Wolverhampton Speakers Club

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Contests
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Site last published: 08/25/09

Speaking Contests


As part of our public speaking we can enter competitions, from our own club competitions right up to national competitions. They are not obligatory, but are a really good experience. Here are some of the details - just click the headings ...

Blarney Stone 2008

This year's competition is to be held on Monday 24th November at 7.30 p.m. and the subjects are "War", "Want" and "Wastage".

The competition will be held at the Bell Hotel, Market Street, Stourbridge (corner of Bell Street and Market Street). Click
HERE for a map.

Result

We were very pleased with the performance of our team on the night - unfortunately the judges obviously didn't think so and the trophy was awarded to Stourbridge.

Our team was Carolyn Micklethwaite (Chair), Roger Cusworth (War), Ralph Weaver (Wastage) and Brian Micklethwaite (Want).

The team would like to give a big thank you to our supporters who came along on the evening.

Our Club Contests

At Wolverhampton we hold our own contests in April and May, and all members take part. We have three contests ...

The
President's Cup is for members in their first year of public speaking, while the Programmer's Cup is for those in subsequent years. However, once a speaker has won the Programmers Cup they automatically join the select few who compete for the Wright Rose Bowl. This system gives everyone a good chance of winning at their own level. In 2008 these contests will be held on 14th and 28th April.

We also have the
Bill Murray Cup which is awarded by the club members to the speaker who they consider has achieved most during the year.

Latest - This year's President's Cup was won by Bhavini Patel

,

while the Programmers Cup was won by
Richard Thompson:



and the Wright Rose Bowl will take place on 20th April 2007. Last year's winner was Roger Cusworth:

roger2

The Blarney Stone

The Blarney Stone is a friendly, but hard-fought, speaking contest involving Wolverhampton Speakers Club and the other two clubs in the West Midlands Area - Stourbridge Speakers Club and Sutton Coldfield Speakers Club.

The Blarney Stone, a mounted lump of rock, is itself a treasured trophy.

Each club fields a team of four - a Chairman and three speakers. The Chairman runs the team's presentation and provides links between the speakers, each of which gives a prepared speech lasting from 6 to 8 minutes on one of three pre-announced 'words' - all clubs have the same three words. Words to be spoken to in the past have included "Hatch, Match and Dispatch", "Land, Sea and Air" and in 2007 "Bronze, Silver and Gold".

The winning team keeps the trophy for one year, and the current holders are Stourbridge SC.

Local and National Contests

As part of the ASC's speaking year a National Speaking Contest is held. The finals are held at the ASC National Conference, usually held in April, and there are contests for Speech, Topics and Evaluation.

To reach the finals Speakers must win the competitions in their own District - ours is the Midlands District. In 2007 Brian Micklethwaite from Wolverhampton SC became District Speech Champion and took part in the National Final.

In order to get as far as District Speakers have to win their own Area contest - ours is the West Midlands Area, with out friends at Sutton Coldfield and Stourbridge Speakers Clubs.

Judging

The other side of contests is that they have to be judged. Senior members of the club will often judge ASC speaking contests - maybe at club, Area or District level. These are always enjoyable events because we see others speaking.

Also highlights of our judging are if we are asked to judged speaking contests for young people, notable the
Rotary 'Youth Speaks' contest. Two members of our club regularly judge these contents and recently judged the Midland Regional finals. We always find these to be inspirational events.