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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In another great tournament, Vic has taken out the Officers Cup at University Games for the massive eleventh year in a row. On top of that it was the fourth consecutive year with two Vic teams facing off in the final.

The results were:

Winners: Vic 1 (Seb Templeton, Richard D’Ath)
Runners Up: Vic 2 (Yogesh Patel, Ella Edginton)
Best Speaker: Richard D’Ath
NZ Team: Seb Templeton (Captain), Richard D’Ath
First Reserve: Kathy Scott-Dowell
Highly Commended: Ella Edginton
Promising Speaker: Alex Olssen
Accrediting trainees: Sarah Wilson, Frances Ratner

On top of that Polly Higbee was the Chief Adjudicator and ran an exceptional tournament, and Stephen Whittington was one of the tournament selectors. Both judged the final. Extra thanks go to them and also to Hugh McCaffrey for organising the accomodation, transport, and squad generally, and to Aidan Beckett and Jenna Raeburn who convened an amazing tournament away at Hawera.

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Vic One: Two wins
Vic Two: Four wins (top of tab)
Vic Three: Two wins
Vic Four: Three wins
Vic Five: Two wins

Every Vic team is in with a chance of breaking going into the last day (three rounds).

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Round One results from Easters 2009:

Vic One (Templeton/D’Ath) defeat Swing
Vic Two (Patel/Edginton) defeat Auckland Four
Vic Three (McCaffrey/Scott-Dowell) lose to Auckland Three
Vic Four (Mukherjee/Jenkins) lose to Auckland Two
Vic Five (Tichborne/Olssen) defeat Auckland One

After one round, Vic teams are one:

Vic One: 1
Vic Two: 1
Vic Three: 0
Vic Four: 0
Vic Five: 1

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Vic 1

Seb Templeton
Richard D’Ath

Vic 2

Yogesh Patel
Ella Edginton

Vic 3

Kathy Scott-Dowell
Hugh McCaffrey

Vic 4

Holly Jenkins
Udayan Mukherjee

Vic 5

Ihaia Tichborne
Alex Olssen

Reserves:

1. Nigel Smith
2. Frances Ratner

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Easters is held as part of University Games, this year in New Plymouth. It’s from Tuesday 14th – Friday 17th April, the first week of our mid-trimester holidays. Our trials for Easters are going to be held on Thursday, from 6pm in the Student Union Building. If you want to trial and haven’t put your name down on the sheet or emailed in already, email this address with your intention and speaking position (1st or 2nd or either) by this Tuesday evening (31 March). There are also spots for trainee adjudicators, and normal adjudicators if you’ve already accreditted at a tournament. Get your emails in for those spots too. Feel free to send us a “traineeing if not selected email” to make sure you’ve got a chance to come along either way!

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Come along on Wednesday to get a bit of practice in before the Easters trials the following night. We’ll quickly go over how the style works and then get straight into some practice debates. If you want an explanation of how the style works check out the debating styles section of the website here. Easters is a 2 on 2 style – the one we showed you at our introduction evening in week 2.

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Debsoc has a massive history at University Games in what we call the Easters tournament. Not only have we won the competition for 10 years in a row now, but we were one of the three original sports at Uni Games. Yes, I said sports. Easters is the style which we showed you on the very first introduction night. Easters this year is in New Plymouth from Tuesday 14th – Friday 17th April (in the holidays). Why are we telling you this? Next Wednesday (1 April) we’ll be having a night where we quickly explain the style and give you a chance to have a go at it. The night after that (Thursday 2 April) will be our trials for Easters.

Everyone that is keen to go away is definitely encouraged to trial for Easters – it’s a great opportunity to go away to a very prestigous tournament. Also, if you don’t make a team or don’t feel like debating, there are spots open for trainee adjudicators. Traineeing gives people the chance to sit with the judges each round and talk to them after the debate. If a traineee is good enough over the tournament, they will accredit and become a fully qualified New Zealand adjudicator. It’s a really good thing to do.

If you’re keen to trial or trainee (or put your name down for both), or if you’re already accreditted and want to adjudicate, keep an eye out for more details to come soon.

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Click here for a a year-by-year run down of the ten years of amazing success.

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