A Witham whiz-kid has been named the county's finest codebreaker in a cryptology competition filled with puzzles solved by famed mathematician Alan Turing.

Thomas Smythe, 16, a pupil at Maltings Academy, in Spinks Lane, entered the Alan Turing competition, hosted by Manchester University, alone, rather than in a four-person team.

Each week or fortnight, the computer coding fan, of Lime Close, quicky solved mind-boggling challenges faster than other teams with multiple members.

See this week's Braintree and Witham Times for the full story.