IT was testament to the strength of this young club that even with several of its regulars absent almost 30 people turned up for what was generally agreed to have been one of the best meetings in its short history.

And all the more surprising in that three of the four main speeches were ice-breakers given by first-time speakers.

It was yet another debutant, Geoff Richardson, who won the preliminary Table Topics section – impromptu short speeches on dancing-related subjects set by Anne Potter. His hesitation-free description of the romance of the waltz at his daughter's wedding charmed the audience.

First icebreaker came from Bob Cartwright, who gave a confident and humorous account of the personal firewalls people put up round themselves in the light of life's hard lessons - experiences he defined as what you get when you don't get what you want! Of a more serious nature was Elaine Watt's critique of the workings of the Hague Convention, which aims to protect children abducted by a parent to a foreign country. She argued movingly that its practical effect was often the opposite of what the legislators had intended, then surprised her audience by revealing that the example she had used was based on her own experience.

The third speech by newcomer Jabba Riaz, another icebreaker, was also based on hard experience - as a child on a tough estate, of racism, and of the greed and selfishness of the pursuit of wealth. True happiness, he concluded, could be achieved by all through gratitude for what we have, not greed. Finally came the youngest speaker, Christian Saguyan, who has lived in this country for 12 years, and spoke on Why I love Britain, contrasting it with his native Philippines. It bore out the views of the previous speaker, and made his listeners appreciate with gratitude the many advantages we Brits enjoy but too often take for granted.

In an unusually difficult choice for the evening's Best Speaker, the vote went to Christian, with Jim Ballard winning Best Evaluator with his sensitive assessment of Elaine's speech. Next meeting will be at the Great Malvern Hotel on Tuesday, April 28 at the Great Malvern Hotel. Before then, however, Malvern's Hilary Benoit will be representing our area at the divisional final of the international contest at Swindon this Sunday.

COLIN JACKSON