FIRST WINNER OF THE BILL BUDNER TROPHY

Playwright, local actor and valued member of Felixstowe Scribblers, Tony Shearman became the inaugural winner of The Bill Budner Trophy with his short story "Stevie and the Kid".

The idea for the competition that will be run quarterly, is for each attending writer to produce an anonymous short story that would be collected and read out by another Scribbler. At the end of the readings, each writer then votes for their first three choices. The votes are then counted, the winner announced and the trophy accordingly engraved.

Awarded in memory of Bill Budner, a Felixstowe Scribbler who died suddenly on Tuesday 14th February 2006. Bill joined Felixstowe Scribblers in August of 2005 and quickly made a lot of friends within the group. He enjoyed his writing and produced some prolific words in his short stories. His mild manner and quiet voice vividly portrayed every word that he wrote.

Away from Scribblers Bill was a lay preacher heavily involved with church affairs having taken on the role of editor for the St Mary's Church, [Walton] magazine and had spoken of many vibrant ideas for improvement.

Sadly Bill was unable to see his plans through as he passed so suddenly. He left a wife and family in shock and mourning and the Felixstowe Scribblers shared their grief.

Bill's wife Maureen sponsored writing competitions in his memory for adults and children awarding cash prizes for the top three stories in each category. The adult section winner, Belinda Janz, a Scribbler now back home in Australia, donated her winnings to the purchase of the new trophy. The junior section winner, Rosemary Woolley has since joined the Scribblers and produced some incredible work for one so young.