In one of the greatest days in the long 112 year history of the Victoria University of Wellington Debating Society, Vic has defended its Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championships title, winning the final 7-2 over the National University of Singapore at the largest ever Australs held.

It was a monumental performance by Debsoc President Seb Templeton, Richard D’Ath and returning champion Udayan Mukherjee. They won 6 from 8 debates in the preliminary rounds, breaking in 4th place. In the octo-finals they knocked over UT Mara before defeating the highly-fancied Sydney 2 in the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals they knocked off the previously unbeaten and top-breaking Monash 1.

Victoria debaters past and present all around New Zealand watched the final on Wednesday night via the live webstream the Korea organisers had set up. In a fortuitous twist of timing, the final took place during the middle of the traditional Wednesday night Debsoc meeting. After a great debate and an agonising wait for the results, Victoria was crowned Australs 2011 Champions! Facebook and Twitter went mad.

There was extra honour for Udayan – he joins a very exclusive club of people to win Australs twice (he’s only the second New Zealander), plus he won the Jock Fanselow Cup for the best speaker in the Grand Final after a stonkin’ third negative speech.

Seb Templeton was named as the 3rd equal best speaker of the tournament, rich reward for a superb tournament where he led from the front for the Society. Richard D’Ath was unluckily ranked just outside the top 10

The Victoria Two team of Asher Emanuel, Paul Smith and Holly Jenkins also performed very well, breaking in 16th place and defeating Melbourne 1 in the double octo-finals before bowing out in the octo-finals to Monash. We’re still waiting on the speaker tab but we’ve no doubt they’ll be high up.

Victoria Three also did amazingly well, winning 5 from 8 debates and missing out on the break on speaker points. With two of the members of this team only in their first year, the future looks very bright.

And finally, Daniel Wilson was given the honour judging the ESL Grand Final. Great work.

It’s worth reflecting on the following amazing stats:

• This is Victoria’s fifth Australs victory since 1975, and the second in a row
• The last university to win back-to-back Australs was Monash in 2000/2001.
• Victoria has now reached the Grand Final of Australs in four of the last five years – an achievement no other university can boast of
• Victoria has reached the quarter-finals at every Australs since 2005
• The last time a Vic team lost in the semi-finals, it was to another Vic team
• Udayan Mukherjee is the only New Zealander to ever win back-to-back Australs and one of two people to ever win it twice
• The Jock Fanselow cup has been won by three New Zealanders in its six year history (all Victoria debaters)

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Even the curse of the unlucky 13 could not stop Victoria’s domination of the 2011 University Games debating tournament (Easters) held in Auckland over the Easter weekend.

Leading the charge to win the tournament for a 13th year in a row for Vic were Victoria One (Udayan Mukherjee and Ella Edginton) and Victoria Two (Asher Emanuel and Paul Smith).

Victoria Two finished the preliminary rounds in second place, with six wins from seven (which included affirming 6 times). Victoria One were one spot further back in third place, having collected five wins.

This set up a Victoria v Victoria semi-final, guaranteeing Victoria a team in the Grand Final. The semi was a cracker of a debate, with Victoria Two eventually prevailing in a 4-1 split decision, affirming “That third parties should be prosecuted for failing to report domestic abuse”.

The Grand Final was a nerve-wracking affair, but Asher and Paul did Vic proud, winning 5-2 after negating “This House opposes a free trade agreement with the USA”. The Officers’ Cup is staying in Wellington for yet another year!

Vic cleaned up in the personal awards as well. Asher Emanuel and Paul Smith were named as the NZ Universities’ Impromptu Debating team, with Ella Edginton as the first reserve and Udayan Mukherjee as the second reserve. Asher won the Dame Cath Tizard Cup as the best speaker of the tournament, and was also named as captain of the NZU Team. Jodie O’Neill received a promising speaker award, good reward for a successful tournament as part of the Vic Three team.

On that note, it’s worth noting  and congratulating Victoria’s other three teams, all of whom did very well as well. Victoria Three (Jodie O’Neill and Duncan McLachlan) finished 5th, missing out on the break by only a couple of speaker points. Victoria Four (Nick Cross and Aric Shakur) finished 8th, on four wins, and Victoria Five (Cameron Price and Johanna McDavitt) finished 12th, also on four wins. That means every Vic team finished in the top half of the draw – a great achievement. With the bulk of the debaters in Vic 3 through 5 being first and second years, the future for Vic is very bright indeed.

On the adjudicatorial front, Stephen Whittington won the Centennial Cup for best adjudicator, and also judged the final along with Seb Templeton (the Chief Adjudicator) and Richard D’Ath (a NZU selector). Christopher Bishop, Jenna Raeburn and Hugh McCaffrey judged the semi-finals. Finally, all three of Vic’s trainees accredited – something that hasn’t happened for a long time. Well done to Campbell Herbert, Emma Smith and Olivia Hall.

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On Monday in the Legislative Council Chamber of Parliament, Victoria won the Joynt Scroll – the most prestigious prize in NZ university debating – for the 5th year in a row. No other university has ever retained the famed shield for such a long period of time. See past Vic winners here.

