Hastings - National Town Criers Championship 2008

18-Oct-08 - The sky was still clear and blue and the sun was bright, but an increasingly cold wind from the sea did make me wish I'd worn something warmer than a short-sleeved shirt. This was Hastings, indeed the culmination of Hastings Week which is held every year to commemorate the battle which took place on the 14th October, 1066, and in 2008 it ran from the 11th to the 19th October. The Saturday is always the day for the National Town Criers' Championship, which has been held (give or take the odd war, hiatus and lapse of sponsorship) in the town since 1937, and this was the 56th event in that 71-year history. I've judged there for most of the past ten years, along with Jill (who is, of course, professionally qualified in such matters) and Terry James from Arrow FM, and the rules have stayed more or less the same all along. Town criers from all over the country (in this case from Somerset to Yorkshire) come to Hastings, dress up in their full finery and perform their cry in two heats, one with a welcome message from their home town, and one on a specific subject which, this year, was the 2012 Olympic Games.

There have a been a few tweaks since I first went. The competition used to beheld in the ruins of the castle, but then moved to the Priory Meadow shopping centre which provides a built-in audience of Saturday shoppers and is, of course, much closer to the reality of where a traditional town crier would have worked: the ambient noise level is high, which is a useful test of the crier's ability. For several years we, the judges, were screened off from the participants in case we were swayed by the finery, but over the past two years we have been allowed to look at them - there's a separate judge who adjudicates on matters of costume and bearing. There are prizes for the winner and three runners-up, plus a prize for the best costume and the best-dressed consort - most criers have an 'other half' with them.

Promenading before the final heat

On the day there were 18 finalists - there had been 24, but complications prevented six of them from attending - including three women, and we were marking them on volume, diction, clarity and inflection. The women were excellent, particularly Doris Eastwood from Langton Herring, near Weymouth in Dorset, who's been a finalist for several years but, sadly, they can't really compete with the men in terms of volume, and if we can't hear 'em we can't mark 'em. Several former champions were represented, including Michael Wood from East Yorkshire who won in 2000 (he came 4th this year) and Alistair Chisholm of Dorchester who, not content with being five-times champion in 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2007, went on to win again this year. What's the secret? It's being able to project without shouting, phrasing without becoming inaudible, and getting the pace right. The man is truly a champion. The prizes were presented by the Mayor of Hastings, Maureen Charlesworth.

Alistair Chisholm at work on his home turf.
Pic.: www.dorchestertowncrier.co.uk

I must just say a word about lunch - we were uncomfortable about having lunch with the participants, with judging still to come in the afternoon, and sloped of to the pub instead. We usually go to the Havelock on Havelock Road, but this time we decided to try the Clarence on Middle Street. We'd looked in the previous year and weren't impressed, but it seems to have changed hands, and now has an outside seating area, which was very pleasant in the sunshine, as was their all-day full English breakfast (for £3.95). This and a bottled of Crooked Vine Sauvignon grossed up to about £18 for both of us: excellent value. The wine wasn't really chilled properly but the barmaids were so wonderfully pretty that I didn't seek to complain.

Also a word of compliment to the organisers in Hastings Borough Council, particularly Kevin Boorman and Debbie Clifford, who are on hand every year to make sure that things run smoothly, and not just on the day itself. Getting everything organised from the catering to the accommodation for the participants must almost be a full-time job.