Debaters go West

For the first time in Eltham College history the debaters moved their talents to the West Country for the Bristol University Schools' Debating Competition. This involved a weekend away to the stylish Clifton area of the town where debaters were able to sample some of the local culture before their busy day of debating. It was a tense atmosphere before the competition as many of the debaters were new to this level of debating. The first motion on the prohibition of alcohol proved successful for all of our four teams with Hamish Greer and Rachel Hutchings winning their round, while Aria Oram and Rosemary Boyle came a respectable second.

The second motion on forcing obese children to attend weight loss camps played to the strengths of our A team who won the round convincingly, but proved difficult for the C team of Jimi Cullen and Nick Bullen. The third motion on whether criminals had the right to sell their stories proved interesting for Polly Helvaciouglu and Soraya Thompson but their position in the debate meant that they couldn't really capitalise on their arguments. The final motion, 'This House would give reduced sentences to Environmental Terrorists' provoked an excellent definition from Nick and Jimi, ably supported by a strong Warwick team but the judges voted in favour of the opposition.

The A team were extremely unlucky to be pitted against the eventual finalists which meant they were unable to 'break' to the final four. The final result was mixed for Eltham as a whole but we were delighted that our A team made it in to the top ten whilst Hamish Greer was placed fifth highest speaker overall, above one of the debaters from St Paul's, the team who finally claimed the trophy. We wish them luck with the Cambridge Regional Final and the Oxford Union competition next week.