A Winchfield man hopes to be in full voice when he competes in the UK finals of the Humorous Speech Contest.

Alan Donegan will travel to Kilkenny in Ireland for the finals from November 7-9.

He joined Guildford Speaker’s Club only about six months ago after a best man’s speech went particularly well.

Mr Donegan said: “I had only been at the club for a couple of months when the president Nicola Coutts emailed me and said she had entered me into the humorous speech contest and I had better write a funny speech!

“So I started with a few ideas and hit upon telling people about a trip to Brazil when I was 21.”

Mr Donegan gave his speech at club level, coming second in the humorous speech category and first in the improvisation category.

A few days before the next round at Sun Microsystems in Farnborough, he got a call saying the speaker who came first had lost his voice and could not perform so would he step in.

It meant Mr Donegan would be up against the top speakers from five clubs. He said: “I spent the next two days frantically improving my speech and rehearsing. I performed in front of 70 people and came first in both the improvisation and the humorous speech.”

He then gave his speech before more than 100 people at the divisional final in Dorking. “I was so nervous — even more so than at the last stage,” he said. “I ended up winning the humorous speech contest and coming second out of five in the improvisation contest.”

Now he is looking forward to the UK finals. “I’m so excited,” he said.