Worlds

[TC]

Well done guys on a fantastic result! Its absolutly brilliant and congratulations to all of you. A happy new year to everyone in Vancover and I am looking forward to seeing all of you when you return. The best of luck to Connie and Doug in the semi's.

Tom

[hr]

Per Ardua ad Astra

[OhhMy]

Quoting Kizzy from 02:02, 3rd Jan 2007
St A made it through their octo, in the room of Oxford hell. Jess and I judged the same octo (the one with Cambridge, Durham, Stanford and George Washington). I judged a further quarter (which is being announced later tonight - it had 3 Sydney teams plus another Oxford team) and Jenni was on the list to do an ESL semi. So all considered, it's been a successful day for Scotland.

Updates on the advancement of Doug's public speaking career later on...

You are all amazing. Congratulations, BIG HUG. Well done to Connie and Doug and to Jess and Kizzy and for Kizzy her second time breaking at a worlds competition!!!

PLEASE keep us posted minute by minute.

I cant wait to see you all!

Rob.xxx

[OhhMy]

Quoting Mr Comedy from 09:23, 3rd Jan 2007
Oh, and semi break is as follows:

Semi 1
St. Andrew's A
Oxford D
Queensland A
Alaska A

Semi 2
Sydney D
Cambridge C
Oxford C
Sydney G


[hr]

"I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea. " -Lu Tung

OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD!!!!!

[Frank George]

You have no idea how anxious I am for the results. I keep hitting "reload" over and over here, at ubcworlds2007.com, and at 1stpropinthefinal...

F5
F5
F5

[OhhMy]

Quoting Frank George from 20:24, 3rd Jan 2007
You have no idea how anxious I am for the results. I keep hitting "reload" over and over here, at ubcworlds2007.com, and at 1stpropinthefinal...

F5
F5
F5

Oh Frank I have some idea. I have no nails left. Next year they should televise it for us poor souls left behind while our friends battle to the death over NAFTA.

[Frank George]

Oh Frank I have some idea. I have no nails left. Next year they should televise it for us poor souls left behind while our friends battle to the death over NAFTA.

Televised debating? That sounds great! I am not one for watching much television, but I would watch the Debating Channel non-stop. Think of the excitement of televised competitive debating--we could have a camera in the prep rooms and adjudications, watch the debate, then get post-debate analysis...
People actually watch POKER on TV. I wouldn't watch that, but I WOULD watch some good ol' LPH action on TV.
When I am in The Motherland, I sometimes watch Parliament on CSPAN, a channel that features Congressional sessions, book review, authors/important people speaking. It is a very informative channel and is remarkable in that it features complete discussions and speeches, not just out-of-context sound bites. It is an excellent source of information and is very interesting, yet paradoxically exceedingly dull at the same time. Whenever I turn to it, there is never a full session of Congress, just something like a meeting of the House Agricultural Subcommittee on Specialty Crops and Foreign Agriculture Programs with Representative Gil Gutknecht (I did not make that committe or that guy up!) giving the world's boringest speech on sorghum subsidies to the two other (uninterested) congressmen in the room who just spend the whole time talking to their staffers, probably looking for sexual favours. Yet whenever CSPAN show a session of Parliament, there is yelling, heckling, excitement, a mace (the US has one, but it boring and out of the way, not right on the table), and and flour bombs! That's how a government should be!

That is why I like LPH so much. Debating at my school was completely unorganised, with some very boring format. It existed for a year, then died out. I went to one of their three debates. It was not very exciting. Then I came to St Andrews. I went to the first debate and was hooked. It all goes downhill from there. After a month, I started doing IV stuff and my life got sucked into that expensive, time consuming black hole.

[OhhMy]

I just checked the Vancover website and sadly St Andrews didn't make it to the final. BUT THEY BLOODY MADE IT TO THE SEMMIES!!!!!

[Frank George]

Wow! That was amazing. Congratulations again to everyone, especially Connie and Doug for doing such an excellent job and Jess for the judging break.

Enjoy the rest of the time in Vancouver and have safe and PLEASANT travels back to St Andrews.

[Steveo]

Never mind, eh?

[hr]

Set your goals way too high so I can laugh when you fail.

[Lid]

Quoting Frank George from 21:38, 3rd Jan 2007
When I am in The Motherland, I sometimes watch Parliament on CSPAN

Try BBC Parliament. They have round-the-clock coverage of the day's debates. Be warned. I once watched it for 2 hours and nearly gnawed my own head off.

Well done to everyone at WUDC. Is the Toronto dream quite over yet? Isn't Doug doing some public speaking thing (which, for the purpose of morale is, and always was, more important than the debating thing)

[hr]

We are not drunks, we are multi-millionaires

[Mr Comedy]

Quoting Steveo from 23:56, 3rd Jan 2007
Never mind, eh?

