CHARD and Ilminster’s town criers embraced the sweltering heat to bring home first and second place in the Somerset Cup.

Chard’s Stuart Cumming came away with the trophies for Somerset Champion, best crier, and best overall in the succesful event, which was held in Frome.

Meanwhile Andrew Fox, from Ilminster, came second in the same three categories.

Stuart said: “I beat 22 criers from across the UK including North Yorkshire, Litchfield, Isle of Wight, Wales, Bromyard, and Cornwall.

“It was on the hottest Saturday of the year. It is an annual competition that I also won last year.

“We competed for best crier, which is open to all criers. We also competed to become Somerset Champion which is only open to Somerset criers, and lastly for best overall crier which was the crier with the most points from both the crying and dress judges.

“I’m again the current Somerset Champion and was overall top crier coming away with all three cups. Andrew Fox came a very close second in all three categories so a definite win for South Somerset.

Andrew said: “It certainly was an interesting day.

“It was extremely hot but that has to be better than cold and rain.

“There was a very strong and wide ranging field of criers representing communities from Yorkshire to Cornwall and the Isle of Wight to Staffordshire.

“As customary, firstly we all cried the beauties and virtues of our home towns and then, after a break to stroll and visit Frome’s farmers’ market, we cried a news item from the last six months.

“The final marks were incredibly close between Stuart and myself.”