'Flawless' performances at this year's Bentley Elocution Competition Final

The second half of the Lent Term got off to an excellent start with the final of the Bentley Elocution Competition.

A group of 15 Salopians, comprising students from every year group, entertained their Third Form audience with a wide variety of poetry recitations.

We were honoured to welcome Pele Cox, poet and film director, as adjudicator.  Tutored by former Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, Pele has since been the Poet in Residence at Tate Modern and Poet in Residence at the Royal Academy of Arts.   She performs her poetry widely across the UK, with her events, poetry and workshops featured in The RA magazine, Tate and London Magazine, the Financial Times and most recently in The Sunday Times Magazine. 

The competition opened with the Third Form section; Will O’H (Ch), Gethin H (Rb), Johnnie T (Ch) and Violet R (EDH) recited their chosen lines of verse.  Three of the four had selected Shakespeare as their inspiration, whilst Gethin chose The Only English Kid, by Hannah Lowe.  The standard of delivery was impressively high, but the prize was awarded to Johnnie for his extremely sensitive performance of the Seven Stages of Man speech from Shakespeare’s As You Like It.  Highly commended went to Gethin.

The Fourth Form finalists - Libby H (MSH), Oscar C (Rb), Maggie C (M) and Loic D-B (Ch) - offered poems from Keats, Hardy, Rossetti and Mary Elizabeth Fry.  Again, the standard was excellent, but Loic was the winner in this section, with a moving performance of Do Not Stand by My Grave and Weep, with Libby in second place with When I have fears that I may cease to be.

The senior group consisted of seven members of the Fifth Form, Lower and Upper Sixth, several of whom had taken time out from their trial exam preparation to take part.  The worthy winner was Tabitha W (G, UVI), whose performance of Mary Oliver’s The Journey, pipped Emily M (MSH, V) with Auden’s The Two and Luke W (SH, V) with Neruda’s Entrance to the Rivers to the post, to claim the senior prize.

Head of English, Kristina Leslie said: “The standard of the competition this year was strikingly high, making Pele’s decisions all the more challenging!  All the performances were flawless, without a single lapse in memory, and all showed genuine understanding of the words they were speaking, whilst carefully communicating a range of emotions to the attentive audience.”

For those unable to attend on the night, or for others who may want to enjoy the performances again, the winning entries can be viewed below.