Well as the fairground barkers might say "We have a winner."

Yes our finalist judge Alex Scarrow took time out from his  busy schedule promoting the latest instalment in his Time Riders series (Day of the Predator), to give braingunk a hand and select a winner. He also very kindly penned some feedback for each of our finalists which has been passed along.

So without further ado we would like to announce that the winner of the first braingunk 500 award for his brilliant tale "The Banyan Tree" is Mr Mike Elliott.

Congratulations Mike, you win not only the respect of your peers, (priceless) but also a signed copy of Day of The Predator from Alex Scarrow, an exclusive braingunk T-shirt and the very first braingunk 500 award certificate, which you can hang on your wall with pride if you so wish. We'll be rushing your prizes to you as soon as is humanly possible.

Once again we would like to thank all of the entrants for their amazing stories, our short-list judges Dave, Graeme and Carole and our finalist judge Alex Scarrow for making the braingunk 500 word short story competition such a success.

And for all of our entrants and other aspiring writers out they check back soon for news of our next competition… The braingunk 2500.