1stpropinthefinal

Thank You

2007-01-03T20:46:00.000-08:00

Blogging worlds has been great fun. I want to say thank you to UBC's OrgComm for taking it in the spirit in which it has been intended, especially those who accidentally dropped a copy of the draw on the floor - you know who you are, and you're a gentleman. I want to thank anyone who bothered to read it and to comment in.

I especially want to thank the various people I had a chance to talk to over the debating days in an effort to get a comprehensive set of results for the higher echelons of the tab - everyone, from every country and University I spoke to was really nice, and having the excuse to come over and say hi was great!

Finally, I want to thank my girlfriend Doireann for her patience with me - she came over to Vancouver thinking she'd be an adjudciation widow and she ended up a blog-widow instead - Thank you!

Worlds Results

2007-01-03T20:30:00.000-08:00

World Champions: Sydney G – Julia & Anna

Top Ten Speakers at Worlds:
1) Jess Prince
2) Sam Block
3) Josh Bone
4) Patrick Meaher
5) Will Jones & Adam Bott
7) Adam Chilton
8) David Denton
9) Alex Campbell
10) Jack Wright & Christopher Clerk

ESL Champion: IIU Malyasia A
ESL Top Speakers (The spelling is all over the shop!):
1) Said Hassan
2) Alkheim ????
3) Parat Sayta
4) Tamsin Elias
5) V Naranjan

EFLChampions : Singha A
EFL Top speaker: Masako Suzuki

Masters Champions: Quebec – Ali Dewji & Mathew Sinclair

Public Speaking: Michael Eielson I(s this spelt correctly)?

Best Comedy: Willard Foxton

Grand Final Draw & Motion

2007-01-03T18:03:00.000-08:00

The draw fro the Grand final was as follows:

1P Cambridge C (Bob & Ronald)
2P Oxford D (Will & James)

1O Queensland A (Erin & Evan)
2O Sydney G (Julia & Anna)

The motion was:

"TTHBT economic growth is the solution to environmental problems"

If I had to call it, I think I would go for 2Prop. I mentiond to a few people at the end of day two that I thought they'd break first and never blogged it in case I was wrong. I regretted not throwing it out there when they did actually break first and my prediction was borne out - may as well risk it for a biscuit this time!

Clarification and Apology

2007-01-03T17:56:00.000-08:00

It appears my post about Thai Night has caused some degree of upset to Kevin Massie. I understand that that post could be taken to mean that Kevin gave legal advice at a point in his legal career when he was not entitled to do so and when doing so could be considered a breach of a number of guidelines and standards. It was not my intention to suggest that this was the case.

I want to apologise to Kevin for whatever upset the post has caused him - Kevin and I have always had a good relationship, that has included a good degree of verbal sparring and barbs, but I have never sought to cause him upset and I hope that he believes and accepts that.

The post was intended to have some humour value - the humour is gone so the post is too.

Semi-Final Motion

2007-01-03T09:48:00.000-08:00

"TTHW ban websites that glorify eating disorders"

I think this is a great motion.

World Semi Finals

2007-01-02T22:44:00.001-08:00

Revised Semi-Final Draw (revise d by me - i got it wrong first time!)

Semi 1
St. Andrew's A
Oxford D
Oxford C
Sydney G

Semi 2
Sydney D
Cambridge C
Queensland A
Alaska A

Congratulations to all those advancing, and commiserations to UCD L&H A who went down fighting.

ESL Final

2007-01-02T22:43:00.000-08:00

The team advancing to the World ESL Final are:

IIU Malaysia A
SSE A
National Law School of India A
Hebrew B

Semi-final announcement postponed

2007-01-02T21:42:00.000-08:00

The announcement of the cut to Semi-Finals and ESL Final has been delayed. It was scheduled to take place before the Masters Final, the the decision was tekn to postpone the announcement because one team was not present.

It seems ridiculous that all those teams who turned up on time should be made to suffer because one team didn't bother turning up. If you give a time to announce something and a team isn't present then surely it should just "suck to be you" for them, especially when the semi-finals themselves aren't scheduled to take place until tomorrow morning.

