European Championships 2008

[Dickie]

Please keep us informed.

p.s. Good Luck to all.

[hr]

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

[Frank George]

Good luck to you all!

I'm looking forward to tracking your progress. Have fun!

[kdc4]

The best source of up-to-the-minute information on the tournament appears to be:

http://www.yourgermancorrespondent.blogspot.com/

Which many of you may remember from blogging the Koc adventures last year. Naturally, however, it doesn't give an update on our champions.

Motions Thusfar (general gist, not word for word)

THW: Force welfare recipients to work.
THW: Punish football teams for the behaviour of their fans off the field.
THW: Distribute emergency relief with military force, when necessary.
THB: Fines should be proportional to the ability of the accused to pay.

Hat tip to Jason for calling the third-round motion almost word-for-word a week ago.

Results thusfar:

Team A (Tom Cahn, James Beadle)7 Points.
(Second, Fourth, First, Second).
Team B (Chris Hawkins, Jess Siegel) 9 Points.
(First, Second, First, Third)
Team C (Kenny Nicoll, Chris Harper) 5+ Points.
(Third, First, Third, ?)

Little word on the judging front, though early reports suggest that Laura and miles off to a good start.

This is excellent news! Go on kids! Keep it up!

Break tonight at midnight.

Best of luck to you all!

Cheers,
-Doug

[kdc4]

From a blogger at Euros:

"I’m sure there were memorable quotes from many of the rooms today but my favourite two both came from St Andrews in my first round. From Tom Cahn, “Look Daddy, there’s that unemployed person, he touched me!” and from his teammate James Beadle, “We’ll train them so hard their arses will hurt”. To each his own.

[kdc4]

ESL Break
1. Leiden A
2. Bonaparte A
3. Tilbury A
4. Bonaparte C
5. ?
6. Haifa B
7. Tel Aviv A
8. Koc A
9. Berlin B
10. Warwick A
11. Hertie A
12. Bonaparte B
13. Metu A
14. Tilbury C
15. Tilbury B
16. IDC A

Main Break
1. Oxford A
2. Oxford B
3. Manchester A
4. Leiden A
5. UCC Phil A
6. UCD Law A
7. Cambridge B
8. Oxford C
9. UCD LnH A
10. ULU B
11. Oxford D
12. Kings A
13. Helsinki A
14. UCD Law B
15. UCC Law A
16. TCD Phil B

Judges Break
Adrian Andringa
Alex Ward
Alistair Cormac
Anat Gelber
Andrew Marshall
Andrew Hume
Anthony Murphy
Ashleigh Lamming
Bob Nimmo
Coletta Smith
Connie Grieve
Dan Colley
Daniel P McCarthy
Daniel Shut
Daniel Warrants
David Middlemass
David Whelan
Derek Doyle
Derek Lande
Diarmuid Early
Eoin Kilkenny
Erin O'Brien
Ewan McDonald
Felicity Cooke
Giles Robertson
Greg O'Neill
Isabel Loewe
Jenni Harrison
Jens Fischer
Kirsty Russel
--- missed a few
Neil Dewar
Neil Harvey Smith
Olga Polumina
Ozgun Dundar
Sam Block
Samir Deger Sen
Stewart Anderson

Reserve Judges
Ed Mason (Durham)
Ali Black?
Elizabeth O'Brien
James Soleym
Joe McCaffrey
Rita Bulusu
Stephen Whelan
?



Cheers,
-Doug

[Jason]

Curses! At least one error though as Leiden A is in both breaks at the moment...Anyone got an update?

[ChrisH]

No error, at Euros teams can be in both breaks, unlike Worlds. Leiden did astonishingly well to break 4th.

Jess and I (St Andrews B) came joint 17th on tab, along with a Cambridge team, 6 points off the break. So while sad we didn't make it, we're thrilled to have done so well.

We also both made it into the top 50 speakers at the competition.

Oxford A (Will and James) won the final, with BBU the ESL final.

Full tab is out and will no doubt be online soon.

[kdc4]

Quoting ChrisH from 23:21, 27th Jun 2008

Jess and I (St Andrews B) came joint 17th on tab, along with a Cambridge team, 6 points off the break. So while sad we didn't make it, we're thrilled to have done so well.

Indeed, a great show from Chris and Jess- hard luck that only a few speaks kept them from the break.

All teams finished upon the tab median and St Andrews did well in the judging break, with Connie, Kizzy, Ewan, and Tony all breaking.

Tabs:
http://www.eudc2008.eu/index.php?content=42&menuid=31

Cheers,
-Doug

[mattina]

Indeed a well done to everyone, especially to Chris and Jess for doing so well!

(about James' and Tom's quotes from the top-James said the one about the homeless person and Tom made the comment about training)

Highlights:
1. Chris and Jess started off the second day (which began with round 4) by being randomly pulled up into the room of three teams on straight firsts. They took a point from the room, apparently narrowly missing the second, and I believe Chris and James Dray tied speaks for that round as well.

2. Judging wise having no one get completely binned! Everyone seemed to be getting decent feedback which led to Laura and Miles chairing rooms and Maddy and Claire consistently winging in good rooms.

3. Connie chaired a semi and went on to judge the final as did Tony.

4. The chair of Jess and Chris' first round didn't have enough good things to say about Jess' speech.

5. Chris Hawkins being forced to sit through Euros council representing Scotland.

6. Chris Harper set himself the goal of learning to prop summate properly-which turned out to be his two highest speaker marks of the tournament. I think he met his goal.

Laura

[Jason]

I've finally seen the full tab - everyone should be very pleased - cracking performance. Hope you all had fun...Cork Worlds next people!!!!!!

[TC]

I think that the quotes were actually correct the first time around. What I said was “Look Daddy there’s an unemployed person, he touched me!” It was prehaps my best moment of the competition and a homage to Jason Vit, whose depravity and example I sought to emulate. The Irish team in our room thought it was a brilliant point. So good in fact that when one of their speakers asked James a POI she pointed out to him that his flies were undone.

A big well done to Jess and Chris for doing so well and coming so close, they really did brilliantly as well as Kenny and Chris and all our judges.

However I think the biggest thanks has to go to Laura for organising an excellent Euro's expidition and ensuring that Tallinn have not sold our personal details.

The standings for St Andrews:

17th: St Andrews B - Chris Hawkins and Jess Siegel: 14 points.
45th: St Andrews A - Tom Cahn and James Beadle: 12 points
71st: St Andrews C - Chris Harper and Kenny Nicoll: 11 points.


[hr]

Per Ardua ad Astra

[Frank George]

Congratulations to everyone who represented us in Tallin, especially Chris and Jess who came so close to the break!

It may also interest you to know that it appears that Newcastle University will be hosting the European Universities Debating Championships next year.

[Jessica]

Yay!

Good job to everyone. Solid performances all around. Also, I think it's worth commending the freshers on their ability to make friends and socialise with all the lovely people at the tournament. I had a great time.

And a last thanks to Con and Doug, who, having done so phenomenally (sp?) at worlds...twice... didn't have to spend their year training the rest of us to become better speakers, but did nonetheless. Thanks so much guys, I know it's meant a lot to me.

[ChrisH]

I think it's worth saying that the 4 round training day we held seemed to pay dividends. I certainly think it helped get me ready for Euros.

On a related note that seems to be how many of the good Irish institutions prepare for internationals, with a dose of debates just before hand, so it might very well be worth repeating in future. Though obviously with Worlds that is harder to achieve with end of term and all.