I have been a litle quiet on the posting front lately, ’tis true. This was due in a large part (read entirely) to probably the largest side-interest in my life besides wanting to travel to new places whenever possible. Which is to say, debating.
Firstly, apologies for not actually writing diddly-anything during the competition. It turns out that tabbing a tournament is actually damn hard work and keeps you very busy (who knew) and so I was largely deprived of the time or mental state of mind to provide blow by blow accounts of the tournament as it went along. I have finally gained a new appreciation for DCAs, tab people and the other folk who run around making sure that an amazing competition was happening while I as a speaker used to sit on my butt complaining about minutae.
Oh, the number of times this blog gets used to reflect and narrate debating-related activites (fake sigh). I am in Bloemfontein at the moment for the 2008 National Universities’ Debating Championships, hosted by the University of the Free State, and will post short updates of the results and activities of the tournament as it progresses
Tournament won by Joe and Phil – final motion was THB that chicken little was right, defined as banning factory chicken farming. Joe and Phil won from Closing Opposition. Rich Stupart and Katherine Furman were Opening Opposition, with Chris McConnachie and Phil Abrahams as Opening Government and Matthew Smorenberg and Matthew Thompson as Closing Government.
Rich and Katherine broke joint second with Joe and Phil on 18 points. First break was Chris McConnachie and Phil Abrahams on 20 points.
After day 2, 5 rounds down, results are:
Day one is now over. Drinks have been drunk. Rich & Kat Furman are on 4 points after a first round win and a third place, while Joe & Phil are on 3 points after a first round third placing and a second. While not technically from Johannesburg, Kyle and Carina are on 4 points after two second placings. More details to follow as they become available.
The World Universities Debating Champs is now over and for the first few days in a while, I feel moderately sober enough to write a missive on the whole experience. The fact that this is the case is, as you might have surmised, that neither my partner nor I managed to make the break to octo finals (we think we were close, but will only know in a few more days when the results come out). As is tradition at such debating events, not breaking puts you largely beyond the scope of the formal program and people tend to pop in and out of watching the knockout rounds, while trying to recover from the night before and prepare for the night to come.
