From Alan McMahon, Area 61 Governor
On Sunday 6 October, Area 61 held the Humorous and TT contest to a packed house at HOD Speakers fantastic new venue, The Bridge in Harrow & Wealdstone. Thanks to HOD for hosting us and providing copious quantities of tea, coffee, cake and biscuits. All agreed that chucking the diet in the bin for the day was the right thing to do though some had difficulty exiting the building afterwards.
Both contests were chaired by superstar and compeer extraordinaire Kevin Baggs from East Herts Speakers, continuing the long collaboration between the Area 61 and Area 20 Clubs.
We had four marvelous humorous speeches with Goulled Abdbillahi recounting amongst many things his first flight and its unusual passengers, Angela Lansbury who talked of the fear of flying or rather her husband’s fears of flying with her, Warren Sheng regaled us with tales of annoying tenants and Iain Hutchinson…well you ‘ll have to come to the Division L contests to find out…
Iain from Watford Speakers won the Humorous Speech competition and Goulled from TJXpressions came second. Well done to both and a point of note, this was only Goulled’s third speech, a mighty effort, well done again.
We then had Goulled Abdillahi, Nigel Ashford, Coralie Frances, Angela Lansbury and Gill Ornstein discussing in the Table Topics Competition whether “too many cooks spoil the broth or many hands make light work”.
Setting out a clear and convincing argument for and against both camps Coralie from Watford Speakers won the competition; Gill Ornstein from HOD came second, with Nigel Ashford of Croxley Communicators coming third.
Pictured L: Coralie and Ian
Alan McMahon, Area 61 Governor, then closed the event, encouraging all present to attend the Division L and B competitions in London, and the District 91 Conference in Brighton.
Alan noted that the District 91Conference started on Friday 31 October, with a Halloween fancy dress party at which most of the audience would fit in without too much preparation!
It was wonderful to have representatives from all the Area Clubs taking part and a big thanks once again to HOD for hosting it, and to all the functionaries, judges and Chief Judge Ian Perry of East Herts Speakers, and to all the members of the audience, Toastmasters & guests.
Please come to support the winners at the Division L contest on Thursday 16 October 2014 at Cass Business School. Book your FREE place HEREl https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/division-l-humorous-speech-and-table-topics-contests-tickets-13457155715
