ORGANISERS of the annual Miss Durham competition have come under fire from angry voters unhappy that the contest was won by a late entrant.

Wednesday's beauty pageant, at Sedgefield Racecourse, was won by 18-year-old Verity Walker. The Darlington student was drafted in as a late entrant to replace Kellyann Magill, who pulled out on health grounds.

But organisers decided to allow 21 finalists to take part rather than disappoint either girl, after Kellyann asked for her place back.

"The race has effectively been won by a non-runner," said Colin Williams, whose daughter, Gemma, took part.

"This isn't sour grapes on my part, and Gemma has been very graceful about the whole thing, but the winner was not on the programme. You couldn't even get odds on her."

Organisers said they accepted the criticism, but insisted last night that Verity was the rightful winner.

Lee-Ann Pybus, whose friend, Rachel Dunn, entered, said she was unhappy with the result.

"I feel sorry for the girls who spent all that money on their clothes and hair," she said.

As Verity was crowned on Wednesday, some members booed and jeered while rumours circulated that her father, boyfriend and best friend were judges.

Speaking last night, Verity said: "I haven't even got a boyfriend and my dad was at home. I did know one of the other judges, but so did a lot of the girls.

"It hasn't really sunk in that I've won it so I can't really say how I feel about the rumours, apart from the fact they're not true."

Louise Brown, commercial executive from Sedgefield Racecourse, said: "We have took a lot of calls and complaints about this, but Verity won the competition fair and square on the night.

"I accept the criticism over the fact we allowed 21 finalists, but if anyone would like to inspect the judges' cards or the text voting poll they are welcome to come to the racecourse and do so.

"The vast majority of votes cast were by friends and family and I can assure them that those votes did count."