East Aberdeenshire speechmakers head to national finals

The SAYFC North Junior and Senior speechmaking competition took place in Nairn Community Centre, Nairn and saw three junior speechmaking teams compete.

They covered a range topics, which were judged by Kate Elder, Denis Bridgeford and Allan Gray, themselves all having taken part in speechmaking previously at all levels of the competition.

Question master for the day was John Fyall.

The winning team was Harray, with team comprising of Chair, Elsa McIntosh, Opposer, Jayden Taylor and Proposer, Lily Hay who discussed the topic Orkney’s Future is Bright scoring 79.6 points out of a possible 100.

Second place went to Sandwick with 78.9 points for team members, Chair, Alana Sinclair, Opposer, Rowan Donaldson and Proposer, Finlay Lie with speech titled King of the Road with all three members receiving the best Chair, Opposer and Proposer outwith the winning team prizes.

In third place were the team from East Aberdeenshire comprising of Harry Stephen in the Chair, Finlay Simpson as Opposer and Johanna MacKenzie as Proposer of their speech titled Pedigree Cattle are the Ultimate Farming System with a score of 64.9.

While the judges retired to make their decisions on the junior placings, the senior team from East Aberdeenshire took to the stage.

Team members were Chair, Greig Christie, Speaker, Stewart Sleigh, Question Master, Isla Shand and Vote of thanks, Olivia Guntrip.

All three junior teams will go forward to the National Junior Finals in Edinburgh on December 4 while the senior team will attend the Senior Finals in February 2023.

North Chair, Sarah Mowat commented ‘It was great to see both Junior and Senior teams make a return for the North region speech making competition. I wish them all the very best for the upcoming national competitions’

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.