Club Competitions: October 2011

There are competitions held twice a year.  Members may choose to take part, if they wish.  The Autumn competition is for Humorous Speech and Table Topics.

The Humorous Speeches are prepared speeches, original in nature and last 5 to 7 minutes.  The members may choose to enter the competition.  There is normally a competition at club level  with the winner progressing to Area competition and that winner to Division competition and so on.

This October there were two club speeches.  John Spillane had a speech entitled “To go where no Spillane had gone before” and Jim McGuire ‘s speech was “ Choices, Choices and more choices”.

Both speeches entertained the club and the judges had a difficult job.  Jim progressed to the Area Final in Limerick and was up against 3 other club winners and again was successful.  Due to non availablility Jim cannot carry on to the Division Final and the Area will be represented by Larry Lyons from Roscrea.  Best of luck to Larry.

The Table Topics are totally different to other competitions.    The contestants are all kept outside the room  and brought in individually.  They do not know what is coming and are each given the same topic. They then have to talk off the cuff for 1-2 minutes.  That can be a long time when you are on the spot!  Every Toastmasters meeting involves doing this so people get used to the pressure.

There were 3 contestants in Nenagh:  Nick Theato, Brigid Hanly and Francis Burke.  They were given the topic:  “A rolling stone gathers no moss”.   Brigid was the successful candidate .  She represented the Nenagh Club at the Area competition in Limerick and did very well, coming in second place.