A message from Fred Cowell, prospective chief adjudicator of the Leeds bid, reached Achte Minute just now. There he is very sorry that in Leeds they have concluded to withdraw their bid for the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros) 2012 and not present it to the EUDC Council in Galway next week. His message reads as follows:

After much consideration we decided last week that we were unable to bid to host the European Universities Debating Championship in 2012 and we will not be requesting council to consider our bid at Galway.

This was not an easy decision to make and many arrangements and plans were at an advanced stage but there were several crucial components of the bid that were underdeveloped and at this point in time we are unable to move ahead with bidding for 2012. Many people in Leeds and on the prospective A-team did a lot of hard work to organise and promote the bid and we are hoping that that Leeds can bid again in 2012 for 2013. As anyone who was at the Leeds IV this year will tell you Leeds put on strong, well run tournaments but at this moment in time we are unable to put our bid to EUDC Council.

We are sorry for announcing this now but it was our intention to present at council and we therefore worked hard to get the bid ready for this year but in the end were unsuccessful. On a personal note I could not have had a better prospective adjudication team and if any of you are running a tournament anytime soon I hope that you consider Catherine Murphy, Rob Honig, Maria Kesa and Harish Natarajan for your adjudication team. Thank you also to the many other people outside Leeds, including Harry, Anna and others, who agreed to be part of the project this year. Hopefully we will be back and stronger than ever for next year.

Fred Cowell / apf