And now I'm home...

It's been an unforgettable ten days. I've met some lovely, amazing, wonderful people who, now that I'm home, I miss very much already, and I'm sure that we'll stay in touch and hopefully meet again in the future. I've been privileged to take part in some fantastic debates against many highly skilled speakers, and be part of a friendly (if slightly eccentric) team who've supported me when I was nervous and allowed me to be myself.

There are a lot of people without whom this tournament would not have been the incredible experience it was. On behalf of Team Wales, I want to thank the OVT for their outstanding logistical management and sense of humour, all the financial sponsors who are listed at http://wsdctournament.wordpress.com/sponsors/, the schools who so generously opened their doors to us and made us feel so welcome, the pupils who showed us around (especially Max, Iona, Rose and Rory), the co-CAs Beth James and Andrew Marshall, the Chief Adjudication Panel, Cameron Wyllie for organising our day out in Edinburgh, and the co-convenors Malcolm Smart and Gaynor Sullivan. I also want to thank our coaches, Jonathan Leader-Maynard and Ellen Robertson, and Martin Pollard and the staff at CEWC Cymru for all their supportive texts and for putting up with me when I forget to post my consent form and find myself unable to work the scanner.

But most of all, my thanks go to Irene McGrath, the convenor of WSDC 2011. Irene, thank you so much for all your hard work in making this a truly fantastic tournament, and for making my final year as a debater at WSDC so special.

I've been really lucky to be able to attend three wonderful tournaments, each different to the last and completely unique. Being a part of the WSDC community for these last three years has been so special, and I want to thank everyone who has been a part of it, in whatever capacity, for making it happen and being so wonderful. I definitely want to remain in touch with the tournament and hear all about Wales winning the final and claiming the top five speaker positions in the near future.

So to all the members of the WSDC community, thank you, and goodnight.

The speaker tab has been released!

The speaker tab have been released and can be found by clicking on the following links:

Overall speaker tab (top 50 speakers): http://www.scribd.com/doc/63150624/WSDC-2011-Best-Speakers-Tab
ESL speaker tab (top 20 speakers): http://www.scribd.com/doc/63150622/WSDC-2011-Best-ESL-Speakers-Tab
EFL speaker tab (top 20 speakers): http://www.scribd.com/doc/63150618/WSDC-2011-Best-EFL-Speakers-Tab

As a team, Wales ranked 13th overall, despite breaking 8th, because so many of the teams who broke 9th-16th beat their opponents in the octo-finals (Ireland, Singapore, Scotland, South Africa and Hong Kong all achieved this). As individuals, we all made it into the top 30 speakers, with our average scores being less than half a point apart.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the very efficient tabbing team, who've been great in making sure that every score has been entered correctly (which was no mean feat, as in the preliminary rounds there were 192 debates in total, each involving 6 speakers being judged by a panel of 3 judges, meaning that over the course of these 8 rounds 3456 scores were generated in total). Thank you!

And Singapore are crowned the champions!

After a very close debate between Australia and Singapore on the motion THBT autocracy is doomed in the age of Facebook, Singapore were crowned the champions of WSDC 2011 on a 7-2 split. This is the first time Singapore has ever won the tournament, and emotions were running high for all concerned.

Following the final, we had an hour of free time before the closing ceremony, so with Ayellet, Miriam and Hodaya from Team Israel we headed off to Wetherspoons to enjoy some British culture. Then we met the rest of the WSDC community outside Caird Hall, where we were serenaded with bagpipes before the ceremony could begin.

There were several speeches and a meal, and then the prizes were announced. These went to the following:

Champions: Singapore 
Runners-up: Australia
Best ESL (English as a Second Language) Team: South Korea
Best EFL (English as a Foreign Language) Team: The Netherlands
Best New Nation: Barbados
Best Individual Speaker: Teoh Rin Jie, Singapore
Best ESL Speaker: Ye Eun Chun, Republic of Korea
Best EFL Speaker: Chan Keun Kim, Republic of Korea
Best Speaker from a New Nation: Stefan Stojanovic, Serbia

After the ceremony, Sarah and Paul headed back to the flat while David and I took on the Ceilidh, which was a combination of laughter, chaos and a little bit of dancing. Some of the steps were similar enough to folk dancing for me to pick up (David had been to the Ceilidh practice, and was therefore an expert - I'd gone to the whiskey tasting instead), but some were quite different.

