A KILCREGGAN Primary School pupil has won the West of Scotland final of the Rotary Young Writer of the Year competition.

Ollie Watts won the competition for the 7-10 age group and was presented with a trophy by Gordon Burgess, president of Helensburgh Rotary Club, who organised the local heat, and Jack Rudram, the club's youth service convenor.

His head teacher Frances Bretman kept the presentation a secret from Ollie and his classmates, but arranged for them and his parents to be there.

Mrs Bretman said: “I could not believe it when I received notification of the West win.

"We are all so proud of Ollie and what he has achieved.”

The competition was on the theme of 'A Different Perspective', which, although perceived as very challenging, brought out considerable imagination and skill in the local heat.

Ollie looked at arachnophobia from the spider's perspective, and told of an encounter between a spider and a human who was afraid of spiders.

One of the judges, Catriona Malan of Helensburgh Writers Workshop, said the 75 entries were of a high standard and she and her fellow judges found it a hard task to choose the winners in the three age group categories.

At the local prizegiving ceremony, in the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club at Rhu, she spoke about the challenge and satisfaction of creative writing, and encouraged the young students to persist with their efforts.

Ollie was then presented with a gold medal by Mr Burgess. He did the honours again in presenting the Rotary District 1230 salver, to the delight of Ollie’s fellow pupils.

“This is only the second time in the several years we have been running local heats of rotary youth competitions that we have had a West of Scotland winner,” said Mr Rudram.

“It means that Ollie beat winners of local heats in Rotary District 1230, which covers the area from Stranraer to Fort William. Now his entry goes forward to the UK final, and we hope he does well there too.”