THERE was delight for members of Malvern Speakers who made a long Sunday trip to Aylesbury in loyal support of their club President Hilary Benoit. Her polished speech won the Divisional stage of the Toastmasters International Speech and Evaluation Contest, from opposition representing more than 30 clubs across southern England and Wales from Plymouth to Canterbury and Ludlow. This was her third win in the contest, having already won at Club and Area level, and qualifies her to compete next in the national finals in London in May. Success there would entitle her to take part in the international finals in USA later in the year.

The Malvern club gained further laurels with the presentation of the 2015-2016 Divisional PR Award for best use of external media – in part thanks to the regular meeting reports carried here in the Community pages of the Malvern Gazette.

There was a strong emphasis on childhood in the speeches at last week's club meeting. David Evans contrasted his own happy and carefree childhood of a generation ago with the more restricted lives faced by today's overprotected youngsters – a state of affairs he blamed firmly on the media obsession with publicising every untoward incident affecting children. His powerful argument earned him the vote for the night's best speech.

Also reminiscent of a happy childhood – despite a sad ending—was Caroline Bellhouse's animated re-telling (suitably attired and with props) of a Turkish children's story about a well-meaning but rather dim peasant couple. Not so much about childhood as young adulthood was Tony Waters' first 'icebreaker' speech since joining the club He admitted having spent too much time when a student at Cambridge watching Ted Dexter (his exact contemporary and later England captain) playing cricket at Fenners!

Other awards for the evening went to Will Dutton for his evaluation of Tony Waters' speech, and for the best unprepared Table Topic to brand-new member Rob Allen who had joined the club just before the start of the meeting!

Next meeting will be held at the Great Malvern Hotel on Tuesday May 10 at 7.30pm when new members and guests will be most warmly welcomed.

COLIN JACKSON