The last time I attended the National Final of the Youth Speaks Competition, which was held in Warwick in April, 2003, Hornsea School had won and their main speaker, Jonathan Hardman, is now President of the Glasgow University Students Union. 

This year, Hull Collegiate, or Tranby to you and me, had won the Yeadon Trophy in the senior competition at Hull University and, in winning the regional final at Nottingham, had earned the right to a place in the National Final in Loughborough.

Peter Bonavia, of the Holderness club, drove me down and we arrived at a magnificent Victorian school, with immaculate lawns and gardens and cherry trees in full bloom. After a lunch, where we met up with the Hull Collegiate team and their supporters, we were ushered into the main auditorium. The draw for speaking order of the eight teams had already been made and Hull Collegiate had been placed in seventh spot, which enabled their speaker, Harry Bardon, to use comments from the other teams.

As usual the range of subjects, chosen to be debated by the teams, was vast: voluntary euthanasia, the Union between England and Scotland, plastic surgery and the Hull team’s "Word’s – do they matter?" The writer thought that Harry Bardon gave a great speech, which demonstrated the main attributes of debating excellently, but the Vote of Thanks speech lacked a good finish to the team’s performance.

RIBI President, Peter Offer, was there to present the certificates to each team member. Martin Narey, the chief executive of Barnardo’s, gave us a short speech, being conscious of the critical nature of the audience and later he presented the prizes to the winners. The Intermediate Competition was dealt with first with a clear winner emerging in Howells School in Cardiff.

Then it was time for the Senior competition results. Carol Ezis, the chief adjudicator, emphasised many of the important aspects of public speaking, before reading out the panel’s choice of winners, which differed greatly from the writer’s! In third place, touting for the ordination of women was the team from Wellington College, Belfast; an impassioned plea for outlawing Child Soldiers brought second place to Queen Anne’s School, Caversham; the national final winner went to Brannel School, St. Austell. With a title ‘What little boys are made of’ the main speaker attempted to rubbish the male sex.

Congratulations are due to the hosts, District 1070 and to their District Governor, Richard Hyde, for putting on a splendid occasion.