THE wide eyed look of Ali Abbas Shah captured the hearts of our judges to see him clinch the top spot the Redditch Standard Baby of the Year 0 to 18 months category.
And the beautiful smile of Aria Brady proved a very close runner up, in fact making this our toughest competition to judge yet.
This year our panel of judges was headed by mum of two – and grandmother to three – Joy Hennessey.
“This has to be one of the hardest jobs in the world – it is just so difficult to choose from so many beautiful babies!” she said.
“I kept changing my mind, and even when I’d firmly made it up I wanted to change it again!”
Ross Crawford, editor of the Redditch Standard said: “This has been such a successful competition, coming back after two dreadful years dominated by Covid and lockdowns.
“Things didn’t any better when a fault with our IT system meant we couldn’t initially put all the entries on our website for people to vote on.
“When we did, you our readers voters in your thousands providinh just how popular the competition is.
“Unfortunately there could only be one winner and one runner up, but one thing is for sure, Redditch is a town full of beautiful babies!”
The competition was run in conjunction with professional portrait photographer Andrea Powell.
First prize is a large canvas portrait of the winning baby plus a special gift, together worth £200, while the runner up will also receive a canvas portrait and a special gift together worth £100.
