Euros 2009

[fly like paper]

I can't believe it's my turn to sinner-blog euros from afar...this makes me old. And a hack. And old.

At any rate, this is the news we have so far...

To begin with the not so new news for avid sinners, these are the teams for whom we're rooting, don't y'know;

St Andrews A: James Beadle and Miles Wood
St Andrews B: Rachael Whitbread and Daniel Berman
St Andrews C: Laura Mattina and Maddy Grieve
St Andrews D: Sarah Whitham and Chris Harper

*YAY - go teams!*

Motions so far;
Round 1 THW allow the police to use entrapment.
Round 2 THW use the education system to instill moral norms in children beyond mere obedience to the law.
Round 3 THW grant citizenship to illegal migrants who report on work-place exploitation.
Round 4 THW have gay rights supporters oppose gay marraige.
Round 5 THBT western liberal countries have a moral duty to spread democracy across the world using force where necessary.
Round 6 THBT custody hearings should not take a child's biological parentage into account.

I like Sam Block's motions. They are all about principles and they are fun. Still, nothing wildly outrageous here (for my money), perhaps excepting r3. Opinions?

On the gossip - controversy - scandal front...Newcastle's einsteinic grapple with time continues. Round 1 ran late, apparently after some teams went 'missing' from the tab. This led to a referendum about whether to cut a round. The opposition to such a move resounding, Newcastle went ahead and cut round 8 anyway...

The excitement continues, people. Stay glued...

[JamesBeadle]

Hey Guys

Miles and I broke 15th, on fifteen points! Literally bt the skin of our teeth - we entered round 5 needing 9 points out of three rounds - straight firsts! We just got them, with one round where Derek Lande was rolled, on increidbly close round and then a 40 minute decision that finally ended in our favour.....

Unfortunetly none of the other St Andrews teams broke, which is a shame, given how much more consitant than us they where (I fully expect to be beaten by most of our instituion on the speaker tab. However all ended up in break rooms, and we already know Maddy and Laura finshed on 14 points (straights). However the break was n+1.

Doug, one of our alumini, now at cambridge, also continued the fine St Andrews tradition of coming 17th (16 teams break) which is a terrible shame and rather unlucky.

Unfortunetly this means I havn't actually being able to get proparly drunk for this whole competition However I have discovered that soap and hot water easily remove anti climb paint.

We broke!

Woooooooohhhhhh

[pigs with wings]

St. Andrews A have broken to the quarter finals on 15 pts! This is an incredible achievement. Congratulations James and Miles, and the very best of luck for the final rounds!

Main Break
1 Oxford A 20pts
2 Oxford C 18pts
3 Oxford E 17pts
4 UCD L&H A 16pts
5 Nottingham A 16pts
6 Durham B 16pts
7 Cambridge B 15pts
8 Oxford B 15pts
9 UCC Phil A 15pts
10 Cambridge E 15pts
11 Cambridge D 15pts
12 Tel Aviv A 15pts
13 UCD L&H B 15pts
14 Nottingham B 15pts
15 St. Andrews A 15pts
16 UCD Law A 15pts

ESL Break
1 Tel Aviv A
2 Leiden A
3 Tel Aviv B
4 Berlin A
5 Ljubljana B
6 Erasmus A
7 SSE Riga A
8 Haifa A
9 IDC Herzliya A
10 Galatasaray A
11 Leiden C
12 Groningen A
13 Bilkent A
14 Tilbury House Cologne B
15 Haifa C
16 Ljubljana A

Round 7 was 'THW allow doctors to actively lie to their patients in order to create or augment a placebo effect'. I suspect James and Miles did well with this?

[pigs with wings]

Qtr-Final Motion: THW allow political parties to designate certain pre-election claims as binding, whose breach would prompt re-elections.

ESL QF Motion: THW allow the Police to physically discipline children below the age of criminal responsibility.

Open break motion seems pretty meh/bleugh/uninspired...

Anyone know how St. Andrews got on?

[Sleepless in New Mexico]

HURRAH!

Congrats guys!

[pigs with wings]

Teams in the final (according to Colm Flynn's blog);

Tel Aviv A
Oxford A
Oxford C
Oxford E

ESL Final;
Galatasaray C
Haifa A
Ljubljana A
Leiden A

[James Beadle]

Unfortunetly we went out in the quaters with a justified third, although managed to hold ourselves with honour. I don't have a copy of the tab to hand, but congratualtions in particuar to Chris Harper and Maddie Grieve, who came second and third respectivly in the St Andrews ranking with very respectable scores! Miles beat Chris by one speaker point, myself was forth and after that memory fails me.

[James Beadle]

For all you non-facebook users, here is the tab. http://tinyurl.com/lnfykd

[DACrowe]

Round 4 THW have gay rights supporters oppose gay marraige.

I'm not at all convinced that's the correct motion. I'm pretty sure it referred to 'the [singular] Gay Rights Movement'. The distinction is important because it allows room for arguments which suppose the movement, as an entity, might have interests and obligations of it's own, over and above those of the individuals which make it up. So for example, a road sadly not taken in the room I was judging, one could run the whole motion based on the notion of 'solidarity' of the movement towards other movements or certain members of the gay community (the idea is to open up space for an argument that the goal of the movement need not be a simple attempt to maximise the rights available to homosexuals, of which marriage would be one, which might otherwise be the default assumption.

P.S. - Yup, checked: "THB the gay rights movement should oppose gay marriages."