Comedian David Eagle has won the Lovehoney Newcomer Award at the Bath Comedy Festival.

Eagle, from Sheffield, is also a member of the band The Young 'Uns, who won Best Album 2018 at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. He receives £250, a guaranteed paid gig at next year's Festival and the second ever Lovehoney Newcomer Award.

Second place went to UK-based Bulgarian Martin Durchov, who was a So You Think You're Funny? finalist at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2018.

Third place went to Chelsea Birkby,  who was also a So You Think You're Funny? finalist last year.

All the finalists were each given a goody bag containing items from the Festival, Principal Sponsor Lovehoney and Festival Sponsor Bath Ales. In a new development this year, all 24 semi-finalists were offered the opportunity of a two night stay in Bath, a comedy workshop with John Moloney and tickets to watch the Festival’s Closing Weekend Comedy Gala featuring Moloney, Alan Francis, Barnaby Power, Emily Rose Simons, Pete Latham and headlined by Fred Macaulay.

The ten finalists, chosen from an initial field of 120 competitors, were: 

Chelsea Birkby

Martin Durchov

David Eagle

Nathan Eagle

Will Hall

Paul Hilleard

Saban Kasim

Fran Kissling

Jenny Laville

and sketch duo

The Extra Virgins

Judges were Graham Smith (former commissioning editor for comedy & entertainment at both Channel 4 and Channel 5), Alan Nixon (first controller of comedy and entertainment at Channel 5, previously Comedy producer at BBC & LWT, and recently Executive Producer at Sky), Jill Edwards (renowned comedy coach and founder of the Comic Boom night at Komedia Brighton), Guest Judge comedian John Moloney and Festival Director Nick Steel.

Picture: Twitter