It was an all-Victoria final, with Victoria 2 (Asher Emanuel, Richard D’Ath and Nick Cross)  narrowly beating Victoria 1 (Jenna Raeburn, Udayan Mukherjee, and Paul Smith) in a 4-3 split decision.  It is the second all-Vic Joynt Scroll final in three years.

Victoria dominated the speaker tab as well, with all six speakers in the top two Vic teams appearing in the top ten speaker list of the tournament. Richard D’Ath topped the tab, winning the President’s Cup for the best speaker of the tournament, which will sit on his mantelpiece alongside the Dame Cath Cup he won earlier in the year for being the best speaker at Easters. Richard is the first person to hold both cups simultaneously since Polly Higbee in 2006/2007. It is the fifth time in a row that Vic has won the President’s Cup. Former winners can be found here.

Richard and Udayan were also named as members of the NZU Prepared Debating Team, with Richard being named captain. Richard and Udayan are also members of the NZU Impromptu Team.

Asher Emanuel and Paul Smith picked up highly commended prizes. Asher also picked up the newly-awarded unofficial “Whittington Cup” for a novice speaker who is ineligible for the Most Promising Cup award (by winning a highly commended – or higher – prize.)

Victoria has now won every major domestic debating tournament since April 2007 and holds the cups for impromptu, parliamentary and prepared debating.

See the Victoria University press release.

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Here are Vic’s Joynt Scroll Teams for 2010. Congrats to all who made teams.

Vic 1: Jenna Raeburn, Udayan Mukherjee, Paul Smith
Vic 2: Asher Emanuel, Richard D’Ath, Nick Cross
Vic 3: Holly Jenkins, Tom Mathews, Jodie O’Neill
Vic 4: Emma Smith, Alex Sinclair, Julia Wells
Reserves: Daniel Wilson, Thomas McKenzie

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On Wednesday night in Auckland at the SkyCity Theatre, Victoria won its fourth ever Australasian Intervarsity Debating title and its first since 1998.

Vic reached the Grand Final of Australs in 2007 and 2009, narrowly losing each year. 2010 was different, with Victoria recording a resounding 8-1 victory over Auckland 2, affirming that the ICC should be able to prosecute crimes against the earth.

Massive congratulations to the winning Victoria 1 team of Udayan Mukherjee, Stephen Whittington, and Ella Edginton. It was Stephen’s third Australs Grand Final appearance in four years, and this time he did not walk away emptyhanded. Along with the Australs trophy Stephen also became the 2nd New Zealander to win the Jock Fanselow Cup for the best speaker in the Australs Grand Final. Stephen also ranked as the second best speaker of the entire tournament, just 0.5 of a mark behind the best speaker.

We also shouldn’t forget the success of the Victoria Two team, who helped make this Victoria’s best Australs performance ever. Victoria Two was knocked out by Victoria One in an amazing Vic-Vic semi-final (such events usually happen only at NZ-only tournaments!). Congrats to Seb Templeton, Richard D’Ath, and Paul Smith. Special congrats to Seb Templeton, who ranked as the 7th equal best speaker of the tournament.

Every other Vic team did well as well. Victoria Three (Jenna Raeburn, Hugh McCaffrey and Holly Jenkins) ranked 24th, missing out on breaking only on speaker points. Victoria Four (Asher Emanuel, Nick Cross and Jodie O’Neill), all at their first Australs, finished on four wins and threatened some big name teams along the way. Victoria 5 and 6 also finished on four wins each as well.

This Australs victory in many ways is the culmination of five years of steady improvement by Victoria at Australs – from the quarters in 2005, to the heart-breaking losses in the Grand Finals of 2007 and 2009, and now finally a well-earned victory in 2010. The future looks very bright indeed, with Australs champions Udayan and Ella only in their third year of study, semi-finalists Paul Smith and Richard D’Ath in their fourth year, and a crop of talened new first years coming through as well.

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Massive thanks go to our selectors – Jono Orpin, Clodagh O’Connor-McKenna, Gareth Richards, Joe Connell, Polly Higbee, Josh Cameron. We now have a full and final squad of six teams, five judges:

Vic 1

Udayan Mukherjee
Stephen Whittington
Ella Edginton

Vic 2

Seb Templeton
Richard D’Ath
Paul Smith

Vic 3

Jenna Raeburn
Hugh McCaffrey
Holly Jenkins

Vic 4

Nick Cross
Asher Emanuel
Jodie O’Neill

Vic 5

Ihaia Tichborne
Sam Ward
Daniel Wilson

Vic 6

Aidan Beckett
Elisha Hsao
Brent Perry

Judges

Clodagh O’Connor-McKenna
Chamanthie Sinhalage
Cameron Harper
Prin Moodley
Channy Mao

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Once again Vic has come back from Thropy tired but full of joy and excitement and plans for Palmy North 2010 and Ahmed Zhaoui’s new kebab stand in the PN square. Vic sent a very strong squad, and broke two teams. Julia Wells, Nicola Wood, Cassandra Shih broke first as they only unbeaten team in the rounds, and Asher Emanuel, Jasmin Moran, Jodie O’Neill broke third. Unfortunately both teams lost in close semi-finals, giving Auckland two teams in the final.

