Around 150 teams competed at Trinity College Dublin. The final was competed by 3 Australian teams –- Australian National University (who broke 1st), Sydney A (who broke 2nd) and Sydney B (who broke 11th). The fourth team was Glasgow (Robin Marshall and Gordon Peterson), who won the final and the championships.
The competition was not a total disappointment for Australia as the top speaker award was shared by James Hooke (NSW) (who would later win Princeton World's) and Richard Douglas (ANU). The winning Glasgow team was not actually included in the initial break as the tab system failed early on and manual calculations were used which later turned out to be flawed.
Following complaints by other colleges (not Glasgow) Edinburgh were dropped from 32nd position and Glasgow were added in and had to be woken from their beds to debate in the octo-finals. Rt. Hon. David Lange was the Head International Adjudicator, Ex Prime Minister of New Zealand, and of 1985 Oxford Union Debate famed moot on legality of Nuclear Arms.
Champions:
Glasgow A (32)
Finalists:
ANU A (1)
Sydney A (2)
Sydney B (11)
Semi-Finalists:
UNSW A (3)
Dalhousie A (21)
UCD L&H (23)
Middle Temple (10)
Quarter-Finalists:
Princeton A (4)
Hart House B (9)
Columbia A (12)
Strathclyde A (18)
UCD Law (19)
Aberyswyth A (23)
UNSW B (25)
UC Toronto A (27)
Octo-Finalists:
Middle Temple A (5)
Auckland A (6)
Cambridge A (7)
Oxford B (8)
Wesleyan A (13)
Aberdeen (14)
Cambridge B (15)
Adelaide A (16)
Hart House A (17)
Vassar A (20)
Oxford A (22)
Monash B (24)
Singapore A (26)
Macquarie B (28)
McGill B (30)
Inner Temple A (31)
This History of the World Debating Championships comes in 3 parts. From 1976 to 1990 it is taken almost word for word from the 1991 Toronto WUDC Tournament booklet. Who wrote it isn't known but it was provided by Randal Horobik. At the start of the section on Worlds in 1981 is an extract from an e-mail by Clark McGinn, Convenor of Debates, GU Union 1980 -81 and 1981 and Convenor of the First World Debating Competition, 1981. The history since 1991 has been compiled initially by Colm Flynn and edited by many contributors to Wikipedia. Unfortunately Wikipedia deleted the history due to copyright concerns so we are back here. Hopefully anyone who contributed to the Wiki article before it was deleted will be happy to see their work preserved here.
Showing posts with label WUDC 1992. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WUDC 1992. Show all posts
30 December 1992
23 December 1992
E-mail from the winner of Worlds in 1992
E-Mail from Gordon Peterson Winner Worlds Trinity College Dublin1992
Hello Colm,
First up, well done on the creation of the Worlds site - a feat of great dedication.
I’m writing to add to your History of the Worlds in 1992 in which you correctly state Glasgow were ranked 32nd. There’s a little more to the story that you may be interested in.
We didn’t actually make the break initially. The reason we were ranked 32nd was that during the tournament the computer running the algorithm that ranked the teams ‘went down’ and for a couple of rounds human calculations were used to rank teams and agree match-ups. At the end of the preliminary rounds, the break teams were announced and no Glasgow team had broken. We did what you do when you don’t break – went out, drank, laughed and generally created a little mayhem until around 4am. Unbeknown to us there were two complaints/queries made about their being a possible mistake in the rankings; one by a team from UCD and the other by a judge on behalf of Glasgow (she had judged the us twice and placed us first each time).
On checking the results, it was discovered that there had been a mistake regarding the Glasgow team and the Tournament Director, Margarite Bolger and Chairman, 1985 Champion, Damian Crawford, made the brave decision to offer us the opportunity to take the place of the 32nd ranked team, Edinburgh. This practically involved us being awakened at 8am by Margarite and Damian and, once we were convinced it wasn’t a ‘wind up’, we spent a fair amount of time trying to decide if we were in a fit state to debate. Fuelled by alcohol, we made it through the Octa finals (following which there was an unsuccessful appeal from Hart House A who believed that we had been shown favouritism by the judges “because they were still drunk”), the Quarters and the Semis (where we were greeted by disbelief by some of the debaters, making it out of their beds with whom we had been drinking with the previous night).
On reflection, I do believe that we had spoken well enough to have made the break and also that going out and having a great night the night before the Octas, Quarters and Semis played a big part in our success – we were relaxed and enjoyed the occasion.
I hope this may add a little to your World’s history and if not, then I’ve enjoyed reminiscing all the same,
Warm regards,
Gordon
Hello Colm,
First up, well done on the creation of the Worlds site - a feat of great dedication.
I’m writing to add to your History of the Worlds in 1992 in which you correctly state Glasgow were ranked 32nd. There’s a little more to the story that you may be interested in.
We didn’t actually make the break initially. The reason we were ranked 32nd was that during the tournament the computer running the algorithm that ranked the teams ‘went down’ and for a couple of rounds human calculations were used to rank teams and agree match-ups. At the end of the preliminary rounds, the break teams were announced and no Glasgow team had broken. We did what you do when you don’t break – went out, drank, laughed and generally created a little mayhem until around 4am. Unbeknown to us there were two complaints/queries made about their being a possible mistake in the rankings; one by a team from UCD and the other by a judge on behalf of Glasgow (she had judged the us twice and placed us first each time).
On checking the results, it was discovered that there had been a mistake regarding the Glasgow team and the Tournament Director, Margarite Bolger and Chairman, 1985 Champion, Damian Crawford, made the brave decision to offer us the opportunity to take the place of the 32nd ranked team, Edinburgh. This practically involved us being awakened at 8am by Margarite and Damian and, once we were convinced it wasn’t a ‘wind up’, we spent a fair amount of time trying to decide if we were in a fit state to debate. Fuelled by alcohol, we made it through the Octa finals (following which there was an unsuccessful appeal from Hart House A who believed that we had been shown favouritism by the judges “because they were still drunk”), the Quarters and the Semis (where we were greeted by disbelief by some of the debaters, making it out of their beds with whom we had been drinking with the previous night).
On reflection, I do believe that we had spoken well enough to have made the break and also that going out and having a great night the night before the Octas, Quarters and Semis played a big part in our success – we were relaxed and enjoyed the occasion.
I hope this may add a little to your World’s history and if not, then I’ve enjoyed reminiscing all the same,
Warm regards,
Gordon
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