A YOUNG man from Manchester was announced as the winner of the Urdd Eisteddfod chair today. Iwan Rhys comes from Porth-y-rhyd, Carmarthenshire, and was educated in Ysgol Llanddarog and Ysgol Maes yr Yrfa, and graduated in mathematics at Aberystwyth University in 2005. He studied for an MPhil in the Welsh Department at Aberystwyth, and now lives in Manchester and works as a translator for Prysg in Cardiff. Iwan already won the chair at Gwyl yr Urdd (the Urdd festival) in 2001. In 2006 he published a volume of poems, Crap ar Farddoni , with four other young poets (Eurig Salisbury, Hywel Griffiths, Aneirin Karadog and Catrin Dafydd). Iwan is engaged to be married to Angharad Hewitson and they will move to Cardiff over the summer, and get married in Holyhead in October. Myrddin ap Dafydd and Iwan Llwyd were today's adjudicators, and the poets' task was to compose a poem of no more than 100 lines on the theme Colli (To Loose). They said of Iwan's ode: "This is a mature, well thought out and powerful poem, it is a worthy winner of the Urdd Eisteddfod Chair here at Conwy in 2008." Osian Rhys Jones from Aberystwyth came second, and Dewi Huw Owen and Gruffudd Eifion Owen from Aelwyd Pantycelyn, Aberystwyth share the third prize. The chair was given this year by the Farmers' Union of Wales, and the ceremony was sponsored by Coleg Llandrillo, Rhos-on-Sea. | 
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