[hr]

Set your goals way too high so I can laugh when you fail.

To put this in context, I believe this is the best ever performance at Worlds by some way, and is a phenomenal acheivement.

[hr]

"I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea. " -Lu Tung

[Dave the Explosive Newt]

Quoting Mr Comedy from 09:07, 4th Jan 2007
phenomenal acheivement.

[hr]

"I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea. " -Lu Tung

Indeed. Very well done everyone.

[hr]

Mmmmmmm, cake.
http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37102114

[TC]

Congratulations to Connie and Doug for making it to the Semis. It's a fantastic achievement! I hope that all of you in Vancover are getting throughly drunk celebrating this great result. Have a good flight home and I am looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Tom

[hr]

Per Ardua ad Astra

[Kizzy]

The final was
1 prop - Camb C - Bob and Ranald
1 opp - Queensland A - Erin O Brien and Eavan Gold
2 prop - Oxford D - Will Jones and James Dray
2 opp - Sydney G (whose names I can't remember, which is unfortunate, as they eventually won).

I got the masters final and a semi final as well to judge.
Despite what was by all accounts a stellar performance from Doug in the public speaking, Willard Foxton won that.

Top ten on tab has been announced also - top was Jess Prince from Oxford, but I can't remember the others - I expect there will be further details on the website/blogs soon.

And now back home, for more debating on Monday. I really need to think more about what a holiday actually is.

[Dickie]

I am ever so pleased that the
UDS will be getting some more Silver for the table as the old worlds plate is looking a wee bit lonely and the silver is getting a bit thin.

I cannot wait to see it in place...


[hr]

http://facebook.com/p.php?id=37106107&l=217e435e0a

[Mr Comedy]

Willard Foxton is as funny as fuck. Does he still have the porno moustache/beard thing going on?

[hr]

"I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea. " -Lu Tung

[Kenny Fleming]

Well done to Connie and Doug. A fantastic performance.

I remember seeing Connie and Doug just getting started as I wound up a couple of years ago. I don't think Niall K or myself enjoyed getting slapped around by such youngsters. Luckily we managed to scrape through on Scottish football motions and the like.

I'm sure this will be only the first anecdote shared of Scottish debating's new superstar celebs.

And a happy to everyone at St Andews,

Kenny

[Guest]

Dickie, I'm confused, do St Andrews still get trophies etc even though we didn't actually get to the final? Well done to everyone anyway!

[Lid]

Depends how cheap UBC are, I think. Princeton gave us a nice silver plate last time St Andrews made the Octos.

[hr]

We are not drunks, we are multi-millionaires

[kdc4]

Connie, myself, and Tony are in Amsterdam at the moment whilst Jason, Rebecca, and Rach head to London. Jess and Chris have gone their separate ways.

I can't tell you how gratified we all are to have your support, thanks a bundle guys.
The whole thing has been an amazing experience for all of us, and the Scots (and Irish!) here have been so supportive.

I have so many stories, frustrations, anecdotes, pictures, etc. but just to clarify some things:

1. Unfortunately, UBC only gave prizes to the top ten speakers and the finalists, who all received Native American carvings and such. The public speaking champion was awarded a mug (hooray...).

As Will Jones put it, 'I got a stick?!'

Unfortunately, there seems to be a move away from awarding silver at debating competitions (due to poggling, costs, etc.), which I think is rather a shame. Proudly, the Marquis of Bute still has its own trophy.

2. Tony actually broke 18th on the individuals tab, the full tab will probably reveal Connie and myself taking horrifically poor speaks as we scraped our way back in the dying minutes...

Needless to say, a fantastic result from Mr. Murphy, and I believe the highest individual mark (by a long way) ever from St. Andrews at Worlds.

3. I had a few drinks after getting knocked out (as per an earlier promise). My favourite was the gin.

4. Connie's speech in the quarterfinals was truly a thing to behold. Jason has hailed it as perhaps the best debating speech that he has ever seen, by anyone, ever. The judges had us straight through that in that quarter (despite a decidedly mediocre performance on my part), but spent an hour debating over the other team to go through.

I'm still somewhat frustrated over that semi, which wasn't our best performance on a motion that we found difficult to opp, but losing to the eventual 1st and 2nd place teams isn't terribly shameful, and we apparently had the support of some of the judging panel (including Derek Lande).

5. Oh, and as for the public speaking thing, it was actually won by a chap from Seattle, nice guy, rather than Willard Foxton (who won the comedy night award).

6. Jess deserves quite a bit of kudos for her judging break whilst only in 2nd year. St. Andrews is now set to mint three new 'Grade 1' judges.


I haven't slept properly in a long while, so I'll give a rest here...

Cheers,
-Doug