The Godalming Festival 2010

Congratulations to the 25 Amesbury pupils who took part in the solo poetry speaking competition at Godalming this year. They each performed two poems from memory, not only in front of an adjudicator but also an audience, at Prior’s Field School. Against very stiff competition from all over Surrey every one of them scored over 80/100 – an excellent result!  

On Saturday Keir Jones (Year 2) entertained us with ‘The Spangled Pandemonium’ and Lily Henderson and Alexandra Cant (Year 3) scored well despite having to perform last. Imogen McWhirter, Lizzie Sturges, Brandon Hamilton, Lauren Thomas and Skye Hurwitz all gave strong performances in the Year 4 competition, with Skye being awarded 2^nd place overall. Year 5 had a very difficult set poem but Alexander Holmes, Eleanor Cox and George Limpus made it look easy with very good scores and a 3^rd place for Eleanor and a 1^st for George.

On Sunday there were also some very high scores for Sebastian Limpus, Evie Smith, Thomas Holmes, Olivia Wakefield and Selina Smith (all Year 3) with 3^rd places awarded to both Evie and Selina with identical marks of 87/100. Angus Horridge (Year 4) also achieved a high score despite being the sole Amesbury representative in his class. In the Year 5 competition Lucy Griffiths, Percy Smith, Izzy Ingram, Abbie Warner and Annabel Kingston all performed very well, Izzy taking 3^rd place and Percy 2^nd place. Year 6 had a very tricky set poem but Pippa Bergqvist, Kate Sturges and Maddie McConnell ably represented Amesbury with Maddie being awarded 2^nd place.

When the final scores were added up, George Limpus was judged to be the best overall poetry speaker in Years 5-6. He was asked to perform at the Festival Concert where he was presented with the Cardonald Cup. Congratulations to all the Amesbury competitors and thanks to all the families who gave up their weekend to support them. The dates for the 2011 Festival will be announced shortly!