THE hunt is on for the illusive Thurlestone poet as the phone box limerick competition threw up an anonymous winner.

Kit and Gillian Marshall of the Thurlestone Phone Box Committee launched a competition for people to write a limerick to celebrate the ’400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare’ and to crown The Thurlestone Phone Box Bard.

They received more than a hundred responses from residents, passers by, relatives and people in Marden, Wiltshire, where the Thurlestone Phone Box is twinned. The only stipulation was that it must incude ’something about the phone box’.

The competition received so many responses from Thurlestone Primary School that it was decided to judge their entries separately, with the winner being presented with a prize today in assembly.

David ’Shep’ Sheppard of BBC Radio Devon was enlisted to judge the limericks, and was given all the entries with numbers rather than names to identify them, eliminating the chance of bias.

He judged them on their ability to ’capture the spirit of Thurlestone’ as well as the rigidity to which they stuck to the traditional limerick rhythm. Many of the entries took advantage of the fact that the phone box is currently decorated to commemorate the death of The Bard himself.

Alongside the prizes donated by The Village Inn, where the presentation was held, Shep brought with him some extra prizes courtesy of the BBC; these consisted of four ever decreasing sized tins of baked beans, down to the fifth place prize, an ’unbaked bean’ presented to David Grose of Thurlestone Hotel.

Third prize went to Graham Oakley from Marden, with his limerick:

A lonely old phonebox in Devon

Prayed for a match made in Heaven

God (begging his pardon)

Said ’Just dial Marden

And twin with them 24-7’

Second prize went to the Stanleys, Durdens, Herring and Stricklands, who wrote:

There is a young group on the Mead

Who are convinced they have not gone to seed.

Went in search of some nookie,

In the box they did lookie

Then found they could no longer read!

But the first prize of a dinner for two at The Village Inn has not been able to be presented to the winner, as the winning entry was dropped anonymously into the collection box at Thurlestone Post Office. So the hunt is now on for the author of this superior gem:

Is William still writing in Heaven?

To stock up our phone box in Devon

So the boys and the lasses

In Literature classes

Can read Henry IV, V, VI and VII

If you are the mysterious winning bard of Thurlestone, let us know. You can call the newsroom on 01548 856353, email: [email protected] or through our social media accounts.