IONA Debating Circuit

The IONA Debating Circuit is a series of university-level debating tournaments held in the Islands of the North Atlantic (IONA). It is one of the largest competitive debating circuits in the world, involving over 35 tournaments held at locations across the United Kingdom and Ireland each year. Almost all the tournaments on the circuit are held using the British Parliamentary debate format. The circuit begins in October each year and runs through to the middle of the following year.

The majority of events on the circuit are inter-varsity tournaments (usually referred to as "IVs") held by universities, which are generally open only to teams representing other universities. A few events are designated as "open" tournaments, in which any debaters (including people who are not university students) can form teams and enter the event (teams formed of debaters who are not currently at the same university are referred to as "composite teams" at such events).

A few IVs (such as the season-opening President's Cup at University College London) are designated as "novice" tournaments. Eligibility rules for novice events vary, but generally they are open only to students in the first year at university and/or who have little or no past experience on the circuit. A few other IVs are designated as "pro-am" events. These tournaments require at least one member of every team to be a novice.

The World Universities Debating Championship and European Universities Debating Championship are generally considered to be part of the circuit by debaters from the UK and Ireland, even though these events are usually held in countries outside the Islands of the North Atlantic. Apart from the World and European Championships, the John Smith Memorial Mace run by the English-Speaking Union is generally considered to be the most prestigious event on the circuit and is viewed by most debaters as being the effective national championships for the UK and Ireland (the event involves separate tournaments for universities in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, with the winners of each event going on to face each other in an International Final).

The IONA Debating Circuit does not have a firmly fixed recurring calendar of events, but certain substantial debating tournaments hold a relatively permanent status each academic year. The opening event of each year's series is normally the President's Cup at University College London, which is a competition only open to novice debaters on the circuit. Later in the first (autumn) academic term, the major events are the Oxford, Cambridge and University College Cork IVs, as well as the English leg of the Mace. The World Championships take place during the New Year period in between the first and second academic terms of the university year. The second and third terms of the year tend to be given over to smaller IVs and open tournaments. Major events in these terms usually include the Middle Temple and Inner Temple IVs in London, and the Irish, Scottish and Welsh Mace competitions and the International Final. The season is generally considered to end with the European Championships which are held early in the summer.

2009-10 IONA Debating Season

The 2009-10 IONA Debating Circuit season is currently underway. Results so far are as follows:

2008-9 IONA Debating Season

The 2008-9 season was notable for the Oxford Union winning all three of the major international tournaments open to IONA Debaters – the World Universities Debating Championship, the European Universities Debating Championship and the John Smith Memorial Mace – the only time this feat has ever been achieved. For the fourth year running, the Oxford Union finished top of the European Debating Rankings.

Doug Cochran (Cambridge/Middle Temple) won more tournaments than any other debater during the 2008-9 IONA season with five titles, followed by Alex Worsnip (Oxford) and Fred Cowell (Middle Temple) who won three. 16 debaters each managed to win two tournaments: Mark Gabriel (University of London Union), Will Jones (Oxford), Jordan Anderson (SOAS), Sheraz Qureshi (SOAS), Woon Lee (LSE), Rachael Whitbread (St Andrews), Sam Block (Cambridge), Andrew Tuffin (University of London Union), Tom Jackson (Nottingham), James Torrance (Nottingham), Daniel Berman (St Andrews), Josephine Curry (TCD Hist), Daniel Warents (Middle Temple), Harish Natarajan (Cambridge), Jonathan Leader Maynard (Oxford) and Shengwu Li (Oxford).

Doug Cochran (Cambridge/Middle Temple) and Derek Lande (University College Cork) were ranked the best speaker on the tab in four tournaments, with Shengwu Li (Oxford), Alex Worsnip (Oxford), Bryn Gough (Birmingham) and Jonathan Leader Maynard (Oxford) having done so three times each. Three other debaters have managed to top the speaker tab twice.

2007-8 IONA Debating Season

The top-ten institutions at the end of the 2007-8 IONA debating season, based their debating rankings, were: (1) Oxford, (2) Cambridge, (3) Middle Temple, (4) UCD, (5) St. Andrews, (6) Manchester, (7) ULU, (8) Bristol, (9) UCC, (10) Victoria Wellington.^[15]

The Middle Temple, Oxford and Cambridge won the most competitions, with each of those institutions winning tournaments four times. Art Ward from University College Cork and Doug Cochran from St Andrews University both won three competitions. 14 speakers won two tournaments: Adam Bott, Jonathan Leader Maynard, Luke Wells, Shengwu Li, Nuala Kane, Fred Cowell, Rosie Unwin, Dan Bradley, Marguerite Carter, Ross McGuire, Kallina Basli, Jason Vit, Daniel Warents and James Dray. Jonathan Leader Maynard and Sam Block were the best speaker most times, each doing so on five occasions. Only one institution from outside the UK and Ireland won a tournament, when New Zealand's Christopher Bishop and Sayeqa Islam won the Cambridge IV for Victoria University of Wellington.^[16]

Major International Tournaments

Three major international debating tournaments are considered to be part of the IONA Debating Circuit – the World Universities Debating Championship, the European Universities Debating Championship and the John Smith Memorial Mace. None of these tournaments has a fixed debating society as its host, all three are actively participated in by teams representing institutions from multiple different countries, and all have a history stretching back at least 20 years. The World Championships attract teams from all over the world, the European Championships from all over Europe, and the John Smith Memorial Mace (or International Mace) from all over the IONA region. Only one institution has ever achieved the "Grand Slam" of winning all three of these major international tournaments in one academic year – the Oxford Union in 2009. (The academic year in institutions in the IONA region begins in the September/October period.) The Cambridge Union is the only other institution to have won each of these international tournaments at least once. No individual has ever won all three events, and just six individuals have won two of the three events since the first European Championships in 1986: Will Jones, James Dray, Jonathan Leader Maynard, Sam Block, Robin Marshall and Manus Blessing.

See also

Look up debate, debating, debation, debater, or discuss in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• World Universities Debating Championship
• European Universities Debating Championship
• John Smith Memorial Mace

References

External links

• 2009-10 university debating calendar at britishdebate.com