THE Montgomeryshire 69th County Eisteddfod was held at Llanidloes High School.

Congratulations to the organising committee who managed to organise a very successful event and the day ran smoothly.

This year the committee was made up of members from Llidiartywaen YFC, Bro Ddyfi YFC, Llanbrynmair and Carno YFC and Trefeglwys YFC. The officials for the day were; Emma Baker Llidiartywaen YFC – chairwoman, Ilan Jones Bro Ddyfi YFC – vice chairman, Aled Rees Trefeglwys YFC – treasurer and Cath Rowlands Llidiartywaen – secretary.

The day consisted of a number of competitions for all members to get involved with and be able to display a wide variety of talent, the competitions were divided into three main categories; arts and crafts, literacy, and stage.

In total 17 out of the 18 clubs in Montgomeryshire competed in the arts and crafts section of the event. Some of the competitions included, a cake using a vegetable as an ingredient, a party in the park picnic, a garden sculpture using raw or reclaimed material and a memory display box just to name a few.

As you can imagine the judges had no easy task in judging these competitions and the standard of entries was extremely high. A shield awarded by Four Crosses YFC in memory of Mary Lloyd to Kira Jones from Vyrnwy Valley YFC as the girl gaining the most points in the arts and crafts section. The shield presented by Denise and Johanne Williams in memory of John Williams for the boy gaining the most points in the arts and craft section this year was awarded to Dave Dart, Guilsfield YFC and Ross Issac Tregynon YFC. The Sian Edwards Memorial Cup was awarded to the club gaining the highest number of points overall in the Arts and Crafts Section, which was this year was awarded to Bro Ddyfi YFC.

The club project this year was to create a 45 second TV advert to advertise your YFC club or the Montgomeryshire County YFC. The winners of this competition were Bro Ddyfi YFC. Closely followed by Dyffryn Banw (2nd) and Dyffryn Tanat (3rd). The advert will now compete against the winners of other counties at the Wales Eisteddfod on the 17th November.

The literacy section is an opportunity for members to showcase their creativity without having to be on stage. There were over 70 pieces of literature submitted over in total, with Ffion Storer-Jones, Llanfyllin YFC taking home the shield for the highest number of points in the literature section excluding the Chair. The Montgomeryshire Chair is awarded to the winner of the short story competition, the theme this year was Valley and was awarded to Llinwen Jones, Bro Ddyfi YFC. This was a special chairing ceremony this year as Alun Jones current Bored of Management Chairman had the honour of presenting the chair to his daughter Lliwen, who’s brother Ilan Jones (Vice Chairman of the Eisteddfod) sang the ceremonial song. The FUW trophy was awarded to Bro Ddyfi YFC for receiving the highest amount of points overall in the literature section. Sian Roberts, Dyffryn Tanat YFC won the Song Composition 26 and under, for the second year running and will go on to represent Montgomeryshire at the Wales Eisteddfod in Barry.

The final section is the stage category, where members from all clubs demonstrated their talents some more humorous than others but all entertaining. There were more than 100 stage competition entries in total, which included four fantastic choirs. Making this one of the largest displays of young farmer talents in the YFC calendar. There were a number of awards given for this section for various competitions, with some of the competitors going forward to compete at the all Wales Eisteddfod, in Barry on November 17. This included the Mime to Music, Vocal Ensemble, Sketch, Instrumental solo, and the Choir, just to name a few. The club with the highest number of points in the stage competitions was Bro Ddyfi YFC, winning an impressive four trophies in total in the stage section alone. The Mrs W Rogers Perpetual Trophy and the Mrs Marion Wilson Baton awarded to the club winning the Choir competition this year went to Dyffryn Banw YFC.

The overall winners of the 69th Montgomeryshire Eisteddfod were Bro Ddyfi YFC, closely followed by Dyffryn Banw YFC (second) and Dyffryn Tanat YFC (third). Berriew YFC were awarded the shield for the club with the highest increase in points from the previous year. With Bro Ddyfi being awarded the shield for the club with a membership of 40 or less that have the highest number of points in the Eisteddfod.

YFC spokesperson Megan Evans said: "On behalf of the county we’d like to congratulate all members who took part in the Eisteddfod, it was a very successful event and it is great to see so many clubs from across the county participating." Congratulations to all those who will be going forward to represent Montgomeryshire at the Wales Eisteddfod at the Memo Art Centre on November 17 in Barry, we wish you all the best of luck.

For a full list of the results from this year's Eisteddfod please see the YFC's website http://www.yfc-montgomery.org.uk/eisteddfod.html or Facebook page.

"Thank you to all the sponsors and supporters who helped make the Eisteddfod so successful," added Megan.