HABS novices had great success at Durham Schools Debating

HABS C (Aarnav Panda and Keshav Kedia) and HABS D (Ahan Thakur and Manav Ponnekanti) did exceptionally well and made it through to the novice finals. One of them (though we aren’t sure which as yet, was placed in the top 10 novice speakers in the competition. Looks like a very bright future for HABS Debating.

The senior teams HABS A (Sam Grankin and Aniket Chakravorty) and HABS B (Om Muthukumar and Abhisekh Chatergee) ‘were robbed’ by very strong competition from Westminster, St Pauls’ Girls, Dulwich and Watson’s. However, despite a disappointing first three rounds, they had a very good final two debates on Sunday morning.

We were very lucky to have great weather and a fabulous location in Durham which made for a super atmosphere in the HABS camp.

On speaker points alone, on the novice tab, Aarnav Panda came joint 5th, Manav Ponnekanti and Ahan Thakur came joint 7th, and Keshav Kedia came joint 10th overall. That is very impressive, but is only in relation to the other novices.

On team points, on the novice tab, HABS D (Manav and Ahan) were the first placed novice team. HABS C (Aarnav and Keshav) were the second placed novice team. So, whilst they didn’t win the novice final, they accrued the most points of all the novice teams. HABS D actually finished 23rd out of 116 teams overall, despite being novices. It’s worth pointing out that Keshav is only in year 9.

These novice results are superb, and shows that the boys – between years 9 and 11 – are on a par with or above children of the same age and experience across the country as a whole. We need to look at how to continue improving our boys in the sixth form so that they can keep challenging at this level as they move through the school.