On the individual front the squad had huge success, including taking three of the top four speaker awards. Asher Emanuel blew people away in his winning of the Chalice of the Future for the Best Speaker at Thropy. He and Jodie O’Neill were named in the North Island Debating Team, and Campbell Herbert was the first reserve to that team. Julia Wells and Jasmin Moran won Highly Commended speaker awards.

In terms of judging Seb Templeton, Clodagh O’Connor-McKenna, Hugh McCaffrey, Richard D’Ath and Ihaia Tichborne all broke to the semi-finals in a very competitive judges break. Seb, Clodagh and Hugh judged the Grand Final also. Philip Belesky had a fantastic tournament as a trainee became an officially qualified NZUDC accredited adjudicator with ease. The other Vic trainees performed very well, and some came extremely close to accreditation.

While sad to lose our beloved Thropy, the squad should be proud of themselves. The Victoria competitors were outstanding and the break and speaker prizes made it clear that while Auckland have the Thropy for this year, it was an extremely close run thing. Their persistence has paid off, and there was always going to be an inevitable Auckland win some time very soon. The strength of our squad says great things about our level of adjudication skill, and bodes well looking forward to some great novices entering Easters and Joynt Scroll teams in the near future.

A massive, massive thank you goes out to Ihaia Tichborne for leading the squad and sorting out everything; to Seb Templeton for chief adjudicating the tournament; and to Johnny Crawford, Campbell Herbert, Jodie O’Neill, Ashleigh Bennett, Emma Smith, Alex Sinclair, and Hugh McCaffrey for driving us to the ‘Tron.

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Great news from Invercargill. Victoria has won the Officers Cup for the twelfth year in a row. The mighty Victoria Two team (Seb Templeton and Richard D’Ath) took down Auckland Two (Steph Thompson and Akif Malik) in the Grand Final in a 4-1 decision. Victoria One (Udayan Mukherjee and Paul Smith) also broke (in 1st place) but lost to Auckland Two in a close 2-1 semi-final decision.

Victoria dominated the individual speaker awards. Richard was named as the Easters best speaker for the second year in row (winning the Dame Cath Tizard Cup) and also made the NZ Universities’ Impromptu Team for the third year in a row. Joining him in the team is Udayan Mukherjee, who was also named as captain. Seb Templeton was named as the first reserve.

Paul Smith won the Russell McVeagh Cup for the Most Promising Speaker, and Sam Ward won a promising award. Yogesh Patel won the Centennial Cup for best adjudicator, and Daniel Wilson won the Sir David Beattie Cup for public speaking. Victoria won every trophy going!

Seb Templeton joins an elite club of people to win the Officers Cup twice after his victory last year (other Victoria members of the club – Stephen Whittington who won in 06 and 07, Christopher Bishop in 04 and 05, Chelsea Payne in 00 and 02, Nicola Willis in 01 and 02, Rob Salmond in 96 and 97, and Ryan Orange in 96 and 97).

Richard D’Ath becomes one of only two people to have won Easters an incredible three times – in 2008, 2009 and now 2010. Only Anna Adams from Auckland, in the early 1990s, has achieved such a feat. He’s also one of only a few people to twice win the Dame Cath Tizard Cup for the best speaker.

Udayan’s achievements are also noteworthy – the Most Promising Speaker at Joynt Scroll last year is now the Captain of the NZU Impromptu Team!

Finally, Seb Templeton has now won the last four traditional NZ domestic tournaments – surely something that has not occurred before. He has simultaneously held for two years now, the Joynt Scroll (2008), the Officers Cup (2009), Joynt Scroll (2009) and now the Officers Cup (2010).

Go Vic!

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Congratulations to the squad selected for Easters this April. Thanks to all who trialed, Ihaia for swinging, and Ranald, Bish, Clodagh, Polly, Gareth for selecting.

Vic 1: Udayan Mukherjee, Paul Smith
Vic 2: Seb Templeton, Richard D’Ath
Vic 3: Sam Ward, Tom Matthews
Vic 4: Nick Cross, Asher Emanuel
Vic 5: Daniel Wilson, Lauren Brazier

First reserve: Frances Ratner

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Hi all, welcome to the society! Come along to the Union Hall this Wednesday 10th March at 6:30pm. It’s our introduction night and a great place to start meeting people or, if you’re still deciding, do just that – decide to join the society.

We’ll have an introduction debate to show you what it’s all about, and we’ll be telling you a little more about the society. There will also be an election for a first year representative to serve on our executive committee and represent first year views. So if you’re first year you should have a think about whether you want to run for that position.

There will also be heaps of free pizza for all who come along, and we’ll be going to town afterwards for some great drinks deals and a chance to further meet and greet.

See you there!

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