Newport business-boosting competition winners announced

Newport Rotary Lite's Spot the Oddity competition ran for just over a month in May and June, and winning entrants have received a £25 voucher to spend in participating businesses in Newport.

Newport Rotary Lite President Phil Knight said: “We’re delighted we had such a positive response from both people doing the competition and Newport businesses – the support has been great, and people have had a lot of fun.”

“The feedback has been brilliant, with several shops reporting increased footfall, people going into Newport businesses that they’ve never been in before, and, perhaps best of all at the moment, really enjoying a free activity in the centre of our town.

“It was a really simple idea. All you had to do was Spot The Oddity in the window of participating businesses, find as many as you could, then just enter the competition.

"Businesses really got into the spirit of it – we had David Bowie’s Space Oddity album in the window of a brilliant electrical store, gnomes, a can of baked beans, socks in a computer shop, a teapot in an optician’s – and Concorde for sale in an estate agent’s window. I think some of the businesses had as much fun as the participants.

“We’ve already had people contact us saying they will enter future competitions.

“The winners were Kate and Stuart King, Sam Edgeley, Kim and Lawrie Boardman, and 10-year-old Sophie Dahn and her six-year-old sister Lucy.”

Kate King said “It was a great way of exploring and mooching around shops in Newport.

“It made us stop and look in businesses we didn’t really look in before. We loved it!”

Phil Knight added: “Like many charities we lost 80 per cent of our income during lockdown so we’ve been a bit limited on what we can do for the town. We wanted to do something that helped local businesses that have supported us so well, something that was free for everyone to take part in, and provide a bit of fun for children of all ages! Hopefully we’ve helped everyone a little.”