While many clubs were still holding their club contests, Area 34 shot out of the blocks (unlike their Division Governor who has just managed to write this!). On Tuesday March 31st, they held their Area International Speech and Evaluation contest and what a night it was!
Our friends at Holborn Speakers kindly hosted us (thanks Heike!) and the room was bursting at the seams! There must have been close to sixty people in the room. And this in a room that normally struggles to hold more than 40! I was more than glad that Health and Safety were nowhere to be seen! ;)
Our Contest Chair was Rory Marriott who did a fabulous job of keeping the evening motoring along.
First up was the International Speech contest. The contestants were:
- City of London – Rick Payne
- Early Birds - Richard Stacey
- Grosvenor Square – Alan Thomas
- Holborn Speakers – Jeremy Robinson
- NZICA Bank Speakers – Justin Ryan
- Tube Talk – Ola Arelepo
There were many fine performances with the speeches, Richard telling us of how he dealt with tragedy, Alan making us think about noise and Justin talking about the things that he had learned about finding the perfect place since moving to London.
As ever, there can only be one winner. The results were:
1st Justin Ryan of NZICA Bank
2nd Jeremy Robinson of Holborn
3rd Ola Aralepo of Tube Talk
This was particularly exciting for the folks from NZICA as this was the first winner from their club at Area level. Given they only chartered last year, an excellent result!
Unfortunately, Justin will be sunning himself on some far and distant shore the week of the Division final so won’t be able to make it. Jeremy Robinson will therefore represent the Area at the Division final.
(pic of Justin with Paul Carroll of Athenians and myself below!)
Next up was the Evaluation contest. Our contestants were evaluating a speech about what we could learn from the Indian gurus by John Craddock at Riverside. A great speech that must have been hard to evaluate!
Given the task were the following:
- City of London - Rick Payne
- Early Birds – Richard Stacey
- Grosvenor Square – Phillip Smee
- Tube Talk – David Bennett
- Holborn - Jeremy Robinson
Again, it seemed close but the winners were:
1st Jeremy Robinson of Holborn
2nd David Bennett of Tube Talk
3rd Richard Stacey of Early Birds
So well done to Jeremy who will be represent the Area at the Division final.
(Jeremy and Paul making me look scruffy!)
Thank you to Paul Carroll for stepping in at short notice as Chief Judge and to Rory as Contest Chair. Thank you to our nameless judges. Thanks to all the helpers – Nazia, Andrea, Michaela and Graham etc etc (trying to remember them all now is not easy!). Particular thanks to Jody Belka of Holborn who specially traipsed over London to buy lighting and extension cables. It made a huge difference.
Next up are more Area contests this week and next, followed by the Division final next Wednesday. Did I just mention the Division final for the third time in this article? Aha, maybe that because there are still loads of empty seats waiting and with your name on! Please buy your tickets by following the link here:
Giving support to our Area representatives makes such a difference to them and the evening so please try to come along. It will be a great evening!
PS. A thought to Liz Hobbs, our Area 34 Governor. She has put her back out badly (a slipped disc). She was desperate to come but she is currently struggling to move at all. With her usual humour, she tells me that her pain killing medication is quite fascinating. Liz isn’t old enough to have been there in the 60s but it sounds like she is having a good time recreating the experience!!