THE darker side of rebellious teenagers and the influence of popular music on them was the winning theme for Branksome School in the Darlington Schools' Public Speaking Competition.

The school's main speaker, Ellie Grassick, told the audience at Darlington College of Technology on Tuesday night that young people had changed since the first flowering of teenage rebellion in the Fifties and Sixties.

Teenage culture was now accepted within mainstream culture but there were different problems. If Elvis caused a stir with his gyrating hips in the Fifties, the lyrics of Marilyn Manson and Eminem today had more sinister undertones.

Ellie said some recent incidents involving disturbed teenagers who had gone on shooting rampages in the United States and Europe had been linked to such lyrics.

Branksome's team - Jonathan Dunn (chairman), Jack Smith (vote of thanks) and Ellie - was awarded the Dressers' Trophy and Competition Cup for the best team performance. Ellie also received a prize for being the second-placed individual speaker.

The Audrey Bishop Trophy and prize for best main speaker was won by Mary Doherty of Carmel RC College of Technology.

She spoke on the subject of The Gender Agenda, asking why in the current BBC TV series Great Britons, there were only 13 women in the top 100 and only two in the final ten.

Mary acknowledged this was in large part due to historical social circumstances which undervalued the role and contribution of women. She speculated that in the future more women would feature in such a list because of the changing place of women in society.

The Carmel team, with Elizabeth McIntyre as chairman and Chris McGovern proposing the vote of thanks, was placed second in the team category.

The George Horsley Trophy and prize for best supporting speaker was won by Emma Evans of Longfield School, for proposing the vote of thanks for her team's contribution on the subject of Testing Times - a plea for fewer examinations and a theme also talked about by the team from Hummersknott School and Language College.

The annual event, in which five schools took part, was sponsored by the Darlington Lecture Association, Darlington College of Technology and the Darlington & Stockton Times.

The prizes and trophies were presented by Peter Rowley, chief executive of Darlington Building Society, who also addressed the audience on his own experiences of public speaking.

Malcolm Warne, editor of the D&S, acted as chairman for the event and the vote of thanks was proposed by Alasdair MacConachie, Deputy Lieutenant of County Durham.

The pupils' performances were judged by Liz Yates (chairman), the Rev Christopher Wardale and Bev Joicey. In her summary of the teams' performances, Miss Yates said the standard had been universally high. The arguments were well thought out and there had been good use of humour and irony.

Pupils who took part were. -

Hurworth: Lee Weeks, Catherine Smith, George Dodd.

Longfield: Leanne Hopkins, Christopher Laycock, Emma Evans.

Hummersknott: Tim Aisbitt, Beth Ainscough, Amy Thomas.

Carmel: Elizabeth McIntyre, Mary Doherty, Chris McGovern.

Branksome: Jonathan Dunn, Ellie Grassick, Jack Smith