Shop assistant wins beauty crown

Nicki Lane with runners up Miss Liverpool and Miss Warwickshire

A Woolworths shop assistant from Reading has been crowned Miss Great Britain.

Nicki Lane, 24, beat 58 other contestants at the gala event held at the Tantra Club in central London.

Nicki entered the competition as Miss Reading - and has not even told other staff at the shop where she works in the town.

"They are going to be really shocked - I've not told anyone that I'd entered myself into the competition," she said.

Nicki is originally from Ingleby Barwick near Middlesbrough, but moved south to go to university in Reading, where she studied marketing and where she now lives with her boyfriend.

She also won a holiday to Mauritius and a pearl necklace.

Miss Liverpool, Natalie Earl, came second and Abigail Saunders, Miss Warwickshire came third in the contest held yesterday.