THE Wessex Male Voice Choir has scored a hat trick, winning the gold cup at Cheltenham Performing Arts Festival for the third time.

The Swindon-based choir also managed to lift the Cotswold Glass Trophy in the Show Tunes class and the P J Taylor Challenge Cup for the best male choir.

Choir chairman Guy Edwards paid tribute to the efforts of musical director Katrine Reimers and her singers.

He said: said “Huge thanks and enormous kudos go to Katrine who led us to a superb third Gold Cup victory with considerable panache. I don't recall ever seeing an adjudication score as high 93per cent before.”

We don't get to take away the real gold cup because it really is made of gold and worth a small fortune,” he explained. “But we get to keep a small gold-plated goblet. We will add this to our collection, joining those won in 2008 and 2013.”

Among the pieces performed were George Gershwin’s I Got Plenty o’ Nuthin in an arrangement written specially for the choir by composer Goff Richards, along with Memory from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats, and Elgar’s Yea! Cast me from heights of the mountains.

The choir’s next Swindon concert is at STEAM on July 16 but before then, the choristers are heading off to Italy for the Alta Pusteria International Choir Festival in South Tyrol.

Tickets for the Summer Concert with the Jubilate Ladies Choir are available by calling the information desk in Swindon Central Library on 01793 466454 emailing tickets@wessexmalechoir.co.uk or from the STEAM ticket office.