Lighthorne Festival runners-up, Banbury Cross Players, scooped two of eight awards at the National Drama Festival.

Chrissie Garrett won Best Director, and actor Martin Crook took the prize for Best Supporting Actor, for their part in “A Handbag”, by playwright Anthony Horowitz.

Actor Simon Hook also received an honourable mention in the Supporting Actor category for his role as the stuttering stage manager, Specs, and the group overall were nominated for Technical Excellence.

The results cement the place of BCP as the most successful-ever Lighthorne Festival entrants, having twice won the south Warwickshire drama contest to compete in the National Finals – with “Contractions” by Mike Bartlett, also directed by Chrissie Garrett, in 2019 – and “Goodbye Charles”, written by Gabriel Benjamin Davis and directed by Phil Wintle in 2025.

Chrissie said: “I am delighted and honoured to have received the award for Best Director at the National Festival and for us also to be nominated for the Technical Award and receive an award for Best Supporting Actor.

“The cast and crew have been a dream to work with, and part of this award is for each one of them – it really does take a cohesive team to produce a successful play.

“We are delighted to have been part of the Lighthorne Festival since its inception, and value the friendship, challenge, and enormous talent and professionalism displayed there in Festival week.”

Rod Chaytor, founding chair of the Lighthorne Festival of One-Act Plays, said:”It seems entirely appropriate that BCP – the very first group to commit to supporting us, now nearly 15 years ago – should have achieved this amazing recognition and success at national level.

“They were worthy winners of their categories at the NDF and, as always, they represented the Lighthorne Festival with distinction.”

The prestigious and now nationally-recognised Lighthorne Festival of One-Act Plays takes place in Lighthorne Village Hall annually in June.

Its top-scorers win the right to be considered for the NDF in August which, this year, again took place at the Artrix arts centre in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.

The play, “A Handbag”, follows the preparations of a diverse and dysfunctional group of inmates within the menacing environment of a high-security institution as they attempt to rehearse “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde.