Cambridge Rutherford's Youth Speaks Sixth Form Debating Competition 2020 (trophy pictured above) was held via Zoom  on 26 November and again kindly sponsored by Hewitsons LLP. The Covid restrictions made it impossible to go for our normal audience gathering so instead we asked schools to consider an online challenge. 

We were very pleased that Hills Road College and The Perse School agreed to participate and how good they both were. Netta Hociej, Molly Read and Rayan Shafeek from Hills Road debated 'The Internet has been a force for good' while Ganesh Mullaparthi, Catherine Balfour and Rebecca Li from The Perse discussed 'This house would have implemented a circuit-breaker lockdown'. All the speakers acquitted themselves with aplomb but after some debate the judges awarded the prize to the team from Hills Road.

We were delighted to welcome back again our judges Nichola Harrison (Chair), former Cambridgeshire County Councillor; Chris Elliot, former Readers' Editor, Guardian Newspaper and Christian Firmin, Solicitor, Hewitsons.

Our thanks to the judges and to the organising skills of the Chairman of Rutherford's Vocational Committee, Richard Scurr. Special thanks to Vanessa Andrews (daughter of Club member Gordon Hannah) for her running the technical side of the Zoom meeting. With over 33 people logged on plus the six speakers and the judges there was much to co-ordinate - thank you Vanessa.