University of Auckland Debating Society

This Easter weekend we sent five teams and three judges down to Dunedin for the New Zealand Universities’ Limited Preparation Debating Championships (Joynt Scroll). Founded in 1902, Joynt Scroll is New Zealand’s oldest and most prestigious debating tournament. We are thrilled to announce that we successfully defended our title, winning the Joynt Scroll for the second year in a row.

Auckland 2 (James Boland, Robert Donohoe, and Harper Smith progressed to the final rounds ranked fourth, and went on to defeat Otago 1 in the grand final, successfully negating “This house regrets New Zealand’s vaccine mandates”.

Auckland 1 (Harry Aickin, Grace Baylis, Melissa Connolly) were also incredibly successful, progressing to the finals ranked first, and bowing out to Auckland 2 in a tightly fought semi final on the motion “This house believes that humanity should abandon space exploration”.

Auckland 3 (Phoebe Jennings, Valentino Tew, and Judy Fong) narrowly missed progressing to the final on speaker points, and finished as the fifth ranked team at the tournament.

We also had phenomenal individual success:
Grace Baylis was the best speaker!
Umbar Sandhu was the best judge and chaired the grand final!
Liam Silverwood broke as a judge and chaired a semi final!
Harry Aickin and Harper Smith ranked second equal!
Melissa Connolly ranked seventh!
Robert Donohoe ranked tenth!
Harry Aickin was the third best reply speaker!