Almost everyone is extremely frustrated with the decision - noone who deserved to benefit from it does, and a whole load of people are pretty angry.

Quarter Final Motion

2007-01-02T13:40:00.000-08:00

The Motion for the Quarter Finals is:

"TTHB that people sentenced to life imprisonment should be allowed to choose the death penalty instead"

Quarter Final Draw 4

2007-01-02T13:39:00.000-08:00

QF 4
Stanford A 2o
George Washington A 2p
Sydney D 1p
Cambridge C 1o

Quarter Final Draw 3

2007-01-02T13:38:00.001-08:00

QF 3
Queensland A 1p
KCL A 2o
Cambridge A 2p
Alaska A 1o

Quarter Final Draw 2

2007-01-02T13:36:00.000-08:00

Quarter Final 2 is:

QF 2
Sydney A 1p
Sydney G 2p
Sydney E 2o
Oxford C 1o

Quarter Finals Draw 1

2007-01-02T13:23:00.000-08:00

Quarter Final 1 is:

QF 1
Oxford D 1p
St. Andrews A 1o
L&H A 2p
Queensland B 2o

Octo Finals Over

2007-01-02T12:42:00.000-08:00

The octo-finals are now over. I think they're going to make the teams sweat until after lunch so it'll be a while before I get the results. That said , I want to take back my criticism of the motion as boring. The debate was actually really enjoyable and a few others have agreed that their initial reactions were confounded. Well done to the Adjudication team and whichever of them pushed the motion.

Octo Final Motion

2007-01-02T10:47:00.001-08:00

The Octo-Final motion is:

"TTHBT developing nations should nationalise their energy resources"

Boooooring!

Cork to Host Worlds 2009

2007-01-01T16:36:00.000-08:00

The UCC Philosophical and Law Societies will host the 29th World Universities Debating Championships. A close vote saw the Cork bid win out over a strong challenge from Botswana. Derek Lande will be the CA for Cork Worlds and Art Ward will be the convenor.

Logan was to CA the Botswana bid, but he was announced well after the start of UBC worlds, and the lack of clarity about the adjudication team made it difficult for them to convince many A-status nations to vote for them.

Hopefully Botswana will consider bidding again next year, as many aspects of their plans looked spot on.

For now though, congratulations to Derek, Art, and Cork.

Irish Judges Breaking

2007-01-01T16:34:00.000-08:00

Those breaking as adjudicators from Ireland:

Margeurite Carter
Diarmuid Early
Sharon Dillon-Lyons
Dave Kenny
Derek Lande
Simon Larragy
Ciarán Lawlor

Worlds' Council News: AU Worlds Confirmed

2007-01-01T12:43:00.000-08:00

Assumption University, Thailand, have been confirmed as the hosts for 2007/2008 without opposition. They gave a hugely impressive presentation, leaving everyone pretty enthusiastic and already looking forward to spending next year's New Year in a holiday resort.

Congratulations.

The Harvey-Smith Family

2007-01-01T11:51:00.000-08:00

During Debate Day 1 one delegate was heard to comment on "how close" Neil and Jess were, and "how well they get along". They followed that up by asking "how much older is Neil?" I wasn't sure but the next comment was more troubling: "They're like you and Julia"

Now Julia is my younger sister - she has debated for her school a few times, and won one of the Irish School's Mace competitions. Obviously, I get a lot of stick from everyone on the Irish circuit - "how do you feel about your sister being taller than you?"; "how do you feel about your sister being a better debater than you?"; etc - but I've never been accused of marrying her!

I've heard about people who have been together a long time, starting to look alike (see above - maybe this is what the Harvey-Smith's will look like in a few years) but I just don't see the resemblance between Neil and Jess.

Of course it also begs the question: what sort of relationship does that delegate have with their sisters?

