Speeches and Speed Rounds

On Saturday the 6^th December, Junior Members from all corners of the country gathered at the Royal Bank of Scotland Business School & Conference Centre for the final of our National Speechmaking and Quiz Competitions.

The morning began with the speechmaking competition. Our eight qualifying teams were ready to take to the stage, prepared with speeches honed through months of practise and study and hard-fought district and regional qualifiers. And all this practise showed, as each team in turn delivered high quality speeches, these young members really making the stage their own and showing excellent confidence, preparation and understanding of their chosen topics.

Eventually after every team had presented and had faced the queries of our question masters, Andrew Taylor and David Lawrie, the judges settled in to confer and decide their final standings.

Judges Beth Mckinnon, Finlay McIntyre and Hugh Ironside were impressed by the level of skill and confidence shown on the day, in their closing crit Beth had this to say:

“Congratulations to all the speechmakers on such a high standard and quality of speechmaking, we were really impressed by the confidence shown by all involved…There was lots of humour and personality that came through today and we love to see that… The competitors can all take huge pride in what they have achieved today. Speechmaking is such an important skill when you go further in life, whether its in a job role or young farmers, you can comfortably go into a meeting and chair that meeting or do a vote of thanks and know you’ve got that skill to be able to do that.”

And the winners for 2025 were the Red team from Avondale YFC. They impressed judges with their delivery of their speech ‘Tour De Helmet Safety’. Best Individual on the day went to Andrew Sinclair of Halkirk.

Speechmaking Results

1^st Place- Avondale Red- Cara McClean, Layla Peaston & Katie Smith

2^nd Place- Harray Red- Thomas Corrigal, Robbie Leslie & Dana Nicolson

3^rd Place- Halkirk- Liam Mackenzie, Caitlin McGuire & Andrew Sinclair

Best Speaker (outwith the winning team)- Andrew Sinclair, Halkirk

Best Individual- Andrew Sinclair, Halkirk

Best Chair (outwith the winning team)- Erin Turtle, Stranraer & Rhins

Best Vote of Thanks (outwith the winning team)- Grant Dickie, Crossroads

Whilst the Speechmaking was being judged our National Junior Quiz competition got underway. 6 teams took on the challenge, testing their knowledge on a wide range of topics in rounds that changed between Traditional Quiz format, Hotseat rounds, and intense Fastest Buzzer rounds. Eventually after 6 tough sets of questions it was the team from West Renfrewshire YFC that stood victorious as the 2025 Quiz champions.

Quiz Results

1^st Place- West Renfrewshire- Thomas Crawford, Robbie Guthrie

& Kerr Wright

2^nd Place- Forss-  James Swanson, Shane Mackay & Jamie Macadie

3^rd Place- Halkirk- Andrew Sinclair, Liam Mackenzie

& Caitlin McGuire

Well done to all our competitors on the day. The confidence, preparation and knowledge on display were extremely impressive and a credit to your hard work and that of your trainers. Thanks to our judges and question masters for their help and to our quiz compilers, Mr and Mrs Scott. Thanks also to our stewards Fiona Cuthbertson and Louise Greenhill who helped the day run smoothly. And a final thanks to The Royal Bank of Scotland for once again hosting us in their Business School & Conference Centre.