We then went back to the Students' Union for a different type of dancing in the nightclub there, and at around 3am we said our final goodbyes to all the amazing people we had met over the course of the tournament, and returned to the flat.

I'm particularly sad that I won't be returning to WSDC as a debater - many of the people I've met will be eligible to return for WSDC in Cape Town, South Africa. But I've had an incredible three years - I've met some fantastic people and, whether or not it dooms autocracy, Facebook is certainly a marvelous invention for keeping us all in touch.

The quarter-finals and semi-finals!

Today, we woke up in plenty of time to watch one of the quarter final debates - Paul went to see Hong Kong versus Ireland, rediscovering his Hong Kong allegiance, and the rest of Team Wales chose to go and see Australia versus South Africa, mainly because this debate was taking place on a ship.

It was a genuinely brilliant debate, the motion being TH supports free immigration, and although Australia won unanimously, South Africa performed incredibly well too. The results of the quarter-finals are as follows:

Scotland defeat England 4-1
Australia defeat South Africa 5-0
Ireland defeat Hong Kong 4-1
Singapore defeat Canada 4-1

Interestingly, all of the winning teams were in opposition to the motion.

So then it was time for the semi-finals, and the motion was THBT every region should have the right to independent statehood if a majority of its members wish. The results were as follows:

Australia defeat Scotland 5-2
Singapore defeat Ireland 5-2

And once again, both of the winning teams were in opposition. 

So tomorrow night's final will be between Australia and Singapore. Australia have a strong record at WSDC, winning the tournament 8 times in total, though the last time they did so was in 2006. Singapore have made the final twice and the semi-finals numerous times, but have never actually won the competition.

This evening, Team Wales invaded Team Israel's flat and played some card games before heading off to the Iftar, a meal to celebrate the end of Ramadan for those who had been fasting. After, we headed back to the Students' Union for a few rounds of pool before going out to a nightclub with most of the over-18s involved in the tournament, where we learnt to party like true Dundonians! 

Our tournament may be over, but the fun is only just beginning...

Sadly, Team Wales was knocked out of WSDC 2011 in the octo-final against Scotland. The final result was a 4-1 split against us, and it was a very close debate that many people in the audience felt could have gone either way, the motion being THW abandon nuclear energy. Scotland were deserving winners - they put forward an incredibly strong proposition case, and we wish them luck for the rest of the tournament.

But while we are obviously disappointed to be out of the tournament, we're determined to enjoy the few days we have left in Dundee! This afternoon we visited St. Andrews, and had a walking tour of the town, before deciding to go on a hunt for an amazing ice-cream parlour that one of Paul's friends had told him about - we were not disappointed!

This evening, we decided to experience some British culture by getting chips from the local chippy and eating them sat on a wall next to a relatively busy road in the city centre. Sarah and I, as legal adults, then headed off to go whiskey tasting, and are now far better informed on the subject of whiskey and far more light-headed than we were prior to the event. But the evening didn't stop there - Beatrice from Australia and I formed a Welsh-Australian alliance on the pool table, taking on David and Paul, and then David and Sarah battled it out on the dance mat.

Just as we were about to head off, Nina appeared with her guitar and the rest of Team Israel and a few members of Team Philippines and Team Kuwait, and we all went and sat on the grass outside the Students' Union for a 'jamming session' or 'circle of music'. Nina is incredibly talented both vocally and on the guitar (as well as being extremely modest about it) and we had a great time, although after being gatecrashed by a selection of drunken students we relocated to Team Philippines' kitchen.

After a final song, at around half one in the morning, we headed back to our rooms. Although it would obviously have been wonderful to get further in the tournament, it can't be denied that the teams that don't break or get knocked out in the octo-finals get to enjoy the incredible social atmosphere created by the tournament for much longer.

The results of the octo-finals are as follows:

England defeat Mexico 4-1
Scotland defeat Wales 4-1
Australia defeat Greece 5-0
South Africa defeat UAE 4-1
Ireland defeat the Republic of Korea 3-2
Hong Kong defeat the Netherlands 3-2
Canada defeat Pakistan 4-1
Singapore defeat New Zealand 3-2

The Break!

