HOW loud, clear and confident an Oxfordshire town crier is will be put to the test at the world championship.

Anthony Church, who is the official crier for four towns in the county, will be shouting his best at the Chester World Town Crier Tournament, in June.

Mr Church, who is contracted to work for Holland and Barrett health food shops four times a week, is the town crier for Wallingford, Chipping Norton, Thame and Banbury.

The competition will see him make four cries beginning “O-yez, O-yez, O-yez” extolling the virtues of one of the towns he represents.

He will then make an additional cry devised by the competition judges, before a winner is chosen.

The 57-year-old said: “It’s an honour and a privilege to be selected for the world championship and it’s nice to put Oxfordshire on the map. I am looking forward to it.

“It think it’s great that the tradition of town crying is being kept alive and that Chester wants to host a competition of this magnitude.”

About 40 town criers from around the world, including representatives from Australia, USA, France and Holland, will compete for the world title.

Father-of-one Mr Church, of Barns Road, Cowley, first became a town crier almost 20 years ago.

He was working as a toastmaster at the time, but after stepping in to help Gloucester’s town crier, who was double booked for an engagement in Oxford, he never looked back.

He said: “It’s a great job and I love every minute of it.”

Mr Church, who served in the Royal Logistic Corps for 22 years, can be spotted in his traditional costume at events across Oxfordshire, including Wallingford’s pancake race and Banbury’s Canal Day and People Sunday in Banbury.

He is often joined in his crier activities by his wife Susan, who dresses up as his escort.

Mrs Church said: “He is very good. He has already won a couple of competitions. We go up to the podium together. I don’t cry but he does.

“He loves what he does.”

Mr Church, who has won competitions in Shrewsbury and Wales, said the criteria for being successful in his profession were diction and inflection, volume and clarity, confidence, bearing and showmanship.

He has helped host the Banbury town crier competition for six years and is contracted to cry in the town for 12 days a year.