ESL Break

2007-01-01T01:24:00.000-08:00

1) Hebrew B
2) Bonn A
3) IIU A
4) MSIU A
5) Bonaparte A
6) SSE A
7) Tilburg A
8) Sains Malay A

The Main Break

2007-01-01T01:17:00.000-08:00

1) Oxford D 23
2) Cambridge B 22
3) Oxford E 22
4) Sydney A 21
5) Sydney E 21
6)McGill A 21
7)Sydney D 20
8) Sydney B 20
9) L&H A 20
10) Cambridge C 20
11) Cambridge A 20 (after a Coin toss)
12) Oxford C 20
13) UCC Phil A 20
14) Yale B 19
15) Stanford A 19
16) Oxford B 19
17)Oxford A 19
18) Durham A 19
19) Queensland A 19
20)Sydney G 19
21)SMU B 19
22)Alaska A 19
23) Birmingham A 19
24) Durham B 19
25)Queensland B 18
26) Helsinkis A 18
27) Melbourne A 18
28)Manchester A 18
29)Middle Temple 18
30)KCL A 18
31)George Washington A 18
32)St. Andrews A 18

Backtabbing

2006-12-31T19:30:00.000-08:00

OK, so without the top third of the draw for Round 8, it's virtually impossible for me to extrapoltae meaningful results for Round 7. Obviously, it's possible to deduce somethings from the data I have, but it's not really worth posting. For example, I can tell you with certainty that L&H A did not take a last, but that's really not particularly useful information.

Sorry, to thos who were hoping.

I'll announce the break as soon as possible after it's release - but I have a girlfriend (seriously!) and it is New Year's Eve.

Round 9: Motion

2006-12-31T16:52:00.000-08:00

The motion is:

"TTHW grant citizenship in exchange for military service"

Round 8: Motion

2006-12-31T13:32:00.001-08:00

Round 8:

"TTHW Ban Cosmetic Surgery"

Solid first principles motion to let them get in a decent ruck as the crunch approaches. I approve!

Round 6 Results revised

2006-12-31T12:57:00.000-08:00

Check the last round 6 results notice for a revised list of results. I have 62 teams and I'm certain that the first 30 or so must be correct at this stage.

Should have the first extrapolated results for Round 7 shortly.

Finally, apologies to Manchester who were indeed on 15 points.

Coming soon: an interview with international debate superstar Jeremy Brier!

Motion analysis Day 2 - return of the casefile confirmed

2006-12-31T09:25:00.000-08:00

Day 2 had two very first principles motions but the Quebec case, again, is a relatively specific knowledge case. Plenty of teams seemed to be saying they thought about the case but decided it wouldn't come up, and to be fair, I would have agreed. Obviously you can argue the case from 1st principles but specific knowledge would give a team a serious advantage.

The Ransom debate however, was a great motion, and apparently my guess at Kevin as the source was a good one because he set it at some tournament a while back. It's probably the best so far - hopefully they haven't wasted their best case on the prelims.

The tax debate I adjudicated was a little painful - but that's tax!

Round 7: Motion

2006-12-31T09:18:00.000-08:00

The motion for Round 7 of UBC Worlds 2007 is:

"TTHW support regime change in Myanmar/Burma"

Wahooooooo!

I love this debate - In Oxford a few years I ran this case on the motion "TTHW take action to increase women in Government" and took the win. A week later in Cambridge, I took a last because it was "a bit out there"!

Can't wait!

Debate Day 3 Plan

2006-12-31T09:01:00.000-08:00

Obviously today, the rounds are closed so I won't have as much imnformation to put out for you guys. I'll continue to post the motions as they are announced and I'll backtab the rersults as best I can. The very clever Dave Kenny from Trinity is going to help out with this.

Obviously, all the usual health warnings apply to the results we come up with, but I won't post them unless I'm pretty sure they're good.

I won't have any information on results until after the draw for Round 8 though, so bear with us!

Roll on round 7....

Round 6: More complete results

2006-12-31T08:44:00.000-08:00

Round 6: Results

2006-12-31T00:33:00.000-08:00

Candy Canes, Cookies, and Happiness

2006-12-30T16:49:00.000-08:00

So apparently some girl and guy from the OrgComm spent hours baking bags and bags of delicious biscuits for like everyone at worlds.

