New Zealand Schools’ Debating

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).

NZ closed off the preliminary rounds of Worlds today by winning their last two debates against Slovakia and Indonesia. They finish the preliminary rounds with a 8 from 8 record, having dropped only one judge (in round one). This should mean they break 1st or 2nd into the octo-finals, and will face either the 16th of 15th ranked team.

The 2008 team is the first since the 2001 NZ team (at Singapore Worlds 2002) to win all 8 preliminary debates. Hopefully the same thing doesn’t happen to them though in the octo-finals!

The very best of luck to the team for their octo-final!

Just heard via Julia (the power of text messaging!) that NZ won its debates today against Scotland and Singapore, both by 3-0 margins. Scotland and Singapore were last year’s champion and runner-up teams so these are excellent results.

Not sure who debated in each yet but will post once I have that, plus other, info.

In news just in:

In Round 3, Holly, Maria and Jen beat Bangladesh 3-0, proposing the (prepared) motion, “This House would ban the use of unethically obtained data in scientific research”.

In Round 4, Ben, Tom and Jen beat Japan 3-0, opposing the (impromptu) motion, “This House would make humanities subjects compulsory at undergraduate level”.

Tomorrow is the big day – Scotland in the morning and Singapore in the afternoon.

New Zealand is off to a good start, winning their first two rounds.

In Round One, Ben, Holly and Tom beat Greece 2-1, opposing the motion “This House would use military intervention to deliver aid in a humanitarian crisis”

In Round Two, Holly, Maria and Tom beat Estonia 3-0, proposing the impromptu topic “This House would ban strikes by workers in essential state services”.

Tomorrow the team faces Bangladesh and Japan.

The debating is soon to begin at World Schools in Washington. The tabmaster of the tournament, the venerable Tuna Snider, is running a blog (in addition to running the tab!). Check it out at http://www.wsdc2008.blogspot.com/ There will be round by round results posted there, as well as news about the tournament. NZ results and other things of interest will be cross-posted here.

Also check out www.schoolsdebate.com/blog where NZ’s own Claire Ryan is posting other news from the tournament.

The 2008 World Schools’ Debating Championships starts soon in Washington D.C. The New Zealand squad consists of:

- A team of five debaters (Maria English, Holly Jenkins, Jen Savage, Ben Kornfeld, and Tom Chen)
- Two coaches (Julia Fetherston and Kevin Moar)
- Two adjudicators (Claire Ryan and Jeremy Johnson)

The team leaves NZ this afternoon, and the tournament starts on September 5.

As news filters in from Washington over the next couple of weeks we’ll be updating the website with all the news.

New Zealand’s draw is below. Affirmatives on the left, negative on the right.

Round 1: This house supports military intervention to deliver emergency aid in humanitarian crises
Greece v New Zealand

Round 2: Impromptu
New Zealand v Estonia

Round 3: This house would ban the use of unethically obtained data in scientific research
New Zealand v Bangladesh

Round 4: Impromptu
Japan v New Zealand

Round 5: This house would make the directors of multinational companies personally liable for environmental abuses committed by their companies in the developing world
New Zealand v Scotland

Round 6: Impromptu
Singapore v New Zealand

Round 7: This house believes that governments have a duty to bail out failing financial institutions
Slovakia v New Zealand

Round 8: Impromptu
New Zealand v Indonesia

New Zealand has a pretty tough draw, with debates against last year’s winning team and runner-up team. Greece have also been strong performers in recent years, and some describe Indonesia as the sleeping giants of the schools debating world.

All the very best to the team!

Photos from the 2007 and 2008 National Championships are now available online via the Photos link.