Recycled speech lands Luke a top title

WINNER: Luke Hempleman has again taken top honours as a speechmaker, this time at the Wairarapa Intercollegiate Speech Competition at Solway College. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

A Chanel College pupil has won the senior section of the Wairarapa Intercollegiate Speech Competition with an address that won him accolades in earlier contests.

Luke Hempleman, 16, who has designs on a stage career, competed at the Wairarapa contest held at Solway College in Masterton on Thursday and won the Wairarapa Intercollegiate Speech Competition senior category trophy and a $100 Paper Plus voucher courtesy of Trust House.

Luke, and his winning 1000-word speech titled Curiosity Killed the Cat, are no strangers to victory after the same combination captured the O'Shea Shield in a lower North Island contest, in which 17 Catholic schools competed earlier this year.

"The calibre was really high. I was going up against the seniors in oratory and won with the same speech."

He said the speech, which was reworded to accommodate the eight minutes required in the regional contest, focused on the priorities of humanity "like the money being spent on space travel that could be spent on helping people in poverty instead".

He had also used the same speech, cut shorter and minus some key points, and came second in another speech contest run by a Lions group earlier this year.

Luke first won the Wairarapa regional competition in the Year 10 age grade two years ago and was second in the contest last year.

Luke works part-time at Countdown Supermarket as a checkout operator and earlier told the Times-Age he was saving to pursue long-held dreams of performing in the West End in London.

The recital of speeches went a long way towards the same end, he said.

"Eight minutes is quite a long time and there's a lot of memorising goes into it for sure." Luke said there was a similar skill set involved with speech-making and reciting lines dramatically and he fell asleep "with lines underneath my pillow" to help him recite his speeches.

"It's the old actor's trick to memorising lines.

"Sometimes it works. Sometimes not so much."

Sue Franck, Solway College Year 13 dean, said the "standard of the speeches was extremely high with a wide range of topics and styles".

Wairarapa Toastmasters members judged the contest and Trust House were sponsors.

Winners included:

Year 9

1st Rosa Day - Wairarapa College - Who am I?

2nd Paul Waters - Tararua College - Cyberbullying

3rd Caitlin Sullivan - Chanel College - The Silent Killer

Year 10

1st Maya Templar - Kuranui College - The Importance of Art in Society

2nd Frankie Finn Reason - St Matthew's Collegiate - How to Fly

3rd Trudy Barrow Dannevirke High School - Euthanasia

Senior

1st Luke Hempleman - Chanel College - Curiosity Killed the Cat

2nd Zoe Flack - Solway College - Shining a light on the darkness

3rd Claudia Field - St Matthew's Collegiate - Christchurch revisited