These people are heroes! If anyone knows who is responsible can they post in their names so they get the credit they deserve.

Mmmmmm, cooookieees....

Well done to the tab room...

2006-12-30T16:41:00.000-08:00

We're about to announce almost on time for round 6 - given they're using Singapore Tab, which doesn't facillitate Speed Ballots, this is pretty amazing.

Congrats to those involved - whoever you are, don't let Massie & the DCAs take the credit!

Round 5: Results

2006-12-30T16:31:00.001-08:00

Round 6: Motion & Draw

2006-12-30T16:20:00.000-08:00

The Motion for Round 6 of UBC Worlds 2007:

"TTHW abolish all taxes on inherited wealth"

Direct all complaints to Alex apparently.

Nothing too controversial about the draw, there are no easy rooms at this stage!

Que sera, sera....

2006-12-30T15:21:00.000-08:00

Erik wants to know what I'm doing at worlds - though he doesn't put it quite as accusingly as that!

I'm at worlds to judge. I wanted to be here for Thailand's bid defence as I'm a DCA there next year. That means that when I take the "retirement position" that DCA seems to be, I'll only have spoken at two worlds (Singapore, UCD L&H B, Octos; Malaysia, King's Inns A, Quarters) and convened UCD Worlds 2006.

I did nearly end up speaking this year. After doing Cambridge with Jeremy Kinsella and Cork with Marguerite Carter, I REALLY wanted to speak. Unfortunately, my request didn't make it high enough up the waiting list to make it in. Que sera, sera!

Round 5: Motion & Draw

2006-12-30T13:04:00.000-08:00

The motion for round 5 f UBC Worlds 2007 is:

"TTH Supports Independence for Quebec"

I may have been right about it being Massie's day to chose motions.

Oxford E (Jess Prince & Alex Campbell) and SMU B got the pull-up in to the Yale A & B teams who are both on twelve.

Round 4: Results

2006-12-30T13:02:00.000-08:00

Round 4: Motion & Draw

2006-12-30T09:28:00.000-08:00

The motin for round 4 of UBC Worlds 2007 is:

"TTH would criminalise the payment of Ransom"

Great motion - my guess is it's Massie's!

At the tough end of the draw, the 7 point bracket looks as hard as that at 8 and 9, with plenty of seemingly top-class teams hanging around.

Motion Analysis Day 1 - return of the casefile?

2006-12-30T09:16:00.000-08:00

Well I don't think people could really complain about the first motion, it was a standard first principles case - the only criticism you could have is that there is a risk of people debating at cross purposes due to differences in the educational systems around, well, the world. To be fair, that's a problem for the teams and you can't fault the A-team for it.

The other two motions are quite "specific-knowledge"y. It's not unfair to ask people to debate about the UK nuclear detterent though, and to be fair if people are prepping for worlds, they really should know something about South Africa's situation with urban poverty, slums, and inequitable land distribution, maybe a little knowledge about something called apartheid also.

It's probably worth mentioning that these motions aren't exactly new with the UK Trident debate being run at Cork last year and the Land resdistribution case being set by Derek for a round in the Irish Mace - maybe Derek's day of motions is over and done with, and without a WTO case!

That said, people seem to be saying that the motions are more specific than trends in the last few years would indicate. Teams with specific knowledge of either of the later motions would have been at a significant advantage. The consensus is that the four volume casefile may be back.

Canadian Coca-Cola

2006-12-30T09:11:00.000-08:00

As some of you may know, I am a self-confessed Coca-Cola addict. I'm currently in recovery, thanks to a strict regime enforced by my wonderful girlfriend Doireann (now a suffering blog widow - anyone who feels her pain, please comment in).

Well my recovery is not being helped by the size of the Canadian portions. A standard 500 ml bottle of coke is actually 591ml in this country. Now you gotta ask, how did they come up with the number 591ml - the best guess is when they changed to the metric system they kept the bottles the same. I can only imgaine the debate in the coke offices that day, bigger, smaller, stay the same. Oh the trials and tribulations of being a high earning coca-cola executive - they really have it tough!

