The Christmas break did nothing to deter the enthusiasm of Lutterworth Speakers Club for taking part in this year’s Club Speech Competition in January. The winner goes forward to the Area round, the Area winner to the District round and the District winner to the National Final – frightening prospect or exciting challenge, depending on your point of view!

Eileen Fox won this year with a speech entitled ‘My Birthday Surprise’ – which came in the form of a ready-to-charge bull elephant in a game reserve in South Africa. Her vivid description of a fleet of Land Rovers judiciously backing away from this enormous animal helped win the day.

Allan Heggs was runner-up with his speech recalling the lost art of letter-writing, particularly love letters emblazoned with acronyms such as SWALK (Sealed With A Loving Kiss) being impatiently awaited by the lovesick object of affection. Perhaps he was recalling his younger days.

The Flying Scotsman, climate change and the impact of invasive species were the subjects of speeches by David Hanger, Edward Taylor and Maggie Barlow. We range far and wide – almost nothing is out of bounds, not even public toilets!

We welcome new members and guests and meet 1st & 3rd Mondays of the month, September – May at the Greyhound Inn, Lutterworth, 7.30 – 9.30pm. Drop in or call Maggie Barlow on 01455 207774 for more information.

Lutterworth Speakers Club took on one of their regular self-imposed challenges last month with an evening of impromptu talks. We dream up titles, throw them into a hat and then draw someone else’s title to construct a speech around. With only 10 minutes to prepare, this is indeed a challenge, but we achieve surprisingly good results. The subjects ranged from ‘Man’s Inhumanity to Man’ (gamely tackled by Maggie Barlow) to the ‘Best Thing since Sliced Bread’ – declared by Mary Evans to be the Lutterworth U3A and a wonderful promotional job she did!

Margaret Baldwin started proceedings with a descriptive talk on the recent floods; Allan Rimmer, visiting, tried to decide whether schooldays were the best (it’s a matter of opinion); David Hanger ‘Would Like to Influence’ the legal system in a number of ways but chiefly to bring common sense into it and Allan Heggs’ ‘Trip to the Zoo’ described an innovative zoo that goes out to the public, allowing schoolchildren to handle snakes and tarantulas.

We are a small, friendly and welcoming Club whose aim is to help anyone learn to speak. We meet at the Greyhound Inn, Lutterworth, 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month, 7.30 – 9.30pm. Drop in to see us or for more information contact Maggie Barlow on 01455 207774.

More competition success has come our way with the club winning for the second year in a row the Area ‘Chatterbox’ team competition. Allan Heggs, Margaret Baldwin and Maggie Barlow did a 10 minute presentation on ‘Circles and Squares’ and taking entertainment as a sub-theme talked about the o2 Arena (the circle) and Madison Square Gardens, linking the two with an imaginary human cannonball fired across the Atlantic.

Two club members have entertained and informed us this season with fascinating illustrated talks.  David hanger talked about the midland rail line from Nottingham down to Rugby.   Margaret Baldwin’s pictures were somewhat brighter in colour, as she described the weeks she spent this summer in Fiji, teaching scuba diving to young folk.

We continue with topics fun – Room 101 for the things we hate, (certain politicians, normally out of bounds as a subject were touched on here) and more recently an experiment in creating words from specified groups of letters and building a story round those words – unusual and challenging.

We welcome new members and guests. We meet 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month, September – May at the Greyhound inn, Lutterworth, 7.30 – 9.30. Drop in or call Maggie Barlow on 01455 207774 for more information.

How would a relay sprint team manage if, instead of each athlete running an equal distance, they had to hand over the baton on the random blow of a whistle? Fun would no doubt ensue. Our club members faced just such a challenge with their first topics session of the new season. Allan Heggs put us into two teams to talk about either ‘Shoes’ or ‘The Perfect Dinner Party’.

With only 10 minutes to prepare, we had to decide the order of speaking, what each would say and come up with ideas for interest value and amusement. Then the catch: he would randomly interrupt and whoever was speaking, even if in mid-sentence, had to hand on to the next speaker. Co-operation and quick-thinking were the order of the day. ‘Shoes’ proved the more difficult topic, but an amazing amount of knowledge poured forth from that team, whilst ‘The Perfect Dinner Party’ produced great fantasies about dining at the top of the Shard on New Year’s Eve, with Heston Blumenthal doing the cooking, Celine Dion and Peter Kay providing the entertainment and ‘Brangelina’ as guests sitting amongst us, ready to share a midnight embrace.

We meet 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month, September – May, at the Greyhound Inn, Lutterworth, 7.30 – 9.30. Visitors and guests are most welcome. Drop in or call Maggie Barlow on 01455 207774 for more information.

Lutterworth Speakers  Club – give us a go!

Have you secretly always wanted to try public speaking but never plucked up the courage? Do you want to set yourself a personal challenge? Perhaps you are unemployed and need to develop new skills or have to give a speech at a special occasion and don’t know where to begin? If so, our club could be for you.

Lutterworth Speakers Club is part of the National Association of Speakers Clubs (ASC) and aims to equip people with the skills they need to speak with confidence in public. We follow a structured programme that enables you to develop your skills at your own pace with help, support and feedback from experienced members.

Meetings typically consist of a variety of readings, speeches and short topics sessions with the emphasis on having fun. Every year too there is a programme of friendly competition with other clubs in the area that gives us the chance to show off our skills. We start in September with the first of these competitions, a team event called ‘Chatterbox’. Last year we won, so we will be defending our trophy!

Whatever your reason for coming you will find a warm welcome. Just drop in – we meet at the Greyhound Inn, High Street, Lutterworth, 1st and 3rd Mondays of each month, Sept – May, 7.30 – 9.30pm. For more information, contact Maggie Barlow, Publicity Officer on 01455 207774.