Diane Towler and Bert Ford

The author won the Improptu Speech Champion award (a fountain pen) for his final speech at the Guyana presentation of "How To Win Friends And Influence People". Not really important except for the circumstances which dictated the chosen speech. You can imagine his consternation, or was it delight, when he reached into the cloth bag and pulled out the slip of paper which dictated what he had to speak on for five minutes. "ICE DANCING". Now to a Guyanese that would have been Chi-a-nese! But Paul has always considered himself to be English. And when visiting England, whether staying at Auntie Zelia in the early days or grandma Elise (English side) in the late teens, he watched sports on television avidly. And one of the great spectacles was Ice Dance - and the current world champions were - you got it - Diane Towler and Bert Ford from the United Kingdom. As a result, the early 20's Esso employee was able to present an impassioned speech about the wonders of ice dance and why it should become the Guyanese national sport. Of course, it did not! The national sport of Guyana is and continues to be corruption and it is unlikely that any other sport could provide such amazing awards to so many!