I've just got back from the break night party where the break was announced and Team Wales have danced the night away with debaters from England, Kuwait, Canada, Australia and Barbados, to name just a few countries. The break is out, and is as follows:

1. England - 8 wins, 23 judges, 6180.5 speaker points*
2. New Zealand - 8, 23, 6107.5
3. The Netherlands - 8, 22, 6055.0
4. Australia - 7, 21, 6178.5 
5. UAE - 7, 21, 6096.0
6. Republic of Korea - 7, 21, 6093.0
7. Canada - 7, 19, 6136.5
8. Wales - 6, 20, 6120.5
9. Scotland - 6, 18, 6043.0
10. Pakistan - 6, 17, 6052.0
11. Ireland - 6, 16, 6049.0
12. South Africa - 6, 16, 6045.0
13. Greece - 6, 16, 6038.0
14. Hong Kong - 6, 15, 6056.5
15. Singapore - 5, 17, 6239.5
16. Mexico - 5, 16, 5960.5


So Wales has broken eighth, and if you consult my diagram from the earlier rounds you can work out that we will face Scotland, the home nation, once again in the octo-finals tomorrow!

Just to point out, as I said I would - the ladies of Team Wales (i.e. myself and Sarah) took on Matt from Team England (assisted by Greg) at pool this evening... and won! We're holding firm to the line that it was pure skill as opposed to sheer fluke...

*The speaker points shown here are the cumulative total of all speaker points accrued by the teams in the course of the debates - each debate has a maximum of 350 points that can be earned - 100 each for the main speeches and 50 for the reply. 70 points is considered an average speech in this tournament. You can see that Wales achieved the fifth highest cumulative speaker score out of all the countries in the tournament, behind Singapore, England, Australia and Canada.

The preliminary rounds are done...

It wasn't exactly the note we'd hoped to end the prelims on  - although we beat Nigeria unanimously this morning, we lost to Pakistan this afternoon despite having debated the motion against England the weekend before. We've established that between us, our sporting knowledge consists of netball (me) and wrestling (Sarah), with a bit of American basketball (Paul), so we weren't too surprised when the chair judge told us there was a fundamental lack of knowledge on our side of the house. All in all, it was an extremely close debate with very tight margins and we managed to once again take a judge.

So what does this mean in terms of our chances of breaking? We are certain to break on six wins and as all the debates we won were unanimous and the two we lost were both on a split decision, we have a higher number of judges than any of the other teams on six wins. Paul is frantically trying to calculate the tab, but we'll have to wait for this evening to find out for sure. I mentioned in my last post that the break is going to be streamed live online, and that starts at 9:30 tonight.

Just a reminder that the order of teams will be calculated by wins, then judges, then speaks, and finally alphabetically.

So the summary of the results of rounds 7 and 8 is as follows:

Round 7 - THBT women can only achieve equality under a secular system of government (pre-prepared)
Nigeria 0 - 3 Wales

Round 8 - THW punish sports teams for the poor behaviour of their fans (impromptu)
Wales 1 - 2 Pakistan

Defeated by Canada

Sadly Team Wales' winning streak came to an end this morning in a close debate against Canada. Although we were disappointed, they are the reigning world champions and we did manage to take a judge, so we were pleased with that.

After a lot of confusion this afternoon, in the midst of which the original motion was released early to two teams who (through no fault of their own) began preparing before the other teams, the reserve motion was deployed to avoid unfairly giving some teams an advantage. After an interesting debate against Barbados, a new team, we got back on track by winning unanimously, putting us on 5 wins and 16 judges at the end of the third day. Currently, Paul has calculated that this puts us in 6th position on the overall tab*, but tomorrow has some dangerous clashes between top teams that could completely alter this before the break tomorrow night. Paul has put together a comprehensive tab of the standings after round 6, which can be found at: http://paullau.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/results-wsdc-2011-round-5-6/

Also, the break tomorrow night is going to be streamed live online at: http://www.dundeechannel.com/wsdc.html
so you can take part in the tension yourself!

In summary, the results of the rounds 5 and 6 are as follows:

Round 5 - THW legalise the sale of human organs (pre-prepared)
Wales 1 - 2 Canada

Round 6 - THW stop sending humans into space (impromptu)
Barbados 0 - 3 Wales

*The tab is the table of results in a debating competition.

Team Wales features in the Scotsman!

Saturday's edition of the Scotsman, the Scottish national newspaper, reported on the debate between Scotland and Wales, as well as providing coverage of the tournament overall. The complete article can be found at: http://www.scotsman.com/features/The-world-view-A-closer.6821786.jp?articlepage=2

The following extract was taken from this article.