Round 3: Results Part 2

2006-12-30T08:57:00.000-08:00

Team Names

2006-12-30T07:12:00.000-08:00

I'll edit this post with teams that I can identify speakers on over the next few hours, check back!

If you know the names of any other teams drop me a comment and I'll add them to the list. Here's the first list of names:

Team Speakers
St. Andrew's C Tony Murphy & Jason Vit
UCD Law B Susan Connolly & Ben Barnett
L&H C Stephen Boyle & Ian Boyle Harper
UCD Law C Shane Cranley & Eoin Martin
Cambridge B Sam Block
L&H B Ross McGuire & Gregg O'Neill
St. Andrew's B Rachel & ?
Galway B Nuala & John
L&H A Noel McGrath & Frank Kennedy
UCD Law A Michael Clark & Irwin Gill
Stanford A Michael & Ray
Galway A Lorcan & Ronan
Yale B Josh Bone & Dylan Gadek
TCD Hist B Josephine Curry & Chris Kissane
Oxford D Jones & Drey
UCC Philosoph A Jimmy & Tiernan
Oxford E Jess & Alex
TCD Phil A Ed Gaffney & Ruth Fallor
Cambridge A David Tite & Susie Riddel, I think
TCD Hist A David Boughton & Pciaran Denny
Yale A Dave Denton & Adam Chilton
UCC Law B DannyP & Paul
UCC Law A Danny Gleeson & ??
St. Andrew's A Connie & Doug
Cambridge C Bob & Ranold?
TCD Phil B Andrea Mulligan & John Gallagher
Oxford A Alex Just

Round 3: Results Part 1...

2006-12-30T07:10:00.000-08:00

of more hopefully.

So as you can understand, last night I got a bit distracted and may not have been as diligent as I have been thus far about gathering results. During the delay before Round 1, I will do my best to update this list but for the moment, with an Irish/UCD bias, here it is:

Team Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Total
Galway A 3 3 3 | 9
Sydney A 3 3 3 | 9
L&H B 2 3 3 | 8
UCD Law B 3 2 3 | 8
UCD Law C 3 1 3 | 7
L&H C 3 3 0 | 6
UCD Law A 3 0 3 | 6
TCD Phil A 2 2 1 | 5
TCD Phil B 2 3 0 | 5
Galway B 2 1 0 | 3

Round 3: Motion

2006-12-29T18:04:00.000-08:00

So the motion for Round 3 of UBC Worlds 2007 is:

"TTH Supports Accelerated Land Redistribution in South Africa"

Btw, this is the time the round is starting, this feed is live - they're a little behind...

I guess it sucks to be us (Couldn't resist Miranda;-) )

Round 2: Results

2006-12-29T17:51:00.000-08:00

Hi to the OrgComm

2006-12-29T17:14:00.000-08:00

Just thought I'd give a shout out to the OrgComm - apparently you're the ones reading this blog so thanks.... God this is so sad.

Gav's status

2006-12-29T17:02:00.000-08:00

Some of you seem interested to know what happened Gav - apparently he was in the shower ... asleep! He was prety contrite about the whole thing and the Adjudication team punished him pretty severely by making him a trainee for round 2. I don't know what his funding situationis now but it would seem a bit harsh to effectively fine him £1000 for missing round 1.

Round 2: Draw and Motion

2006-12-29T14:27:00.000-08:00

The motion for Round 2 of UBC Worlds 2007 is:

"TTHBT the UK should abolish it's Nuclear Arsenal"

This is one Derek used for the Q-finals in Cork 2005, and it's been topical recently, so no complaints.

No Free Drink Fiasco (I'm Irish)

2006-12-29T14:12:00.000-08:00

I'm told that UBC aren't providing any free booze tonight or any night - people were pretty annoyed when they arrived to the opening night "Cocktail Party" last night, to find that there were no free drinks, and strangely, very little in the way of cocktails. The drink was pretty overpriced at $4.25 for a Coke, and I'm told it was actually more expensive than the bar in the lounge. Needless to say, the old hipflask was put to good use!

