The promise of an armchair encouraged three junior members of Culm Valley YFC in Devon to strive for the winning position at the national final of Junior Reading.

Zara Maynard, Daisy Cligg and Lauren Parkhouse read a passage from The Book Thief and said their task master trainer Jill Persey had promised them a new armchair each if they won.

The girls had been given an extra chair at their club meetings after winning the South West Area round and Jill said she would get them each an armchair if they won the national final.

“We’ve been practising for the last two weeks 24/7,” said Daisy. “We read from the Book Thief and it was quite a hard book.”

It was the first time all three of the team had been to a national final and they said despite it being a little “overwhelming,” at first, they had enjoyed the day.

“It was nerve-wracking, and we met a lot of new people but it was really good,” said Zara who was eager to encourage other younger members to enter the competition. “Try your best and work hard,” she advised those who were considering entering the competition next year.

Yorkshire A and Montgomery both came joint second in the competition.

The Junior Reading competition was one of a range of Public Speaking contests that ran throughout Competitions Day.

Devon also picked up the Best Chairman award for the Junior Speaking, which was won by Rachel Stevens. Jacob Ryder from Yorkshire A won the Best Speaker and Emily Davies from Radnor won the Best Vote of Thanks.

It was a triple win for Brecknock FYFC in the Brainstrust competition as they picked up the team trophy as well as Best Chairman (Elin Harvard) and Best Panelist (Raiff Devlin).

In After Dinner Speaking Ceredigion won the overall trophy and team member Carwyn Blayney won the Best Speaker.

Amanda Watson from Norfolk won the Situations Vacant competition.