Youth Speaks

The popular Youth Speaks Competition was once again organised and well supported by The Club on Wednesday 8^th February, and on this occasion was generously hosted by St. Richards Catholic College in Bexhill.

Organiser and Chair for the night Richard Harrison, introduced the competitors taking part from local schools who covered a wide range of subjects including ‘Importance of Oratory Skills’ and ‘Should School Times be Altered?’ from the Intermediate Teams and ‘Is Sport Ever Fair?’ and ‘Is Everything We Do a Performance?’ from the Senior Teams.

The audience learned from the Intermediates that teenagers need more sleep and that lack of it impinges on their future health and that the ability to undertake public speaking gives a boost to future career prospects and should therefore be encouraged.

The Seniors argued that much of their lives are a performance which is tailored to who we are with at the time and that successful sportsman are a combination of genetic makeup and training from a very young age.

All the teams put on a really good show weaving interesting and well thought out arguments, and they all fielded questions from the audience skilfully.  

Unfortunately, as with all competitions, there could be only one winning team from each of the Intermediate and Senior Teams.  After much deliberation, the judges (Andrew Gill, Charlotte Andrews and Steve Mainwaring) chose as Intermediate winners Claverham Community College, the winners for the Seniors were Battle Abbey School.

At the end of the evening, President Perry Puddefoot congratulated the worthy winners and presented them with winning shields.  He also gave all participants from the evening well earned book tokens after which he thanked the audience and especially St. Richards Catholic College for their support.