Competition Time Answer

There was no winner of the recent competition set here recently.

No disrespect, I think, to the James Sheard book offered as a prize but more likely due to the low audience figures of a small time website like this.

However, it was still a thought-provoking exercise to decide the answer.

The preview of Rory Kinnear's Hamlet had a chance to set the standard but even though subsequent reviews of the real first night have been very positive, it ran below expectations when we saw it and was off the pace in a competitive field.
National Poetry Day was enjoyable and with a genuine feelgood factor, and took an early lead even if I wasn't in the target audience for all of it.
The Larkin event at Cheltenham ran up to form and perhaps proved even better than that and took up the running with two events still poised to challenge. Lumsden and Bryce together were immaculate and put in a bold bid before Hambling ran slightly below form and in a close finish didn't quite get there.
It might not be the best way to judge such a prize but there's inevitably a kind of handicap system involved in which performances are judged against expectations, so the favourites had more to live up to. However, my decision is final and the terms of the competition stated that it depended on which I enjoyed the most, so the result is-

1. Philip Larkin 4/1
2. Lumsden and Bryce 7/1
3. Maggi Hambling 6/4 Fav.

5 ran