New Zealand Schools’ Debating

Some kind soul taped the WSDC 2008 semi-final between Scotland and New Zealand. You can see it through googlevideo here.

The Grand Final was also taped. See just how close it was here.

NB: A broadband connection will probably be necessarily to view these.

Maria English was the 11th best speaker on the tab. Well done Maria - an amazing effort. We’re still waiting for the full tab.

UPDATE: Holly Jenkins was actually 3rd equal on the tab, rather than 4th, as was read out on the night. Well done Holly!

Jen and the team’s success was covered in this morning’s Dom Post. See this link for the story.

And David Farrar, an old student debater himself, has been covering the team’s success. See here, here, and here.

Check out the photo gallery for more photos from the World Schools’ Debating Championships. (updated 16/9/08)

Amazing news just in from Washington. Jen Savage has become only the second New Zealander ever, and the first in the “modern era” (where the speaker prizes are calculated using individual scores from the preliminary rounds, as opposed to an actual individual speaking competition - which was a comedy contest) to win the best speaker prize.

UPDATE: Ben Kornfeld was the 2nd best speaker and Holly Jenkins was 4th.

These are amazing results and reflect just how much New Zealand dominated the tournament.

See the story on Stuff and a photo of Jen on the WSDC Blog.

In the Grand Final of the 2008 World Schools’ Debating Championships held in Washington DC this morning (NZ Time), New Zealand narrowly lost to England in a 5-4 decision.

Commiserations to the team losing in the final but congratulations for such a superb record up to this point. All of the New Zealand schools’ debating community is immensely proud of you - and we’re sure you can go one better in Athens in February!

Check out the photo gallery for more photos from the World Schools’ Debating Championships.

This morning (NZ time), New Zealand defeated Scotland in the semis by a 7-0 margin, proposing the motion “This house would drop all US sanctions on Cuba.”

There is a photo of the teams here.

England beat Greece by 5-2.

This is the first time NZ has made the Worlds Final since 1995!! A long time between drinks but we are very hopeful the team can go all the way.

The topic for the final is: “This House would expand the permanent membership of the UN Security Council.”

NZ is proposing, England opposing.

The debate is at 6.30am NZ time on Monday morning. The site will be updated as soon as we hear the results from Washington.

Go NZ!

New Zealand has reached the semi-finals of the World Schools’ Debating Championships! In their octo-final they defeated the Netherlands by 5-0 on the motion “This House believes that heads of government should be required to have a parliamentary majority to govern.”

In the quarter-final they defeated Ireland by 4-1 on the motion “This House regrets the holding of the 2008 Beijing Olympics”.

NZ meets Scotland in their semi-final at 8pm US Time tomorrow (midday on Sunday in NZ). The other semi-final features Greece v England.

NZ has now won ten debates in a row and dropped just two judges. NZ has not reached the semi-finals since Worlds was last in the USA in Pittsburgh in early 2001.

Netherlands 0 New Zealand 5
Australia 1 Ireland 4
Canada 3 South Korea 2
Scotland 4 Pakistan 1
South Africa 3 Hong Kong 2
Singapore 2 Greece 3
England 3 Wales 2
Slovenia 0 Israel 5

Here are the full quarter results:

New Zealand defeated Ireland 4-1
Scotland defeated Canada 4-1
England defeated Israel 4-1
Greece defeated South Africa 3-2

All the very best to the team!!

NB: Claire Ryan and Jeremy Johnson, the current NZSDC President, also broke as judges and adjudicated the quarter-finals - a great achievement.

Check out the Photo Gallery for more!

For the first time in over a decade, and possibly ever, New Zealand has finished the preliminary rounds of the World Champs in first place. The “break” is below (wins, then judges)

1. New Zealand 8-23
2 South Africa 8-22
3 England 8 21
4 Canada 7 21
5 Pakistan 7 19
6 Israel 7 19
7 Singapore 6 19
8 Australia 6 18
9 Ireland 6 18
10 Greece 6 18
11 Slovenia 6 16
12 Scotland 5 15
13 South Korea 5 15
14 Wales 5 14
15 Hong Kong 5 14
16 Netherlands 5 14

I’ve been asked to provide information about how the octo-finals work. The first ranked team now debates the 16th ranked team. The 2nd ranked team debates the 15th, and so on. Each team that loses is knocked out of the competition. Quarter-finals follow the octos, then two semi-finals, then the Grand Final. If New Zealand wins its octo then they will debate either Australia or Ireland in the quarterfinal (8th team vs 9th team).