BOURTON'S Battle of the Bands was won by the youngest band competing in the event, which raised £750 for Gloucestershire Arthritis Trust.

The competition, held at Hill Barn for the second successive year, was won by The Sneeze whose nine members are aged 12-15 and have been together just two months.

Oscar and Charlie Meyrick, Chris Bogdiukiewicz, Alex Elliott, Natalie Lane and lead singer, Ewan Johnson, along with backing trio Alice Tonks, Flora Pringle-Patterson and Georgia Hoffman, won the first prize - two days recording in a studio - by performing Mustang Sally and The Blues Brothers Review.

Most of these young musicians, who will record a compact disc in the studio, attend Bourton's Cotswold School.

Cheltenham's The Tribals, a group of teenage musicians, took the second prize - a day's studio recording time - while Gulliver, a band headed by the Cotswold School's Nick Miller, won the third prize of half a day recording in a studio.

The prizes were donated by Simon and Gemina Plater, of Farmyard Studios, who were on the judging panel with Josh Catling and Rowan Mayo of popular local band Souljacker.

The organisers thanked the Hacklings Palletline company for loaning a lorry for use as the stage.