THEY knew all there was to know about the crying game, but there could be only one winner in the annual Dorset Town Criers' Championship.

And it was no crying shame for reigning champ Wimborne's town crier Chris Brown who kept up the winner's tradition by hosting the following year's decibel-busting event, but not competing.

Nine loud-voiced criers from across the county, including Dorchester, Ferndown and Weymouth, each armed with an enormous bell and fistfuls of Strepsils, pitched up to Wimborne's Cornmarket on Saturday for the vocal duel.

For their first cry they had to invite people to come to their town and explain why it was a good place to visit, and for their second they had to extol the virtues of Dorset.

Each cry had to be no longer than a hundred words, starting with the obligatory three "Oyezs" and finishing with "God Save the Queen."

Mr Brown, 49, who works for the town council, explained that the judges looked for a combination of volume, clarity, diction and inflection.

Dorchester's crier Alistair Chisholm won the title, and the prize for best-dressed crier went to Gillingham's David Wathen who was wearing a scarlet Edwardian soldier's coat.

"We are helping perpetuate our rich heritage by keeping alive some of the pageantry of the past," father-of-four Mr Brown said.

"Town criers are very colourful and I think it's great for towns to have a kind of figurehead encouraging people to come and visit the towns they represent."

Wimborne has had a town crier for more than 300 years, traditionally combining the roles of police officer, cattle ranger and market inspector.

The competition was part of the on-going celebrations at the weekend to mark the Minster's 1,300th anniversary, which included the St Cuthburga Fair on the Minster Green.

The town's militia armed with muskets, pikes and banners were on parade on the green where there were dozens of stalls selling jewellery and arts and crafts.

First published: September 5