The finals of the Spoken English Competition at Tavistock's Mount House School this year produced a succession of brilliant performances.

In the poetry category for forms 1 and 2, adjudicator Gerri Fagan, head of debating at King's College, Taunton, could not choose between two performances she considered the best, so first prize was awarded jointly to Helen Jackman, who recited 'Waiting for Tone' by Kit Wright and Siobhan Bird with Roald Dahl's 'Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf'.

Oscar Norris won the third and fourth form section with Spike Milligan's 'Little Jim'. In the fifth and sixth form, the winner was Oscar Mustard for Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.

The competition ended with the fifh and sixth form prose competition, which was won by Cecily Jervoise, who performed 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas', by John Boyne.