Across town at St Paul’s Academy, there is a home nations clash, as Team Scotland takes on Team Wales in the first unprepared motion. At 12:50pm each team opened an envelope and learned that the topic of debate was: “This House Believes In The Free Distribution Of Music On The Internet.” An hour later, in a small classroom, Charlie Holmes, resplendent in a kilt, begins the debate for Scotland with a rousing speech lambasting the current copyright laws as “draconian” and “outdated” and articulating the current belief in contemporary society that the downloading of music is no longer a crime – certainly not one deserving a £200,000 fine for the illegal downloading of a 99p single – oh, and as musicians draw their experience and ideas from society, society shouldn’t have to pay.

They have now built the court on which Wales will play. What is interesting is that it appears easier to win with an opposing argument than a proposing one. Alfie Hinchliffe, of Team Scotland, explains afterwards: “It’s easier to be destructive than constructive.”

Paul Lau – a recent signing for Team Wales after his move from Hong Kong – likes to look his best when tearing apart an argument. As he reaches the podium, he makes a point of putting on his suit jacket with a stylish flourish, rather like Martin Sheen’s President Bartlett in The West Wing, the complete box set of which you well imagine young Mr Lau owning. Wales go on to win the debate.

And no - we haven't stopped winding Paul up about his jacket yet!

A day off in Edinburgh

We've had a lovely and very welcome day off today, as nearly all the participants headed off to Edinburgh for a day out organised by the staff and pupils at George Heriot's school, who had put a huge amount of work into the day for which we are extremely grateful.

Team Wales was escorted by two pupils at the school, Max and Iona,who began by taking us to Edinburgh Dungeon. We went round the dungeons with the teams from Canada and Chile, and had a fun if terrifying time, as we explored punishment in Scotland in the medieval times and the story of Sawney Bean, a Scottish cannibal. There was also a section on the harvesting and sale of organs by gravediggers, and we'll have to see whether or not this comes up in the debate tomorrow!

After a veggie haggis and cheese toastie, we headed off to see the National Museum, the high street which was packed with street performers taking part in the Fringe Festival, the Meadow, and finally finished back at George Heriot's school.

It's back to debating tomorrow though, as we take on last year's world champions, Canada, in the morning, and Barbados, a new team, in the afternoon. Bring it on!

Two more rounds, two more wins!

It's been another great day for Team Wales, as we managed to unanimously win both of our debates today, making us one of only three teams who have won all four debates and twelve judges, the other two being South Korea and New Zealand. Both the Philippines and Argentina put up strong fights and the morning debate especially was good, with the judges feeling that the afternoon's impromptu was a little flat, but we're trying to put that behind us and focus on taking on Canada in two days time (as tomorrow we have a day off to go and visit Edinburgh). Just a quick note - Jonathan, our coach, is also posting his perspective on the day's debates on the Team Wales at WSDC facebook page, for anyone who is interested.

This evening was really good fun - many of the teams went to watch a light debate in British Parliamentary format between some of the judges and coaches, several of whom are high-profile university speakers. The motion was THBT Scotland should become an independent nation, and the tone of the debate was set by the first proposition speaker who announced that Scotland should become independent and as part of that have a single nuclear weapon, and illustrated his case with numerous jokes that had the audience in stitches. Wales was referred to as part of an argument by the second opposition speaker when he was describing the UK as a family - Ireland was the elder brother who drinks a lot and always wants more money, and Wales was the faithful family pet. I'll leave you to ponder this one!

So, in summary, the results of the rounds 3 and 4 are as follows:

Round 3 - THBT universal primary education is a misallocation of resources for the developing world (pre-prepared)
Philippines 0 - 3 Wales

Round 4 - THW make voting in national elections mandatory (impromptu)
Wales 3 - 0 Argentina


We've all discovered how desperate the sleep situation is getting, as we went to set our alarm clocks last night and felt a surge of excitement at the thought that we only needed to wake up at 6:15, and would therefore have a lie-in! So after a couple of rounds of Irish snap, we're planning to turn in, because there's no preparation to do for tomorrow as we're off to Edinburgh!

And the first day of debating is over...

Well, this has been the most stressful day of my life thus far. With impending results for myself and Sarah, we were both up at the crack of dawn trying to log onto UCAS, only to be told that we'd have to wait until eight o'clock. By which time, of course, we had to be at breakfast preparing to leave for the school hosting our first two rounds. So it was only approximately 30 minutes before the first debate that we actually found out our results, and it was with relief that we found we had both got the grades for our first choice universities.

