{"id":727486,"date":"2026-08-04T19:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T19:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/727486\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T19:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T19:24:08","slug":"huw-edwards-criticised-for-entering-welsh-poetry-competition-huw-edwards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/727486\/","title":{"rendered":"Huw Edwards criticised for entering Welsh poetry competition | Huw Edwards"},"content":{"rendered":"

The disgraced former BBC presenter Huw Edwards<\/a> has been criticised after entering a Welsh poetry competition under a pseudonym.<\/p>\n

The actor Sera Cracroft, best known for her role in the long-running BBC Welsh language soap opera Pobol y Cwm, told the BBC<\/a> it would have been \u201ccatastrophic\u201d if Edwards had won the prize, and that the \u201cimage of him being crowned in front of the nation\u201d would be \u201churtful to survivors\u201d.<\/p>\n

Edwards was given a six-month suspended sentence<\/a> in September 2024 for accessing indecent images of children as young as seven.<\/p>\n

In a Substack post<\/a> on Sunday, Edwards wrote that he had entered the poem to a competition run by the National Eisteddfod of Wales festival on the theme of adnabod, meaning \u201cknowing\u201d. He describes the poem as a tribute to his late father, who was a historian of the National Eisteddfod.<\/p>\n

Entrants to the Eisteddfod poetry competition are required to submit under a pseudonym, with winners\u2019 identities only revealed upon announcement. Edwards entered the poem under the pseudonym \u201cY Gelyn\u201d, meaning \u201cThe Enemy\u201d in English. The former BBC journalist Martin Huws was announced as this year\u2019s winner<\/a> of the competition, receiving \u00a3750, for a poem about abuse.<\/p>\n

Cracroft, who has spoken publicly<\/a> about being sexually assaulted as a child, also called on the competition\u2019s organisers to review rules regarding entrants using a pen name.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a process in place which ensures nobody, including the judges, know beforehand who has competed,\u201d said the National Eisteddfod in a statement. \u201cAfter each Eisteddfod, we have a period of appraisal to ensure our processes are appropriate \u2013 this year will be no exception.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cracroft said it was \u201cfar too soon for him [Edwards] to try and redeem himself\u201d.<\/p>\n

In his Substack post, Edwards wrote that \u201cone of the most distressing episodes in 2024 was seeing the nature of my relationship with my father wilfully misrepresented by the media\u201d.<\/p>\n

In reports cited in sentencing remarks<\/a> by the chief magistrate, Paul Goldspring, consultant psychiatrist Michael Isaac wrote that Edwards\u2019s father was \u201cperceived as behaving monstrously within the family\u201d and that the former BBC presenter\u2019s relationship with his father was \u201cprobably damaging psychologically\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe poisonous narrative encouraged by the press two years ago needed correcting,\u201d Edwards wrote in a statement reported by the BBC. \u201cThere was no way on earth I was going to win the competition and I knew that.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Cracroft\u2019s remarks, he added: \u201cThis wasn\u2019t a poem for the sickeningly self-righteous Welsh speakers \u2013 [Cracroft] amongst them \u2013 who take advantage of every opportunity to speak unthinkingly on every subject under the sun. She and her type are far too willing to ignore the damaging effects of mental ill health. In that, they are loyal to the heritage of London\u2019s tabloid papers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Eisteddfod of Wales<\/a> did not respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The disgraced former BBC presenter Huw Edwards has been criticised after entering a Welsh poetry competition under a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-727486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}