Inverell's Sapphire City Toastmasters Club had a friendly tall tales speaking competition with their Moree counterparts at the end of last month.
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With no regional competitions this year as a result of COVID-19 restrictions, both clubs decided to get together on the fifth Monday evening of August (August 31) for a COVID-safe tall tales competition.
Sapphire City Toastmasters Club meet on the first and third Mondays of each month, while Moree Toastmasters get together on the second and fourth Monday of the month.
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Instigated by Heidi Adams (Sapphire City and foundation member of Moree Toastmasters) and David Venz (Moree and current Toastmasters area 18 director), the venue was chosen to be midway between both towns and the inaugural 'Warialda Mug' was conceived.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, numbers were limited to two speakers from each club, along with some support crew for encouragement.
The Sapphire City team consisted of Heidi Adams, Carol Champion (speaker one), Kate George, Peter Champion and Sam De Ferranti (speaker three), while the Moree team included David Venz, Harold Fenton (speaker two), Lila Fisher, Wendy Baldwin (speaker four) and Andrew O'Neill.
Following a meal, they were entertained by the four tall tales speeches, which need to be between five to seven minutes long and include the use of exaggeration into a possibly credible storyline.
"Which could mean anything," Moree Toastmasters president Andrew O'Neill said.
"It's all very light-hearted and friendly."
Moree's Wendy Baldwin's speech about a red-headed kid with curly hair who decides to let it grow wild and ends up with a bird, a mouse and a cat moving into the hair proved to be most entertaining and was crowned the winner by judges Heidi and David.
"It was really good," Andrew said.
"It was so cleverly done.
Wendy's win saw Moree claim the inaugural Warialda Cup. The two clubs are planning to have another tall tales competition on the fifth Monday in November, with Inverell hoping to claim the cup this time.