Carnival competition won by three girls (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Carnival competition won by three girls

AN ALL-GIRL trio romped home to win the Malmesbury Carnival cover competition, sponsored by the Standard.

The competition, to design the front cover of the Standard-sponsored Malmesbury Carnival programme, saw dozens of entries in the three age categories, with children from all over North Wiltshire entering, and was judged by Malmesbury Carnival secretary John Lawton and Standard editor Peter Davison.

Up for grabs for each of the three lucky winners were art cases full of pens, paints and pencils to satisfy the needs of any budding Van Gogh.

The overall winner of the three categories will see their design on the front cover of 10,000 free carnival programmes, which will be distributed throughout the carnival week, which sees its grand finale and parade held on Saturday, August 30.

The children up to six years category was won by five-year-old Malmesbury Primary School pupil Katy Luckett, with the seven to 11 years category being won by Alice Hicks, eight, who is also a Malmesbury Primary School pupil.

The 12 to 16 years category was won by Victoria Gazzard, 12, whose drawing of Malmesbury Abbey on her entry impressed the competition judges. Victoria, a pupil at Bradon Forest School at Purton, came from her Swindon home to collect her prize.

The girls were presented with their prizes at the Standard's Malmesbury office on Friday.

The judges decided that Alice Hicks's entry was the overall winner of the three age categories, and will be printed on 10,000 programmes for next month's carnival.

Mr Lawton said: "We were delighted with the standard and number of entries, although maybe next year more boys could enter to even things out.

"All of the entries in each category were very good and made the judges' decisions very hard.

"Keep an eye out for your carnival programme coming through your letter box in the next couple of weeks."

Standard editor Peter Davison said: "It was so difficult picking the winners - I wish we could have given everyone prizes! Congratulations to Victoria and Katy, and especially Alice, whose winning entry will be enjoyed by thousands of people."

Caption: Alice Hicks, Victoria Gazzard and Kathryn Luckett with Standard editor Peter Davison, carnival committee secretary John Lawton and Malmesbury reporter James Cowling