A STALWART in the Northwich folk scene has won a coveted singer-songwriter competition for the second year running.

Pete Thompson, who has been involved with Northwich Folk Club for a decade, won the Kerry Smith Memorial Singer Songwriter Competition, which was held at Lymm Folk Club

Last year Pete was triumphant with his song, The time is right for me, an autobiographical song about something that hasn’t happened yet.

And he bowled over audiences yet again, this time with the song, Flying Man's Rag, which is about the secret to human flight.

"I was really surprised to win it again,” Pete told the Guardian. “I had a song that was a bit different to the kind of songs people take there. It was a kind of comedy song.

“I thought it will either do well or bomb completely.”

Luckily for Pete, the song went down a treat with his audience, who even got into the spirit of the song with some wing-flapping action.

Pete, who has lived in Northwich for 30 years, revealed he came up with the chorus for the song several years ago, as a lullaby to sing to his children.

“I used to sing songs to my kids when they were growing up to help get them to sleep,” Pete said.

“This was one I used to sing to them. The chorus was something that came to me when I was signing to them one night, but I hadn’t written the verses until this year.”

Pete also revealed the song is about achieving the impossible.

He said: “If you believe in something hard enough you can do it. You only cannot fly because you don’t believe you can.”

Eleven competitors entered this’s year’s competition. A jury of four who deliberated over the song presentation, lyrics and melody before picking Pete’s song as the winner.

This year was the fourth time Pete has entered Lymm Folk Club’s Kerry Smith Memorial Singer Songwriter Competition, and the second time he has scooped the top prize.

The Lymm Folk Club Festival Singer Songwriter competition started in 2008 and was renamed in 2014 in memory of club member Kerry Smith who died earlier that year.