Earlier in the year we got some updates on how our public speakers and debaters were going. Since that time the boys have now started their GPS competition and are doing wonderfully well. We are lucky enough to have a committed group of young men who give up their free time to represent us and do this so well.

Below are two reports – the first from Tom Hall (Pymble) who sums up the boys’ victory over Kings and this is followed by a report from Henry Murphy (Randwick) who gives the ins and outs of their victory over the always strong Sydney Boys High School.

Tom wrote:

On the bus we sat full of nerves waiting to arrive at Kings. As soon as we arrived it was straight on and so was the rivalry as few smart comments were made about the soldier looking blazer. We were handed the topic and taken to our rooms. The topic was “That female sports stars should be paid the same amount of male sports stars” and we were the negative. We were handed our facts sheet and begun making our points. The first speaker was going to be Tim O’Farrell the next was going to be Patrick O’Farrell, Me as third and Henry was going to be fourth.  After we had made all of our points we realised that we had no timer or clock in the room and had no idea how much longer we had. Patrick and Tim had finished making their speeches and I still had two more palm cards to go and then the audience walked in and our time was up. While I was waiting for the debate to start I frantically wrote down the last two cards. As soon as it started the rebuttals were on and we ended up winning by a thin margin.

Henry wrote:

On Friday, Both the A’s and B’s debating teams went up against SBHS not knowing what to expect. We knew they were a selective school and would come up with some great arguments.  6:00 o’clock came and it was time for us to flip the coin to see which side of the argument we would get, positive or negative.We got negative, which meant we would be arguing that “Australia should not embrace nuclear power because it is a waste of time and money for an unnecessary risk”  In preparation, we began to realise that we had a good chance of winning. Our arguments were clear and strong, and after debating together for over 2 terms, we were confident in our team to deliver them.  Well, High gave us a run for our money, and the debate was neck and neck the whole way through. Our wrists are still sore from trying to write rebuttals.

By the time most adjudicators stand up to deliver their verdict, we all have a clear idea in our head of whether we will win or lose, however this had to be the closest one ever. Finally we heard those coveted words… “I have decided to give the debate to the negative…” and both the team, and our families tried to hold back the applause and hi-5ing till afterwards. We discovered that we only won by a margin of literally one point. Unfortunately, the B’s lost, however I am sure it was by a margin just as narrow.

Photo: Tom Hall (Pymble), Henry Murphy (Randwick), Tim O’Farrell (Gladesville) and Patrick O’Farrell (Longueville)