Competition night

There we were, gathered in a small room. Judges, competitors, ballot counters, contest chair. An air of seriousness pervaded the pre-contest briefing.

Competition nights are like no other nights at West Herts Speakers. 

The first half of the night's competition was the International Speech Competition. West Herts Speakers' chance to send an astronaut to the moon - or at least a speaker to the world finals. 

Three speakers, three completely different subjects: "My heart remembers" ... "Life is too short" ... "365 reasons why I love my husband".

The speeches are given, the judges retire. The rest of us take a well-earned break.

Then comes the Evaluation competition. First, there is a test speech - the evaluators will all evaluate the same speech. After the test speech, the evaluators leave the room and have five minutes to prepare their evaluations. As with the International Speech competition, order of speaking is decided by lot. One by one, the return to evaluate.

The judges retire. The rest of us amuse ourselves as best we can.

At last, the results!

Best Speaker: Sola, with "My heart remembers"

Best Evaluator: Colin

They, with Gwendoline (speaker) and Liz (evaluator) go on to represent West Herts Speakers at the Area 20 Spring Contests on Saturday 29 March 2014 at 15:00 (doors open 14:30). The venue is The Red Lion, 88 Great North Road, Hatfield AL9 5 EU. There is a charge of £3.50 on the door to cover refreshments.

Be there if you can!