were:
1st Emma Painter with an very funny look at the perils of cooking for dinner parties
2nd Kwaku Sintim-Misa who has us laughing at his attempts to reform the transportation sector in Nigeria. I understand Kwaku has only been a Toastie for a few weeks so his speech was particularly impressive.
3rd Jo Boon amused us with a tale of fear when being the victim of a misunderstanding while in hospital.
After the break was the Table Topics contest finals. Again the standard was very high. Paraphrased, the question asked was ‘The credit crisis is going to cause all of us to have to tighten our belts. What advice do you have for our audience members here today?’
The winners were:
1st Neil Godfrey
2nd Dave Nightingale
3rd Anna Jeoffroy
Unfortunately Neil will not be able to compete at the District finals due to an impending baby arrival so Dave will take his place. The prizes were handed out by Sandra and Joe Gibbs, Lieutenant District Governor for Training and Education.
Both Emma and Dave will be providing top class competition for our Division B winners. Ooooh! Did I mention that the Division B finals are this Wednesday? We are down to the last three or four tickets or so so if you want to come please apply below:
If the tickets are sold out, drop me a line. I will keep a reserve list in case anyone drops out.
I didn’t get all of the banners from the contest but here are a few from some of the clubs there on Saturday. Thank you to Sandra Lawes and James McGintey, Division and Assistant Division Governor of Division G, for inviting me along.
