Poet Tegwen Bruce-Deans was crowned Chief Bard at the Urdd Eisteddfod in Llandovery.

Tegwen was born in London and moved to Llandrindod Wells at the age of two. She went to Builth Wells High School and graduated in Welsh from Bangor University and is now working as a researcher for BBC Radio Cymru.

The 11 competitors had to compose a poem or strict metre or verse libre poems of no more than 100 lines. The theme was ‘River.’

Tegwen competed under the pseudonym Gwawr with the piece called Rhwng Dau Le (Between Two Places).

The inspiration for the piece was described by Tegwen: “After I graduated from university last year, my partner and I bought an old student house.

!It was a period of readjustment after coming out of education for the first time in many years, and as a result, a feeling like I’d lost part of my identity.

!On top of that I felt like I no longer had a sense of ‘home’ while we waited to start making roots in our new house.

“I was ‘between two places’ mentally and physically, and trying to make sense of the mixture of feelings and emotions that came as a result of this is the collection of poems.

"Whilst putting pen to paper, the metaphor of a river on its journey between two places perfectly captured the number of different feelings I was trying to portray, and consequently pulling it all together at the end.”

The competition was judged by Hywel Griffiths and Gwennan Evans. Both said: “Gwawr is the competition’s most accomplished and mature poet.

“The strength of the collection is the way in which the poet has managed to turn around specific personal experiences to experiences we can relate to, regardless of our age.

"More than any of the other candidates, by subtly handling the image of the river, the poet has managed to turn it into her own mill, rather than being carried away by the flow, and is completely worthy of Carmarthenshire’s Urdd Eisteddfod Chair.”

Tegwen added: “Being able to say that a girl from Lewisham has won the Urdd

"National Eisteddfod Chair is pretty cool! But on a serious note, one of the things I love to promote the most is that anyone can be a poet – not just old white men from a traditional Welsh background.

"So the fact that I can contribute to a small, small part of that movement of changing people’s attitudes towards the idea of a contemporary poet is priceless.”

Tesni Peers, 20, from Rhosllannerchrugog and Buddug Watcyn Roberts, 22, from Banger came in second and third place respectively.

The Eisteddfod Chair was presented by T Richard Jones Ltd Company from Betws.

It was designed and created by Bedwyn Rees from Hermon, a local craftsman who owns Old Oak Kitchens. The competition is sponsored by Ivor and Aeres Evans Trust.