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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If you haven’t had a chance to pick up a copy you can download the first edition of Squirrel for 2010 here.

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Vic has had another good outcome at Worlds in Antalya, Turkey over the New Year.

On the team front, Vic A (Polly Higbee, Stephen Whittington) broke to the octo-finals where they lost out to Kingston A and eventual Grand Finalists, the London School of Economics A. Both Vic B (Seb Templeton, Ella Edginton) and Vic C (Kathy Scott-Dowell) needed only one more point to make the break.

On the judging front, all four Victoria judges (Chris Bishop, Jono Orpin, Gareth Richards, Jesse Wilson) broke – with Jono judging a semi-final, and Chris all the way to the Grand Final.

On the speaker tab Vic had four speakers in the top fifty in the world out of 800 competitors. Stephen Whittington and Ella Edginton were 41st equal, Polly Higbee was 37th, and Seb Templeton was 18th.

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Vic has come out victorious at the NZ Open British Parliamentary Champs from the 20 – 22 November.

The team ‘Two men and one moral high horse’ of Udayan Mukherjee and Paul Smith won the Grand Final in Parliament’s Legislative Council Chambers from closing opposition on the motion This House would ban criminals from publishing accounts of their crimes.

Many thanks go to Gareth Richards, the Chief Adjudicator, and to Sarah Wislon, Nigel Smith, and Alex Sinclair for their work as co-conveners.

The full results are:

Winners: Udayan Mukherjee, Paul Smith
Grand Finalists: Polly Higbee, Stephen Whittington
Semi Finalists:

• Kathy Scott-Dowell, Richard D’Ath;
• Josh Cameron, Holly Jenkins;
• Jono Orpin, Ellen Thomson (Composite)

Most Promising Speaker: Ellen Thomson
Top 10 Speakers:

• Stephen Whittington (2nd)
• Polly Higbee (3rd)
• Clodagh O’Connor-McKenna (4th)
• Josh Cameron (5th =)
• Richard D’Ath (5th =)
• Hugh McCaffrey (9th =)

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Hello all,

Hope exams are going swimmingly. Below is some info about the women’s mini day in this year’s BP Champs. Teams wanting to enter should email pollyhigbee@gmail.com by 13th November. It should be an excellent day.

Women’s BP mini day – 20 November

What:

A series of practice debates for female debaters before the New Zealand British Parliamentary Debating Championships. Please bring $5 in cash for lunch.

Who:

Teams of two female debaters. Debaters are encouraged to attend in ‘pro-am’ pairs (i.e. a more experienced debater debates with a novice debater) however this is not mandatory. Debating teams can be made up of any student/non-student combination from any university whether in New Zealand or outside of New Zealand. If you are interested in debating but do not have a teammate please email pollyhigbee@gmail.com.

When:

20^th November 2009 – 9am to 4.30pm

Where:

Student Union Building, Kelburn Campus, Victoria University of Wellington

Format:

The debates will be held in the British Parliamentary Debating style, with four teams of two facing off against each other in the positions of Opening Government, Opening Opposition, Closing Government, and Closing Opposition.

Schedule:

9am Welcome and roll call

9.15am Seminar on the Worlds style

9.45am Topic for Round One announced

10.00am Round One begins

11.30am Round Two topic announced

1.00pm Lunch

2.00pm Topic for Round Three announced

2.15pm Round Three

4.00pm wrap up

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