Two debaters from a local school have triumphed at one of the country's top debating contests.

'James Fox and Jamie Susskind from Haberdashers Aske's Boys School in Butterfly Lane, Elstree, won the Cambridge Union Schools Competition.

After two nationwide preliminary rounds, Habs boys progressed to "finals day", a first in the school's history. The boys battled against 26 other teams, debating topics from the corporal punishment of Asbo breakers, to the role of women in the military.

Two other Haberdashers' pupils Ben Lewy and Scott MacDonald made it through to the semi-finals, only to be knocked out by the eventual winners, their classmates James and Jamie.