IONA debating

IONA Debating Circuit

The IONA (Islands of the North Atlantic) debating circuit is one of the largest competitive university debating circuits in the world. In the 2007/8 debating season, the circuit comprised over 35 individual university level competitions (known as 'IVs' - an acronym for Intervarsities) as well as the World Debating Championships and European Debating Championships.

The IONA debating circuit does not have a firmly fixed recurring calendar of events, but certain substantial debating tournaments hold a relatively permanent status in the year. Each academic year of debating usually begins with the UCL President's Cup, a novice only competition held by University College London. Later in the first academic (autumn) term of UK and Irish debating, are held the Cambridge, Oxford and UCC IVs, as well as the English Leg of the John Smith Memorial Mace. The second and third terms of the University year tend to be given over to smaller IVs and Opens (in which 'composite' teams of individuals from two different academic institutions may enter), but are also host to the more prestigious Middle Temple and Inner Temple IVs. The season usually ends with the European Debating Championships in the early summer.

2007/8 IONA Debating Season

Listed below are the tournaments which have comprised the 2007/8 IONA Debating Season, with best speakers, and winning institutions and speakers of the tournament. Multiple winners/best speakers have the number of times they achieved that award up to and including that tournament listed in brackets.

Nine speakers have won two competitions so far, they are: Adam Bott, Jonathan Leader Maynard, Luke Wells, Fred Cowell, Rosie Unwin, Dan Bradley, Shengwu Li, Doug Cochran, Daniel Warents and James Dray. Art Ward from University College Cork has won three. Jonathan Leader Maynard and Sam Block have been the best speaker most times so far this season, each doing so on 5 occasions. The Middle Temple, Oxford and Cambridge have won the most competitions, each winning four times so far. Only one institution from outside the UK and Ireland has won a tournament so far in the season, when New Zealanders Christopher Bishop and Sayeqa Islam won the Cambridge IV for Victoria University of Wellington.

As of 6th March 2008, Sam Block is currently the overall highest ranked speaker over the 2007/8 season. Oxford ended the year as the highest ranked institution, counting results from the entire season.

Competition	Best Speaker	Winning Institution	Winning Speakers
UCL President's Cup	Andrew Chapman	Cambridge	Netan Dogra and Charlotte Thomas
Bristol IV	Sam Block and Bob Nimmo [Tied]	University of London Union	Jonathan Leader Maynard and Patrick Rooney
UCD VP Cup	Brian O'Beirne	TCD Hist	Shane Farragher and John Moriarty
Newcastle IV	Adam Bott	Cambridge	Adam Bott and Sean Koh
Durham IV	Adam Bott (2)	St. Andrews	Chris Hawkins and Rachel Whitbread
Imperial IV	Lewis Iwu	Bristol	Eve Hibbert-Keene and Marc Delahanty
Oxford IV	Kevin Kiley	Cambridge	Sam Block and Adam Bott (2)
Cambridge IV	Shengwu Li	Victoria University of Wellington	Christopher Bishop and Sayeqa Islam
ESU Mace - England	Gavin Illsley	Lincoln's Inn	Usman Ahmed and Hannah Klein
KCL Graveson Cup	Alex Wright	Oxford	Max Kasriel and Dani Quinn
UCC IV	Will Jones	University College Dublin	Susan Connolly and Ross Kelly
Princess Alexandria Cup	Rachel Francis	Durham	Luke Wells and Tabitha Willmer
Birmingham IV	Jonathan Leader Maynard	Galway	Ronan Harrington & Nuala Kane
WUDC	Sam Block (2)	Oxford	Samir Deger-Sen and Lewis Iwu
London IV	Andrew Tuffin	Middle Temple	Craig Morrison and Louisa Nye
TCD IV	Ross Frenet and Will Jones (2) [Tied]	University College Dublin	Maguerite Carter and Ross Maguire
Warwick IV	Jonathan Leader Maynard (2)	Middle Temple	Liz Ford and Rosie Unwin
Inner Temple IV	Sam Block (3)	Middle Temple	Fred Cowell and Ali Dewji
Middle Temple IV	Andrew Marshall	(Composite Team)	Alex Campbell and Andrew Marshall
Strathclyde Cup	Jason Vit	University College Cork	Art Ward and Tiernan Fitzgibbon
Edinburgh Open	Jason Vit (2)	(Composite Team)	Doug Cochran and Art Ward (2)
Cardiff IV	Meredith Prince	University of London Union	Pantellis Palividas and Kallina Basli
Leeds International IV	Dan Bradley	Manchester	Dan Bradley and Dan James
UCL IV	Jonathan Leader Maynard (3)	(Composite Team)	Jonathan Leader Maynard (2) and James Prior
Reading Open	Shengwu Li (2)	(Composite Team)	Shengwu Li and Daniel Warents
LSE Open	Alex Campbell	(Composite Team)	James Dray and Art Ward (3)
Manchester IV	Jonathan Leader Maynard (4)	Durham	Tom Ball and Luke Wells
UL Open	Sayeqa Islam	(Composite Team)	Paul Flynn and Tony Murphy
ESU Mace - Wales	-	Aberystwyth
Ancients	Stephen Nolan	(Composite Team)	Stephen Nolan and Nuala Kane (2)
Irish National Maidens	Conor McAndrew	(Individual)	Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin
Sheffield Open	Kallina Basli and Dan Bradley [Tied]	Middle Temple	Fred Cowell (2) and Rosie Unwin (2)
Nottingham IV	Dan Bradley (2)	Manchester	Dan Bradley(2) and James Dixon
DCU Open	Sam Block (4)	(Composite Team)	Cormac Early and Andrea Mulligan
Glamorgan Open	Kallina Basli	Queen Mary's	Kallina Basli and Sameer Patel
The Tay Weekend	Danny P McCarthy	(Composite Team)	Mark MacDonald and Oskar Avery
Bristol Open	Jonathan Leader Maynard (5)	Oxford	Shengwu Li (2) and Shang Liew
Southampton Open	Jason Vit (3)
Durham Open	Sam Block (5)	(Composite Team)	Jason Vit and Dough Cochran (2)
Newcastle Open	Daniel Warents	(Composite Team)	Daniel Warents and Ranald Clouston
Euros	James Dray (2) and Simon Quinn	Oxford	James Dray (2) and Will Jones

IONA debating

IONA Debating Circuit

2007/8 IONA Debating Season

References

See also