I certainly thought there was going to be free drink on at least two nights but it now appears this won't be the case. British Columbia Law is prety strict on licencing so this might be the reason. That said, it doesn't explain the prices last night - and I think it's uncharacteristically culturally insensitive for the Canadians to make it so difficult for an Irish guy to get cheap booze! I wonder it be covered by the equity policy?

Round 1: Results

2006-12-29T13:34:00.000-08:00

Here's some selected results from Round 1:

Team Round 1
Cambridge B 3
Cambridge E 3
Durham A 3
Durham B 3
Galway A 3
George Washington A 3
Harvard E 3
L&H A 3
L&H C 3
LSE C 3
Newcastle 3
Oxford A 3
Oxford B 3
Oxford C 3
Oxford D 3
Oxford E 3
Oxford F 3
Portland E 3
Queensland A 3
SMU ? 3
St Andrew's C 3
St. Andrew's B 3
Stellenbosch A 3
Sydney A 3
TCD Hist A 3
UCC Law B 3
UCC Philosoph B 3
UCD Law A 3
UCD Law B 3
UCD Law C 3
Yale A 3
Yale B 3
Yale D 3
Yale E 3
Alberta A 2
ANU? 2
Cambridge D 2
Galway B 2
Glasgow A 2
Hart House A 2
Hart House B 2
Harvard B 2
L&H B 2
Lincoln's A 2
Queensland B 2
Stanford A 2
TCD Phil A 2
TCD Phil B 2
UCC Law A 2
UCC Philosoph A 2
Yale C 2
Yale F 2
Cambridge C 1
St. Andrew's A 1
Sydney C 1
TCD Hist B 0

Obviously there's a distinct UK and Ireland bias to the resultsI'm posting but hopefully I'll pick up a more diverse set of results over the next few rounds.

Round 1: Pre-announce

2006-12-29T10:33:00.000-08:00

Oxford just withdrew Gavin's funding and have grabbed an independent judge to fund.

Round 1: Pre-announce

2006-12-29T10:32:00.000-08:00

Gav Illsley hasn't turned up, or so Massie and Deane are announcing, and they're threatening to cut an Oxford team at random for a breach of the n-1 rule...

Round 1: Motion & Draw Info

2006-12-29T10:13:00.000-08:00

The motion for Round 1 of UBC Worlds 2007 is:

"TTHW Ban Government Funding of Religious Schools"

There are some tough first round draws:

TCD Phil A picked up Oxford A;
Middle Temple have Harvard A who were strong at Oxford this year;
Glasgow B picked up Sydney A;
Lincoln's A got a Seattle team and Yale E; and,
Glasgow A got a bunch of "A" teams from US institutions.

But the pick of the bunch from Round 1 has to be: Cambridge C, St Andrew's A, TCD Hist B, and Sydney D.

You're normally counting on Round 1 to give you a solid win and push off your break chances. I'd guess most of the above would have been hoping to break and will be disappointed to pick up such strong competition on the random draw.

Adjudicator test motion

2006-12-29T10:03:00.000-08:00

Last night's adjudicator test motion was "TTHW would withdraw from Iraq".

The debate was ok, but I guess the major significance of this is that an Iraq motion is now much less likely during the first nine. Dust off your Afghanisatan files...

UCB Worlds?

2006-12-29T09:56:00.000-08:00

So this morning I asked a staffer about getting wireless access on campus during the tournament. After initially sending me to the tabroom to ask there, he offered to bring me over to some UBC students who could help me out. We get to this table of people having breakfast and the helpful staffer asks if the students are from UBC. They answer no. He looks down at the letters on their sweaters, then asks if they're sure; they are. He looks confused, apologises that he can't help further. So I thank him and he heads off. The letters on the sweaters?

UCB - United Colors of Benetton.

Debate Day 1 - about to begin.

2006-12-29T07:17:00.000-08:00

So I'm leaving the hotel now - I'll post asap with news from pre-council and all that stuff from yesterday but for now I'll just say this: the hotel is amazing!