Championships returned home this week to become one of the judges as Bermuda hosted the prestigious international event for the first time.

Colm Singleton, now 20 and in his final year at Princeton University, was an adjudicator for the semi-finals held on Thursday. With Australia finally beating England in the finals, Bermuda just missed the quarter finals -- a big improvement on the first venture, says Mr. Singleton, who reveals that his team had ended in the "bottom quarter'' of the contest.

"I know that for the late Victoria Cox, who started all this, it was her dream to build a Bermudian team. Along with Elizabeth Virgo, who has since done a wonderful, fantastic job, I think her dream was attained. They were absolutely determined that Bermuda would, one day, host the `Worlds'. For me,'' he adds, "it has been a great honour to have been invited back to help judge this year's turnout.'' Colm Singleton was only 14-years-old ("and by far the smallest competitor!'') when he went off to Scotland as part of the first Bermudian team to participate in the famous annual event. "That year, Bermuda held its first national championships and I was selected to represent the Island. It was the first time I had travelled without my parents and I remember some parents wouldn't allow their kids to go because it was in the middle of the Gulf War and there seemed to be a fear of flying. Anyway, when I finally got to King's Cross Station (for the long journey to Scotland) there was a rather dramatic bomb scare -- so that was my introduction to solo travel.'' Poised to make his first public oration in the splendid, if somewhat daunting surroundings of Edinburgh Castle, Mr. Singleton recalls his sense of dismay when he realised he was too small for the podium. "I couldn't see over the top, so all that the judges could see was a few tufts of my hair!'' Inauspicious debut or not, the experience must have set him in very good stead as he has since gone on to become a member of Bermuda's Youth Parliament, and President of the Hotchkiss School Debate Society in the US. At Princeton, he was on the debate panel, a member of Whig-Cliosophic Society (the oldest university political union in the US), was a judge for the university's Intercollegiate Debate Championships and was elected judge, in 1995, for the World University Debate Championships.

Mr. Singleton believes that, apart from the debating experience itself, travelling to different countries helps the participants understand the customs, conditions and cultures of other nations. In his case, he was confronted with his first experience of snow and the not altogether welcome idea of eating haggis -- the national dish beloved by Scots, but not by too many other people. "I refused to take warm clothes to Britain so there I was, trudging through a blizzard of thick snow to Edinburgh Castle, and all I had to wear on my feet were my Bermuda Docksiders! Then we had this dinner in this huge banqueting hall and we were served haggis. Now I wasn't the only one hesitating over this -- we had people from places like Kenya, India, Israel and so on, and I should think that most of them had never heard of it, never mind eaten it! But,'' he adds, "that was all part of the rich experience.'' "Over the years, I have returned here to assist with the training of the teams, so I have been able to see a very big improvement in standards here and far more interest in debating in general. When I was at Saltus, there was no team, for instance, but I had a wonderful English teacher there who introduced me to debating and encouraged me to try for the Bermuda Championship. I am very grateful that I was given the opportunity to go to Scotland and compete with people who were much better than me. I could see for myself the standards that could be attained and that was a real inspiration.'' Noting, too, that the invitation to assist with the judging had re-united him with some of the other contestants who also took part in the 1991 Worlds, he says, "I've been able to meet up with some of the friends I made then, so it's been great to see them again.'' Just completing his bachelors degree in History, Mr.

Singleton plans to continue his education in the UK, "hopefully in law school.'' COLM SINGLETON -- After being a competitor at the Worlds when he was only 14-years-old, Singleton was a judge this year.