RHYS Evans made it third time lucky for his Stratton family in the Adver’s Baby of the Year competition, after sister Sophie was runner-up two years on the bounce.

The three-month-old secured enough votes from Adver readers to bring home a cheque for £500, a canvas print of his winning photo, a trophy and certificate.

Rhys’ parents, Glyn and Danielle Evans, 37 and 25 respectively, have begun to build quite the reputation after Sophie’s near misses and a 2012 win in the Adver’s Santa’s Little Helpers contest.

Danielle, a housewife, said: “We have done it with Sophie before, so it was only natural to do it with Rhys too. It’s quite a nice thing to keep, if you win too.

“I personally enjoy the photos. I enjoy that rather than going through with a professional photoshoot because you get to have it done locally.

“We were thrilled when we heard. I got a phone call and I called my husband straight after and just said ‘guess who rang?’ “He knew straight away I was talking about the Adver and the competition.”

Hundreds of votes were cast in the competition, which was published with almost 150 babies on September 9.

It takes a huge number of votes to win the contest, but there was no strategy as such from Danielle and her family, who just said they shared Rhys’ vote code as much as possible on social media.

“It’s hard when you have your baby in a competition like that because you want to vote, but you don’t want to go over the top,” she said.

“It’s difficult, especially with him being a boy. When it’s a girl, like with Sophie, you can get them in a dress and they look adorable.

“I Facebooked it quite a lot. We had the family on it too. We just let them all know the right code for Rhys and let them do the rest.”

The runners-up in the 2014 competition were Xavier Hynes of Basil Close, in Moredon, and Amelia McCulloch of Leighton Avenue in Park South.

They each win £250, a canvas print, trophy and certificate.

And how will Rhys react when he’s old enough to know what his achievement means?

“I can imagine, for a boy, it’s the most embarrassing thing that can happen; for a girl it’s not too bad,” said Danielle.