The results of the first two rounds are as follows:

Round 1 - THW offer dictators immunity in return for leaving power (pre-prepared)
Wales 3 - 0 Germany

Round 2 - THW allow the free distribution of music over the internet (impromptu)
Scotland 0 - 3 Wales


Both debates were good and the results must have been extremely close. All in all, it's been a great start to what promises to be an exciting tournament!

The Tournament has begun!

This is going to be a fairly short post as it is past midnight and I still have case notes to copy out neatly for tomorrow - it's nice to have these things done in plenty of time!

Today was our first full day in Dundee - we took advantage of the tours of the city arranged by the Organising Committee, and went on a bus tour with teams from Mexico, Australia, Peru and Barbados. The castle at Broughty Ferry, on the edge of Dundee, was our first stop, followed by a stop at the Botanic Gardens of Dundee. We then went to Dundee Law, a now-extinct volcano, and took a lot of photos of the panoramic view from the top, and finally finished at a wildlife park. At the park, we had lunch and were then presented with some information on the park and an activity booklet, which brought out the inner children in us as we figured our exactly how to get the tortoise through the maze and got rather excited over the cut-out monkey mask in the middle.

In the afternoon, we headed back to base and did a friendly impromptu debate against Team Singapore, the motion being TH supports the granting of enhanced powers to the police in the fight against crime. After feedback, we had just enough time to pull on a dress and some heels before making our way to the opening ceremony. Both Sarah and I had underestimated how much further the distance between our accommodation and the location of the opening ceremony would seem in heels, and after a few metres decided to walk the rest of the way barefoot...

The opening ceremony was exceptional as is always the case at WSDC, with several speakers, musical items and a display of highland dance. Unfortunately, at this point my camera battery, exhausted from its hard work in the morning, decided to go on strike, so I have no photos from the ceremony.

So now the tournament has officially begun! The nerves are kicking in for tomorrow, but I'm confident that whatever the results we'll have another amazing day! As long as we can find a shop that sells energy drinks and/or coffee to deal with the lack of sleep... on that note, goodnight!

Arrived in Dundee (just)...

After nearly 8 hours of travelling, Team Wales finally arrived in Dundee, and after speaking to the Argentinian team, who had to fly for 13 hours, wait for 3 hours in London, then catch another plane to Glasgow before taking a bus to Dundee, we counted our lucky stars that it had only been 8 hours on 3 different trains.

All in all, the journey went smoothly - an extremely competitive round of Bananagrams (a highly addictive word game) we came close to missing our stop, and had to move pretty fast to avoid getting stuck on the train to Manchester. Amazingly, we had a similarly close call when getting off our second train and David realised that he'd left a book in another carriage. Luckily, however, we all made it to Dundee!

It's been a lovely evening - we've met teams from Kuwait, India, Argentina, Canada and the Netherlands, as well as being reunited with Team England, and David and Sarah took to the dance mats against the girls from Kuwait. But we're all tired now, so after a final bit of case preparation we're heading off to bed. Goodnight!

Goodbye, Temple of Doom!

This is my final post on this blog from Wales - next time you hear from me I will be in Dundee! I've just returned from Cardiff after a busy last few days of preparation before we travel to Scotland tomorrow, and thought I'd fill you in on what we've been up to.

We started the weekend in Cardiff, then travelled to Oxford for Saturday night, before arriving in London on Sunday morning to take on Team England in two friendly debates. In the morning, we debated one of our prepared cases, and in the afternoon we took on an impromptu debate, THW* punish sports teams for the misbehaviour of their fans. It was lovely to meet Team England prior to the tournament, and was really good preparation for WSDC. Also, it made a nice change to debate against someone other than Jonny iron-manning (delivering all speeches for) the opposite side.

We returned to Cardiff today for a final training session, which was tinged with sadness as Sarah and I bade farewell to the Temple of Peace, also known as the Temple of Doom, which has been our debating home for 3 years. Paul and David are eligible to apply for the team next year, however for Sarah and myself this is our final year of schools debating.

On a brighter note - this time tomorrow we'll be in Dundee!

*From here on in I'll be using the abbreviations THW (This House Would) and THBT (This House Believes That) when I discuss motions.

Meet the Team!

Here is Team Wales 2011 after our training session last weekend, pictured in our new team hoodies!

From left to right: Paul Lau, Josephine Maidment, David Wigley, Sarah Roberts and Jonathan Leader-Maynard (co-coach). Not pictured is Ellen Robertson (co-coach) who will be working abroad during the tournament.