Boadicea's Chariot

I thank cherished colleagues for their erudite and witty responses to the pome comp.  I had hoped to make the judging, ahem, swift, but have rather been overtaken by events. Anyhow, here goes in order of publication:-

Janus – The Renegade Swift I enjoyed this quirky tale of a rebel.

Feeg – what could the title be apart from ‘Dirty Ditty’.

Soutie – The Green and Gold, a paean to Oscar Pistorius.

Bilby – Pegasus, reading which one can almost hear the drumming hoofbeats.

Christopher – Clouds takes one back to childhood dreams amid the longings of an adult mind.

Araminta – Her Modest Proposal is anything but, and a very clever, original take on the competition title. In fact I award a Judge’s Commendation for originality.

The Royalist – Fast Bizz Gosh, after a decade retired I’d almost forgotten about SWIFT transfers. Special mention to JW for the most repetitions of the word.

John Mackie – Lays of Ancient Rome I never cease to be amazed how people can come up with these diverse angles on a subject.

It has been a pleasure reading all the entries, although judging has been made so much more difficult by their consistent quality. In the end it came down to a battle between Bilby and John Mackie. Horseflesh, a she-wolf, Latin and Molesworth are all subjects guaranteed to make me sit up and pay attention. In a way it is a pity there can only be one winner, but I have to award the red rosette to……Mr Mackie. What edged it for you is that on reading the “Grabber” link, one finds that the actor who played Grimes the headmaster in the BBC Radio 4 series was….. Clive Swift!! You couldn’t make it up.

Congratulations JM and well done everyone.

OZ