Town criers to Square up for county contest in Beaminster (From Bridport and Lyme Regis News)

Town criers to Square up for county contest in Beaminster

4:04pm Thursday 2nd July 2009

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BEAMINSTER will this year host town criers from around the county vying to become the next Dorset champion.

As the winner of last year’s Dorset Town Criers Competition, Beaminster crier David Craner will be the master of ceremonies for the 2009 contest in his town.

Mr Craner, who in 2007 became Beaminster’s first town crier since 1952, will hand over the title at the competition on Sunday, July 5.

It is being held on the final day of the Beaminster Festival and is the first time the contest has been held in the town in the 22 years of its existence.

The entrants, who include Bridport crier Jane Silver-Corren, will compete for the Stanley Mansbridge Perpetual Plate in memory of the late Stanley Mansbridge, the former town crier of Shaftesbury.

Mr Craner – who is also the town crier for Crewkerne and holds the title of Somerset champion – said being Dorset champion for the past year has been ‘fantastic’.

He said: “It’s the first major competition I have won and it’s great to be able to say I won this last year.

“Without bragging, I won the Somerset Championships so I have had a really good year.”

Mr Craner surprised Beaminster Town Council when he volunteered to take on the role.

He has thoroughly enjoyed his job and he hopes his cries will be heard in the streets of Beaminster for many years to come.

“They will have to silence my bell to get me to pack it up,” he said.

This year’s competition begins at 11am in The Square when the town criers, dressed in full regalia from years gone by, will proclaim their home town cry.

At 2pm in the Memorial Fields, each entrant will perform a themed cry about the Wessex Ridgeway.

They will be judged in various categories – best overall (receiving the perpetual trophy), best dressed, best content of the cry, and the crying itself will be judged in areas including volume, clarity and diction.

Judging them will be town council chairman Isabelle Maling, town councillors Janet Page, Doug Beazer and wife Linda Beazer, and Shakespearean actress Trish Knight-Webb, who will specifically assess diction and inflection.

Mr Craner will set the benchmark for the judges with two cries.

He may not be eligible to compete this year, but Mr Craner said he would ‘absolutely’ be out to win back the title next year.

For more information on the role of town criers visit www.davidcranertowncrier.co.uk

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