A team from John Masefield High School in Ledbury were runners-up in the Herefordshire branch final of the English Speaking Union's public speaking competition for schools.
Chairman Mark Carless and questioner Keil Morris were very effective in presenting and challenging Lucton School's speaker, Camilla Pudge, who spoke well on the subject of "Obesity is the curse of modern society".
John Masefield speaker, James Shankie-Williams, gave a confident speech on the theme of "The views of the west should not be imposed on other cultures". He was up against pupils from the Minster School, Leominster, at Hereford Town Hall on Friday.
In a closely-run contest, pupils from Aylestone High School, in Hereford, were the winners, while the John Masefield High School team came second.
The Aylestone side will go forward to Midland regional final in March.
The adjudicators were Sir Colin Shepherd, Lady Fiona Myers and Gary Bills-Geddes, of the Ledbury Reporter.
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