Walshford - Part 2 - The Speakers Club competition - and Syntrichia latifolia

Last month (See previous post) I had visited Walshford to explore the planned location of the 2014 Eastern District Speakers Club Competition at The Bridge Hotel, Walshford

The three judges are seated here in the foreground

Now the 10th of March was here, and here we are at the competition.
(Some of us were here from Craven Speakers Club, Skipton. Skipton was judged Number 1 in Britain's top 101 places  to live in Britain in Sunday Times on 16 March 2014 - must be because of our Speakers Club - just had to get that in)

The winners at this competition would go forward to the national competition of the Association of Speakers Clubs this year at Glasgow in 25-27 April

You may think this post is all about the speech competition - well it is, but you'll soon see there is a link to

1. Mosses,  Syntrichia in particular
2. Saving habitats
3. Rainforest Greeting cards.
4. 
   

I came early  .. specially to see the village of Little Ribston  1.5 miles away, and to explore and look at Ribston Hall.

Once again it was beautiful weather.

I stood beneath an alder tree and looked over the river Nidd at Ribston Hall

See the alder catkins

And see what is growing on the trunk
at the foot of the Alder tree
 (my map marks the position)

Yes - Syntrichia latifolia - Water Screw-moss

Add a little bit of water from the plant spray and the leaves open out.

Syntrichia latifolia.!!!!!!!!! Water Screw-moss

But the competition was due to start at 1.30pm. I gathered my plant spray, retraced my steps to the car and continued to the Speech Contest.

Martin Bishop, left, the president of the Eastern District presents
a special prize for the club that has done most for young people
 - two clubs shared the prize. The Eastern District comprises three Areas. 
Our area - The Yorkshre Dales Area -comprises 6 clubs now that a new club Sheffield has formed.

 There were three competitions,
with one entrant from each of the three areas in each of the competitions:

1. Three people gave speeches.
2. Three people did evaluations of a special speech given for them to evaluate
3. Three people gave impromptu speeches. ( I was one of the contestants for this)

Three speeches:
The first lady called Kay gave a speech entitled "Awakening the Dreamer".
She explained how we were sleep walking into an environmental crisis. I jotted down phrases and sentences.
She finished by saying: "When people in the future ask 'What did you do to make a difference?'  I would like to be able to say 'I made a stand'"

The second man gave a moving speech on "Love is all"

The third speaker talked on the decline (in number) in British Pubs.  (This third speech won because of the way it was delivered, within the time given)

The special speech for the evaluation was given by Lindsay Dutch who this year is President of the national Association of Speakers Clubs.

His title was "Disaster in Teneriff" - which we found referred to
 Nelson's attempts to attack the Canary Islands. -
 Including graphic descriptions of the  attempted attacks and battles.

"Vivid" was the opening word used by
 winning evaluator Chris Clissit to describe Lindsay's speech..

The topic given for the topics competition was "Climbing mountains".
I received the the Runners up prize.

Martin Bishop is the Chairman of the Eastern District. 

I had brought my photo greeting cards with me to sell in aid of the Rainforest Fund? - Was it really relevant to the AGM? .., and should I mention them? Well  taking the quote from Kay's speech-  "When people in the future ask 'What did you do to make a difference?'  I would like to be able to say 'I made a stand'" I raised my hand, quoted her quote and showed people the cards.
And later sold £9-00 of cards - every bit counts.


I wish the three winners - all from the Vale of York area- all the best when they go forward to Glasgow.