Standards at Devizes Junior Eisteddfod have been well maintained in its 65th year, if the winners’ concert in the town hall on Saturday night was anything to go by.

Adjudicators had been busy all day judging entries from hundreds of children in nearly 100 different classes and the creme de la creme performed their pieces in front of a full house in the Assembly Room in the evening.

The concert began with Devizes choral group Bel Coro, winners of the choir section, performing As Long As I Have Music by Don Besig and Nancy Price.

Naomi McMurray formed the group only two months ago but members sang as though they had been working together for years.

They won the Frances Isborn Cup for best group performance.

James Eyles, 11, from Ramsbury, winner of the flute solo section, performed Berceuse by McLeod before 15-year-old Will Sexton from Pewsey Vale School brought his beautiful tenor voice to bear on the traditional song Shenandoah.

The revelation of the evening was 16-year-old Perlie Mong, a boarder at St Mary’s School, Calne, whose rendition of Rachmaninov’s Prelude in G Minor won the piano solo award and the Giles Chivers Cup for senior performance.

Nine-year-old Thomas Downes, from Prior Park School, had the task of following that by reciting the poem I Asked A Little Boy, having won the verse speaking section.

Sarah Mattinson and Chelsea Pearce, both 13 and from St Francis School, Pewsey, followed with the piano duet Eternal Flame before Bella Bryan, 14, from Devizes, performed her trophy-winning recorder solo.

Bella, a pupil at St Augustine’s College, Trowbridge, also won the folk song solo with The Cuckoo and, with her schoolmate Rachel Crofts, the vocal duet section. Rae Elias, 15, from Swindon, played and sang her own composition, Undefined, with which she had won the Simon May Trophy.

Mr May, the festival’s patron, was unable to attend.

Huw Tebbutt and Theo Millar, from St Francis School, gave a faultless performance of Rocking Horse by Blackwell on violin to take the prize for best string duet, while ten-year-olds Charlotte Balfour and Eleanor Galloway from St Margaret’s School, Calne, won the recorder duet award.

Another stunning performance was given by 12-year-old Eleanor Tuckey from Pinewood School, whose rendition of The Meditation from Thais by Massenet was a highlight of the evening. She won the William Dauntesey Cup for best junior performance at the concert.

Pupils from Pinewood also took the prize for best ensemble and the young string Pinewood Trio performed Boismortier’s Courante with vigour and accuracy.

First Stages, the Devizes youth musical theatre group, were also among the winners, taking the choral speaking prize with their version of Kipling’s If and the carol party prize with O Holy Night.

Daisy Faulkener, 13, from Swindon, was also commended by adjudicators Lesley Cook and Michael Oliver for her saxophone solo Come Dance With Me.

Devizes Junior Eisteddfod cup winners were as follows:

Ann Lake Cup (piano solo): Perlie Mong. Gapper Cup (piano duet): Sarah Mattinson and Chelsea Pearce. Michael Oliver Cup (string solo): Eleanor Tuckey. Jean Yockney Memorial Cup (string duet): Huw Tebbutt and Theo Millar. ABH Cup (classical guitar solo): Ayrton Jimenez-Aldridge.

Walter Bergmann Cup (recorder solo): Bella Bryan. Ray Smith Cup (recorder duet): Charlotte Balfour and Eleanor Galloway. John Prosser Rose Bowl (woodwind solo): James Eyles.

Harry Ridout Memorial Trophy (brass solo): Adam Lomas. Devizes Junior Eisteddfod Goblet (ensembles): Pinewood Trio. Simon May Trophy (original composition): Rae Elias. Pewsey Vale DFAS Cup (folk song/music): Bella Bryan/Jessica Mead.

Rose Scudamore Cup (vocal solo): Will Sexton. Mary Hutchings Memorial Cup (vocal duet): Bella Bryan and Rachel Crofts. Bob May Memorial Plate (choir): Bel Coro.

Devizes Junior Eisteddfod Goblet (carol party): First Stages. George Sanderson Cup (musical theatre solo): Ellys Airey. Bennett Fuller Memorial Cup (prepared reading): Frances Arnold.

Kathleen Budd Memorial Cup (verse speaking): Thomas Downes. Wiltshire Gazette & Herald Cup (newsreading): Lucy Fitzpatrick. Shelagh Richards Cup (choral speaking): First Stages.

Wharf Theatre Cup (drama etc): William Haywood and Oliver MacKenzie. William Salmon Cup (literary): Frances Arnold. David Dark Memorial Cup (handwriting): Saskia Davenport. Mills Cup (art): Amelia Place. Francis Isborn Cup (best group performance): Bel Coro. Giles Chivers Cup (best senior performance): Perlie Mong. William Dauntesey Cup (best junior performance): Eleanor Tuckey.